Now that I have your attention, your titillation, and your curiosity, this quick piece is about counterculture and the current lack of bad ass Grrrlz who are not bogged down in movements. Where the fuck is the Tank Girl of our generation on a musical level? Where is our in-your-face fuck authority rocker femme who is not afraid to bash a monster bass line and talk politically to power with a smile and a sneer? Did the same magick that spawned Wendy and Joan (though more rock) die out when autotune hit?
I turn on the media blaster of choice at any given time and in the rush and fury of moving mouths I hear almost no rage with edge and fire other than in “established” groups. I am of an age, (that would be 46 you nosey barker), that knows music is not just entertainment. It is supposed to be all encompassing eggsy (woman here) badassery at times. I am surrounded by safety pin warriors for social justice who wouldn’t know a good fight authority song if it shoved itself up their asses.
Make no mistake, I appreciate all the spoken word, floetry, Indigenous folk, and hip hop stylings of artistic protest by the many cultures in our nation. But where is my fist pumping “fuck you” song for the administrative nightmare going on right now? Why is there no anthem with screaming leads that inspire folks my age to get my blood pumping and my focus going? Where is the musical battering ram of social commentary that my daughter can use to scream and thrash and rally (with her friendboys) that speaks to the new times?
Look, I was everything when I was a kid. And I mean everything. Because I am from Detroit. We live on music like oxygen. You could be any race, religion, creed, or gender, and you could still jam to any music and find its message. Working class is in the very grains of the soil and sidewalks of the city and its suburbs. So when I tell you I know what power music has to motivate and express the heart of generations and movements, I know what I am talking about for real.
I wore safety pins in my face and watched the Plasmatics on television, shook my ass to Parliament, grinded my hips to Prince, and hollered along off key with Johnny Cash on the tape deck. Social and political commentary discussions always had a soundtrack. My first boyfriend was in a Punk band called SockEye Salmon at St. Andrew’s Hall and played in the Shelter (translation: dive bar that had real music and was the unofficial hunting ground for local hormonal virgin slayers). I am pulling my figurative hair out waiting for that musical messiah to arise with a bass in one hand, a microphone in front of her black-lipsticked lips, and a middle finger in the other hand, belting out the angst and rage of the times. And so far I have a singer/actress named Lady Gaga in front of me singing with Metallica and making the fucking soul of Dio cry.
Rise up, Grrrlz. There are plenty of us that will support you. And that means buying your stuff, and paying for it, not just stealing it. I got a pair of black boots and an old leather jacket just aching to take a ride.
The results are
in and Betsy DeVos is the new Secretary of Education. The time for
Pagans to step up and advocate for parity and representation in their
schools is long past and is now in our faces. Those who are educators,
new days are coming, and they do not look good for those who find their
calling in the championing of the public schools system.
“Democrats
mounted an all-night speaking marathon railing against her nomination in
the run-up to the vote, questioning her experience and ties to charter
schools though their opposition combined with lobbying efforts by
teachers unions were not enough to block her.” – Fox News
It is
generally considered bad form to begin a piece with an immediate
quotation. However, this is an editorial and I am the editor. I am from
Detroit, Michigan. You know, the place with the motors, the music, and
the moxy. We also carry the reputation as the place with the failing
schools system. An infamous standing that has been the direct result of
the wicked designs of the ilk from with Betsy DeVos and her
hell-bent-for-leather conservative wrecking crew is responsible for in
full truth.
Decade after
decade, the school educational funds destined for the city have been
deferred, and outright stolen for other sweetheart deals and projects.
When materials were not embezzled by corrupt staff, (a less common
occurrence than people would like to promote), then they were undercut
and slashed by the free wheeling corporate whores of millionaires
sitting comfortably atop the political food-chain here in Michigan.
For myself,
these abstract ideas and policy bludgeons against public education are
in my face. Too many children have gone without not only books, and safe
schools, but also basic supplies such as bathroom tissue or pencils.
Despite popular belief, the budget is not supposed to be so raped of
resources that they cannot provide these items for the students in the
system’s care. However no mercy, not unto the tiniest tile on the
meanest floor in the smallest elementary school could escape the rapine
needs of the relentless attack of the conservative agenda in Michigan
when it came to eviscerating the Detroit Public School System, and by
thinnest of veils, empowering the less hidden systemic bigotry involved
in targeting the residents and their children who reside there.
Since the
district has been under control of state-appointed emergency managers
since 2009, the deficit has ballooned to more than $300 million, despite
numerous school closures and other painful budget cuts. – Motor City Muckraker
As a Pagan student, I completed my education throughout the 80’s
under the shadow of the rising conservative juggernaut that saw the rise
of the Reagan machine, a machine that has turned into almost a religion
of the conservative faithful. Programs that were in place to empower
and educate were continually and progressively gutted again and again.
Fortunate enough to be counted as gifted, I escaped much of the brunt of
cuts in quality. This was directly due to dedicated teachers who came
out of their own pockets for supplies and out of their homes to support
the union in protecting not just their own, but the interests of the
families they served.
The onslaught in this state against education being education and not
a pipeline to a career in math or science based service jobs to feed
into the corporate machines at the cost sports, music, art, and trades
produced a disaffected and poorly cheated series of generations.
Everyone is not right brained. Everyone is not going to college.
Everyone is not going to a factory. Everyone is not going to go into
being a CNA. But to speak this to the powers that be is like blowing
dust into the wind in a hailstorm.
Emergency managers added to the issue and the charter school wild
wild west environment consumed all. Every building school that was
closed was stolen from the community like the Sabine women
(Yeah, I went there. I read all faiths’ stories.). Torn from the hands
and control of the communities that continued to pay their taxes into
their existence, the schools were delivered to charter groups, or in
many cases, closed and sold outright. Others were left to rot and decay
like carrion of the hopes of generations.
Let us be clear. I have a stake in this on many levels. This is why I am writing this piece.
My elementary school was the place where I learned that I was a
different kind of spirituality from others. Many did not accept this,
but some of the best teaches did. They did not stifle me, but encouraged
me to find my own truth. There, at Elizabeth Courville Elementary
school, I learned Art, Social Studies, Music, and found my world filled
with wonderful books and scientific inquiries in class with a
greenhouse garden. That school is now closed.
At Cleveland Middle School, I was bussed from the North End
to the edge of Hamtramck. There, I encountered my first Catholic
teacher, a formidable woman named Mrs. Cayce, the only African American
Catholic woman I would meet until college. In her honors classroom, I
learned about Literature, continued my Music education with Mr. Hagen,
started forensics, and studied about the world. I also made my best
childhood friend, Sheila Habel. This girl was half Jewish, half German,
Catholic/Jewish/Agnostic, and all sparkly hair, Aquanette, and spiked
collars. We exchanged cultural and social realities and our worlds were
expanded with all the programs that Detroit Public Schools could offer. I
even took my SATs there in the 7th grade. That school is now closed.
At General John J. Pershing High School, I became a Marching
Doughgirl, stayed in the Honors track, and participated in the Rainbow
Program under Dr. Emerald Crosby. This program sought to promote a
higher standard of scholarship and opportunity. I was afforded the honor
of performing a quartet, learning how to transpose, with the Michigan
Opera Theater for “El Capatin“,
ushered for an auditorium full of greats as we hosted the Count Basie
Orchestra, and saw many of my peers earn scholarships to colleges all
over the United States of America for Music, Sports, and Academics. My
interactions with the student body flowed from the Young Socialists to
the Young Republicans for Reagan. All manner of views and all systems of
belief were on the table to be discussed and explored.
I lettered in Forensics, and read great books under the tutelage of a
meditating, dedicated hippie named Mr. Kidney (as he would say, “just
like the damn bean”). A few of us went to learn how to do cable
television production under the Community High School program at that
time at Barden Cable through
an agreement with the schools. I learned Arabic and got to know my
Chaldean neighbors holding conversations with the lessons from my
teacher Mr. Jameel and the legendary Sister Theresa. On a bad year, I
did not pass a class due to illness and had to attend Osborn High School
for summer classes. Both these High Schools are now on the chopping block.
After this, I continued my education by attending Highland Park Community College.
There, I was enrolled in the W.E.B. DuBois Honors Program and met
international students from all over the world and every economic
status. As Literary Editor, and the founder of the charitable school
organization L.E.A.F.. I met athiests, pagans, and every sort of faith,
including magickians. It was here I found my tribes, and learned to
distinguish kith from kind. It was here that I learned that being Pagan
was more than the small slices glimpsed before then.
And it was here that instructors encouraged me to develop
my full self and pursue not only liberal arts in general, but the
humanities and how they related to paganism in my reality.
I engaged the community and met my first college fraternal
organizations and learned how important they were to the city and the
children. Their work with charities and educational programs amazed me
and inspired me. I almost went to do work in Africa fighting female
genital mutilation afterward, but was derailed by home responsibilities.
But I can proudly state I saw many of my peers go on to distinguished
universities.
While there, I tutored in the college’s Center for Instructional
Support, and saw first-hand the damage that the destructive monetary and
educational policies were having on incoming students. Basic Education
was required in some instances just to enter the vocational programs.
The dumbing down had begun in earnest. A stellar nursing program noted
for the rigor in which it trained its students was our shining star. This college is now closed due to the decision of Gov. Engler. It’s
closure set the framework for the later decimation of Highland Park’s
schools. Then of course, the charters, that DeVos loves, moved in like
jackals. No care was given to the fact that public schools are part of
the American promise to our children.
“I heard they want to bring in charters. It will benefit
the private companies but not the students of people in the community.
People can’t just pick up and leave. If you move schools out of the
neighborhood you are basically telling people to move out of the
neighborhood. So what are they saying—you have to move? – World Socialist Website
So, let’s review. My elementary, middle, and junior college are all
closed. My high school, and summer school high school are on the block
to be closed. The only colleges left that I attended that remain open
are the American Institute of Banking and Spring Arbor University. A
business and an evangelical college are all that remain of my
educational journeys, in theory, that have real space in this physical
world. What a telling irony, considering the current virtual coup taking
place in the national power positions today. The rhetoric is as strong
as police station coffee on the East Side of Detroit at 3:00 am.
Conservatives believe that a voucher system would be the
most effective and efficient way to deliver school choice to millions of
children. Not only would vouchers empower families to find the best fit
for their children, but it saves taxpayers money as well. Currently,
the per-pupil cost of public education is close to $11,000 across the
nation. (And how many parents would say they believe their child gets an
$11,000 per year education?) A voucher system would let parents use
some of that money and apply it to a private or charter school of their
choosing. Not only does the student get to attend a school that is a
good educational fit, but charter and private schools are typically far
less expensive, thus saving the taxpayers thousands of dollars every
time a student leaves the status quo educational system in favor of a
parent-chosen school. – Marcus Hawkins, AboutNews
My question is, what choice is there when the public
schools referred to in this view are being destroyed, razed, and the
powers that be are stopping just short of practically salting their
grounds? The monies that are already allocated to the public schools
could easily take care of the needs of the public schools systems if
they were not diverted and pilfered. This fictive narrative of this
shining land of parents having the luxury and leisure and disposable
income and means of transportation to be so selective in where they send
their children to be educated is not only dangerous, it is laughably
absurd. A more detailed view of this can be found by visiting DeVos’ Michigan schools experiment gets poor grades.
Despite two decades of charter-school growth, the state’s overall academic progress has failed to keep pace with other states.
The refusal of Betsy DeVos to abdjure the position
of being pro public school destruction is obscene. The numbers are in
and they are damning. I implore anyone who is reading this and wishes to
have their voice heard regarding the measures that will be taken by
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her views to contact congress,
and keep contacting them. Do not let another generation see its hopes
mortgaged for politics. You can watch the live hearings via PBS here.
As administrator of the Michigan Pagan Scholarship Fund, it is my
duty to speak out as well. It is too late to wait until the young are
out of school to play catch up. The time is when they are in their
formative years to guard their dreams most. What tools they are given
there will make all the difference to their futures, and ours.
Signed,
Kenya Coviak Michigan Pagan Scholarship Fund | Detroit Public Schools Alumna
