Every Month is Cancer Awareness Month

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Guy Magar

(Blog Update 1/12/2012: SHARE YOUR STORY. I’ve received so many emails from folks who wish to share their experiences as cancer patients or caregivers that I chose this blog page I had written about Cancer Awareness Months to offer a place to share and comment and support each other. Please keep your commentary short and concise so we can encourage folks to read and reply. I’ll start by commenting below and hope it inspires everyone to participate and promote this page. Thank you and I wish you good health. Peace.)

There are so many different types of cancers (over 100) and there is such a need for continuous fundraising to increase our research and find cures to eradicate these malignancies from the human experience, that almost every month of the year highlights certain cancers for their focused awareness.

September is a biggie for me and my wife Jacqui. It is Leukemia Awareness month and she is a courageous survivor of that disease and in remission now for two and a-half years. Her medical journey was such an amazing life celebrating experience that it inspired me to write my memoir – Kiss Me Quick Before I Shoot – and share her magical story with the world (along with my film career tales…and yeah, a crazy and uniquely fun and romantic combo!)
She participated in a cutting-edge national clinical trial at the healing mecca of the City of Hope, located in Duarte about 20 miles northeast of Los Angeles, which is one of the very best healing centers on our planet. Kudos to all who work there and especially their hematology oncology department headed by – in my opinion and recognized by most in the medical world – one of the greatest “transplanters” in the universe. His name is Dr. Stephen Forman…and yes, he was Jacqui’s healer.

September is also very personal for me as it is also Prostate Cancer Awareness month. I was diagnosed with this cancer in early 2010 and though it was a complicated journey, by that summer I was in remission and very grateful for that outcome. For men, it is the second leading killer after lung cancer.

September is also Lymphoma Awareness month and I send a special shout-out to my cousin Albert in Brooklyn who just completed a challenging 3-month chemotherapy lymphoma treatment and all early signs are pointing to his healing. Bravo Al! And I’m also cheering for my cinematography buddy Geoff who battled and won his war against esophageal cancer. Bravo Geoff but you’ll have to wait for your designated awareness month next April!

September is quite a busy month for the cancer world…it is also Childhood Cancer Awareness, and Ovarian and Gynecologic Cancer Awareness, and Thyroid Cancer Awareness. We worry about a bird flu pandemic coming to America? In my opinion, we got a pandemic right here called cancer! Almost everyone knows someone who had it, is battling it, or passed away from it. The National Cancer Institute reported more than 1.5 million new cases diagnosed in the U.S. in 2010…and I was one of them!

Indeed, every month should be cancer awareness month. So I say we go for the lavender ribbon for General Cancer Awareness each and every month. We desperately need to come together and conquer cancer which is growing by leaps and bounds. They are predicting a 50% rise in the next 20 years. No one has a clue why some get it and why the rest don’t. In my layman opinion, they will discover some day that it was something in our environment…our foods…our water…our air! It’s got to be something so many are exposed to. The toughest question I needed an answer to when Jacqui got ill was: “Why did she get this?” and the answer was: “We don’t know!”

We have to eventually know! It is the only way to beat it. I am well aware this is a tough time economically for America but I implore all who read this to give something to cancer today: $100 or $25 or $10 or if all you can afford is $1 then give that. If you can donate blood to any hospital or cancer center, pick up the phone and go do it. If you can be a bone marrow donor, go volunteer to do that (it’s real easy to be tested) and you can read how at www.cityofhope.org which has a list of donor qualifications for most hospital protocols.

To all who are presently battling cancer, we send a big huge HELLO from Jacqui and I and the love and strength to fight on and win your remissions. We dared to dream of our healing, and our dreams came true. May all your healing dreams come true!

And to the rest of us, make September special of your cancer awareness.
Lavender ribbons to all!

Posted in Book Lovers, Cancer Awareness Month, Leukemia Healing, Romance and Soulmates, Teaching & Education, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , |

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The Honor of a President’s Moral Grace

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Guy Magar

I believe we are an incredibly lucky people and an honored nation to have this man in the White House. And many of us, do not deserve him. As much as I applaud and admire debate and hearing all sides on issues, we are dealing with such bottom of the barrel mentally-challenged hateful rhetoric on the Republican side that I believe they have not earned the privilege of President Obama’s leadership. They can disparage and disown him all they want, but in the end, they do not deserve him.

They have indeed created the “circus” of congressional squabbling and paralysis we all despise and are already accusing him of giving us an empty lecture rather than making a visionary call-to-action speech…because they don’t know what else to say and must oppose him no matter how obviously bright and inspirational he is as our leader. The most fun part of the speech last night was watching the Boehners and the Cains and the McConnells as they writhed with obvious inner panic of what possible rhetoric crap can they come up with to oppose the president’s rational wisdom in designing the much-needed American Jobs Act to improve our economy.

But he left them not a morsel of squirm as they secretly fear that no American is silly enough to listen to their nonsense or can’t see what is so obviously the right choice to anyone with half a brain. Regardless of the constant daily criticism he endures by all who oppose him no matter what position he takes, regardless of the cowardly attacks by irrational divisive people who offer nothing except constitutional babble, regardless of the disconnect we are having with a crazed Tea movement – led by a Bachman who insanely preaches God punished us with Hurricane Irene because of our government ineptness (WHAT?), and a Perry who stuns the world by allowing us to glimpse his dangerously deficient IQ when denying the validity of “science” itself (double WHAT?) – we are truly honored by Obama’s inspiring intelligence and unbending decency.

The cream rises above the sewage, above the vomit of idiocy…and the President brings not only honor but rationale, hope, optimism, and a fierce leadership and belief that America’s best is just ahead of us. How does he do it? What a display of a granite-strong inner core and show of moral guidance to stay above the fray and focus on being president. His genuine belief in all of us – all that we have achieved and still can do – and his vision of what is best for America, honors us with his genuine moral grace.

But isn’t this why we elected him? For the decency and bright mind he brought to our table? Weren’t we all so fed up with the stench of the previous eight years of utter mediocrity and mismanagement in the White House? How quickly we forget. We are a fickle nation.

Mr. President, you’ve asked all of us who agree with your ambitious plan to raise our voices…let mine be heard loudly. Bravo Barack! Four more years!

Posted in Book Lovers, Election Year Liars Emerge, Entertainment News, Politics Today, President Obama, Tea Bagger Hypocrisy, Uncategorized | Tagged , |

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Spielberg’s AMBLIN’ to Cameron’s XENOGENESIS: The Promise of Short Films

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Guy Magar

Everyone knows there is almost no commercial market for short films…so why make them? Every film regardless of its running length is a big investment in time, hassle, people, money, and dreams. The first film I made as a student at the London Film School, Bingo, ran 90 seconds, and it took an entire semester to plan, prepare, shoot, and edit. Was it important for my career? It was huge! It told me I could tell a story on film, that I could translate an idea to the screen, that I understood the process and could make a little movie from start to finish. Thirty years later, while giving my Action/Cut Filmmaking Seminar in far-away Malaysia, a student who had attended the school in London told me he had recently seen the film there as an example of first-year work. Bingo lives on…movies never die!

How would Spielberg have started his career if he had not made the 26-minute Amblin’ which VP Sid Sheinberg had seen after Steven was caught infamously sneaking on the Universal lot? It’s one thing to fool a guard at the gate but he sure had the goods when he had to show his potential talent with his film. That short film got him a 7-year deal at the studio. The only way to make noise is to enter festivals and competitions, and hope to win awards and get some promo. Amblin’ had won at the Atlanta Film Festival and Steven could put the word “WINNER” on his poster.

My American Film Institute short Once Upon An Evening, which ran 22 minutes, got me that same Spielberg deal back in 1978 when VP Peter Saphier thought it showed promise and was my industry angel. Just a few years later, when I was about to direct my first feature SHRIEK and was looking to hire an affordable production designer and visual effects artist, I saw James Cameron’s 15-minute short Xenogenesis and hired him on the spot. Roger Corman had also seen it and had hired Jim which is where he was slaving when I met him. He built my creature/monster and I almost succeeded in stealing him away from Corman’s company, but Roger had promised him a directing gig to keep him and Jim wisely stayed and directed his first feature within a year. The rest is history.

Making short films is absolutely essential for every promising filmmaker with a movie career dream. Not only does each film build confidence, but with every film your knowledge base grows and your third film should be a lot better than your first…your fifth even better. It’s all about learning the craft and becoming a better storyteller, and it gets more challenging and complex as the films get longer. Making shorts is how it all begins and they are the entry passports into Hollywood. Whether you go to film school or not, the passion of making short films is the currency to building a pro career. Almost everyone you ever heard of started out making shorts from George Lucas’ Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB made at USC to Marty Scorsese’s NYU films What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing In A Place Like This and It’s Not just You, Murray!

Winning festival awards, making noise, promoting your work, and building a resume making short after short until hiring opportunities in features or TV open their doors is the life of a committed filmmaker with a dream that cannot be denied. You’re invited to come see the latest winning dreams – the hottest winning shorts – just announced at the Action/Cut 2011 Short Film Competition. These are among the next generation of filmmakers making their own short films as their promise of an exciting cinematic future and as their entry ticket to the Hollywood film industry. Bravo and “Roll cameras!”

Posted in Book Lovers, Celebrity in America, Entertainment News, Filmmaking, Hollywood Industry, Movie Magic | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |

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Cinematic Magic: IRIS

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Guy Magar

Magic! Movies have always been a magical world for me since I was a kid growing up in Egypt watching Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedies and The Ten Commandments which blew my mind. The magic continued when on my first day as a Fellow at the American Film Institute, Moses himself was the speaker welcoming my class to Hollywood (before Charlton Heston became a gun nut…god bless him!)

The magic grew by leaps and bounds as I found my way into directing TV shows and feature films. It was in the air every time I worked on a set, every time I was in an editing room, every time I worked with a composer on a score. Indeed, like every filmmakers, I was making magic every time I called “Action” until I called “Cut!”

Most recently, magic was again most fragrant in the air as I witnessed an amazing celebration of the love of cinema. Run don’t walk to see IRIS – the Cirque du Soleil’s newest presentation celebrating the world of cinema, and their first resident show in Los Angeles contracted for the next ten years at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

And yes I’m a huge fan of the Cirque, I’ve seen most of their productions through the years, and they always managed to cast their magic on me and make me grin with joy like a 10-year old. But because IRIS is a journey through the world of cinema, the front row seats which my wife Jacqui surprised me with for my birthday (10 again!) was a true nirvana ride of eye-popping magical wonder and movie world appreciation.

Ingenuous wonders started with a dancer wearing for a skirt a type of Praxinoscope: a large rotating drum of light flashes providing a dazzling stroboscopic strip of sequential images (such as photographs, drawings, or illustrations) on the interior surface with regularly spaced narrow slits through which a spectator observes images as the drum rotates, creating an illusion of perceived moving pictures. One of the greatest costume designs in theater history!

And finally, they were ingenuous to bring in a top movie magician – a film composer to do the music score. And they get one of the very best maestros: the great Danny Elfman (Batman, Mission Impossible, Alice in Wonderland) who created the most cinematic music score in Cirque musical lore. Bravo Danny! You should read my memoir Kiss Me Quick Before I Shoot that celebrates great composers and the divine marriage of music and film.

This show is huge: $100 million spent for renovations to the amazing Kodak Theater (also home of the Oscars), 175 additional loudspeakers installed, 360 props, 200 costumes, 72 artists from 15 nations, and a 125-man crew just to pull it all off.

This love affair with the cinema was written and directed by Philippe Decouflé and this guy has got to have one of the greatest jobs in the universe! How do I sign up for the next one? Hey, I speak French too!

The show is presently in previews, the official opening date is September 25th. Make sure you experience the magic as soon as you can…because you’ll want to see it again and again and again! Bravo Cirque! And every time you exit the show, you’ll be dying to make a movie…any damn movie! “Roll Cameras!”

Posted in Book Lovers, Celebrity in America, Entertainment News, Filmmaking, Hollywood Industry, Movie Magic | Tagged , , , |

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Blagojevich the Jackass

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Guy Magar

I don’t get it. We all want the very best doctors to operate on us, the very best pilots to fly our airplanes, but why is the bar so damn low for politicians? For our leaders?

I love my country and I just have to speak out. And yes I know politicians are not presently on anyone’s happy list, but this one is truly a bottom feeder we need to make sure never fools us again.

In recent U.S. history  – say the last century - has there been a bigger loser, a bigger numbskull than the ex-governor of Illinois: Rod Blagojevich? When this guy got caught red-handed trying to “sell Obama’s senate seat” vacated when he won the presidency, he kept saying over and over he did nothing wrong, and when the facts come out, he will be found absolutely innocent. He even talked “the Donald” (another genius but don’t get me started!) into this assumption of innocence when he was flailing his mediocrity on Celebrity Apprentice. He proved to be the biggest mentally-challenged useless player in reality game show history! And that’s saying a lot! He should be a regular on WIPEOUT…would love to see him get clobbered weekly rather than do time in jail!

So now, he was just convicted of 17 (that’s SEVENTEEN) counts of corruption including trying to sell that very same Obama senate seat. What happened, Rod? The papers reported he was “stunned” by these convictions. This guy is so spaced, he believes that no matter how corrupt he was, it’s OK if you’re a governor?  He really thinks he can get away with anything, any lie, and that we’re all stupid enough to believe him…and that he can be as immoral as he wants? He has in the past…he got elected TWICE in Illinois. How is this possible? How can they be so careless in Illinois? How can we be in any state in America?

Earth to Rod…two trials and SEVENTEEN COUNTS, bro! Maybe after 10 years in jail you’ll finally GET IT. It’s not us, ROD…it’s YOU! You are GUILTYYY! You did wrong! You’re a crook!

We need to be much more vigilant and prudent in choosing (voting) our politicians from all parties. We cannot and should not vote for the bottom of the barrel candidates. We should find and demand our best and brightest to run to run our country and represent us in an increasingly complex world?

Let’s at least do our part and raise the bar: no more Rods! No more Arnolds! No more Jesses! And especially, no more candidates like Christine who promised us she was not a witch? No more Sarahs…ever again please! Only the brightest need apply for political office…and yes from all parties! Why is that so difficult for us? Don’t we deserve great smart moral (as in non-lying) leadership?

Mitt Romney recently said that “he” was out of work just like unemployed folks, and of course blamed Obama for his jobless financial hardship. How immoral  is that statement? How big of a lie to us the idiot electorate? Mitt is worth $250 million…1/4 billionaires do NOT look for work…or work any job for that matter…unless it is a super ego job like a governorship or presidency that provides top quality “power heroin” better than any bank account. Why else would he spend $35 million in his 2008 campaign run, and probably double that if he becomes the Republican candidate…for  a job that pays $400K per year?

And the new hottie Rick Perry? Well, every report I’ve heard says this guy is nowhere near as “bright” as the last genius out of the Texan governorship: good ole George. And he’s the “new hope” to unite the Tea Party? Do you see what I’m sayin’?

All I ask is for our elected officials to be as bright as possible and with a steel moral compass so they can be rational and fair in representing all of us. Regardless of your politics, I’m sure we can agree at the very least that President Obama is a very bright guy and we can trust his morality which includes his compassion, and yes I voted for him and will again for those 2 reasons. But has the horrendously harsh media scrutiny of our elective process scared off our brightest and most talented to run for office? Only the egomaniacs (Donald!) and crap for brains (Michele B!) are willing? If so, how sad for America.

Posted in Celebrity in America, Election Year Liars Emerge, Entertainment News, Politics Today, President Obama, Reality Shows, Tea Bagger Hypocrisy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |

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Remembering Bubba

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Guy Magar

“Yo Bubba, can we try that again…except this time try not to kill the guy!”
I remember giving that direction to Bubba Smith on the set of Blue Thunder in 1984. I was teasing him about rough-housing a stuntman bad guy at the end of a chase, but hey, I was talkin’ to one of the greatest – and baddest – defensive ends in the history of the NFL, a Super Bowl V champ.

This was Bubba’s first role as a series regular and he played a detective partnered with another NFL legend Dick Butkus. They both did the police legwork on the ground to support the chopper team in the sky starring James Farentino and Dana Carvey in the Blue Thunder.

Of all the actors I have ever had the privilege of working with, I can truly say Bubba is high on the most memorable and fun list. He was a special soul, a gentle giant, as kind and caring on a film set as he was feared and terrifying to every quarterback that ever faced him on the gridiron.

A few months after directing him, I invited Bubba to my wedding. I recall he was mobbed by all the kids who knew him from TV as the baddest football star, and now he was their gentlest pied piper hero. Farewell my friend.

Photo: Bubba and me and Dick Butkus on the Blue Thunder set.

Posted in Book Lovers, Celebrity in America, Entertainment News, Filmmaking, Hollywood Industry | Tagged , , , , |

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Cowboys & Aliens & Smurfs?

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Guy Magar

When I heard about the Cowboys & Aliens project, my first thought was “Wow, what a pitch that must have been!” Talk about a high concept title and certainly an unusually daring idea. So imagine being a fly on the wall during development with execs from Imagine and DreamWorks and Universal trying to put this thing together.

First, a director they can rely on to tell this wacky story and pull it all together. Since Iron Man and its sequel did so good and was packed with CGI, let’s bring in Jon Favreau. Jon is a talented good guy (I briefly played poker with him) and has proven to be a much more exciting director that can deliver commercial flicks than his acting chops have delivered. “From the director of Iron Man” will look good on the poster. Hire him and pay his freight!

Second, who do we get to star in this thing? For the mysterious weird dude with that wacky wristband let’s bring in James Bond himself who can play hardcore and kick some butt. Pay his freight! But geez, for a projected budget of over $100-million, we’re gonna need some big-ass name to insure a couple of good weekends. How about Indiana Jones himself? Too old? Hell, John Wayne played an old cowboy in True Grit and that worked. OK let’s bring in Harrison and pay his freight. And enough big time expensive producers to choke any studio budget!

I haven’t seen the film but I think it’s safe to say that everyone in the industry was stunned when all of that money and hard work was edged on opening weekend by a bunch of SMURFS? What? How can that be? Well, I can guess that such a film is put together by a committee of very scared people trying to avert all possible risks…usually, that means a water-downed storyline with all the good human stuff and cool/bold ideas carved out, homogenized for broadest bland mass appeal, and amp up as much as possible the “wow” CGI effects. As usual, bombard the audience with lots of booms and hope no one has time to think rationally about this story…or concept which obviously they didn’t trust.

Thus, there are three writers with story credit and another five writers with screenplay credit. This doesn’t count all the others who came and went uncredited and the many executives with “opinions” and eleven producer types credited on the film. That’s one hell of a mishmash of notes messin’ with the original story everyone liked in the first place when they bought it.

But in the end, all that tinkering with story and execution, no matter how many zeroes added to the budget, they got their butt kicked by a bunch of smurfs that edged them in the holier-than-thou boxoffice divinity! I even saw a tweet by Favreau congratulating the little blue guys for their “strong opening” weekend. He couldn’t believe it either.

Once again, William Goldman was right when he said “Nobody knows anything!” What a business!

Posted in Book Lovers, Celebrity in America, Entertainment News, Filmmaking, Hollywood Industry, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , |

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Film Scams and Aroma-Scope!

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Guy Magar

Raising indie financing for movies is so very difficult and time consuming. It took me 3 years to raise $1,250,000 for my first feature RETRIBUTION and I outline that journey in my memoir.

I was amazed to read that scammers recently raised financing through a telemarketing operation and signing up unsuspecting phone investors to a “filmmaking venture” that turned out to be an embezzlement rip-off. How can people be so naive to invest a dollar in a cold-calling scheme that promised a 1,000% return on a film investment? Wouldn’t that percentage ring a warning bell in any rational ear? Nobody heard of ole Bernie Madoff?

It is so difficult to raise money for risky indie films of which 90% never make their money back, how can you make enough calls to raise funds for a $15 million slate of films as these scammers did? How many $50 and $100 investors did it take? Or was there a higher minimum amount? I know everyone wants to be part of the movie business, but investing through telemarketing is madness! I have no clue how these guys did it never mind the massive paper work follow up to convince these phone investors with contracts to finally receive the checks. Mind-boggling indeed!

Which brings me to Aroma-Scope…director Robert Rodriguez latest gimmick planned for his SPY KIDS 4 release with scratch-and-sniff cards given to the audience as they enter the theater. Whenever there is something to smell in the movie or a character smells whatever, then you get to scratch an accordingly numbered aroma on your sniff card…and enrich your movie watching experience!

I admire Rodriguez and his early passion to break-in and I have enjoyed some of his earlier bravado films, but Robert baby, I have zero interest in adding aroma-scope to my film viewing pleasure. I’ll pass on the smellorama! There is enough flatulence jokes in teen slacker movies, I will take a pass on smelling them too!

Posted in Book Lovers, Celebrity in America, Entertainment News, Filmmaking, Hollywood Industry | Tagged , , , |

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Budget Madness in America!

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Guy Magar

So let’s get this straight. The right-wing Republicans strong-armed by the Tea Baggers want to make whatever irrational mindless changes regardless of the harm to the country and to the world? They basically want to sabotage America so it reflects badly on the man in charge so they can defeat him in 2012? Isn’t that their real bottom-feeder mission? Why else would their proposal include a review of this same fiscal fiasco next year just before the elections? Duh!

So, none of these right-wingers and moronic TBs have any children in schools so it’s OK to slash education budgets that are already way too low? None have any parents or elderly relatives who need their social security and disability checks? None have any friends or relatives that need medicare or medicaid health benefits? None have family or friends who are financially hurting, unemployed, or losing their homes? OK!

And all this so we do not have a fair and balanced approach where the top TWO PERCENT of the wealthiest Americans would have higher taxes – which they can easily afford to pay – since they now have the lowest rates in modern history thanks to the Bushy cuts? OK!

So, the thinking is let’s screw everyone – the kids, the elderly, the sick, the poor, the middle class, the retired, the already in great financial trouble - in order to make the very rich RICHER? Is this correct? Do I have this madness right?

Do you have to be a Martian to see how irrational and idiotic and unfair and hurtful this is? No one learns from history and how all nations decline when social class differences become so separate and unbalanced? How did we get here?

Very simple. This is the result of idiotic, power-hungry, and divisive thinking from people who are simply not very bright and who favor blind ideology over rational judgment! “No new taxes” has been a mindless rant at every election for the last 200 years! And yes this includes everyone from Sarah Palin to Michele Bachmann and to the Becks and Hannitys and Coulters and Limbaughs. These folks used to be very marginalized…a small percentage of biased lunatics we could ignore who were only listened to by the white trash, non-thinking blind followers of America.

Unfortunately, due to a rotting educational system, we’re not getting any brighter…thus, more and more are listening to the angry right-wing fringe who want power at any cost, and the (getting-larger) unemployed blue collar crowd who blame the current president for their woes because it is the easy thing to do when irrational (…and racist for some!) And all of this is leading to the continuing decline of America…a great nation slowly decaying…and hours away from showing the world we can no longer be rational and united. We prefer to force new dumb ideologies (make the rich richer and screw all entitlements) down our throats or go BANKRUPT!

Every single person wants to reduce our budget deficits and get America on a sounder financial future. We can do this rationally and as fairly as possible which one of the brightest and most morally concerned presidents in modern history wants to do…or allow mindless partisanship and bully mentally-challenged to tear America’s heart?

How very very sad for all of us who love our country and had such great hope and promise for the USA to lead the future of the world with our moral intellect and united banner of freedom and trying to always do the right thing…one country, indivisible?

Posted in Election Year Liars Emerge, Politics Today, President Obama, Tea Bagger Hypocrisy, Teaching & Education | Tagged , , , , |

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Save Our Great Resource: TEACHERS!

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Guy Magar

Yeah, I know every federal, state, and city is trying to cut expenditures and limit the gigantic amount of waste our “fatty nation” is funding, but we should never sacrifice our teacher pool in the process. In Los Angeles alone, more than 2,000 school employees may lose their jobs as part of a $400-million budget shortfall. I say NO to that!

We need more money – not less – to 1) reform our teacher qualifications, and identify and get rid of the worse 15% of teachers who live off the system and became teachers because it was not hard to make the grade, and 2) give a big raise to the legit 85% who are dedicated and talented, and double their numbers which will naturally happen when salaries are boosted.

We should not allow layoffs at schools or attack their pension funds. Instead, we should nurture educational districts, their staff, and our teachers…make public schools “good” again. We need a much smarter and savvier set of high school graduates to compete with a fast-advancing world and keep America the leading nation we have been. We need a much smarter use of our tax moneys and make sure we increase, not decrease, the salaries and benefits of teachers and make that profession one of our most valued and respected.

When did it start to go wrong when it’s OK to pay less than median average salaries to our teachers but give Kobe $25-million a year to give us attitude and yes some great basketball? When did our priorities as a nation get all out of whack? And right-wing Republicans want to screw education (along with social security and medicare) rather than raise taxes on the very rich? WHAT??

So layoff the layoffs for teachers…get rid of their worst, and encourage their best…and nurture one of our greatest resources. This is crucial to America and our future, and way overdue…we can do this! Commit to make this happen wherever you live!

Posted in Book Lovers, Celebrity in America, Election Year Liars Emerge, Teaching & Education | Tagged , , , |

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