Get rich quick–no financing needed. “The lure of ‘quick dollars,’ according to [west-side charter-school teacher Toni] Billingsley, was one of the most crucial issues facing the kids she taught,” writes Gregory Michie in Teacher Magazine (May). “‘They see kids their age who aren’t even in school making big money,’ she explained. ‘So they’re thinking, “You’re telling me to stick with this school thing, which means I have to not only finish grammar school and high school, but also possibly college if I want a career. That’s a long way off. And here my 7th grade friend is selling drugs and he has all this money in his pocket, and next year he’s going to buy a car.” So when they see that, they’re like–“What is all this for? My family is struggling, we can’t pay the rent. I need the money now.”‘”
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Words you won’t hear from either major party’s presidential candidate. “The peace movement [in Israel] is broad indeed,” Ralph Nader tells Pat Buchanan in an interview published in the American Conservative (June 21). “They just put 120,000 people in a square in Tel Aviv. They are composed of former government ministers, existing and former members of the Knesset, former generals, former combat veterans, former heads of internal security, people from all backgrounds. It is not any fringe movement. . . . Instead of focusing on how to bring a peaceful settlement, both parties [in the U.S.] concede their independent judgment to the pro-Israeli lobbies in this country because they perceive them as determining the margin in some state elections and as sources of funding. . . . There is far more freedom in Israel to discuss this than there is in the United States, which is providing billions of dollars in economic and military assistance.”
