Larry D. Lauer

It has always been a special feature of our American democracy to support pubic education.

Public schools today need much more support to retain talented teachers; to offer competitive salaries when hiring; to provide rewards for teachers who are able to help troubled youth with problem families, gang pressures, and to escape poverty; to improve teacher retirement programs; to provide safe and secure school environments; and to upgrade the performance of administrators, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and everyone else working in the system.

Recent legislation requiring schools to improve security without providing money to pay for it is unacceptable.

Withholding public school support until after the voucher program is funded is also unacceptable.

Private schools are an important part of American education.

But using tax money to provide vouchers to help pay private school tuition is simply not in the tradition of our American democracy,

Why is truth so difficult to find?

TV news is not helping. In this increasingly more commercial world TV reporters and anchors, have given in to the temptation to groom anchors as stars (Lester Holt, “the Anchor for America!”), stories to make more room for more and shorter ads, to make news more entertaining, and to talk faster in order to enhance the overall dramatic appeal. Wasting screen time (giving oxygen to) or quoting someone with simply an opposite opinion should give way to featuring someone who is spending their day focused on finding truth. Such people might be found in major and local print publications.

Fundamental issues to explore:

Should the news media help every citizen develop personal “talking points” to facilitate explaining truth as they see it?

Have there been politicians in the White House with a casual view about handling classified material, What evidence can you site that this is true?

Should easy voting be available to each and every citizen?

Is it possible to believe in “right to life” and still accept reasonable medical and emotional exceptions?

What should be these exceptions?

Should we accept that from the get-go the US has always been a diverse society, and build on that tradition?

How can we get control of the impact of climate change?

What are the gender issues that most concern you?

How do we control borders and develop immigration policy at the same time?

What do you think about redistricting?

Do we have the right to influence the impact of social media on young people, and society as a whole?

Is democracy worth saving?

What are your thoughts about removing books from libraries, to protect young people and parents from their content?

What factors lead to autocracy and dictatorships?

How do social divisions and anger lead to violence?

What else?

When autocrats won… democracies were lost.

Gerrymandering is when a party in power redesigns voting districts so candidates from that party are very likely to win elections.

Both parties have done this.

This process allows a small number of politicians currently in power to hold on to that power.

It also creates fertile territory for extremists to take over the party, win elections, and remain in power.

A single party controlling elections is the biggest threat to American democracy we have.

This is how democracies can quickly become autocracies… and eventually dictatorships.

So what can be done about it?

Well financed, democracy-committed, and talented candidates from both parties need to be urged to run for office… and then all democracy-committed citizens must vote!

I was teaching a television production class at the University of Iowa in 1965. While there I discovered Marshall McLuhan’s book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, and quickly realized how powerful television was about to become. McLuhan’s writing convinced me that television imagery would change how and what people thought about the world, how families functioned, who could win political campaigns, how governments worked, how news was reported, and much more. I wanted these students to understand the potential power of what they were learning to do. So, I started out teaching a “how-to-do it” course… but I soon was teaching an adventure in media ideas course.

“How media revolutions change everything” would heavily influence how I taught radio-TV-film, journalism, and strategic and international communication at TCU; when and how I developed this blog; and the thinking behind the articles and books I would eventually write about communicating and advancing higher education.

Thus, I still believe that a course in “media literacy” should be required in every public and private high school in the country… and that media savvy should influence how every subject area is taught in colleges and universities.

When Putin attacked Ukraine, media revolutions were already changing the world.

Most everyone knew this but Putin.

He was wrong about Ukraine’s determination, the Wagner group leader’s loyalty, Europe’s and NATO’s response, and possibly even his support among his generals, oligarchs, and even citizens.

The Wagner’s leader was probably setting-up a coup d’état when he began marching to Moscow.

And what was Belarus’s role in all of this?

The current chaos is causing Putin to look out of control.

Membership in NATO is expanding… and Ukraine is waiting in the wings.

One thing is certain: The world is a completely different place from when Putin thought Ukraine would be a push-over.

It seems obvious to me that reproductive rights are far too personal to be the business of politicians.

It also seems clear to me that you can believe in “right-to-life” and still accept that there are some very serious medical and psychological reasons why some pregnancies’ should be terminated.

Ask most any medical doctor who treats women.

Politicians certainly don’t have the knowledge necessary to legislate these decisions. And it’s also not their business to pass laws related to any other private and very personal situations.

I have therefore come to believe that it’s possible to believe life is sacred… and still know there are some very legitimate medical and psychological exceptions to terminate a pregnancy. Truthfully, too much of our medical system has already been needlessly paralyzed.

I dedicate this post to my friend, who was one of the most prominent and ethical OBGYNs in the city… and to thank him for teaching me about all this.

I came to Texas in 1966 to teach about media at TCU. No one I met at the time asked me about my politics. I mostly found independent-thinking people who did not want any government to mess with their personal freedom. They believed in self-reliance, and their own ability to take care of themselves and their families. Some were important oil people, others were professors. All cherished their personal freedom. No one ever criticized how I understood and taught my subject-matter. Academic freedom was alive and well.

When I first represented TCU in Austin, the legislature was made up of both liberal and conservative Democrats. Gradually conservatives became Republicans… and eventually the most extreme of them went about gerrymandering voting districts in order to remain in power.

Over the years, conservative politicians eventually took control of social issues: these include women’s reproductive rights, using tax-supported vouchers to support private schools, taking away control of important city issues, using tax breaks to recruit businesses into the state, using reduced property taxes to divert attention away from other issues, making private owners responsible for flaws in the electric grid, taking decision-making away from librarians, stating what subjects should and should not be taught in schools and colleges, and setting what gender policies are appropriate for every family, and much more.

Where are the “real Texans” I found in 1966?

Gerrymandered districts allow small groups of extreme-thinking politicians to limit voting.

Limiting voting times and locations is happening in many state legislatures.

Literally everyone suffers, but most especially those citizens not currently in government.

In “God Save Texas,” Pulitzer Prize winning writer Lawrence Wright, says real Texans have always rebelled against all governments.

So what are independent-thinking Texans waiting for? .

To preserve independent-thinking everywhere, voting must be made easy and accessible for everyone.

In the 1990s, the US Congress banned AR-15’s.

But politics changed.

The Second Amendment and the “right to bear arms” became a rallying-cry of extreme politicians.

The NRA and Gun manufacturers quickly supported these politicians.

However, the Second Amendment was written with Revolutionary War militias in mind.

Ordinary citizens were required to furnish their own awkward, hard-to-load, guns and ammunition… with some restrictions.

Banning AR-15s is a common-sense restriction… and would not conflict with the Second Amendment.

CNN gave editorial control to Trump during its recent townhall.

Today, strong journalism requires never doing that with anyone on any program format.

Rather, journalists must seek only the truth and report it even if it requires courage to do so.

Seek only facts and then focus on reporting all of them.

Journalists and anchors… must give up becoming stars themselves.

Today’s serious journalists must always take the time to report the context of important stories.

If they promote anything… they should promote easy voting, democracy, and truth.