Americans have proven over and again that we will buy anything, no matter how frivolous, tasteless or expensive.

And, although we have some respect for religion, we have – with the eager help of Madison Avenue – reduced religious holidays to present-buying excesses.

There once was a time when Halloween candy would be gone before Christmas trappings would appear in stores. Now, the decorations and gift displays appear in mid-September.

The same shopping urgency isn’t associated with Easter so we don’t see pink eggs and marshmallow chicks in January, but Easter is definitely well past “going” commercial.

Many people, rushing through their lives, turn to conveniently pre-packaged Easter baskets instead of buying a basket and filling it with toys and chocolates themselves.

Americans have over-commercialized Christmas and have reached a new low for Easter.

Some of the ready-made Easter baskets are stuffed with little toy soldiers, tanks, fighter planes and bomb-sniffing dogs.

We could look at this a couple of ways.

One would be the inappropriate blending of military force with a sacred day of new life and hope.

Another would be seeing these toy soldiers as protectors, ready to fight for our safety and security at great personal cost, offering hope of eventual peace.

Either way, the plastic soldiers and military equipment do not belong in a child’s Easter basket.

If we don’t buy them, companies will stop making them.


Crime control
Maine’s police officers are lobbying Congress to maintain funding for early childhood education and after-school programs. It is, police argue, the best way to control crime.

They’re right.

As harsh as this sounds, California gauges its future prison population by current elementary school literary rates. If a child can’t read by the third grade, the child is, bluntly put, more likely to occupy a prison cell someday.

Researchers have found that two-thirds of American inmates have exceedingly poor reading skills and, according to the Educational Testing Service, if we don’t change the trend we may soon have more people in prison than in four-year colleges.

The ETS study is among many reputable studies supporting law enforcement’s position, but police are pushing to sustain funding at a time when government is being forced to cut costs, even at the expense of worthy programs.

If we take a short-term view, it makes sense to cut dollars now. If we look at this in longer terms, it’s clear we must adequately fund education.

Our prisons are bursting and taxpayers, who ultimately pay to house inmates, get nothing in return.

If we shift dollars to early education and after-school programs we can – eventually – reduce the prison population. But, if we cut education dollars we are resigning ourselves to more inmates and bigger prisons, both of which are enormously expensive and do nothing to create productive members of society.

What Congress must consider is whether money is better spent on controlling crime or housing criminals.

The only reasonable answer is crime control through education.


jmeyer@sunjournal.com

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