This is Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ancient Origins
Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, Scotland, Wales and old Britain as well as northern France, celebrated their New Year festival on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the New Year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

So, Halloween is not some Anti-Christian Day of Devil Worship. But the Neo-Con's wouldn't believe history; they remake it to their own desires after all.

The word "fascism" is used broadly on the left as a term of abuse. Sometimes it is used to refer to any repressive government, whatever its political form. Most commonly on the left in the U.S., it is used to describe any Republican government--in particular, any Republican government or candidate on the eve of a presidential election.

But fascism has a far more precise definition. Historically, fascism is a far-right movement of the middle classes (shopkeepers, professionals, civil servants) who are economically ruined by severe economic crisis and driven to "frenzy."

In the brilliant words of Leon Trotsky, fascism brings "to their feet those classes that are immediately above the working class and that are ever in dread of being forced down into its ranks; it organizes and militarizes them...and it directs them to the extirpation of proletarian organizations, from the most revolutionary to the most conservative."

Fascism unites the middle classes on the basis of the "nation" and race, under the leadership of some iron-fisted leader who will solve the crisis and restore "national greatness." But while fascism appeals to the middle class on the basis of a kind of "fool’s socialism"--anti-Semitic criticism of the role of big business, for example--fascist movements do not bring the middle class to power.

As Leon Trotsky wrote: "German fascism... raised itself to power on the backs of the petty bourgeoisie, which it turned into a battering ram against the organizations of the working class and the institutions of democracy. But fascism in power is least of all the rule of the petty bourgeoisie. On the contrary, it is the most ruthless dictatorship of monopoly capital."

In power, as we know, fascism ruthlessly crushed even the most limited forms of parliamentary democracy. Clearly, this is not the character of the conservative state under which we current live. Moreover, if we were to accept the wrong definition of fascism (repression), then we would be forced into the position of saying that the Democrats are also "fascist."

Even the "freest" electoral system in the world keeps in reserve special laws designed to nullify various democratic rights in the name of "national security" or "emergency." In the U.S. historically there has been a great deal of legal and also violent repression against working-class struggle and other social movements, regardless of the party in power.

Democratic president Woodrow Wilson pushed through the Espionage Act during the First World War that sent more than 1,000 people to jail for speaking out against the war. After the war, Wilson rounded up and deported 6,000 foreign-born radicals.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, considered the archetypal Democrat, forced 120,000 people of Japanese descent into concentration camps. Under his presidency, troops were used 43 time to quell labor disputes.

In 1948, Democrat Harry Truman--the man who began the Cold War witch-hunts--ordered the army in to seize control of the railroads to stop a railroad workers’ strike. In the 1960s, the FBI’s secret COINTELPRO operation against activists was begun and thrived under Democratic administrations. Clinton’s Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act paved the way for the even more repressive laws being pushed these days.

If we lived in a fascist state, it would be impossible to even publish this newspaper, let alone print this article. To cry "fascism" every time a Republican is in the White House is to drastically underestimate what fascism really is. Secondly, it feeds illusions in the idea that the Democrats are somehow less likely to resort to police measures to attack working-class and political movements.

You can’t have it both ways. Either fascism is a police dictatorship resting on the middle class and backed by big business (the meaningful definition), or it is simply a word for repression. Calling the Bush administration "fascist," without also calling equally repressive Democratic administrations "fascist" is simply a way of scaring progressives into voting the lesser evil.

To make a woman happy, a man only needs to be:


1. a friend

2. a companion

3. a lover

4. a brother

5. a father

6. a master

7. a chef

8. an electrician

9. a carpenter

10. a plumber

11. a mechanic

12. a decorator

13. a stylist

14. a sexologist

15. a gynecologist

16. a psychologist

17. a pest exterminator

18. a psychiatrist

19. a healer

20. a good listener

21. an organizer

22. a good father

23. very clean

24. sympathetic

25. athletic

26. warm

27. attentive

28. gallant

29. intelligent

30. funny

31. creative

32. tender

33. strong

34. understanding

35. tolerant

36. prudent

37. ambitious

38. capable

39. courageous

40. determined

41. true

42. dependable

43. passionate


WITHOUT FORGETTING TO:

44. give her compliments regularly

45. love shopping

46. be honest

47. be very rich

48. not stress her out

49. not look at other girls


AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO:

50. give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself

51. give her lots of time, especially time for herself

52. give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes


IT IS VERY IMPORTANT:

53. to never forget:


* birthdays

* anniversaries

* arrangements she makes


HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY


1. Feed him

2. Screw him

3. Shut the hell up.

I’m the Social Studies Department Chair at John Glenn Academy, an inner-city charter high school. The structure of this school is very odd because it is actuality two schools in one building. I have students from another charter high school in my classroom that I also have to teach and I supervise the other school’s Social Studies faculty. This dynamic exists because the owners/charter holders are business partners and run the school as if it was a single entity. To me, this seems odd and possibly unethical, but the State of Arizona does not seem to care. This has been my place of employment for over three years.

So, how do I fit in to this place? I guess the culture of the school is similar to my LSI data because most of my strengths scored highly and my weaknesses were low. I have a strong oppositional streak as does my workplace. Instead of fitting in due to the fact we are similar, I am often at odds with my management because we both fight. Today I got into a friendly argument with my immediate supervisor about a tiny insignificant issue, but both of us needed to win the discussion and get in the last word. We talked about this issue and brought in others to increase our chances at defeating the other and claiming victory. In retrospect neither of us won anything, but I felt better while I was zinging my boss with his own propaganda. Everyone from the maintenance staff to the office assistants are always looking for mistakes and criticizing others behind their backs. Confrontations are rare, but heated and vocal when they do occur.

The culture of my workplace also includes a high level of dependents and conventionalism according to the Circumplex. These areas make a lot of sense because my company really stresses that we should never challenge leadership, that we should follow without question or qualification, check with our superior about everything, accept goals and initiatives without any discussion. The leaders created a strong centralized leadership hub.

The organizational chart is non-existent. The structural organization is not the best due fact that the administrators are employed by both schools, but one owner deals with the operations of the school and the other deals with the financial aspects. This means that one cares about the students and the other about how much money he is making. A charter school is a for-profit enterprise and a public institution at the same time. These men are equal in authority as they both are the boss and owners but each contradicts the other constantly so that nothing gets resolved. Middle management in the past was the duty of three people, now we have one person to fulfill these duties. He is a single man, a retired US Army Lt. Colonel who knows very little about the civilian world and therefore runs the school like its Ft. Bragg. Next, there is an Associate-Superintendent who does more preaching about organizational change and leadership than any real constructive leadership. To give these men credit, they do try to make things better for everyone in the organization but they have no power to make changes. The owners retain all authority and make all policy decisions.

The staff and faculty are always bickering and fighting with the administration which the staff says is autocratic and unsympathetic. I see this as a semi-truthful statement the owners are ambivalent to the teachers and students plight and the middle management has no authority to make any decision so is just as impotent as the rest of the staff.

Furthermore, every time I do get into a conflict or disagreement with my supervisor his comments are always the same. It is almost if he has a script to read from. Conflict in my organization is constant but always is kept quite and subtle. You never know when your called into the management’s presence, or as we call it “the Inquisition,” what the reason is for the visit. Undoubtedly, I hear the statements, “don’t upset the system (rock the boat),” “just go along and be supportive of the status quo,” “the organization has its goals and values and if you can’t follow them maybe you should not be part or this organization” and my favorite is the fatherly chastise about who has the owners ear.

Power and politics are probably the greatest way to achieve at my school, if you say the right things to the right ears. If you conform 110% you will be given raises and promotions. In fact my school has a teacher tardy policy that is very strict, unless you walk in late with one of the “chosen.” I know that sounds petty and overboard but I have experienced it first hand. Last Monday, I was 5 minutes late and was yelled at in front of my students in class for that tardy. On that Thursday, I was 15 minutes late but I walked in at the same time as the gym teacher and nothing was said to either of us about the tardy. At my job, if you are friendly with the owners you are never hassled or given grief. Furthermore you will get the rewards for being “teachers pet.”

So, what is causing the culture of this organization to be so angry? I see these three areas as deficient: Motivation, Turnover and Teamwork. First off you have to have a positive and motivated workforce or productivity and success will lag. Why is motivation an issue at John Glenn? The answer is in my opinion the culture. The system that exists does not foster creativity, new ideas and energy, instead they leadership wants conformity and structure. In this environment the unhappy teacher passes this onto the unhappy students/clients. When a teacher is poorly paid and then told not to be creative and to follow a certain format, it affects the positive nature of many people. This lack of positivism leads to turnover. In the seven weeks that school has been in session this year we have had five teachers quit. From the start of last school year to the end we lost nineteen members of the faculty and staff. I see this as a clear weakness in the organizations leadership program.

Finally, teamwork is discouraged because the owners do not like the teachers to talk to each other. Last year I received a memo from one of the owners implying that teachers should refrain from meeting together and discussing issues involving the school. So, we are not allowed to talk or work together out of fear of teacher dissention. There is a long standing joke at my school that says if three teachers are taking they must be speaking treason and rebellion.

If I was the CEO of my organization and I read this, I would fire the owners and give the leadership duties and responsibilities to the current middle management. Additionally I would put on two other middle managers so that one person is not buried under a mountain of responsibilities. I would restructure the policies and procedures with the input of the employee and create a culture that maintains profitability and creates a positive working environment. If the teacher is not resentful and unmotivated maybe he can push the students to achieve.