Purrs 4 Peace Week 39

#purrs4peace Hello everyone, we’re participating in Purrs4Peace Week 39. This weeks Purrs4Peace has us purring so there won’t be cuts in education.                                  Please join us in Purrs4Peace 
                                        Sister Dolly

"Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained." – James Garfield.

Imagine if only an elite few in the world could read….What would happen to the peaceful operation of society? What would happen to innovation and scientific advancement? What would happen to culture? Could we not on a global level sink back into the Dark Ages?

This is extreme but is meant to illustrate the importance of education. Yet in the United States, Europe, and around the world, governments are responding to the economic crisis with huge budget cuts to EDUCATION. Millions being slashed from K through 12th grade in many if not most school districts around the U.S. For example, it was recently announced in Kansas City, Missouri that half of the schools would be closed. And higher education is faring no better. For instance in the State of Georgia more than $127 million is being cut from the budgets of its Universities. This means many degree programs will be cut completely.

This is particularly distressing as studies have shown a high correlation between lack of education and crime. Indeed even terrorism is linked to lack of education. As a concrete illustration consider the cost of educating the average school child annually in the State of Georgia is $7000. However, the annual cost of housing and feeding a prisoner is $29000. Talk about penny wise and pound foolish. Let’s educate the child so that we don’t have to imprison the man!

Confucius Cat says before we allow our government to make cuts in education the following should be cut:

• 3/4 of the salaries and benefits of any and all elected politicians/government officials.
• all funding for war.
• all funding for the so called war on drugs. Deal with non-violent crime by education and treatment, not incarceration.

And this week we purr for education. We purr for knowledge. We purr for understanding. We purr for Peace.

Please stop by and visit the Confucius Cat’s Blog, he is after all, our fearless leader on the Purrs 4 Peace project.

The appointed time for Week 39 is Sunday, March 14, 2010. Participants should purr for three minutes commencing at 3:00 p.m.. EDT (U.S.) which is 7:00 p.m. (20:00 hrs.) BST in the U.K. The cat’s human staff should assist their cats with the project by stroking and nuzzling the cat at the appointed time.