Art a la "Tacos and Fries"

Okay, here's one more art-inspired post, but with a deliberately more political tone in keeping with the theme of this blog. Here we start it all off with the following poster. (Click on the image to enlarge.):
They were wrong for that crack about Louisiana. Way wrong. But they had me LOL, ROTF, LMBAO, and all that good stuff with those gibes against the Dakotas and the Midwest. And I can't decide what's worse: being considered useless like the small New England states or being some nondescript vanilla state like Nebraska. (Pobrecitos.) :)

All jokes aside, the poster seems to cut to the core of America's educational woes: the disjointed nature of a largely un-united group of states--each with its own values and governmental philosophies--lies at the heart of the lack of national standards which keeps our nation's test scores behind those of other industrialized nations. That--and we hate paying for education. Unfortunately, the disdain for funding education runs so deep that public schools have to rely on corporate sponsorship to stay afloat. And it isn't just education. The U.S. was the only major competing nation at the 2010 Winter Olympics without government funding for Olympic athletes who, thus, had to rely on corporate sponsorship for training, travel, and stipends.

Recognize a pattern?
"All hail the Almighty Dollar. Whenever there's money you know power will follow." You ain't neva lied, Big Tif. Exactly what kind of education do these anti-tax nihilists think we're going to get if corporations have to step in because we refuse to take our children's future seriously? What do they expect the results will be if we keep underfunding education? When we divert our tax dollars--and thus our power--away from deciding our children's future, should we really be surprised when we get these results?
No. We only have ourselves to blame for the millions of zombie-like individuals who are churned out each year lacking the critical-thinking skills to become more than mere cogs in a system that increasingly holds them back from self-actualization and true freedom.
We could have held onto that power by investing in our future. But we're too tax-averse in this dog-eat-dog nation of ours for that kind of common $en$e/¢ent$ to take hold. We're mainly out-for-self and we're hopelessly narcissistic.
Our waning sense of civic duty is at least partly a result of our decreasing interest in leisurely reading and the performing arts, which in turn may be a result of decreased spending on schools, libraries, and cultural enrichment centers.
We'd rather satisfy our increasing dependency on the system by pursuing materialistic wealth and living up to society's media-fed standards than take the time to look out for our fellow citizens. As a result, the lost opportunity for collective activism makes way for a modern-day serfdom where we work to consume and, in turn, get consumed by the system.
We're so overwhelmed by it all that we can't even take the time to keep a watchful eye on our leaders.
We let them run amok, doing everything under the sun except their jobs, so that every once in a while, disaster strikes:
Sure we get concerned, even outraged for awhile. But we eventually go back to our lives of leisure and mindless entertainment.
Even when the signs start manifesting themselves again that we're headed for yet another
What do we say? What do we do?
Where will it all end?
Ah yes. Rome was once a great and powerful empire as well. All good things must come to an end, as they say. Unfortunately, when our turn comes, I'm convinced the fiddler won't be some sadistic ruler like Nero. It will be the citizenry itself. Or should I say, it already is the citizenry?

I know, Lady Liberty. You and me both.