Things that make you go hmm!

Things that make me go hmm:
The death of Michael Jackson: Wasn't expecting that. If anything even after I called my friend for confirmation, I still didn't want to believe it. I was a semi fan after I grew up and was reintroduced to the "king of pop" with his Thriller album. I had it on tape. I wore the tape out. Then he started changing his looks, became quite eccentric and at some point I lost whatever respect I had for him. The man went from black skin to white skin and had the audacity to claim that he had only 2-3 plastic surgeries. How gullilble did he think we were?

The death of Farrah Fawcett: Buried by the death of Jacko. A pretty face who proved herself as an acterss. I couldn't get into Charlie's Angels. Never watched it. OK an occassional episode, but I was not an avid follower. I loved her work in "The Burning Bed" and "Extrimities." That was the Farrah that impressed me. And she fought that cancer with all of her might to the bitter end.

The death of Ed McMahon: Dang! This one got BURIED! No pun intended, but the fact that his passing 2 days before Jackson and Fawcett was overshadowed by their deaths. And as my young fried said, "Who's Ed McMahon?"

Barry Madoff's wife: OK. You lived the high life for how long and now you're shocked, stunned and hurt by your husband's greed. She's shocked, stunned and hurt because she can no longer live that lifestyle and all of his assets have been seized. Billions of dollars. Billions sister, and none of it is legally yours!

Richard McTeare Jr.: This psycho fool threw a baby out of a moving car. No remorse for his actions and the baby wasn't even his. Yes he needs to be tossed into the belly of hell and executed...revived and executed again....

No politics here. Just thoughts on recent happenings. Think about it.

SENSATIONAL!

The media feeds us what they claim we want. We don't have much of a choice do we? We've been inundated with
1. Obama everyday since his inauguration.
2. The state of the economy every newscast, usually a good 1/3 or more of the nightly news focuses on this.
3. Bad/good deeds of our fellow Americans for days on end.
4. Wars in other parts of the world

They manage to throw in some good news here and there, but not enough of it. Is the negative that attractive? Has the good in our world become uninteresting, boring, blase, dull...? Is it any wonder that people are losing hope? Is it any wonder that some people are going around taking out a bunch of others and then themselves?

Impact

This recession has impacted everyone I come in contact with. As a teacher I see how it affects my school.
1. The mobility rate is higher than usual
2. The percentage of students on free and reduced lunch has risen from 92% to 98%. Nearly ALL of them qualify.
3. The county had to end the after school tutoring program called ELP because of budget cuts.
4. There's more, it just won't come to mind right now.
Working in a high poverty school seems to make it all the more tragic. Folks who barely have anything have even less. Yet there is also this strange mentality on what is important. For example:
1. When I go on a home visit and see the TV set on a cable channel such as HBO or Nickelodeon, yet the children are on free and reduced lunch.
2. Parents who don't send in money for a field trip because they know the school will pay for it regardless, yet send a dollar or 2 to school with their child every day so they can buy snack with their "free" lunch.
3. Parents looking to the school to help with school uniforms, yet sends their child to school in a pair of shoes that cost $100 on up that they will outgrow in 2-3 months.
4. Parents can't come to the school for a conference concerning their child's progress because "the car isn't working" or other reasons they can't get there yet they can make sure their child is at their football game or cheerleading competition, or some local parade or festival.
Priorities. What's important. No, what is of the greatest importance. Yes there are many different ways people get what they can out of something, but as a tax payer, I resent people who 'milk' the system to the point that it's criminal. And this is why their progeny expect something (some sort of hand out) for nothing.

Brother can you spare a billion or three?

Talk about corporate welfare! AIG is coming to the table again for yet ANOTHER BAILOUT! GM has their hand stuck out for ANOTHER BAILOUT! I just shake my head in amazement. See us regular folk are held accountable for our debts and if we can't pay, our creditors get creative. They:
-Call us
-Send letters to us
-Turn it over to collections
-The bad debt turns up on our credit report
-Garnish our wages
-Seize our assests
They are going to find some way to get their money.
Now when WE need a bailout we have to:
-Find someone willing to loan us the money
-Begin paying the money back immediately
-WITH INTEREST

Someting to think about.

Thoughts on Inauguration Day

This is a day I thought I would have to wait until I was old and gray with one foot in the grave before witnessing. A black man leading one of the greatest nations in the world. To think when I was a child we were finally breaking the final bonds of segregation. The Voting Rights Act was signed when I was four. I was seven soon to be eight when Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. Carl B Stokes was the first black man elected mayor of a major city when I was 8, 9 years old. (Cleveland rocks!) And the list goes on. These were the people who paved the road for today's phenomenal and historic event.

It saddens me that my father did not live to see this day, a day that he and others fought long and hard for in the not so distant past. It brings to tears to my eyes to think about it. He was one of those who had to suffer through a segregated military. A member of a desegregated unit, yet when travelling via bus he was forced to sit in the back and when eating in southern restaurants, turned away or forced to sit in the "Colored" section. Mind you this was a black man who willingly enlisted instead of being drafted into the armed forces and he was treated as though he were less than human. Yet this man that some considered less than a man graduated from high school at the age of 16, was the ONLY child out of 7 to go to college and GRADUATE, earned a masters degree while raising a family, went on to teach at the college level and founded one of the FIRST Black studies programs in the nation (if not the first).

Yeah I had to work today and unfortunately my little first graders really don't care to much about watching an inauguration regardless of how historic, so I couldn't exactly watch it with them in my room. You know those little types: love to move and contort their minute bodies in ways unimaginable. Just thinking about it makes me wince! So we sang, danced and played. That's what we do in music class. I came home and watched the some of the parade. And what little I watched today will be the extent of my "inauguration" participation.

So I close with this, regardless of who you voted for in November, you probably can't help but get caught up in this event because of its mere historical significance. If you are hoping that Obama can rescue us out of this mess, warning: He is a MAN, not God... and miracles are God's department.

Just a thought

It's depressing to hear how the economy is tanking. I'm not sure that's the term I want to use. Things seem to be sinking faster than a rock in water. I keep wondering when this thing is going to hit bottom... and once it does how long will it take to crawl out of the pit?

My mother turned 70 on her most recent birthday. She wants to go to Hawaii. The trip, if it happens, will probably take place during my Spring break. Not a good time for me. I always set aside money to help me get through those nine weeks I'm not pulling in my regular salary. It's called SUMMER VACATION! Now the plan is that I not only pay my way but help pay for the trip for Mom. I haven't priced anything yet, but I can see myself spending upwards of $1500 for all of this. Sure I have the money, but that's 1500 plus that I have to make up for the summer shortage. Not to mention the fact that I'm about to go through my third and final attempt to achieve National Board Certification. That alone is going to take $1000. I don't want to get deeper in debt to make this happen. Of course to get deeper in debt someone has to extend credit to me. Banks haven't been doing much of this and Americans are too afraid to ask because they might not be pulling a paycheck a year, I mean a month later.

Now if I were the government, the financial institutions wouldn't like me very much. I gave you bail out money and instead of using it to help consumers you're sitting on it. Ya got six months to do something with that dough other than give you and yours bonuses and buying out other banks. If you don't, I'm calling in the loan...with interest, penalties, and several pints of blood. Uber B#$%^ ain't I?

Bail out

I a bit sick of hearing the phrase "bail out." The picture of a boater in a canoe or other small sailing vessel with a pail and scooping out water with it because the boat sprung a leak. Yeah our country has sprung a leak and it's called a recession. Someone tell me why it took the "economic experts" a YEAR to finally declare that the country IS in a recession? I was saying that... over a year ago and wondering when our leaders were finally going to suck it up and call it what it really was. "Economic downturn." Damn! How far down does it have to get before you call it a recession?

Back to the bail out issue: First it was the various financial institutions : AIG, FANNIE MAE, FREDDIE MACK, and wouldn't you know it all of a sudden I'm drawing a blank and can't think of the other companies. Now the BIG THREE automakers want a handout, I mean bailout in the form of a loan. LEssee...Wasn't there a bailout back in '82. Ford I think it was. Twenty-six years later, no lessons learned from Ford's screw up and all THREE are holding out their hands for a hand... I mean "government loan." Let me rephrase that, Since it's OUR tax money I'm going to say a loan from the American people. And I think most of us are saying HELL NO! Damn, if you're willing to bail out the big folks how about us little folk. If they haven't forgotten, a buck isn't going as far as it used to. People aren't getting raises. What am I talking about. People are losing their jobs quicker than they can lose a pound of weight. Businesses are going belly up faster than a dead fish.

So the country is caught in the vicious circle, a ripple effect that touches EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. People aren't buying because their money doesn't go as far as it used to. Everything costs more. They're hanging on to what little they have. Businesses are closing or cutting jobs because people aren't buying. Their suppliers can't get rid of the inventory that they have, so they start cutting back on production and don't need as many workers. And it keeps going and going and going. Sounds like the Energizer bunny on the batteries and an IV of caffeine.

Our leaders have decided to throw money to various big corporations to keep them afloat. And us little people are DROWNING. Up the creek without a paddle or a boat, not even a life jacket. Blub, blub, blub! Here's a thought, stop trying to patch up a gunshot wound with a band aid. 700 billion or trillion ain't gonna fix this (Other than letting this thing run its course, don't ask me what will). Neither will a pail as big and deep as the Grand Canyon.