Breaking News on the Kelly File

What have cell phone videos, breaking newscasts, lawyers, and educators
added to our lives?  I found out last night on the "Kelly File".

I saw a shocking (SHOCKING) video of a police officer grabbing a female
student and throwing (THROWING) her out of her chair.  My God, the
violence was horrific, and I got to see the ACTUAL VIDEO of it.  Thank
goodness we have the mainstream media to bring us proof of these heinous
acts.

Then Megan Kelly and two (TWO) lawyers discussed the issue, one lawyer
arguing that there was no excuse for the officer to mistreat a child that way.
The other lawyer half-way defended the officer, by noting that the student
had refused to obey the teacher and the vice-principal, but still, the officer
was out of line.

Their consensus was that none (NONE) of them would want their child treated
 in such a brutal way.

But I kind of wonder, why did we ever get in the situation where a policeman
was called in the first place?  What we had here was a disobedient child in the
classroom.  In the old days, someone would grab her by the ear and haul her
down to the office.

Here she was, refusing to give the teacher her cellphone, and refusing to get
out of her seat and go to the office.  When the teacher called the vice-
principal, the student refused him as well.  Wow, she actually refused the
teacher and the vice-principal.

She must have been a very imposing young lady.  Or perhaps they thought she
might have been packing heat.  Or maybe they thought, if we touch her we
might get sued.  If, God forbid, someone got a video of it.

And these were college-educated, professionally trained, educators.  They
had attended classes on how to motivate and inspire young people.  Maybe
they missed the class on yanking ears.

So their solution to this dire situation?  Let's call in the cops.  Let him
reason with her, and, if she still won't get up, he can throw her ass out of
that chair for us...better him than us.  And, as it turns out, it was better for
them.  They still have their jobs, he doesn't have his.

So, if you are a school policeman, my solution for you in this situation
would be to politely ask the young lady to do what the teacher and the
vice-principal requests.  If she refuses, you should go and sit down
somewhere in the room.




When the teacher or vice-principal asks you why you're just sitting there, tell
them you're waiting to see if the student attacks them, because your job is to
protect them...you are NOT their private bouncer.

If they ask you how  to get the stubborn student out of the chair, tell them to call
their old professor or a lawyer to come in and show them how to do it.  

Such a minor problem should be a piece of cake for highly trained
professionals.  Surely, she could be removed without force.  Perhaps you could
video them as a training aide for new teachers.

Anyone with any common sense should know better than to call a cop on a
disobedient child, unless you're looking for a fall guy to blame.

And, if it's Megan Kelly's child, you could always call Megan Kelly.

Animal Farm 2015

Cattle live in pastures, peacefully chewing their cud, dining on the plentiful
grasses, placing their cow pies artfully throughout the spacious fields.  The
"circle of life" rolls on.

Universities are like pastures.  Peaceful, bucolic places.  Plenty of space for
a few bulls and cows to nurture young minds and drop a few cow pies without
affecting anyone but the students.

But the halls of congress, the state houses, and the city halls are like dairy
farms...pastures on steroids.  You don't want to live downwind from them.

People don't want to live in pastures or dairy farms.  Even farmers keep their
homes and yards separate from their pastures.  Nobody wants to fertilize
their front yard with cow pies.

Politicians are like cattle raised in pastures, whose unfortunate ultimate
goal is to live in a dairy farm, where they can pass their wisdom and life
choices down to the rest of the country.

Only politicians are attracted to dairy farms, becoming "nose-blind" to
their surroundings...unaware that what they drop behind in huge, open-air
pastures (without affecting anyone adversely), can stink to high heaven
when they drop it in everyone's front yard all at once.

When you're a bull or cow, and your life choice is to force your bullshit
down on others, perhaps it's time to send you back to the pasture, where
you belong.

Re-imagining "Imagine"

When John Lennon wrote "Imagine", he was dreaming of a world with
no religions, no countries, and no possessions...a world that would lead to
a "brotherhood of man".  No greed or hunger, and the world would be as
one.  It's a beautiful dream.

But what would the world be like with the "brotherhood of man"?  Can you
imagine a world without different races, different cultures, different ethnic
groups, and different genders?  What if we were all just "people"?  What if
we were all just the same?

So much of what we fuss and fight over today is about the difference
between "us" and "them".  What if there was only "us"?  Who would we
blame, if there was only "us"?  Not "them".  The world would really be as
one.

No whites.  No blacks.  No Hispanics.  No Asians.  No males.  No females.
Imagine, no race relations to have "conversations" over.  Imagine, no more
"wars on women".  No more "ethnic cleansing".

But, if we really were all the same, all just "one", would the world be
different?  Wouldn't we all still be looking for meaning and purpose in our
lives?  Wouldn't philosophy and religion still be searching for answers to
the unprovable mysteries of life?  Wouldn't people still differ over the
answers to those mysteries?

Wouldn't there still be brilliant people and stupid people, ambitious and
lazy people, mean people and kind people, those who cheat and those who
follow the rules?  There would still be those creative people obsessing in
their garages to create automobiles and telephones and computers.  There
would still be people who prefer to veg out smoking dope.  There would
still be good guys and bad guys.

Wouldn't we all prefer to live in a beach condo over a sweltering, mid-city
tenement?  Wouldn't there still be limits to the amounts of resources
available?  Wouldn't there still be limits to the amount of time one can
allot between their profession, their family, their studies, and their
recreation?  Wouldn't individuals still have to make their choices?

Who decides how much (or little) value each person adds to society, and
how much they would be rewarded for it?  Would every location in the
world choose to make the same decisions, or would there be a world-wide
government enforcing mandated choices?

Would it be "from each according to their abilities to each according to
their needs"?  If so, that usually works out much better for the elite few
who get to decide, than it does for the multitudes whose incomes get
distributed between those who have abilities and those who have needs.
A few well-connected politicians get to decide the distribution of the
workload and the income.

It seems to me that, even if "the world would be as one", we would
still be here, arguing over politics and religion and each other, just like
we are now.  We just couldn't blame "them" instead of "us".  We would
be forced to focus on "us" as the source of the problem.

The source of our problem is the human condition.  It's our quest to find
something to believe in.  It's the conflict between those who lust for power
and those who yearn to be left alone.  The conflict between those who
think they have all the answers and those who want to find their answers
for themselves.  Between those who want to control others and those who
want to live their own lives.

Our problems are not ethnic, racial, or gender-based.  At heart, our problems
lie in finding the fairest and most efficient ways to improve society, and to
fairly reward the individuals whose contributions add the most to our society.

Socialism?  Communism?  Democracy?  Theocracy?  Monarchy?  Democratic
Republics?  All are attempts to organize and control societies and balance the
scale between totalitarianism and individual freedoms, some allowing far
more individual freedoms than others.

Until we can resolve the philosophical differences between these competing
governmental structures, and until we can temper the human desire for
power and control, it's hard for me to imagine "all the people, living life
in peace".

To me, the closest we can come to living that dream remains in protecting
our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and our Rule of Law, to ensure that
our enumerated individual rights and freedoms are protected from those
who would usurp them.  

On Living the Good Life

Much in the modern media reinforces the values of becoming rich, or
famous, or conformist to the current, politically-correct beliefs.

True, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with being rich or famous.
It's nice to be rich or famous...the rub comes with what you have had
to do to get there, and what you've given up along the way.

If you've helped others along the way, and you've kept your integrity
along the way, more power to you.  But if you've lied, cheated, debased
yourself and others in the search solely for money and/or popularity, then
you've achieved a Pyrrhic victory at best.

In the end, the old homilies of honor, integrity, compassion, persistence,
humor, and love will matter more to your self image, to how those closest
to you view you, and to how others view you.

You can lie to other people, but you cannot lie to yourself.  You know what
you have done...and the people closest to you know what you are like.
Outsiders may admire you, but you know if you're living a lie.

So my advice for living a good life would be to place your individual
worth and integrity above your bank account or your popularity.

If you are a business owner or a manager, treat your workers fairly and
honestly.  Make tough decisions when they have to be made, but be
consistent and impartial in implementing those decisions.  Run your
business ethically.

If you're a worker, do the best job you can and take pride in  it.

Give your spouse love and respect, and as much time as you can.

Give your children your love and your time, and teach them to value
their abilities, and, above all, to value their personal integrity and honor.

Don't forget to have fun in your working and family life.

None of us leads a perfect life.  We all have faults.  We've all failed
at things, we've made mistakes, we have regrets.

But we've also done some things well.  We've learned hard lessons.
We've been touched by kindnesses and love we've not deserved.

Material success comes hard in life.  It takes ability, discipline,
persistence, perhaps education, and the luck to be in the right place
at the right time.  One of the lucky breaks is to be able to live in a
country that allows you to earn your way to the top 1 per cent.

Most of us never make it to that point, and don't begrudge those that
do, because we realize that the measure of a good life is not how
many dollars are in the bank when you die.  It's not how you are
trending on twitter (or whatever new social media site) when you die.

When you're gone, you're gone.  What you thought about yourself
doesn't matter any more.  Your money is someone else's now.  You
can't spend it any more.

What matters now is how you're remembered by those you've met
along the way.  Does your spouse miss you for all the wonderful times
you've had together?

Did you love your children (and grandchildren and great-grandchildren)
and do they remember you for the love, the good times, and the
examples you set for them?

Do those acquaintances and people you worked with remember you as
someone they trusted, learned from, and had fun with?  Were they
happy to have known you?

If you get to the point where your loved ones are left calculating
whether their inheritance was worth putting up with the old bastard
for all of those years, and if your friends aren't remembering the
accomplishments, the fun, and the laughs you had together... then,
the life you lived wasn't worth living.