The Times They Are A-Changin'

An aside to start, I saw two lists of "greatest musical artists" and Bob Dylan was in the top five of each.  I immediately dismissed the lists.  (My blog heading today reminded me of that.)

More to the point, here is a great, but sad column on changing times.  Walter Williams knocks it out of the park again. 

http://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2012/08/01/how_times_have_changed/page/full/#

It's a very poignant column.  I can identify with much of what Williams writes.  Things like he notes kept me on the straight and narrow.  Neighbors were surrogate parents, watching what we did.  If I strayd, all the assistant principal at my junior high had to do was ask me, "Marinucci, do I have to call your old man?"  (He could call him my "old man" because he was my dad's former coach.  That made whatever report he might sent to my "old man" even more devastating.)  

I like what Williams writes, too, about students calling teachers by their first names.  Some teachers think that makes them "relevant" or something.  Not me, not at all.  I still, 40 years later, in writing and face-to-face call my Amherst professors, "Professor."  Some of my students now call me "Professor" (which I take as the ultimate compliment, "Professor" connoting my AC teachers) or "Dr.," but "Mr." is just fine.  (OK, I did let one student call me "Ron."  He was in his 80s--seriously--and was taking my classes for the third or fourth time.)

Note, too, the reference to "Jerry Springer" and "Maury" (whatever his last name is).  Talk about people having no sense of shame!

Have you tried to tell some people, even kids, to tone down their language, esp in front of women and children?  (If you haven't if the opportunity arose, shame.)  Usually, just a dirty look from me works.  Oh, the kids, esp, don't stop--but they do move away.

And with all the talk in this country about "greed," exactly what is it when people, as Williams notes, accumulate all sorts of debt and then "seek to avoid payment of it?"  I know some people are legitimately hurting--and need help--but how many plan to charge, roll up credit bills, and then just walk away?  I know it happens--I have several, more than several, examples I have personally witnessed--and likely far more often than anyone will admit.  College loans are examples.  Karen kids me that I'm the only person in the country who paid his college loans, all of them.  That's not true, of course, but how many are looking for legislation to "forgive" those loans?  All that is "morally corrupt and reprehensible."  If college costs are too high, look to the sources of the outrageous costs. We shouldn't borrow money and then skip out on repayment. 

One last thing, in a related article, in the Det Free Press, no less, it was claimed that each foreclosed home cost taxpayers $80,000.  Wait a minute!  Where did all that bailout money go?  Wouldn't it have been wiser to give the $80,000 to each struggling homeowner--if the struggle could be demonstrated as legit--than to wherever it went?  At least people would have been able to make mortgage payments for another 5 or 6 years, maybe until they got back on their feet!  (See, I'm not heartless!)  Driving through a Waterford subdvision two weeks ago, there were at least six homes in foreclosure--and we weren't specifically looking for them.  Over in Lake Sherwood, the high-rent district--there are more foreclosures than anyone might guess.  Where did those hundreds of billions of dollars go, if not to help people keep their homes??????  Is this yet another example of do-gooders perhaps meaning well (maybe I'm being overly judicious here?), but not accomplishing a whole lot other than making things worse?  I don't know, but it's what I suspect.