Fri Comments

The City of Dearborn has become the latest to demonstrate the pitfalls of ObamaCare, an unintended consequence of, I suppose, well-meaning elected officials (I'm being overly generous here) whose actions are causing havoc.  Dearborn, along with other local and state governments, have joined private companies in downsizing.  That is, to avoid the costs of ObamaCare, they are limited a number of employees to fewer than 30 hours a week of work.  Now, we might argue that these cities and private concerns are merely being greedy for themselves.  But, esp in the case of local governments, that seems a stretch.  Yet, onward we march, despite attempts by members of Congress to get exemptions for themselves and their staffs. (Perhaps a good move would be to force members of Congress to pay ObamaCare costs from their own allocated budgets!)

And some students in Ann Arbor are suing the school district there because they are being charged $100 a semester for taking an extra course/class, "a seventh hour."  There are several things wrong with such a charge; in fact, it's odious for a number of reasons.  I understand that school districts have budgets and many have budget problems.  And I suppose that some might say, "Hey, wait!  Sports are now pay-to-play; extra classes should be, too."  But I'm not one of them.  First, esp in Ann Arbor of all places, students wanting to learn more are going to be penalized with the fees?  Who's running that district?  It would seem that it's not those who value education for its own sake.  Second, the $100 is waived for students "who qualify for free and reduced lunches."  Wait a minute!  That's not right.  Students are students.  I have some problems with the free and reduced meal system--its waste and the double-dipping--and it should not be applied to this silly policy.

Way back when, one of my principals came to ask me why I wasn't taking my history classes down to see the assembly, a local judge who was bringing court to the school for a day.  The administrator certainly wanted my class there, if only to not have the embarrassment of an empty auditorium.  I explained that I thought it wasn't a real court, that in effect it was contrived.  The cases were hand-picked, the judge(s) overacted, and the sentences were not the normal sentences that would have been handed out had the trials taken place where they should have.  Of course, the administrator didn't want to hear that my view of this was it was Judge Wapner in person.  So, I read an article in the newspaper this week about a state judge who did this sort of "bring-a-trial-to-school" thing.  Although he didn't come right out and say this was like television trials/court, his explanation of what went on confirmed that it pretty much was.

I also saw in the newspaper that a guy I worked construction with, oh 45 or more years ago, died.  I was a summer worker, temporary help home for the summer.  I worked five summers at this and, my last year, I was asked if I wanted to stay as a full-timer.  I did, but my dad squashed that idea, saying something like, "I didn't pay for four years of college to have you work construction."  Back then, when dads talked, kids listened.  But I liked that job, a lot.  In fact, along with my college job of working in the dining halls with my buddies, it was my favorite job--ever!  Ironically, over the past few months I've thought of that construction job and the guys with whom I worked.  And now, I read that one of them has died.  He was a full-time worker, driving our crew truck, and was a good 15 years or more older than I.  But he was smart and we had a number of nice conversations.  He urged me to stay in school, to graduate--as if that was an option for me!  But he was insincere.  I remember him fondly and the past few days have left a pall over me.  RIP.