Tue

As if the Las Vegas tragedy wasn't enough of a blow (My son and daughter-in-law live there.), there was a gun/shooting threat at my grandson's high school.  It was later determined that the threat "was not credible," but still......

Karen watched news shows on several stations during the day yesterday.  I half-listened, as I wrote, read, and graded papers.  But one thing struck me, a question:  Are these stations anchors and interviewers in third grade?  The question they posed to witnesses/survivors and so-called "experts" were frequently worse than juvenile; they were infantile.  How do these people get their jobs?  A better question is how they keep them??????

I was listening to the radio on the drive to class this AM.  As usual, the host was lecturing to us, pontificating on the real, the true answers to everything.  I was only half paying attention when I heard "expousing," not "exposing" or "espousing," but "expousing."  I perked up and waited to hear if the know-it-all said it again.  He did, twice more, again, "expousing."  OK, I'm a language snob, but this guy makes his living my using language, speaking correctly it is hoped.  So, now he had my attention and stuck his foot in his mouth again, although in his self-righteousness, he wouldn't never realize it or admit it.  He ranted on the schools and those who keep insisting the US is a democracy.  "We're no such thing!" he adamantly stated.  He went on to that claptrap I have heard before, about the US being a republic, not a democracy.  What made it worse was his arrogant attitude about it.

Of course the US is a republic.  Check out the definition of the word.  It can't be argued otherwise.  But at the same time, we are also a democracy.  What is the definition of "democracy?"  It's from two Greek words which translate to "rule by people" or something close to that.  What are the first three words of the Constitution??????  The Preamble begins with "We the People......"  It doesn't start with "We the States" or anything similar.  And it could.  The Founders could have written what they wanted it to be.  In fact, many of them were leery of "rule by the people" and preferred rule by the States or something other than "...the people."  That's why there are institutions like the Electrical College, the election of US Senators by state legislatures (changed with the 17th Amendment), etc.

We can define/describe the  US government in many ways, just as an orange can be described by shape, by color, by taste, etc.  We have a federal government, with several levels:  national, state, and local.  We do have a republic.  And we do have a democracy.  Now, it's not a direct democracy, of course not.  We are too big, in population and in area, to have a direct democracy.  Instead we have an indirect democracy, also referred to as a republican or representative democracy.

That these guys don't see this and yet then grouse about how schools aren't teaching others is what is particularly grating.

I see an Amherst grad won a Nobel Prize for his work with Drosophila Melanogaster--fruit flies!  In one of my science classes there, we did genetic experiments with Drosophila.  Well, we were supposed to be learning about mating, counting males/females upon birth.  The experiment required us to knock out the fruit flies in their tubes so we could count the males and the females, keeping records, etc.  My first fling at it I messed up.  I used far too much ether and didn't knock out my flies, but killed them.  Oops.  Professor Yost, who had to be laughing inside at me, gave me another chance.  I willingly took it and was determined not to murder my Drosophila, not this time.  So I didn't.  In fact, I didn't use enough ether and, before I was done counting them, the fruit flies all woke up and few off into the room.  I'm sure Professor Yost was roaring inside, but he was nice enough to tell me just to move on.  I guess there are no Nobels in store for me.