Please Pass the Podium
Number 2, parents should help their kids learn. It shouldn’t be entirely up to the school system to correct your child’s laggard performance. They try, but you’ve got to put forth some effort yourself. And if the parent can’t add and subtract, or the parent can’t help, there’s probably some family or friends who can lend a hand. And if your kid continually gets in trouble at school, or lags behind, or causes a commotion at school, don’t go pointing fingers at the teachers or the school system just yet, because, despite what your kid tells you, it is sometimes his fault. Maybe he has a “respect for authority” problem, or a learning disability, or a medical condition, or is distracted by stuff that’s going on at home. Maybe he just needs his butt busted. When I was in school, my dad told me that if I got a whippin’ at school, I could expect to get one when I got home. And he meant it. Nowdays, nobody gets a whippin’ at school. Now it all makes sense.
Number 3, the school system (and the teachers) should share some of the blame, because it is, in fact, their job to educate your students. Every school system has the teacher who, for some reason, decides that they just don’t want to put forth the effort to teach anymore. Maybe it’s unruly students, maybe it’s some new rules and regultions, maybe it’s something else. If you’ve decided that you don’t want to be a teacher anymore, then please find a different career and let someone else take your place.
One weekend several years ago, we had two of our seldom-seen grandkids stay with us. We soon felt that they might be behind in their education, even though the sixth-grader showed us all As and Bs on her last report card. We pulled a standardized third-grade test from the internet, and found that our lovely sixth-grade granddaughter couldn’t even pass a third-grade test. How sad is that, that her school system gave her A’s and B’s for her lackluster performance? She’s a smart girl, just not in things academic. I’m thinking that her school needs some kind of remedial education for teachers and administrators.
Here’s some parting thoughts on teachers: Our small town had a referendum on the ballot to increase property taxes and to use that money to increase teachers’ pay. I was approached by a long-time friend who was a teacher, to “please vote for the tax increase so our teachers can get more pay and our kids can get a better education.”
My response was this: “I certainly hope you’re doing everything you can now to give our kids the best education they can get. I don’t see where giving you more money should affect that.” We didn’t speak for years after that conversation. I’m sure that he didn’t mean it how it came out, but then, how did he mean it?
I also have a teacher in the family who made a comment to me back in the spring. This teacher was bemoaning the fact that the school year would have to go a week later into the summer break, because of some extra “snow days”.
“But we already work a hundred and fifty days a year” she stated.
“What?” I was stunned.
“We already work a hundred and fifty days a year!”
And then that light bulb went off over my head. Hell, that’s part of what’s wrong with our school system today! We don’t spend enough time in the classroom. I looked it up and found that it’s actually a hundred and eighty days a year. So I got to thinking...most likely, everybody I know would like to only work a hundred and eighty days out of the year. I mean, come on, look at the teacher’s schedule, at least in my area: Let’s see, even though they make as much or more than the average employee in the area (who puts in a whole year’s worth of work), they only work 180 days a year, they get three months off in the summer, two weeks at Christmas, a week for fall break and a week for spring break, a week’s worth of “snow days”, a week for Thanksgiving, a day off when the county fair shows up, plus who knows what else...And you want me to sympathize with you?Really?
I say, before you tell me how bad you’ve got it, go somewhere else and get another job! Walk a mile in my shoes. Oh, I didn’t mention the excellent health insurance, or the excellent pension, or the union you’ve got, where the school has a hard time getting rid of you if you mess up. Horray, I’m glad you’ve got all that, but don’t expect me to feel sorry for you because you have to go to school for another week because of “snow days”. Everybody else had to get out, scrape their windows and shovel snow, drive or slide to work, then repeat the process at the end of their shift in order to get back home, so that their tax dollars could pay your salary. A lot of them had to be out in the cold and the snow for eight hours after they got to work, with the wind whipping around their ears at about twenty miles per hour, and you’re complaining about “snow days” where you didn’t even have to leave the house? Get over it. I’m just saying, for the most part, our schools are filled with wonderful, caring teachers, whose hands are tied by rules and regulations, and they have to put up with a load of crap from both students and parents, but you’ll have to admit that they do have one of the best unions in our country.
And frankly, if you want to show me what you’re really made of, instead of asking for more money next time, try petitioning for a longer school year. You know, so our kids can get a better education.
A teacher’s counter to this might be that “we spend a lot of time away from school grading papers and preparing the next day’s lessons,” and I have to agree that you do; however, that’s not time spent with our children, and just look at our worldwide competition in education. We spend more money per child, and less time teaching them, than any other developed country in the world. And, according to the media, we’re lagging behind. Now I’m not asking you to defend your position on this, and I know you want to, I just want you to think about what I’ve said. Mull it over, and see if you can think of a way to help improve the educational process for our children.
Chapter4: Increased Minimum Wage
Been there, done that. It doesn’t work, and I’ll tell you why. A short while after you get your raise, every place where you spend money will be raising their prices to compensate for having to raise the pay of their employees. The goods that they sell: somewhere along the supply chain, somebody got a big raise, and that’s passed along to you as well in the form of increased wholesale prices to your store; So now there’s a double-whammy— increased wages and increased cost of goods, both of which the store will pass along to the consumer. As a matter of fact, every cost increase along the supply chain is passed along to you, the buyer. Good thing you got that raise, huh?
I know this for a fact, because it’s happened to me before, that within a month or two of getting a big raise, you’ll have about the same buying power that you had before everybody got a raise. Maybe a little less. Here’s why it’s maybe even less: Because you’re making more money, now they’re taking more out of your paycheck for taxes and social security. The only clear winner in raising the minimum wage will be the government, because they’re now getting a bigger tax bite from every check you take home. Even your Granny, who’s living on a fixed income will suffer, because she didn’t get a raise, but prices have gone up.
The minimum wage was not meant to be a wage for life. It was meant to provide you with a living wage while you took steps to improve yourself, learn more, get a better education or otherwise make yourself more valuable to your employer, or perhaps to a new employer. Night school? Tech school? On-the-job Training? There’s some way out there for you to improve your worth to an employer and rise above your fellow minimum-wage workers. Go find it and improve your status in the workplace before somebody else does.
So, increasing the minimum wage will only give you more money for a few weeks. Then it’s back to the same-old same-old. I know, with that said, you still want the minumum wage increased. All I can say is, “be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.”
Chapter5: Illegal Immigrants, Mexicans, and The Wall
Can you imagine a plane landing in Washington D.C., New York, Boston, or any other east-coast airport, and none of the passengers have any identification or paperwork...but Immigration Servic
es just waves them on through, saying Welcome to America, come partake in our bounty? It just doesn’t happen, right?
And you wouldn’t want that to happen. Our country has an established imigration policy, and those who show up at our airports and don’t follow the rules are turned around and sent back. Or arrested. So why should our Southwestern border be any different? There’s a right way to enter our country, and a wrong way. I can assure you that if you just “crashed the border” in another country, you’d be deported or tossed in jail. Or shot. It’s their country and they have laws affecting immigration, and if you want to stay, you have to follow their laws of suffer the consequences. I think that’s only right. I also think it’s right, here in America.
Listen, we’re not trying to keep people out. We just want them to come here the right way. Legally. Or at least that’s what I believe. And, we want them to help pay their share in supporting America. Contribute to the system like you do and I do. No cash under the table. No skipping the income tax. None of that.
If you or I gave up our citizenship, which would put us on par with the illegals, do you think we’d be allowed to stay? You know, if we didn’t pay any taxes on our income? If we didn’t have an ID or driver’s license? No Social Security number? I’m just asking if we would be allowed to stay.
My small town in Tennessee has quite a few Mexican / Latino residents. I don’t know if they’re here legally or illegally, or are descendents of legals or illegals. But these people are hard workers and skilled workers, mostly in the agricultural, construction, or lawncare industries. At least the ones that I can see and the ones I know about. And I don’t know if they’re working for themselves or for somebody else, or exactly what they do when wintertime gets here, because they’re not visible for the most part when the weather turns cold. I’m thinking that these people are doing hard work, hot work, and work that a lot of other people just don’t want to do. We just need to make sure they are here legally.
I do feel that if and when America starts deporting illegals, that the price of construction work and agricultural produce will go up, because my understanding is that they work cheaper than their American counterparts. And they do work nobody else wants to do. I’d like for a lot of them to stay...if they’re here legally. And that’s the main argument, anyway. Sure, we’re a nation of immigrants and we shouldn’t try to keep one sect out, if only they’d do it legally. My forefathers had to do it legally, and your forefathers had to do it legally, so why not everybody else? If they did it legally, then they’re American citizens. But if they’re here illegally, then they gotta go.
If you multiply the number of illegal immigrants, estimated at 11 million, and multiply by 50%, a rough average of the number of them on our “programs” (depending on source) you arrive at 5.5 million illegal immigrants who are receiving “program” benefits that they’ve never even contributed to. That’s hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars a year they’re sucking out of a system that was designed to help American citizens who, hopefully have contributed to the system at some point in their lives. Bleeding heart sympathizers aside, these freeloading illegal immigrants gotta go! If you want to keep them here, put them up in your house and take care of them, but don’t expect me to do it for you. That’s my money you’re giving away!
To keep them from crashing our borders, lots of ideas have been suggested, but I have one I’d like to share. Several years ago, our local Air Force Base was in the running as a possible location to build a “training camp” for soldiers and airmen who were bound for Iraq and other places in the Middle East. My thoughts then were, heck, don’t build it in Middle Tennessee, let’s just build it alongside our border with Mexico. Put it someplace that’s hot and sandy, to acclimate the soldiers to the conditions they’ll experience when they get to Iraq. Put up signs “Military Installation” “Firing Range”, etc. Let the tanks run up and down the border, let the soldiers take target practice, let the jets drop bombs and test-fire missles alongside the border... I mean who is going to try to cross that? I don’t intend for people to get hurt, I just think that would be a great deterrent to folks who want to cross the border. I suggested this to a politician in our area. When he finally got back to me, his response was “We’d rather have it built in Tennessee. This would mean a lot of jobs for Tennesseans.” And I guess he was right, but sometimes you have to think What’s best for our country? I don’t know if they ever built this training center or not, but if they did, they sure didn’t build it at our base in Tennessee. So we didn’t get the jobs, and we’ve still got an illegal immigrant problem in the United States of America. Donald Trump wants to build a wall. I want to build a new military training center. I guess either one would be okay...it’s just that we need to do something besides talk about it.
Chapter6: Obnoxious Rude Behavior
Lots of this has to do with bad parenting, because usually, it’s children who don’t know how to behave in public. But sometimes, it’s adults.
I’m more forgiving of children, because sometimes, they just don’t know right from wrong. Their parents should teach them. But often, parents fail. Do you really think I want to watch your children run through the grocery store, scatter merchandise all over the floors, watch them ram your cart into some frail old lady, and scream bloody murder when they don’t get that particular item that they want? Am I supposed to smile and say, “Oh, isn’t she cute?” while looking over your shoulder at the carnage left behind? Okay, I’ll admit, your kid is cute, but her behavior is atrocious! One doesn’t cancel out the other.
When I’m trying to dine in a restaurant, I really don’t want to be hit in the back of the head by a spoonful of peas, because your kid doesn’t like peas. Now he’s kicking the back of my seat and screaming at the top of his lungs, and when I turn to look at you, you smirk and tell me “He’s normally not like this.”
“Sure he is,” I think, otherwise he wouldn’t have thought he could get away with it this time. And sometimes, when the kid yells and screams, the mother will make more noise than the kid, trying to get him to be quiet. You should have taught your young’un manners before you brought them to a nice restaurant. I don’t get it. As a big compliment for fathers around the country: usually when there’s a man at their table, the kid doesn’t act like a brat. Draw your own conclusions from that, but really, I think that says a lot. By the way, whenever I go into a children’s restaurant, for example Chucky Cheese, I fully expect to experience the wild noisy shenanigans that are found there, and I’m not offended at all. Really, I’m not biased. I promise.
But for all the noisy kids in public places, there are also noisy, obnoxious adults in public places. Especially when there’s a sporting event going on or there’s alcohol involved. I expect it to be wild and noisy, kinda like a Chucky Cheese for the adults, so I’m not quite so surprised when rude or obnoxious happens and I try to avoid it. But other places...
Listen, I can go into a movie theater, and while I’m getting a seat I notice that there’s nobody else in the theater. So I sit. Ultimately, some six-foot-six dude wearing a ten-gallon cowboy hat will walk in with his petite girlfriend, walk halfway down the aisle, stop...and look at me. Now when we make eye contact, I’m not asking him telepathically to come over and sit in front of me, but I guess he takes it that way. Sure enough, in this big empty theater, he decides to sit right down in front of me. And then continually leans over to whisper to his date, thus blocking not only my view, but my wife’s view as well. So, I guess I’m supposed to move, Tex, if I want to see the show, right? So I’ll move. And now, the show has started. Running late, and dragging five or six kids behind her, Soccer Mom enters the theater and hustles down the aisle and suddenly decides that sitting right behind Johnny American is a good idea. Only she sits where she can see the screen and puts Lil Billy right behind me...only so we can all hear him complain “But I can’t see!” Then he’ll kick the back of my chair and whine throughout the entire movie, the whole time Soccer Mom’s going “
Shhhh!” and now Sally’s gotta pee, and Jimmy’s spilled his drink, and Judy’s busy texting her friends or chatting on her phone. Really? Hey, I agree that you have the same right to be there as I do, but I’m not understanding your thought process. Neither you nor Tex has any idea what you’re doing...or do you? You’re just thoughtless or rude, and if I say anything about it, now I’m the one who’s both thoughtless and rude! I just don’t get it!
Chapter7: Income Taxes and Financials
So after decades of people proposing a simpler tax system, it’s on the forefront again, and I suspect that nothing will ever change. Our complicated tax code is set up to benefit big businesses and poor people. Nothing for the working man. Nothing for Johnny American. Except pay, pay, pay. Here’a an example of a discovery I made while doing my taxes one year: I had ended up with an extra house. I know, you’re thinking, how does one end up with an extra house? But it was just helping someone out. So now I had this empty house and I also had house payments to make on it. I rented the house to a nice couple for just enough to cover the payments. When tax time came, I was stunned at the benefit this rental house gave me. Not only could I deduct expenses, I could also “depreciate” the house, and according to the tax code (and my income at the time), when I ran the numbers I discovered that if I’d had nine more rental houses, I wouldn’t have had to pay a single dime in income taxes. Not a dime! Get back everything I had paid in from my regular job, and not pay anything on income from this rental house! Meanwhile, the house that I was depreciating and somebody else was paying for was actually increasing in value! How cool is that?