Bobby Kennedy ~ Legacy of RFK

Just the other day was the anniversary of the date when RFK was assassinated. It has become known in the history field as the trifecta of assassinations. First JFK, then MLK, and the RFK.

All of these murders were horrendous. But there was a huge difference with Bobby Kennedy’s murder. He was just starting. King and JFK had been doing their fights. They had already had huge impacts on society. Bobby was just beginning. How different our country would have been if he had been president. I know he would have won if he had not been killed. RFK had a spirit that seemed different than his brother. Still austere and grand, there was a little something more down to earth. I just feel he had great things to accomplish and they never even seen the light of day.

Because Bobby Kennedy had not become as huge in the public eye as his brother and Martin Luther King, many times he is forgotten about. But we should not forget about him. He had a vision and a drive, and we should all hope that people who choose to try and represent us will also see what he had and try and take on his ideals.

Here is Your Diploma ~ Whoops I Mean the Case ForIt

It is that time of year again. Graduates of all types are getting ready to walk down that isle of graduation. Ha ha. For high school people, there is no diploma. That will come in the middle of the summer in most cases. In fact… most of the grades are still not due into the registrar yet. Many people will walk in the ceremony, but still will not graduate (Thankx WASL and Every Child Left Behind). But that is a topic for anther day.

Besides prom, this is the most dangerous weekend for young adults. They are 18, want to party because they are going to be “officially” adult and they go and do something stupid. It will either get them killed or the school will refuse to let them participate in graduation or commencement activities.

I seem to be on a parent crusade this week. But I do not understand the adults who sanction beer parties at their homes for tons of almost grads. While I do think the alcohol age should be lower like in Germany… currently it is not in the states. At least if you can be killed by our government for fighting in wars, you should be able to drink. Again, but that is not the rules.

Now… I also for breaking the rules when necessary… or should I say bending the rules, or working around the rules. So applied to this situation, I have no problem with parents at home letting an offspring have a beer with dad watching the soccer game. I have not really seen any research on the effects of young people who have this experience and would not know it my self because my parents never smoked or drank. Ever! But it seems reasonable IN MOST circumstances. If young sally sue has just returned from drug rehab, then that is neglect by the parents.

What I do not understand are these parents (and sometimes groups of parents) who throw these keg parties for almost grads! To me there is a huge difference between an intelligent discussion with a mom saying that “we believe the drinking age should be lower so you may have one glass of wine with dinner and one beer if you are home watching a game,” and parents just saying “PARRRRTY” Lets get drunk.

There is no intelligent discussion. I think if you are going to go to that level, then get those parents and young adults and they can put that energy into changing the law.

If there are any 17-18 year olds getting ready to graduate, please do not do anything mortally stupid this weekend. Lay low. Bask in the fact you are an adult. And if you are not planning on going to college, make a plan and LEAVE HOME. Truly become a big person. I am tired of 30 year olds who have never left mommy or daddy.

Here Come the Crazy Parents and Bigoted Folk ~ reaction to Tina Meier hate email/comments

First, If you read my blog below, let me thank the folks who had the gumption to actually respond with some opposing comments and some bigoted comments. And phooey to the people who decided to send me hate email. The internet is supposed to be about free speech and exchange of ideas. Some people have forgotten that.

Parenting. It surely is not what it used to be. And what I mean is the theory behind parenting. Oh… how many times do I hear parents say, you do not understand. You do not have any children. My general statement to this is snarky, “Actually I have 150 children! I do not need any in my personal life!”

Yes. I do not have any children of my own. Because I have thought this through. Unless I have the money, I am not going to bring a child into this world. And I would need a husband too. Those are hard to find. At least to my standards and values. I am no Murphy Brown. How many stupid people do we have who think babies make it better and have children and do not have the money or really the desire to take on the task. My parents were dirt poor and did not family plan. Our lives were miserable. It sucks being poor. It sucks to have to mortgage your house to pay for your sport.

Parents are yelling and screaming at me that they can not watch their children 24/7. Yes. But when you bring a child in the world, for 18 years, they are your responsibility and you loose any freedom you had as an independent adult. That is your number 1 job. If you can not take that responsibility, do not have children.

I can not tell you how many times I have had parent/teacher conferences about how the parent can not figure out to do with their child because they will not behave. But then they simply can not take their car away from their child because they would have to take the school bus to school and not have star bucks or hang out with their friends, or other frivolous stuff. Boo Hoo.

How many times did I see parents when I worked at the Science Center say, “If you do that one more time we are going home?” Then they stay when said child continues to disobey.

By district law, I am supposed to contact person to person in a direct manner any of my seniors who could fail my classes and tell them this. One girl’s parents are vacationing in Florida for 2 weeks and will not be back until the end of this week. She is left on her own… alone. Technically a minor with out supervision.

And back to the internet issue. Many comments about not watching children 24/7 bla bla bla. Other comments about educating children on internet issues. They know the issues and students like to disobey. One person commented on a class and the instructor could not see a site because of a school fire wall. A sophomore student got around that. Duh! I could have gotten around that because I have educated myself. I know the tricks. I can cut a student off. What this instructor should have been teaching are the ADULTS. Teach them what to look for. How to do it themselves.

Knowledge is Power! Get some people!

This goes beyond the internet too. This is a tech problem. People are so ignorant and stupid about stuff. I am a technology point person for my building. At least 5-10 times a school year I have to go to someone’s room whose computer is “broken.” Well… it is not turned on. Give me a break! Teachers can not even keep up.

3 years ago when energy drinks became popular, some of the older teachers were allowing Sparks to be drunk in class. It is an alcohol drink. In an ASB election speech that was previewed by the ASB teacher, a male made reference to his groin and how large is was and several drug references. Slang of course, but still…. if you are in the cultural teen know, it was obvious. People are dancing to the Superman Song. That is a song about a sexual act people. And here I see parents and teachers requesting the song at dances to dance with the students. A joke in a sick and twisted way.

Am I hard core. You bet. Do I think that CPS should take a child away from parents if they can not get him/her to school even as a teen? Yes. Do I think the Meier parents should have had CPS take away their children because they allowed their children to make myspace accounts. Yes. Any other parent too! It was against the rules. It is age 14 for a reason. It could be putting a child at risk. We have age limits for a reason. Worse has happened to parents. Children have been taken away from parents for not using seat belts, care seats, leaving them in a vehicle while parents shop for groceries or at home unattended. And I am talking ages 10-13. If we do this for these types of acts, we should do them for all.

Adults… Do you and your spouse like to travel? Do you like to work a lot? Poor? Like to eat out a lot, spend time alone with each other? Do you not like being the bad guy? Would you hate disciplining a co-worker or having to fire someone? Then a child is not for you. Children are selfish and take 18 years of your life If you are ready for the commitment. If not, do not have any. Get a cat or dog.

For the record. I like JK Rowling’s written work. I also like William Faulkner, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and especially Beowulf. I am sorry if you can not read literary works and understand their thematic value. Do not spout your bigoted speech to me. I hate bullies of all kinds and lets make a deal. You do not visit my site ever again if you are offended, and I will not visit yours.

My logo/symbol is to protect my identity and people I know. I would rather not be identified. Oh… I am not a satanist. Elephants have been my favorite animal since I was 5 years old. Bats are my second favorite animal and my love for them started when I had to create bat classes for the science center when we got an exhibit. Purple and green are my favorite colors. The Elephant is holding a curling broom because I love the sport. That is the meaning behind the logo and my tattoo I created. Nothing religious at all people.

Oh… But did I mention I am also a reverend? If anyone needs the services of a person of the cloth, let me know and I could help you out!

Tina Meier’s Grief, But Also What I Am Not Hearing

I am usually the last person you will hear who will criticize someone who is dedicated in stopping bully and bigotry. For goodness sack, I am the Gay/Straight Alliance Advisor for my work and actually have gotten death threats before! Actually, the only group I am against at the moment is Rachel’s Challenge because they are using the Columbine tragedy as their mask for crazy Christian views.

But I also have a question for Tina Meier. If you really want change with cyber bullying, why are you not admitting to your parenting mistakes and target parents rather than children about internet use?

See… here is what I do not get. This mother let her mentally disturbed daughter play on the internet by herself? Ok… maybe not completely disturbed, but the young teen was on medication for depression and had a history of this!! Oh… this girl’s father too. Let us not forget. This is not only the fault of the mother!!

You see people… If this Tina lady and her former husband had been parenting and not letting their children on the internet without their supervision, you could ever blame a suicide on the other crazy lady who harassed the teen. If the computer had been in the living room and the children only allowed to be online with supervision, the attacks would have never happened.

Has Tina realized this? From everything I have seen, she is trying to educate children and young adults. Not adults who are trying to parent. What she needs to do is talk to parents. She needs to own up to her and her ex-husband’s mistakes and try to train PARENTS!

In fact, I do go as far to say that these Meier parents need to be charged with child abuse. I have no qualms with the other lady’s charges. She needs to be charged. But so do the Meier parents. This would have never happened if they had been parenting. Let’s face it. This was an adult to young teen attack. Not a teen to teen initially. This girl even violated myspace rules, lied about her age, and created an account. No liability for myspace. Sorry people.

Call me harsh, but this is the truth. Teen Meier might have still committed suicide. That is a fact. The girl was depressed and on medication. But the fact also is that the parents were not doing their job and being responsible for their child. They let it run wild (albeit on the internet) and that child paid the consequences. Just like a child left alone at a pool could drown. A baby left on its stomach may die of sids, and the list can go on.

Parents. DO YOUR JOB. TAKE THE BLAME FOR NOT DOING IT. Learn about the internet. If you do not know… do not let your child on, especially alone!! Would you let your child take a drug you never heard of because everyone else was doing it? NO! Get real. Parent.

Remember the 70’s ~ There is no Global Oil Shortage

Funny how we love to fight mob crime. Eliot Ness and such. We are against the 21st century mob (gangs). But funny how we will let our hands be tied to the biggest mob of all time (sorry Italians). What am I speaking to?…. OPEC.

It is a mob. They do not let the economy work with supply and demand. They decided how much to produce. They decide the price. A mob. I have read many statistics and can not be sure which ones are truly correct, but these next figures seem the most reasonable. If the model of supply and demand was adhered to, without any major “shortages”, barrels of oil would cost around $10. It is right now around $140 I think today. Yikes.

Just like in the 70’s. Now I know oil will not last forever. But we are not going to run out tomorrow. Even if we do not create any new oil fields. Duh people. How quickly we forget. Now prices might be more expensive and we could see some shortages in the short term if we ignore OPEC and say, “getting our oil elsewhere boys.” And I mean boys because women and treated like dirt in those countries. Actually dirt is more useful than women. Let us do business with Venusians.

Ah, but they are ruled by a dictator. So Bushy says no. Then tell me how most Saudi Arabia countries are not dictatorships and oligarchy’s? They are, but they have stuff we “need” and will deal with them. This whole thing is sooooo stupid.

Remember the 1970’s people…. Remember the 1970’s.

The jobs you quit, Juno, and Folk Life Festival

Today, during a lovely, but tiring bicycle ride, I decided to pop on down to the Folklife Festival in Seattle. That means, I am almost obligated to visit some of my former co-workers/employees at PSC. Jun would kill me if I was that close and did not say hi. Plus I have not talked with her in ages.

I always find it interesting when I visit a place where I worked close to 10 years. I left with people intimidating and sexually harassing me. People were not appreciative of my work. It was a place that could suck your soul away. I left early and took a financial hit. I wanted to work two full time jobs for for 2-3 years to get out of debt. But for my sanity I had to leave.

When ever I see my old boss, the first thing he usually says is “Want a job?” I always say how much you gonna pay me. Sadly enough, If he were to really tell me, I know it would be less than I make as a teacher. That is sad. Not for profits take heed… If you can not get a budget to pay people good wages… you will get crap. And good people will have to leave. All you will get are has beens who could not make it in the corporate world.

As much as I would like to enjoy festivals like Folklife, I can not. Working that that silly museum has ruined it for me. Tons of people, not from the city, and not really enough room. I walked through the center grounds, but decided to go on my merry way with a bike ride through Magnolia, the locks, and Ballard. It was nice, but I am not used to long rides and was dead tired when I got home. Hence, I am awake now.

But I know I will hear from my mom. I justed checked the weather and news and there was a shooting at Folklife. Another reason for my mom to complain and harass me. Ug.

A co-worker lent me the movie Juno. I had heard lots of stuff about it and how it totally was true to high school. I have to say that it was interesting. Some things I liked, some I did not. I did not like how the girl chose to keep the baby. I did not like how the planned parenthood like place was awful and disrespectful. It could have been done better.

The husband of the adopting couple creeped me out. I thought he was some sort of weird pedophile. They needed to change that part. I thought the wife adoptive lady was waaaay to high strung. And the ending was not realistic. Not about Juno and Bleeker. That was a nice touch. SPOILER…. But the wife being able to still adopt as a lady getting a divorce. Realistically, Juno would have had to keep her baby and Bleeker and he would have to raise it. There. That’s it… that is real life.

A perfect day in Seattle. Low 70’s and a little windy, and now at 12 midnight… rain. Ug. That is Seattle for you. I have a party tomorrow that starts early and I hope it is not raining tomorrow.

Are There Truly Good Police?

The other way I had to make my way downtown to get some birthday presents for people. When I left Lush, There were the Seattle Police Horse patrol. They were drinking star bucks and talking with people. Their horses were beautiful. I have never had the opportunity to ride a horse, but one day I will. One horse guy was missing. I was hoping it was Officer Tom who used to work at the science center before the admin got stupid and got rid of the police in return for fake security.

It was at the science center where I changed my mind about some police officers. We had the best. They were good. I just wish all police people could have been like them. Then there was the time when I was deathly ill and my car broke down on a busy street. The Seattle police man was the most helpful and even let me sit in his car until the tow company came. He could have been real mean, but he was not.

Even though Officer Tom was not with this horse patrol, I watched for awhile and saw the police give kids stickers and talked to the public about the horse. There was even a woman police lady. When I was walking home, I passed by some Seattle Police on bicycles. They waved and said hi! It was really nice. I think the addition of the bike patrols has been a really good thing. I left safe and felt there was help around, but not like the man was watching over me. What I saw that day is how all police should be.

And they are not. The Jerk Snohomish Police focus on all the wrong things. In general, they are lazy and do not do their job. The Shoreline Police are a big joke. And the joke is that the only people they pull over are non white folks. For really. I lived in Shoreline for 2 plus years, and trust me, never a white person pulled over. There are a lot of white people who live in Shoreline.

I am very very thankful for the good police people. Who know their jobs are really customer service jobs. Who know how to take care of bad people or people who are making bad choices, but in the end, remember even they are people too and deserve as much dignity as possible. And to the Jerk police…. you suck!

Now Bush Gives More Federal Aid!

Bush has infused the student loan market with more loans because private lenders like studentloan corp (citigroup) and others are giving very few loans anymore. This is oh so funny because of what Bush allowed in 2002-2003.

There was a huge dot.com slump. People were going back to school. Too many for the Republicans comfort. So they lowered how much student loan money a grad student could get. That meant that I was around $4000 a quarter short on tuition. And that did not include any books I had to purchase. They only way I could pay for this was with a credit card. So two years later, I had a ton of money on my credit card. I had to work 2 full times jobs for over a year to get my credit cards low enough so I could get a personal loan to get rid of the credit card debt. It was awful.

So now all I can do is laugh. As I hear young people complain that they will have to work part time to pay for college and that is not how it is supposed to be. Oh how they do not know what is like to work a full time job, a part time job, and go to school full time. I can’t stand their whining. Cry me a River.

I have a feeling that these infusion is just to cover what was out there the last few years. There needs to be more. There needs to be more incentive plans (i.e. if teachers teach 6 years after their initial schooling and certificate, they do not have to pay the money back) and other things to help people along. My pay might be hella low as a teacher, but I would be more than comfortable if I did not have any student loans. The hurdles are just too high.

The Most Friendly People

I am trying to get back into shape. After an IT band issue in my left knee, Bursitis in my right knee, and other issues. While I have done a little bicycle riding this year, it has been very early in the morning and on icky days. Today is half way decent and I went out across I-90. It was great. It felt good. And what was even cooler was I forgot how nice cyclists are.

Now I know there are some huge bicycle jerks out there. They make me mad. If you are a car person and get angry at them, think about how the fellow cyclists feel. They are jerks to us too and give us a bad rap. Makes me angry.

But a majority of cyclists seem to be the friendliest people alive. I do not know how many smiles and hellos I got today. I have never been good at hills and I was almost at the top of one at the end of my ride and this lady cheered me on. She said, “Alright… you can do it. You are almost there!” And it was sincere and heartfelt. Who does this in America? Cyclists do. While cycling is a very individual thing for me now (none of the people I know who cycle want to do it with me anymore), I am never completely alone. If it looks like you are at the side of the rode and need help, everyone who goes by asks if you need help. I even had someone help me change a tire once before I could really do it on my own. How great.

Maybe it is the freedom and independence bicycling gives a person that makes them so happy. It is the one thing that people of all ages can do. It is great! It has really made the month for me and I look forward to doing it quite a bit again!

Wake Up Seattle and Learn How To Drive

There are many other places I would prefer to drive. Boston, New York, and LA to name a few. I hate driving in Seattle. And I have to do it all the time. I will even expand. Washington State. People do not drive well. It is even worse when it starts to snow. Forget about it actually sticking. Here is my list of things for today people need to remember:

1). Right of way at stops signs! If you both come to a stop sign, the person on your direct right goes first. Do not wait forever. Speed dial to zero and go. That is the most you should ever wait.

2). Freeway on ramps means get to 60 and FAST. I know not all cars can get to zero to 60 in like 3 seconds, but by the time you are where the juncture of the on ramp meets the freeway, you should be at 60. Especially if the traffic goes that fast. I am tired of everyone going like 30 and then trying to speed up on the freeway. Dangerous

3). Merging means Every Other One! Getting onto the freeway when traffic is slower means you need to prepare to enter from the on ramp between cars on the free way. Too many times cheaters and idiots zoom ahead to the “front” and cut other cars off, get in front of people who have already merged and cause the whole lane to stop. If people “merged” easily and every other one, then traffic would not come to a stand still for a couple of minutes. That is why I and others stick out to the right side even when we merge because of cheaters.

Freeway is 60 or higher. In Washington anyways. If you can not go 60, then do not enter the freeway. I am all for speed limits and saving gas, but the freeway is 60 and you better be going that. If you are a right at 60 person, then make sure you are in the light lane. 60-65 then in the middle lanes. Leave the left lane for passing and fast drivers. I know this is impossible in some places on the free way in the Seattle area, but those are exceptions.

Those are some of the most frustrating things I run into. It makes me quite an angry panda when people are stupid. And if you do not drive right, I will honk at you. I am not passive aggressive silent and try to show you with my car, I just honk at you. Get used to it. And stop driving like an idiot!!!!