OpinionJanuary 13, 2005
Speak Out 1/13/05
Watching the geese; Making mistakes; Leaving the scene; Lawsuit is wrong; Toy for teachers; Patriot Act goes too far
Watching the geese
TODAY IS a special day, and it makes me feel even more special because I saw, for about five minutes, line after line after line from horizon to horizon of geese going north. So the good Lord's blessed us today. Hope you all have a good day.
Making mistakes
SO OUR prosecutor was furious over a clerical error made by a clerk in the circuit court. Whatever happened to calling the judge to find out how it occurred rather than him finding out through the grapevine? Morley Swingle should know about clerical errors. Wasn't it his office that released a gun back to man who ultimately used it to kill a man behind Players bar?
Leaving the scene
TO THE person who hit the dog on North West End Boulevard Jan. 7 and didn't stop: You are a coward and a jerk. I hope you have just a small idea how much you hurt this family. I have one piece of advice for you: Slow down. Next time it may be a child that you hit and kill.
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Lawsuit is wrong
I CANNOT believe the gall of these parents who are suing their child and another parent in order to make money. I don't care what they're going to do with the money.
Toy for teachers
THIS PAST week I attended a teachers' workshop about how to use technology in the classroom. The gist seemed to be that if all these teachers would push their school districts to buy them a PowerPoint data projector, they would be so much better off. You need to know what a data projector is. Teachers load their classroom materials and charts on the computers. This shows up on the screen through the PowerPoint presentation. It's an electronic overhead. You can buy an overhead projector for $100 and some dollars, but a data projectors costs thousands of dollars. I pointed this out, and the response from the teachers was amazing. "Yeah, but this is so much better, we don't have walk over and switch the overhead every time we switch. All we have to do is push a button." Parents, we're being asked to use our tax dollars for technology that's nothing but a toy for the teachers. The kids don't learn any better just because the information is computerized.
Patriot Act goes too far
EVERYBODY'S WELL aware of the Patriot Act. There's a lot of disagreement on its impact on ordinary Americans. The government wants us to think that it's only for the terrorists. The Patriot Act has been used a number of times already in the prosecution and arrest of ordinary Americans accused of regular crime activity. You might think that's a good idea, but it's not. This is something that has invaded our privacy, and it's a detriment to all free people in the United States. In fact, over 400 cities and at least two states have rejected the Patriot Act and will not participate or allow the police to participate in the Patriot Act activities. Recently on WSIL-TV in Southern Illinois there was a story about an alleged child pornographer arrested with the assistance of the Department of Homeland Security. Not too many people will disagree with the arrest, perhaps, of a child pornographer, but why was Homeland Security involved in that?
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