Tidbits

Jesse’s first day at work went well. Although she did not have computer access yet and was not able to do any work, she has her own cubicle, and they played cards at lunch. That’s my girl – a very social creature. When she was four years old, we lived next door to the Red River Elementary. She begged me every day to let her go to school. When she finally started kindergarten at five years old, she was so excited. The first day of school went well, but she said she did not need to go back. She only liked recess, and they did not do enough of that to suit her.

My day in WF went well too. Mom and I had lunch, ran some errands, and went shopping. She told me a funny story about her friend, Yvonne. It seems that Mom and Yvonne went shopping together recently. They had been trying on clothes when Yvonne tried on some brown pants. She was complaining that the pants did not fit right, and having lots of trouble with them – she did not like them. Mom said, "Yvonne, isn’t that your pants – the ones you wore in here?" Yvonne looked down and said, "You’re right; they are mine." Then they collapsed into laughter.

When I got home, I read through my blogs. Mike Fay has a post on Joe Lieberman, but it is the comments that get crazy. Buck has interesting items on the British Muslims and their Prime Minister. It seems that the British Muslims want to blame British foreign policy for acts of militant, radical Muslims. And they want the British government to do something about these radical Muslims while not taking a stand themselves. Amazing!

The excuses, and blame game that the British Muslims are playing reminded me of the Blanco brothers whom I mentioned in my blog the other day. All four brothers had serious anger issues that needed to be addressed. They caused lots of problems in public school. They were disruptive to the whole education system with their behavior, which was often abusive and obscene. The lack of discipline for the Blancos was an encouragement for bad behavior in all students. If nothing could be done about the Blancos, nothing could be done about anyone. Not only were they discipline problems, they were dangerous to others. They were often violent. They were constantly the topic of discussion in the principal’s office, faculty meetings, and teacher’s lounge. Nothing was ever done – excuses were made for their behavior – divorced parents, stepfather can’t handle them, anger, hurt, etc. Teachers and students steered clear of the Blancos and treated them with kid gloves when dealing with them. And then everyone would say, "but their mother is such a nice lady. You should meet her." Something was wrong here! This picture was not making sense. Why wasn’t something being done about the Blancos if she was such a great mother? Don’t you try to help people you love? I figured it was small town politics, friendship with their mother, and some Hispanic unity that played a part in the lack of dealing with the problems. I did meet the mother at one point. She accused me of picking on her son and being prejudiced against Hispanics. I could not convince her that I wanted to help her son. A week later her son spit in my face and hit me – nothing was done. Several years after I quit teaching, one of the Blanco boys rammed his vehicle into the backend of the car that his mother was riding in with her husband. The car went flying out into a pasture. The mom fell out and was killed. Very sad.

I think when you turn your back on violence, pretend it is not there, make excuses for it, and blame others, it will eventually come back and bite you on the butt.