Monday Miscellany: Back to School and Blogging Edition

Last night my eight-year-old son confessed that he was feeling a wee bit antsy about the start of school. This was a big improvement from last year when I found him quietly but tragically crying in his bed because he couldn't find his stuffed elephant. His elephant was his preferred stuffed comfort. It was usually the only thing he packed to spend the night at grandma and poppa's. We hadn't seen him for a while. As I helped him search his room, I had painful flashback: it was the great group ralph of '08 at the Chintzibob vomitorium; feverish, I had been holding a stuffed elephant, soaked to the plush grey ears with thrown-up something. There were chunks. The flashback was over. What had I done with my boy's floppy-eared friend? My only guess is that he was thrown in the rubbish bin. He has not returned, and the boy has not brought him up again.


This morning the boy awoke with full-scale chicken pox. So much for the first week of school.


The twin boys soon turn three. M is conscientious, helpful, and a budding Dr. Doolittle. Our little home has been plagued by ants for years. We have slowly become used to them. I realized that it has, perhaps, gone a bit too far when M started catching them, keeping them, and feeding them raisins. He has named the spider outside his window "John."


One night, after I had put the twins to bed, I heard M crying for me. We have reversed the locks so that we can lock them in when necessary. He likes to counter this strategy by putting his lips under the door and shouting at the top of his lungs to get our attention. He was doing this. I went upstairs to see what the problem was. I heard him as I rounded the corner, "Daddy, door not locked, I can get out!" The little guy was concerned that he was going to be tempted beyond what he could bear. There is a spiritual lesson there somewhere.


Our summer was a quiet and restful one. I took a lot of photo hikes. I took the kids to the Tellus museum (4.5 of 5 stars), the park several times, and Amicalola Falls. The daddy long legs were spawning at Amicalola and at times the forest floor seemed to be no more than a carpet of fast-moving feet. The eldest and I went with Poppa to a Rome Braves game (also 4.5 of 5 stars). The Braves lost. There were other things. It is all a blur now. I took a group of students on a retreat. We rafted down the Ocoee. I didn't die.


I have one the easiest teaching schedules this year that I have ever had. For the first semester I will be teaching only four classes and will only have two preps. Granted, planning Homecoming is like another class. We are leaning towards a Sixties theme.


I was working on some assignments for my AP US history class while subconsciously pondering current events. I try to keep politics from this blog so if you don't want any politics, skip what comes next and look at the cut picture at the bottom. Really, I don't want to offend you so stop now. So Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer wrote an editorial in which they claim that the recent boisterousness at Congressional town hall meetings, "are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views--but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American." While I am quite aware that the House prides itself on being the arbiter on all things un-American (see HUAC), I am afraid that the two esteemed house members are ill-informed about the roots of American protest. They cite, "GASP", that someone has even made an effigy of a Congressman! One doesn't have to be much of student of the American Revolution to know that shouting, yelling, vigorous yodeling, effigies, bonfires, involuntary rail-riding, burning of stamps, soaking of tea, tarring, feathering, tarring and feathering, name-calling, lettering writing, wig-wearing, and wig-throwing were all part of the patriot protest toolbox put together by the founding fathers. The founding fathers of the United States of America! If anything, the old, well-heeled codgers yelling at the Congressmen are unAmerican in their boisterous civility. If they want to protest in a more truly American way, then they are going to have to begin scrounging the egg case and produce aisle for a few choice items past their time and begin kindling some controlled releases of carbon. UPDATE: I used the term "founding fathers with a rather broad definition. With the exception of Sam Adams, most of the be-wigged and capitalized class of Founding Fathers were a bit suspicious of the rabble/mob and tended to disparage their more boisterous demonstrations (like the Boston Tea Party), but I doubt many of them would have called a good effigy burning, "Un-American" nor "un-English."

In a New York court in 1733, Andrew Hamilton successfully defended John Peter Zenger from the charges of seditious libel. The case is credited with establishing a freedom of the press in colonies that was not enjoyed in the home countries. Here is the quote I wanted to share with you: "Men who injure and oppress the people under their administration provoke them to cry out and complain, and then make that very complaint the foundation for new oppressions and prosecutions" (quoted in Diane Ravitch The American Reader). I suppose it wouldn't bother me so much if I thought that real debate is desired, but it is clear that the current government wants us all to shut up and take our government issued medicine. They promise that it is good for us.

At the park:


Peace
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