People who get some authority... as they suppose

Frustrating morning... So my son is graduating and was set to walk tomorrow with his class. Off he went this morning, bright and early, to grad practice. After arriving there he called us to let us know that he still owed the school for a missing textbook, as in unfound, unreturned, in the amount of $70 or they would not let him into practice and this crazy school says, no practice, no walking at graduation. So he runs home to get a check, as he still has a bit of time. Upon returning to school he is told, they will not accept the check he is carrying, you know, the checks they have been accepting for the past 2 years for every little thing that comes along, and even on occasion demanded that $ come in that form as it is too easy to have teachers slip into graft and corruption if they are accepting cash... at least that was the explanation... sort of. So, instead of going into practice, my son stood outside the door of the auditorium where they were holding practice, with his check in his hand and not so much as a smidgen of clemency from the cashier's (who had previously accepted my checks) guarding the door.


He was told "tough luck, you will not be allowed to walk with your class, because you had the audacity to show up with a CHECK to pay for your book!" (Well maybe not exactly in those words, but that was the idea). 


Fast forward to the frustrated parents, who were out on an appointment by this time, dropping everything to go to the high school to talk to the Assistant Principal in charge of graduation. I had to ask my hubby to do the talking, because if I had talked, I would have completely lost it. Arriving at graduation with this child was a hard fought battle and I couldn't bear the thought of being denied the simple pleasure of seeing our son walk to receive his diploma.


Hubby did a great job of being diplomatic with the man in charge. The AP went on and on about how difficult it was to organize graduation and how confused these high school graduates, that had managed to get through 12 years of school to this point, would be if they arrived at graduation and found that there was someone different standing next to them instead of the person they were anticipating. We tried to sympathize, defer to his masterful handling of this task, but in the end it was all we could do not to ask "So are you saying that you are graduating kids that lack the skills to adapt and change to simple shifts in their environment? Are they all that stupid and fragile?" We refrained... He went on and on about how he COULD NOT make this change. Hubby pointed out that he was in charge and that in fact he COULD if only he would choose to. Hubby finally forced this bureaucratic cretin to admit that really he just WOULD NOT, because the power to change things was his. We walked out defeated and deflated. In the lobby, a young woman, who awoke that morning to find that her parents had taken all the cars at her house to deliver family to the airport after a family funeral rendering her unable to get to the school, awaited the same conflict with the aforementioned cretin. Worse still, she had family flying in from New York to watch her graduate! Our hearts went out to her...


We paid our fine, in cash, and left. My boy wanted Taco Bell, where the unwitting cashier who asked us if we would like to pay an extra dollar to help cover the costs of less fortunate high school seniors who couldn't afford the cost of graduation, was met with a very loud "NO!" from both of us. She seemed a bit rattled by our response. We finally laughed long and hard at the irony as we drove home... just a hint of bitterness in the laughter.


Fast forward, again, about 2 hours. My phone rings and the ID tells me it is the high school senior class guidance counselor. I answered warily... expecting a sucker punch at this point. To my surprise, she called to tell me that the cretin had reconsidered his decision and my son would be allowed to walk with his class at graduation. I wondered who this guy had finally pushed to far to open this door? Would love to have seen it... I hope there was some sort of comeuppance involved... not very Christian, I know.


So now, this son who had, this very morning, said he wanted to walk with his graduating class. Asking us to come to bat for him. Sits undecided about whether he wants to walk or not, the experience with the cretin was bad, very, very bad. The man had even pointed out that he thought my son was deficient in some way and deserved the earlier fate. (He was caught forging a note when he ditched school in early spring, a poorly forged note, I might add. (Mine never looked that bad when I forged them back in the day.) And the cretin had been the one to deal with him.) This same son... Isn't sure if he wants to walk...

Have you seen my handbasket, on rocket rails?

So I notice that the world is just nuts these days. Between the "scientists" wanting to convince us that we are the responsible parties for the global warming climate change (really? are we heating Mars too? cause it's heating too... really people, hold your breath, all this CO2 you breath out is responsible for the deaths of countless polar bears and I think CO2 has been banned anyway! Let's do away with those awful CO2 emitting trees and cows and other animal and plant life while we are at it (wait, wouldn't that include polar bears too? now I'm really confused)...). Sorry, I digress... Crazy politicians that want us to believe that we can spend our way back to prosperity as a country, or punish the many in order to insure the few (most of whom don't even want to be insured). Or how about the lunatic celebrity worship we see everywhere (and I begin to wonder what the celebrities themselves are worshipping, anyone see the VMAs?). That's it, seriously, Hell in a Handbasket!

The Beginning... of the blog

So I decided the world has gone on far too long without my opinion to guide those who are too timid to have one of their own. I will be offering my opinions on everything that strikes my fancy at the time, I will range from the local to worldwide, from the spiritual to the political, from the mundane to the bizarre. In short: I will be giving my unsolicited opinion on everything.