I met our current President's father, the former President Bush, at the White House once when I was a teenager. I asked him about military operations in Central America. He ignored my question and responded by literally patting me on the head, telling me that it was good to see a young person take an interest in politics.
I responded by tellling him that I'd be voting when he came up for reelection and that I didn't really appreciate being patronized. It was right about then that I got a tap on the shoulder from the Secret Service, who informed me that I needed to step back, since I wouldn't be allowed to speak to the President anymore.
With a New Albany Presidential visit scheduled later this week, I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to the elder Bush. Had I realized what he was dealing with at home, I could've empathized with his situation and his thinking that, based on his experiences as a father, not taking young people seriously was a totally legitimate thing to do.
It turns out that in at least one case, he was right.
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15 comments:
This post has made my day.
Have we procured the necessary protest permit yet?
And: I thought the congressional election was over.
And: How long before Auntie V takes credit for this one?
BTW, I'm back.
If you want to protest something I would suggest that you should protest the closing of a excellent neighborhood school because according to the Silver Grove Neighborhood Association newsletter the school system is once again considering closing Silver Street School.
Welcome back!
Thanks for the kind wishes. It is great to be back, even if NA is a bit less tidy than the Netherlands ...
NA Girl: Talk about a coincidence; I'd no sooner finished making the same observation to a couple of pals at lunch than you posted about the corp's designs for Silver Street. It's come up before, hasn't it?
Anyone know what Sen. Sipes feels about that one?
As always Jeff, you have done a good job throwing the knucklecurve on such a touchy subject on you know who coming to visit this part of our world once again.
I have a good story about a fellow worker who spent the night in jail after smarting off to you know who's VP during just such a visit, but will not share it with the masses.
RAB, hope all was well in Haarlem and Brugge?
My wife used to teach at Silver Street School and my son attended a few grades there as well. Hope W looks out over the National Cemetary while he is there, it is one of the more beautiful sights in Southern Indiana.
anyone know how this will effect those of us that do live near the school? what roads are going to be close, etc? i'm sure it's going to be koo koo!
And not a good day to go street spam sharking; our hooks might be mistaken for something they're not.
Seriously - wonder if anyone will protest? Where is the democrat-opposition? Is this school actually in New Albany?
I dont know if anyone will protest, but if they do, I dont know that you can neccesarily lump them as "democrats". This president (not MY president) has alienated and harmed so many different classes of people, that most of us, whether dems or repubs, whether black, white or green, or even any other defining characteristic probably has a very good reason of our own to show our distain for this leader. Assuming any protestors are there as "democrats" would be a little short sighted...
I'm more disappointed that any of my LOCAL tax dollars would be spent with regard to his personal appearance. At least its not for overt campaign purposes, but if you've driven down state street lately and navigated the gauntlet of potholes left from our brief winter, I think its easy to see where our LOCAL tax dollars could be better spent than the logistics for W's visit.
Think they'll ask him to spell Potato?
From what I'm hearing from my daughter who is a senior at NAHS, they are planning to ship kids from Silver Street School over to the high school on Friday afternoon. I believe that he is supposed to visit two classrooms but most obviously this is going to be a staged event rather than visiting the school in normal session.
He is also supposed to give a speech there to 200 people in the gym promoting "No Child Left Behind." This is painfully ironic because we have already closed one school because of "No Child Left Behind." If schools do not get high enough standardized test grades the district and the school will lose valuable funding. In city schools with diverse populations, we have a large number of children who do poorly and their low test scores are putting the district, the schools, and ultimately the children at risk because they will lose federal funding. Silver Street School is in this category.
I wonder if there was an open honest meeting with teachers who were encouraged to truly speak their mind, what would happen.
(BTW, I am under no illusion that this is a remote possibility.)
It was more than 10 years ago that the subject of closing Silver Street School first came up, long before No Child Left Behind.
A friend of mine was part of the group of parents who got together to oppose the closing of the school. At that time there was talk of building a huge new elementary school and if that had happened Silver Street would not have been the only school closed.
The position of the school system was against small neighborhood schools. The rationale for large schools had to do mostly with economies of scale.
I remember correctly the school system had just received the results of an independent study on population trends, school capacities, etc. I think it is possible that the idea of building a huge school didn't last too long because finding a location would have been difficult.
Shortly after that they started adding on and remodeling many schools and built the new Highland Hills Middle School. With those school expansions and moving the 9th graders to the high schools and the 6th graders to the middle schools I suspect that they now have some extra capacity at the elementary level and Silver Street is the oldest building and probably the smallest as well.
4th paragraph should begin--If I remember correctly
I have heard that there will be a story in the Tribune today, 3/2, about the possible closing of Silver Street School. Evidently the school system has told the newspaper that there are no plans to close Silver Street.
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