HARD QUESTION NEEDS BETTER ANSWERS

Hard question after dinner: Would you like a wafer-thin mint?

If you haven’t seen it, or don’t remember, click the link for the FULL story.

It’s longer than I expected, but still hits home.

A more over the top vomiting scene in movies has never been filmed, but it’s a reminder for others feeling fed up.

Waiting for answers to a hard question wears people out. And they don’t know why.

It’s like unsuspected trauma that only shows up once, and it kills you.

Or you get lucky.

Waiting too long for answers to hard questions dulls the effect.

Eventually we forget what we wanted to hear, forget the question, and hope things work themselves out.

Then We Find Out

With proper education we learn how to read and write.

Some students continue on and become teachers. Then you hear a different tune:

Have your heard teachers complain about funding cuts?

That they have to use their own money to buy school supplies?

Call it Financial Literacy.

These are the people required to hold a Master’s Degree for a job.

A Master’s Degree is spendy. 

School loan debt is a burden.

On a good day a teacher reaches their goals under financial stress; on a bad day it’s all about financial stress.

Here’s the problem: People want their kids taught by qualified, licensed, professionals. 

However, people also complain about the cost of education. In some places they want to lower teacher’s standards. As if it’s all the teachers fault.

People with Master’s Degrees know what it cost to graduate. And they know their worth.

That’s the problem with Educational Literacy. They know that we know we couldn’t do their jobs.

Could you maintain control over a class of thirty-five kids, navigate a career through hostile waters, and still show a fresh and bubbly attitude to the world?

Try it after parent/teacher meetings where you get accused of teacher malpractice by parents too ignorant to understand their kids need help outside the classroom so they can function in the classroom setting.

That’s when normal people give up, and teachers step up.

Leaders know how to step up.

Hard Question For History

One day everything we see will be in someone else’s hands.

Baby Boomers rocked the boat when they were young, wanting answers to questions like:

Why do I have to register for the draft?

Will I be sent to Vietnam?

What is the best service to join in war time?

They found answers, some better than others. Canada was one answer.

Almost all men ages 18-25 who are U.S. citizens or are immigrants living in the U.S. are required to register with Selective Service. Citizens must register within 30 days of turning 18. Immigrants must register within 30 days of arriving in the U.S.

If you are required to register and you do not, you will not be eligible for state-based student aid in many states, federal job training, or a federal job. You may be prosecuted and face a fine of up to $250,000 and jail time of up to five years. If you’re an immigrant to the U.S., you will not be eligible for citizenship.

Hardcore baby boomers went from marching against injustice to soft people too tired and worn out to care as much as they used to.

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They are too beat down to even vote, which is the biggest problem.

If we want younger generations to grow up smart enough to know better, then vote on education and school measures today.

Yes, I understand it was different in the olden days, how older people went to school in one room school houses and walked there uphill, both ways. We’ve seen season after season of Little House On The Prairie and The Waltons so many times that our memories are worn.

If voting against education is your deal, and voting for a larger police force means more, try and make this connection: Poorly educated people do more stupid things that need more policing. Why not git them kids learned up enough to keep out of jail?

They’ll need more in their lives than just the curtains.

Vote For A Better Future

Today is two days after a former President of the United States had an unwelcome visit from the FBI.

On Monday at about 10 a.m. EST, two dozen FBI agents and technicians showed up at Donald Trump’s Florida home to execute a search warrant to obtain any government-owned documents that might be in the possession of Trump but are required to be delivered to the Archives under the provisions of the 1978 Presidential Records Act. (In response to the Hillary Clinton email scandal, Trump himself signed a law in 2018 that made it a felony to remove and retain classified documents.)

Getting swarmed by twenty-four Feds is no way to start the day.

It kicked off accusations from republicans that their man, the man they’ve bonded themselves to, is some kind of victim.

Their victim is the biggest victim, no victim has been treated worse, a man who can honk is own victim horn. But his fans want to get a hand in there to help.

This is the same man who called on his followers to ‘stand down and stand by’ which changed to ‘fight like hell’ then to ‘we love you.’

Does anyone profess love to the arson who tried to burn your house down? To the robber who held you up and took everything possible? To the lifeguard who lets people drown on their shift?

The leadership job works two ways, like most jobs:

First, do the work you signed up for. And do it well. If you don’t know how to do the job, check the files of the last person to hold the position.

Ask a hard question. Take advice. Be willing to change in the face of new information.

Second, stay ahead of the curve. In other words, do the work your job requires, and do the work needed to keep the job.

Hard Question Gets Harder

This is the hardest sort of task for someone afflicted by fragile masculinity.

Who are you?

My first President was Eisenhower for two terms. I arrived in the middle of his first.

As a real man he was appointed General of the World before he was elected the leader of the free world.

Those are jobs for a real man few will ever duplicate.

My last President to finish a term in office was Trump. 

I believe Eisenhower would have hated Trumps guts, if he had any.

A self-aggrandizing reality TV expert compared to a five star general is no comparison.

A real leader shows up every day as the same person. They are dedicated to the task laid before them, not ignoring the work to spend time on their own projects.

An American President needs to know the lay of the land and how to improve it.

Trump showed up with his crew, his kids, and dredged the swamp for bottom feeders to fill his administration.

When he lost the election for a second term he exploded like the man in the top pic.

Eighteen months later the former president is still hurling invective at any and everything he deems worthy from democrats, to law enforcement, to election law.

Making things more clear is his son Eric.

What this boy knows or doesn’t know might blow back on daddy.

Who’s cleaning up that mess?

That’s the hard question today.