Puffs

I can remember one of the professors I had in college whom I had for several different classes. He always liked to ‘criticize, correct or otherwise question’ the context of whatever text book we were using for that course. After a while, someone finally asked the professor if he didn’t like the books we were using, why didn’t he write his own version of a book for the course of instruction.

His answer was simple and direct: “it was ‘easier’ and more fun to be able to question the books being used. He also added, he didn’t want his work to be put up for ridicule as he did to other books.

It’s been a lot of years since that exchange of information was made but I always remember it when it comes to questions handled by our various legislative bodies (federal, state or local).

So many people (myself included) find it so much easier to sit back and criticize what goes on in our legislatures rather than to propose ideas that may actually help solve a problem.

Over the years I have tried to point out activities in legislatures that I question or support. The intent is to help spread information to the public because so many things happen in these legislative bodies that many people don’t know about.

This past weekend I was reading the “Unicameral Update” from the Nebraska Legislature and a couple of items caught my eye.

First off was an item that was proposing a “Statewide Dress Code” for public school children. I know that many ‘private’ schools already have dress codes and in most instances, they work well. I’m not sure how a dress code for the whole state might work.

However, one thing I found most interesting was the support being offered to the idea by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). This surprised me greatly because I can remember many times in the past when the ACLU did its best to fight dress codes of any kind. Now . . . they support them?

It seemed that most support came from situations where a dress code was being enforced and that effort seemed to violate individual rights of the students. Examples varied from the length of hair to clothes that were important to a person’s heritage.

I have nothing against dress codes, but it may be better for this to be done on a local level than being dictated by the state.

Another item in the Unicameral Update was an article concerning state reimbursement to schools for meal costs.

If I understand the situation correctly, for many reasons children are attending school without proper nourishment. It seem often this means breakfast is missed and hungry students are less able to learn because of problems caused by the hunger. Schools have long had “free and reduced” meals and now even breakfast programs.

I’m not sure I agree with schools now being restaurants, but they seem to be handling this added responsibility to their program. However, I’m not sure the state should implement a statewide program to pay for “all” of the meals. This would mean all taxpayers would be paying even for those who could well afford the cost of the meals.

A O

A couple of items I found interesting in newspapers last week are as follows:

Movies . . . I have not noticed it before last week, but it may have been going on for some time.

I’m talking about advertising for movies in Hastings. I can remember years ago when the theater would place a good size ad in the paper to inform the public what movie would be shown on what dates and at what times.

For a number of years now they advertised only the name of the movie and maybe the time. (I often had trouble knowing what the movie was about by the name of the movie.)

Last week I noticed the theater had a small ad and all it had in the ad was a “scan code.”

I guess we were to scan the code with our phones to find out what the movie would be.

Seemed like a lot more work than I want to do.

A O

Feral . . .

“Wild,” “Undomesticated.”

Feral is most often used to describe pigs, cats, dogs that were no longer under someone’s care, but run wild and found their own way in life.

Most often I’ve heard about “feral hogs” and most of the time in the southern state. Feral Hogs and Texas are often linked.

However, last week I learned that “Feral Cows” are getting to be a real problem in southwestern states. Seems that the drought, and the expense required to care for cows, has caused a number of cattle to be less cared for and had escaped to the ‘feral” way of life, causing a good deal of damage to the environment already suffering from the draught.

Seems the states, or federal government, had authorized the shooting of the cattle rather than to allow the environmental damage to continue.

And, of course, some people don’t like the sounds of that.

A O

This job of “governing ourselves” is not as easy as many people think it should be.

Some conservatives would rather nothing be done at times in spite of the changing world we live in. Some liberals would like to make as many laws as possible. The result being no matter what was done it would violate a law someplace.

Prayer, peace and prudence are needed now more than ever.

A O