Puffs

You can thank my brother-in-law for the beginnings of this week’s story. I was influenced by a small joke I came across in a publication he sent. My thinking went something like this:

Unless you’ve been living in a cave someplace without TV, newspapers, radios or the internet, you are aware of all the stories it seems the Liberals are raising about the effect COVID-19 has had on the education of the youth in America. Stories, statistics and just plain examples have been published on how much this current generation has been effected by the shutdown of schools or the effort to teach via the internet.

I admit, I was a little concerned about all that myself.

I don’t have any examples, but I could almost “feel” those appointed people in the U. S. responsible for the educational system are about to come up with some new federal, or state, program to “fix” all the damage done by COVID to our educational system. One thing I have learned in recent years is that the “Liberals” do not let any “tragedy” go to waste.

The Liberals got a lot done so far in our time with COVID-19. Just look at their efforts to control people with the handling of the medical aspects of COVID. Then, look at the billions of dollars they have spent to “help” those effected by the pandemic. (All in an unspoken effort to put laws in effect to “control” citizens.)

Well, my story today concerns the educational aspects of this pandemic. I have no doubts that the pandemic did affect education, but I also have faith in America. Some students may suffer ill effects in their educational progress. However, most will have the ‘intestinal fortitude’ to overcome this temporary setback and progress in their efforts to become ‘productive, mature’ citizens.

My faith in both ‘human nature’ and the American spirit to overcome obstacles was restored by one little quip I found in this Wisconsin publication. To wit:

“A child, age 2, saw a dish of M & M’s on the counter at my home and asked for “free” (three).

Mom replied: “If you can say ‘three’, I’ll give them to you.”

“Free,” the child tried.

This went on over and over until he finally stopped, pondered, look at Mom and said:

“Five.”

A O

No matter how hard the Liberals try they will never replace the God given response we human have in the creation by God.

The little story by a two year old child reminded me of that fact.

A O

Liberals can’t help the way they are. They think that any “wrong” can be corrected by them. Usually that ‘help’ comes in the form of a set of laws, or regulations, intended to correct the situation.

What they don’t understand is that often the corrective effort sooner, or later, leads to a further miscarriage of justice.

Teachers’ Unions are sometimes good examples of what can happen. It seems Indiana has a “Union” statewide that is to assist teachers with items like salary, work assignments, legal assistance and whatever problems teachers may encounter.

For all this assistance, each teacher pays an annual fee of $1,000. Seems there are about 40,000 teachers in Indiana, so the dues are collectively about $40,000,000. It also seems that teacher are automatically enrolled in the Union and if the teacher decides he doesn’t want the Union, they have to “Opt Out,” and that is not as easy as it sounds.

Many teachers are now leaving the union as they don’t feel they are getting a $1,000 worth of “help” or “service” from the union.

The Supreme Court has now ruled that teachers could not be forced to be in unions. Since then a number of states have ruled that teachers now have to “opt in” rather than “opt out” of a union.

Unions have often served good purposes in our nation. They have helped correct some situations that employers should have never let happen. However, history is full of examples of unions also not being honest as well.

Unions that represent government employees (like school teachers) have a special responsibility and duty in their job. Too often these Union care more about seeing politicians elected that will promote their views than doing what is right.

Liberal’s policies are not all born in the “federal” government, they are often found at the state level and local levels.

A O

I’ll stop this week with a reminder of what can happen when teacher unions are carried to an extreme.

Look back in history to the time in Germany when the Nazi government controlled everything, including the educational system.

Teachers were forced to promote the Nazi ‘system’ and also to report to the government any students who might tell of their parents not supporting the Nazi. More than a few families were destroyed because a teacher reported to the government a family that thought maybe the Nazi way of doing things was not the correct way.

That was history and many thought that we didn’t need to worry about that being done any more. However, in last week’s paper, there was a little news article about a man in Russia being sought by the Russian government because his daughter, in school, drew pictures critical of the Russian war with Ukraine.

The school teacher reported the daughter’s drawings and the man was convicted to a two year prison term.

Not wanting to spend two years in prison for his viewpoints, the man fled, but is being sought by the Russian government.

A O