Ketchup

What happens when you neglect your blog? Bad things happen. Like, family and friends being out of the look that is your life. Anyway, I've got a lot to cover, so hold in.
AP
Finished my AP tests. Both went well, I think. The Essay topics were easy enough. Sadly, though, that makes me nervous. Oh well, I simply will keep it out of my mind until the middle of July when I get my scores.
HEAVEN
After that, the next big event was Great-Grandma Helen's funeral. It was very beautiful, and I don't think it could have been improved upon. It was one of those bittersweet moments. I'm very sad she's gone, but I know where she is, and I know she's free now.
It DID cause the biggest game of Pre-Algebra catch-up since last fall. Oh well. SO worth it.
INTOXICATION
This past week in school there was a program called Every 15 Minutes. It was a 2 day long event that demonstrated the effects of drunk driving and driving under the influence. Both days, roughly two dozen kids had their faces painted white, with black circles around their eyes. They weren't allowed to speak, as a reminder that every 15 minutes, someone dies in an alcohol related accident.
On day one we met on the football field, and after a staged introduction, a screeching of tires and the blast and smoke of a car crash, a tarp was pulled back revealing two smashed cars, one upside down with alcohol bottles falling out of it. No one was moving in either.
The police were called in, then the fire engines and the paramedics. I guess it served as a training day for them too. Teenagers inside both cars were painted up bloody and gruesome. One girl in the car that the drunk driver had been driving was pronounced Dead on Arrival. The mortuary van was called in, she was put in a body bag, into the van, and away she went. Another was pronounced critical by the paramedics, and so she was airlifted to the hospital, and died there. (I must admit, I was jealous here. Although it was all staged, she actually got to ride in a helicopter!! All the way to the hospital!) The jaws of life were used to cut the top off of the upright car, and all of the kids inside wheeled off on stretchers, then into ambulances. The girl who was drunk driving was the least injured, and arrested on the spot.
On day two, we were called into the gym for the funeral. It started with all of the white-faced kids wheeling in a coffin to the front of the room. Each of those kids had to stay the night at the hotel; to really live the feeling as if they had died in an accident, they weren't allowed to go home overnight. They were all asked to write letters to their families; what they would say if they really WERE taken from this life. The parents were asked to do the same to their children. First a boy read his, one that had been involved in the simulation the day before. His was so heart wrenching. It was unbelievable. A girl shared hers next, which was almost as bad. Then two parents shared their letters. After that, a husband and wife stood up, the couple who organized the Every 15 Minutes program stood and shared their story.
Their son had been riding his bike home when he had been hit by a drunk woman driving her car. It was her fourth offense of DUI. Now the couple travels all over to try and stop things like that before they happen. Next came a small family, a mother and her two daughters. This one hit me hardest of all. The little girl spoke first, small and spunky, about my sister's age. I promise the two could have been twins. Her older sister spoke next, a girl about my age. Both were mourning the loss of their nineteen year old brother, who had been living near home, but not at home and had been sober, but had been out with drunk friends. It all just hit WAY too close to home.
It put me into one of the biggest funks ever.
MISS
JUST to drive the moral one step deeper, I had my own little experience Thursday night. I was driving home from a friends house a little after nine. I was driving a LITTLE fast through the meadow, but not more than 5 over the speed limit. It was just fast for me because I usually drive 5 under through it. Anyway, here is a little picture for better example:

The pink line is the direction I was going, the yellow X where my house is, the red X where the DRUNK DRIVER was arrested. Literally, the SECOND I pulled up in front of my house, the siren went off, pulling over the driver of the vehicle at the red X. He was no more than 30 seconds behind me. Creepy right? If I had been driving 30 seconds slower, my car could have gotten in a fight with that persons car.
PROM
All of this was planned perfectly, because last night was prom. It was nice, there are pictures on my facebook, and I hate them all. My date was a perfect jerk. Although we agreed to just go as friends, it didn't give him the right to flirt with and or compliment EVERY OTHER GIRL right in front of me. For the record, I didn't get a single "you look pretty" or anything similar from him. Just, you know, something you'd expect from your prom date. He ended up sitting away from my on our drive home and falling asleep on another girl's shoulder. However, I DID have fun, especially with all the 'firsts' in the night.
First:
1) Time in a limo
2) School dance
3) Time getting ASKED to a dance
4) Prom
5) Dinner at In-n-Out in a formal dress.
Needless to say, I declined going for food or more partying after, and just went home. Oh well. It gave us plenty to talk about in Laurels today!

LINK
Interested in the Every 15 Minutes program? Good. I HIGHLY recommend seeing one if you ever get a chance.
Every Fifteen Minutes
SADDStudents Against Drunk Driving
MADDMothers Against Drunk Driving

Drive safe, everyone, and have an awesome Memorial Day!

350 views! WHoot!

I'm Tired by Robert Hall

I'll be 63 soon. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce, and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired .....very tired.

I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth around" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn it.

I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought Mansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the leftwing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them-with their own money.

I'm tired of being told how bad America is by left wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the religious freedom and women's rights of Saudi Arabia, the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for Gay people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of Venezuela. Won't multiculturalism be beautiful?

I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor;" of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers;" of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery;" of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.

I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the post-racial world of President Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of US Senators from Illinois. I think it's very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the emancipation proclamation. I just wish the Black President was Condi Rice, Colon Powell or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less in an all-knowing government. I believe "a man should be judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin."

I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama's, at triple the cost, were wonderful. That thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of Presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress, that picked over every line of Bush's military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his, that slammed Palin with two years as governor for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as without question the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn't vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America, while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore, you're green enough.

I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don't think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I [dang] sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I'm tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I'm tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime. What's next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I'm not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person who can speak English, doesn't have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military. Those are the citizens we need.

I'm tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people then themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years-and still are? Not even close. So here's the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan,
or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we'll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I'm tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers-bums are bi-partisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bi-partisanship. I live in Illinois, where the "Illinois Combine" of Democrats and Republicans has worked together harmoniously to loot the public for years. And I notice that the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet are bi-partisan as well.

I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught.

I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor. Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions.

I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination, or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I'm [dang] tired. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I'm not going to get to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my granddaughter.


Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts state senate. He blogs at www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com