2009 - A New Era

First off let me say to those who are reading... "Happy New Year - 2009!!!" I know, I am a little late at saying that, since the first month of the year is practically over, but as they say "better late, than never!"

For me, 2009 is more than a new year, it's a new era.

The country has a new president. He is the first person elected to that office with a skin color darker than all of those before him; not that his skin color has any impact on his qualifications for the job, or whether or not he is a good man. I hope that he is qualified, and a good man, but I even after the longest campaign in history, I am not sure I can claim to know his qualifications or character. I am, however, delighted that the country is able to elect a person based on their words, ideas, and character instead of looking solely at the exterior (age, gender, and skin color).

My hope is that our new President does in fact improve our country and create an atmosphere of togetherness without creating any more of a burden on the population such as new taxes, regulations, or more government. My hope is that he reduces the government involvement in our lives, which will in turn allow the individuals in our population to rise to the challenges our country faces without hindrances, and foster an culture where anyone can and will achieve greatness. Great people are found in more places than just our government!

My concern is that we may have in fact elected our new president based on his exterior or an "image", or the exterior of the man running against him (age). Our new president's first week in office have been filled with executive orders (rules and regulations), proposals and promises of more government spending/involvement. His speeches are grand and wonderful, but do not seem to coincide with his actions. He speaks of all the things I hope for, but he implements all of the things I am concerned about.

Barack Obama is my President, and like all citizens of this country, I have the right to voice my opinion and even disagree with the direction and plans our president is implementing. I haven't used that right to speak about our president that frequently. I also will admit that I agreed more often with our previous president, although I didn't always, especially in the last two years. I am hopeful that ideas and situations will arise in the future that I will agree with our new president, but unfortunately those times are not now.

Before I do express my opinions I want to say I will not use "name calling," or "put downs" to express my disagreement. I feel that any person that works towards and succeeds to the office of President of the United States of America, deserves the highest respect, unlike the untold number of people who did not respect our previous president. I am ashamed of those people, and ashamed that friends, family and fellow countrymen could be that petty. I think that anyone that "name calls" a person, especially one who achieved the presidency of our country, just illustrates their own shortcomings. My initial concern on election night was that this same "pettiness" may have tainted the objectiveness of the voters. I truly hope that concern is unwarranted.

I call this a new "era" because for me "change" is also personal to me, but not because of the new president. This new era starts with lots of changes in my life: a new job, a new home, and practically a whole new life. My concern is whether or not this life is better than the one in the previous year (or era), but my hope is as with the new president, that the troubling signs at the start of this new era will only be for the short term, and not of the long term future.

Vannoy / Bronco Shirt update

Mr. Josh Vannoy has once again appeared in our local paper, Beaver County Times. This is the second time in the the last 3 days, and again with a new photograph. Mr. Vannoy has had at many different photos of himself published within the last 30 days, along with at least 16 separate articles in the local paper alone. Some of those articles are "letters to the editor", both supporting and not supporting Mr. Vannoy. Most of the "staff" articles have done their best to show the school and the teacher in a bad light, and Mr. Vannoy the victim. Who is Mr. Josh Vannoy? Let me refresh your memory. He is the student that was "humiliated" when he wore a Bronco's jersey to a "Steeler Country" school, right before the AFC Championship game at the end of January between the Steelers and the Broncos. Mr. Vannoy and his family have, according to this latest article, moved to a different school district. They left because he still felt harassed, and because he was getting the silent treatment at school. I suppose that's what a person would expect to happen when the school officials threatened the entire student body with expulsion if they were physical with him, spoke inappropriately to him, or even "gave him dirty looks". Yes that's right, not detention, not suspension... Kicked out of school forever! Heck, I would have been afraid to talk with him let alone look his way, if I was threatened to be kicked out of school against my will. Of course, regardless of the school's good intentions by attempting to protect Mr. Vannoy from being hurt or further harassed, and to prevent possible litigation, it only made matters worse. Mr. Vannoy was now being "treated differently", and he didn't like it. Personally, I think Mr. Vannoy missed the attention, and since he couldn't get it at school, he decided to use the newspaper! So maybe the family moving to another school district is for the best for everyone. He has placed our school on the national map in a negative light. He has created the perception that Beaver Falls High School is a school that will not "discipline" an obviously bad teachers, that it condones teachers to harass and humiliate students, and what may be worse, that it can't prevent students from harassing other students. Of course, that's not reality, only perception, but reality apparently doesn't matter when it comes to selling newspapers. Of those all of those local articles and countless other articles across the country (not including the opinion articles), only a few articles I saw actually gave the real story, and even then those articles were given negative headlines like: "BF teacher won't be disciplined". There doesn't appear to be a single journalist who is willing to spend the time to check the facts, ask the questions, or "search for the truth" before publishing... Instead they all seem to want to get the story to press as quickly as possible and make it sound as good or bad (depending on your point of view) as possible, regardless of facts. (Yeah, I know this is my perception, but it works for them, why not me?) The reason the teacher was not disciplined is because the teacher actually did not do anything wrong, except decide to allow Mr. Vannoy to attend his class. The class is an elective class, which requires parental approval before taking the class, because students in the class will be intentionally placed in situations that make them feel outcast, excluded, or segregated. The teacher states up front that he will use various activities, both planned and unplanned to teach the effects of discrimination in our culture. Is that not what happened to Mr. Vannoy? If you sign up for a class knowing you are going to be put in a situation that makes you feel uncomfortable, why would you scream "foul" when it does? Mr. Vannoy apparently didn't learn the lesson being taught in that class. Instead he turned the tables, and taught the rest of us that if you are discriminated against, you should take your issue to the press, discretly forget a few facts, take a picture of yourself looking sad, and if you are white and have a little "influence"... You can get all kinds of public support... You can make a good teacher look like a moron. And if you are really lucky, you can even get national attention and a massage chair from a football legend. I am sure there are people facing daily discrimination in this world, my town, and even Mr. Vannoy's old and new schools, but they aren't getting the publicity he is. Why? Because, in my opinion, Mr. Vannoy and his family enjoy the publicity. Why else would you allow your "sad looking" face to be photographed and published in the newspaper so many times. What did he gain? Notoriety? Fame? Money? I don't know but he is still milking this as long as possible. I wonder if he is working on a book deal? Oh no... I just had a horrible thought... My son could be expelled because of my opinions, and apparent "harassment" of this glory seeking, media savvy family. Maybe I should move?

Supreme Court Justice appointment

A young lad that I know (no names to protect the innocent), took a social studies test last week, and one of the questions on his test was:

"What qualifications should a President look for when appointing a new justice to the Supreme Court".

His response was very interesting, especially when I found out that he didn't realize that the President had recently appointed two new justices. The teacher didn't accept his answer, but based on what you hear on the news you would think this was the major qualification:

"If the President is Republican, he should pick a Republican. If he is a Democrat, then he should pick a Democrat."

Of course that' s not what the teacher was teaching him, but that's what he thought. I can only assume he "learned" that from listening to news / political commentary.?

SuperBowl XL Champions

I have mentioned before that I am not the biggest sports fan of the world. But it’s hard to get away fromt the game here in the “outskirts” of Pittsburgh. Everyone at work was wearing their Championship shirts and hats, and discussing their opinions of the events of the game.

Today when I stopped at the deli to get a little lunch meat, the guy slicing the meat asked me if I watched the game. Of course, being here in Steeler’s country, I had to watch the game. I wouldn’t want to appear in the newspaper the next day like this guy:

The great news is that Pittsburgh Steelers did the unimaginable; they have come from behind, and beat the Seattle Seahawks 21 to 10 to win SuperBowl XL in a game that wasn’t decided until midway through the 4th quarter. This makes the discussion of the game much more enjoyable!

Vannoy (Update)

The scoop from Beaver Falls High School is that Mr. Vannoy returned to school Monday (1/30/2006) after national media attention for wearing a Bronco's jersey to his high school in "Steeler country". He apparently received a "massage chair" from John Elway, whose number was on the jersey Mr. Vannoy wore, which by the way is the same number that Ben Roethlisberger, current QB of the Steelers, wears. I wonder if that was on purpose or if it was coincidental? I heard from another source that the Mr. Vannoy's mother says the chair doesn't match the living room. :-) Anyway, the Friday before he returned to school the principal of the high school gathered all of the students in a group and explained that Mr. Vannoy would be returning on Monday. They were told to not to even "look at him funny", let alone touch him, or they would be expelled!... Not placed in detention, or suspended for a few days... Expelled... i.e. kicked out of the school! They were also told to not hold a protest or rally for Mr. Kelly (the teacher), or to wear shirts or buttons mentioning Mr. Kelly or anything like that. For the these last two days in school, Josh has been escorted by a police man through the school, and two teachers. During lunch they put extra staff (teachers) in the lunch room while Mr. Vannoy was eating. It sounded to me like the school officials feel our school is full of a bunch of hooligans that would want to hurt Mr. Vannoy... Which begs a very interesting question? If the teacher was the one who was wrong, and Mr. Vannoy is the victim, why are they protecting Josh from harm? Are they afraid that more paper would be thrown at him? I mean, if the teacher was truly as bad as the newspapers portrayed him, then Mr. Vannoy shouldn't have anything to fear, he should be respected for bringing to light a terrible problem within the school. Josh could be rallying the students, parents and school officials to be up in arms against this bad teacher... Instead the school had to quash a rally in support of Mr. Kelly because the students and I assume parents don't want to see Mr. Kelly let go... Reality often tells a better story than the newspapers!

Child Drowning

My youngest daughter attended a birthday party at a pool on Sunday. The party she attended was at a pool that is located indoors at our local Holiday Inn. She attended the party with other family members including, I believe, both of her older sisters, and her mother. After she came back from the party she told me that a little girl drowned at a pool party...

I tried to appear calm, but my ears perked up, and I paid a little more attention to her. She said that the girl was at a party at a different pool, and that she heard about it from the Beaver County Times, our local newspaper. My youngest is ten, so hearing that she heard it from the newspaper surprised me quite a bit. Her usual form of entertainment and news gathering are usually from the Nickelodeon, Disney, and Cartoon network channels. After a moment of surprise at my daughter's apparent maturity at reading the daily newspaper, she returned me to reality by telling me that her step-dad told her about it.

She told me that the kids thought she was just trying to see how long she could stay under water, so no one seemed to notice that she had been under the water for a long time. I did a quick search on the newspaper's website, and read the article. The coroner said she was probably under water for 10 minutes. The girl was only 5 years old, and couldn't swim. Her parents weren't at the party, they just dropped her off, and never expected any problems since there were lifeguards, and tons of adults at the party.

The article said the mother was called back to the pool when they found the girl, and she got there while they were trying to revive her. Unfortunately they couldn't bring her back. I can't imagine the agony those parents must be going through. I only had a nightmare about one of my kids drowning, and the feelings that dream brought to me were unbearable. I was able to wake up, but this poor mother and father will never have that.

I am not sure what the family is doing for arrangements, but my heart really goes out to this family. Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers.

Today a second article came out that said they are investigating the security video to see if they can determine what happened. There is very little consolation in that tape for the parents, but hopefully it will relieve the guilt the lifeguards and other adults are most likely feeling. If it is someone's fault, then I hope the tape shows it so that person can be dealt with!

NOTE: Picture copied from the Beaver County Times website article.

Beaver Falls / Vannoy

I first heard about the Josh Vannoy Bronco's shirt "fiasco" on the radio while I was at work. I usually don't give much attention to the newscasts, but it caught my attention because it mentioned Beaver Falls High School. I live in Beaver Falls, and have two kids in that school, so my brain tuned in. I decided to do a quick web search and find out some more details. I was listening to KDKA radio at the time, so I looked there first. I found a really short "blurb" about it on that site, but today it has a little longer article. However, did I found a pretty lengthy article on the Denver Post. So I looked around some more and read a few more articles, and my first reaction (actually my second) was that this whole thing is blown out of proportion. I know the school, and a few of the teachers, not well, but I know them. I couldn't believe that a teacher could do that in my school. When I re-read the articles, I noticed a very 'down-played' comment. The teacher stated that the class was on diversity, and ethnicity, and that Josh "learned a lesson". I realized that while it was a harsh way to teach the lesson, that it was an important lesson... A lesson that I think that the media attention is washing away. Mr. Vannoy learned what it feels like to be discriminated against. I have been fortunate and I have never personally experienced it, and he has been given a special insight into how many people feel often! The problem is that in today's world we don't allow people to be "humiliated", to fail, or make mistakes. We are afraid of how these things may affect their self-esteem. Today our society does not get an opportunity to learn from our own hardships, because we are "helped" from experiencing them. I think this saps the strength from our culture, and creates a bunch of simpering weaklings. I talked with my son today, and he "heard" (meaning that this statement is all hearsay) from the school grapevine, that Mr. Vannoy doesn't really support the Broncos, and that he only wore it because he knew it would bother his teacher. I also heard that Mr. Vannoy is going to be interviewed on a few TV shows... It may have already happened. I wonder how many shows will give the teacher equal time? I bet Beaver Falls High School is going to lose a good teacher over what I am calling an over-reaction. It's sad because my kids may not get to experience a teacher that's willing to walk the line, push the envelope, and challenge them. Even if they never have this teacher, other teachers of the school will be much more leery in how they interact with the students.