More on Muse
A five-day suspension for Coach Mike Muse is a slap on the wrist ("Board votes to suspend teacher," Feb. 14). This was not an emotional, knee-jerk reaction that lasted for a few seconds. Most would understand if not approve of that reaction. This was a planned, almost hour-long verbal assault, with adult witnesses, that occurred on school property.
This so-called educator had almost an hour to control his emotions and respond appropriately but continued to bully and humiliate the student. What he should have done was set up a conference with the principal and the parents to resolve the issue professionally.
Shame on the school's resource officer, James Deeney, who failed this young man, and the other teachers who were there but claim they did not hear all that was said. Anyone who has heard the recording knows that Muse's voice was anything but calm and in no way professional. The adults heard what was said but chose not to listen.
Superintendent Don Martin acknowledged his fondness for Muse because Martin's stepdaughter was one of Muse's students in the past.
Obviously he could not look at the issue objectively and should have sought outside assistance.
In the educational world today, I understand teacher concerns with rumors that can affect reputations and careers. Bullying is not an appropriate response at any age or setting. Zero tolerance evidently only applies to students, not teachers. Five days off for Muse and years of grief and emotional issues for the student. Ridiculous and disgraceful.
ANDY PARKER
Kernersville
Governing our food
There was a story reported recently that in Raeford, a 4-year-old girl's lunch was rejected by a food inspector as not being nutritious. The lunch consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, potato chips and fruit juice. Her lunch was taken away and she was given the school lunch. She ate three chicken nuggets, and the rest was scrapped.
I want to know what right the schools have to inspect lunches from home. It is an invasion of privacy and should not be tolerated by parents for any reason. The government is interfering with our lives enough as it is. I do not need the government to tell me what is right and what is wrong. I have my parents to thank for teaching me about that.
This is another way the federal government has of telling our children that the only ones that can take care of them is the government.
I for one am tired of the government telling me what is good and what is bad. I am tired of it messing with the Bill of Rights and then telling me that the Founding Fathers didn't mean to write it down that way. When a government gets big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take everything away.
NANCY NAGY
Winston Salem
Apolitical God
American history has provided us, its citizens, with firsthand understandings of war, violence, terrorism, economic upheaval, political polarization and the distortion of supposed American values. However, of all the things listed above, nothing has perplexed and frightened me more than the agenda of the Religious Right.
It confuses me from a purely ideological standpoint, but it frightens me from a Christian standpoint. I have great respect for the opinions of others, but I cannot in good conscience condone the massive amounts of evil language that these institutions and their leaders indignantly speak in the name of God.
I, as a Christian, am insulted that men and women are allowed to hijack the name of God and the redemption of Christ as their number-one playing card in political and social arenas. Regardless of our personal convictions as Christians, we were not given the responsibility by God to destroy faith, hope and love in the name of "traditional Christian values."
Whether we want to believe it or not, God is apolitical. Plain and simple. He supports no candidate, no cause and no set of values.
Christ instructed us to love, give and make disciples, not to build political machines. We have a responsibility to those without enough money to help feed their children. We have a responsibility to that gay young man and woman to protect them from bullying and remind them that they are loved. It is an amazing right to be convicted, but unacceptable to condemn.
KENNETH A. PETTIGREW
Winston-Salem
LTE #1... I'll skip the crime and punishment debate but Coach Muse, if you are out there, as an obviously revered teacher, mentor, and coach, you could probably use this as a good teaching moment for the entire school. When you return from your suspension, you could address the entire student body at the next general assembly You've already admitted your mistake and apologized, now teach them and coach them and let all the students know why you were wrong and how they too can learn a valuable lesson from your mistake. Coming from you, I'll bet it will stick with them for the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteLTE#2....you should probably thank our fore fathers for big government too. It's hard to establish Manifest Destiny without one.
LTE#3... Christians on the right, meet the right Christian, Kenneth A. Pettigrew.
With Iran halting shipments of oil to France and England, today might be a good day to fill your tanks.
ReplyDeleteThe people who are crying the loudest for war with Iran are the same ones who bitch the most over gas prices.
DeleteI don't think they've really thought that one through.
Speaking of thinking, I wish Obama would do some of it.
DeleteThe Bush Administration opened up many oil drilling zones within and outside of the U.S. while he was president, Obama has shut all of those zones down, either through executive order, or regulations. Add in his failure to approve the Keystone pipeline and the friction with Iran, and you'be got an oil crisis.
Thanks Obama, for yet another screw-up.
I do not understand the heightening of tensions with Iran. They are not going to give up their activities short of an attack. It occurs to me that a number of sovereign nations have nuclear weapons, including the US. Iran is a sovereign nation, even as we despise it's government. We would probably be better off to stop the conventional saber- rattling, and remind them that a Trident submarine carries a warlord of D5 missiles capable of delivering 193 independently targettable warhead, flight time a few minutes.
DeleteThat should "warload."
DeleteLTE#1: This one should have been titled "NO More on Muse"; the general consensus is that he got a slap on the wrist but unless there's someone out there that has enough influence over Don Martin and/or the School Board to reconsider the discipline doled out on the coach, they have put the matter to rest. So should we.
ReplyDeleteLTE#2: The letter writer seems to think that it is no one's but the parent's business what is packed in the child's lunch bag. I say that it's also the school's business, but let's analyze it: turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, . . . sounds healthy enough; the chips was maybe not the best of choices, maybe pretzels the next time or no chips at all. The fruit juice was more than likely processed with sugars and additives. How about bottled water the next time? How about involving the child in packing it's lunch the next time, teaching it healthy eating habits in the process? All said, I would more than likely have had the same reaction as the letter writer without the somewhat over-the-top LTE.
LTE#3: I'm not a church-goer, but if I did I would hope it would be one that Mr. Pettigrew is a member of. There would more than likely be like minded members there that I would love to surround myself with.
Lte2...Seems a lot of this meddling is with us. When it shows up, it is good that parents are reacting this way as it is a hopeful sign. In today's world,“the villain today is not government but pointless bureaucracy that is beyond human control.”(PKH).
ReplyDeleteLte3...I'm not much of a church goer either, and it has always seemed to me that too many who are don't exhibit any evidence. It is no excuse for me. I have always thought there will be a lot of surprised people in Hell.
Surprised indeed.
DeleteGood afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: Muse was suspended, Deeney was reassigned, the matter has been settled. Somehow, I don't foresee years of therapy for the student.
LTE 2: The school system had rules in place for what was permissable for students to bring for their lunch. If a student's lunch didn't meet the requirements, then the student had to get lunch from the cafeteria. A bit over the top perhaps, but hardly meets the definition for unconstitutional. I assume parents are made fully aware of the lunch requirements. Perhaps the parents may have done this on purpose to bring up a rather silly rule to public scrutiny.
LTE 3: I do not understand why this is not the Correspondent of the Week. One of the best LTE's I've seen. Indeed, Jesus did not die on the cross so that someone in 21st century USA could get elected to office or to make gays into second class citizens. So glad to see that someone out there gets it.
The tax rates should be changed so that single people and gay and lesbians suffer financially as a result of not being married.
DeleteHowever, government should not be in the business of encouraging deviant sexual behavior by allowing gay and lesbian marriages which would result in significant social and societal problems
I don't think many people will be surprised that there aren't a lot 'church' goers in here. I go to church, and I do a lot of praying.
ReplyDeleteEspecially, after I read some of the comments made in here.
Regarding Muse Matter:
ReplyDeleteAfter witnessing a tirade similar the Coach Muse, I heard an atheist explain that he just couldn't be a Christian if he had to curse like that.
I was on a charter fishing trip with some guys, one of which turned out to be a Baptist preacher, several years ago. He caught more fish than all the rest of us and was a much more accomplished cusser than the rest of us. Surprised me! When we got back to the marina, he stepped onto the dock and underwent a miraculous recovery to original form. You never know.
DeleteOur minister once joked during the service. Asking how many Baptists do you need to take on a fishing trip? At least two because if there's only one he'll drink all the beer.
DeleteThat's good! Maybe he was on our boat?
DeleteSorry I couldn't engage more over the weekend especially regarding my comments pertaining to consequences for individuals who have children and are unable to care for them without government assistance.
DeleteMy mother didn't do well on her Florida sojourn this year and I had to go get her early.
Could follow blog on my Kindle Fire where there was wi-fi, but it is difficult to respond on that thing even with my tiny fingers.
Would have liked to discuss the earned income tax credit season which is upon us now with you.
EITC? Are you a tax accountant by habit or profession?
DeleteNo not an accountant. We just had a renter catch up for the first time in years with the magic of the EITC.
DeleteWould not have happened if it hadn't been for the certified eviction letter and telling her that we were going to stop paying the electric bill too since she hadn't pay us for that either.
We had requested several times she put it in her name but she couldn't afford the deposit, so we were generous or stupid (take your pick) and let her get behind several thousands of dollars on rent and power.
She had her daughter bring us the copy of the report where she and filed her taxes and it showed she was due over $7000.00. Could we please, please wait until then and they would pay everything in full.
And guess what they did. Magic that EITC, but my question as might be yours is why did you have three children?
The live in boyfriend is on disability and they were very upset when one of our workers accidently cut the cable to TV and internet.
Not to mention employees who have their withholding set high and also get EITC. They want to take a month off work because they are so flush with cash until they spend themselves silly. Meanwhile you're trying to run a business and employed them because you thought they wanted a pay check not an EITC.
DeleteCut the cable AND internet? Now that is bad! I don't know if you have ever seen any of my old posts, but before I retired, I spent many years in commercial real estate redevelopement in half a dozen counties. A lot of it was multi family. My property managers sometimes tell me when some tenants get behind after Christmas, that they can catch up when they get "their taxes back" or in some cases they say "get paid" meaning EITC. I have seen the example of the family you mentioned dozens of times. But I have also seen some dire need older people too. I can tell a lot of stories on this sort of thing but I have kept it off the forum. It begs the question, why did you rent to these folks at all? Don't worry, I've allowed a sad story to cost me plenty of times. EITC is becoming a crutch as time goes on and our society decays, moving from people in dire need to people that have learned to abuse it. Those funds are only income transfers from taxpayers to non.
DeleteGood question why do we rent to her? She does work. This boyfriend is a major improvement over the last one which ran over her with a car.
DeleteShe has three kids and she admits that she can't find anywhere near as nice for what she pays to move to. Our rental business is a side business and sometimes we don't pursue delinquents like we should. We had never threaten anything with the power before, but she had gotten so far behind, and her children are no longer small that we thought the mention of no power might provide incentive to move or pay up. Last year one of the baby's daddys got to most of the tax refund. Her oldest child is now 18 so EITC will be less of a factor next year.
I agree that the EITC is godsend for some individuals, but it does seem that some people manipulate it to game the system. Like some of our employees who I believe work just enough to maximize the benefit when they were actually needed for work and in many cases effectively turning down overtime.
I remembered that you had mention this discussion topic before that why I said I was looking forward to an EITC discussion with you pertaining to the lack of consequences.
I'm usually very liberal on this forum, but there is one thing I agree with Michelle Bachmann on and that is that everyone who works should contribute something to the Federal system. You should not be able to get out more than you put in unless you are disabled or elderly even if it is only $10.00.
Can't believe I wrote that, but the fact that 48% of the population pays no Federal taxes in my opinion is just as bad as the top 1% paying less that an effective 15% tax rate. All are part of this country and all who earn income should contribute something.
The person who sent the certified letter to our renter is very prolife. We ponder these types of questions frequently and both agree that birth control is good option for people who have had one child they struggle to provide for in the hopes of not having a second one.
ReplyDeleteI once asked him what should happen to parents who have a child for which the State is essentially responsible. He was the once that answered to my shock that we should cut their _______ off when I inquired to what should happen to the men.
Most church goers and leaders believe in using or allowing contraception, it's just they don't believe the government should mandate that a church provide such services.
DeleteOne only has to look at the life of Tim Tebow to realize that many wonderful lives have been snuffed out because of various choices people and governments make.
Ouch! I haven't had anyone tell me they recommended surgery of any kind. Birth control is an excellent idea.
DeletePublic service announcement: for the time being, only registered members of this blog may post. And registered members who don't abide by the standards enunciated recently by various members will get the heave-ho. New registered members are welcome.
ReplyDeleteI am considering a second person to have delete authority. It should be noted that my top candidates are solid liberals. For the time being, I will not extend invitations, preferring to see if the above restriction and a policy of extinction will suffice.