The Board of Education and Childhood Memories

I'm having a hard time getting into the holiday mood and I've tried by watching a Christmas movie four nights in a row and venturing out to the stores with all the Christmas shoppers but none of it has kept my brain from wandering back to some of the wacko cabinet appointments coming out of 45/47. As he himself says of those he's picked from FOX news staffers, "They are straight out of central casting."  It would be laughable if not for the fact that they can radially change our lives if these unqualified people just rubber-stamp all the Project 2025 stuff on 45/47's agenda. And in his introduction for who he picked to head Medicare and Medicaid, an agency that effects 160 million of us, 45/47 said, "Doctor Oz has won 9 Daytime Emmys." Then there are all of those who have sex scandals in their back ground including another Reality TV star, a woman who ran World Wrestling Entertainment who is accused of turning a blind eye to the sexual grooming and abuse of 'ring boys' for nearly a decade. She'll be running our Department of Education. More correctly he wants her to eliminate that department completely.

That department has been around since 1867 which was founded to gather facts and statistics on the state of illiteracy, etc, of Americans. Fast forward to 1917 when illiteracy was deemed to be a national crisis because according the Smith-Hughes Vocation Education Act "widespread illiteracy, especially among the waves of immigrants made them susceptible to the incipient anarchist and communist movements." Another landmark act passed by Congress based on statistics gathered by the Department of Education is one that effected everyone in my generation. That was the 1946 School Lunch Act “to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s children.” It was spearheaded by the generals in our Armed Services who were worried about our military readiness with the thread of Russia's (at the time) head-start in the space race breathing down their necks. Why? Because during WWII a shocking number of boys couldn't serve because of diet related diseases. One of my earliest memories is of being in school on the day when we lined up behind a farmer's truck and he passed out apples and the teachers gave up boxes of raisins and milk. There was a cameraman involved as well. We'll be right back to where we started if education is turned over to the States because it would be a nightmare for military or corporate recruiters to have to deal with 52 different standards to graduate high school and college. Like it or not, our country needs a core of educational standards in common for all its citizens.

Another thing fighting my Christmas  spirit right now is the fact that the Austin School board just ruled 7-1 to allow Bible-infused teachings in their elementary schools. They say the new curriculum is optional but the public schools that use it will get more money from the state of Texas if they do. Well, they're going to need the extra money because lawsuits are sure to follow over that pesky First Amendment issue in the Constitutional that has always kept government entities from establishing a State sponsored religion. In the past we could be sure that lawsuits would keep certain over-reaching Christians denominations in check but with the current Supreme Court we can't be sure they will follow the constitution. As per the Project 2025 agenda several states are also currently passing laws to allow the Ten Commandments in their public schools with the hope that the current high court will overturn the 1980 ruling that tested and failed on this is very topic. The new twist this time around is that they are calling the Ten Commandments part of American's history. 

Some people might wonder why I care about issues like this when I don't have kids or grandkids and I didn't work in the field of education not to mention I'm old by anyone's standards. I care that little kids don't have to go through what I went through in grade school with an over zealous teacher who slapped me many times a day with a ruler with the Golden Rule printed on it. This teacher also sent religious tracts home with me not because I presumably didn't repent the sin of turning my paper in a certain direction before I wrote on it. (All us left handers did it "wrong".) The tracts went home with just a few of us kids whose parents didn't go to church and often she'd send me off with whispered words of about telling my parents to repent their sins before it was too late. Religion does not belong in public schools!

I, of course, didn't know it at the time but a few years before my semester of ruler slappings a teacher beat a student death over him not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. A handful of court cases were brought against school boards across the country after that and in all of the cases it was ruled against a student's First Amendment Rights to force them to say the pledge in school. Why? Because some religions forbidden the worship of anything or anyone but God. And the First Amendment is what keeps that Pledge of Allegiance out of our public schools today. But for how long? 

How much money on both sides will be wasted on lawsuits and lawyers over the coming 45/47 administration proposed changes? The environment, woman's rights, education, our health care---everything will be under attack. Now Musk, RFK jr with their newly appointed comrade, Marjorie Taylor Green, are saying one of the first things they are going work on is how to defund Planned Parenthood. 70% of their funding comes for Medicaid reimbursements for services to low income people, the rest from private donations. None of their government funding is used for abortion services and yet that isn't good enough. With so many doctors not accepting Medicaid patients where are poor people go for their gynecology needs including birth control, UTI treatments and their cancer, HIV and STD screening for both sexes? 

I don't have an off ramp to this post so I'll just wish you all a good Thanksgivings surrounded by family and lots of good food. I'll be staying here for the CCC's buffet which will include:  

Roasted Turkey

Sour Cream-Chive Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Creamed Corn
Honey-Garlic Roasted Carrots
Traditional Stuffing
Pear-Pomegranate Spinach Salad
Waldorf Salad
Gravy & Cranberry Sauce
Assorted Dessert 

 

Until Next Wednesday when I'll be writing about all the holiday choices for entertainment offered around here.  ©

If it’s January it Must be Diet Time

The ungodly cold and bleak weather finally broke and on the same day as I decided to re-join the human race after being under house arrest for catching one of the ‘yuckies’ going around. It was long enough that I was sure I wasn’t contagious so I took the shower I should have taken two days prior and I left the house for the first time in more days than I could count on my fingers. Well, assuming one finger had been cut off in an industrial accident which it wasn’t. Levi was out of peanut butter treats and it’s not fun to be in the house when the dog’s begging for biscuits that aren’t in the jar. So off I went to Chow Hound and since the Guy Land Cafeteria was several businesses down the street, I stopped there as well. I ordered the biggest breakfast I’ve had in ages: scramble eggs, bacon, American fries and English muffin toast. I couldn’t eat all the American fries so I carefully sorted the crispy golden fried potatoes from the anemic, soft white ones and ate the former. I was proud of myself that I was able to leave food on my plate but I covered the potatoes left with a napkin to make sure I didn’t keep picking at them as I stayed around to write in my little black notebook. I might not be a tortured author working out of a half empty pub in Havana but I play one in my daydreams.

What I am is a grown woman who hasn’t lived with my mother in a half a century but at mealtimes I still hear her voice in my head, “Clean your plate, children in China are starving to death!” It wasn’t just a throwaway line to Mom. She was militant about it. And at the dinner table I sat until bedtime on a regular basis if I didn’t heed her demands---to be more precise, every Thursday on liver night and whenever she served orange vegetables. It was just after World War II when the government put out its first guidelines on what to feed kids because the draft had pointed out an alarming problem: too many young people had Rickets and other vitamin-deficiency diseases. She followed that government chart to the letter. Even though her force-feeding came from a place of love, Mom creating a human being with an eating disorder. I still struggle with my brain not believing the messages from my stomach when it’s full. It can’t be full! There’s still food on the table! 

One of the very few arguments my parents ever had was on my 13^th birthday when my dad finally had enough of the fighting at the dinner table over me cleaning my plate. Dad won a compromise of sorts: no more orange foods as long as I ate everything else I was served. And no more liver! But wasting food in our household was still a major sin. Fridays at our house was use-up-any-leftovers-in-the-house day because Saturday was shopping day. I loved Fridays for its bread pudding. To this day I get a warm-fuzzy feeling just thinking about bread pudding. I’ve collected nearly a hundred recipes for it but I haven’t made bread pudding since Don died because I know I’d eat it all within a day or two. Now, the squirrels get the stale bread. 

The day after hiding the anemic fried potatoes under the napkin I was back at the Guy Land Cafeteria for an impromptu lunch with three of my Gathering Girls pals. We like to go there for several reasons: 1) It has cheap-but-good food; 2) breakfast and lunch are served anytime; 3) it’s centrally located to us all; and 4) it’s large enough that we can sit for nearly two hours without feeling pressured to leave because they need our table. Trust me, sitting that long at a table after we’ve finished eating is difficult for me because even if I’ve cleaned my plate I’m eye-balling other people’s plates and I get anxious over all the wasted food. Thankfully the busboys often come by to clear our dishes, then I can relax. One of the Gathering Girls once talked about how much she likes to linger after eating because growing up, talking around the kitchen table after dinner was her family's norm. She gets annoyed when company at her house jumps up and wants to clear the table as soon as a meal is over. It’s not lost on me that we are polar opposites on that score and hanging out with her has been good for me. Although one time I got so obsessed and uneasy over discarded food on one of the lady’s plates that I debated in my head if I dared to ask her to cover it up. Out of sight, out of mind.

And since I’m on the topic of food, I will mention here that I’ve lost six pounds since January 2^nd but more importantly I’ve broken away from the sugar cravings that always hold me hostage through the holidays. Like most people who struggle with their weight, I know my food issues. I know their causes. I know my excuses and I know what I have to do to get myself in check again. For me it’s tracking every single calorie that that goes in my mouth and I know I’ll keep it up until April when I see my doctor for my by-annual. As soon as he gives me that “good girl” pat on the head I’ll drift away from the boring process of accounting for every morsel that I eat until after the next New Years Day when I’ll begin the cycle all over again. I'm as predictable as sunrises and sunsets. ©