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Report from Louisiana: Closing the Classroom

Posted: May 18, 2020 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – I went up to do my end-of-the-year cleanout in my classroom this week.  It was incredibly sad.

On a Friday morning at 10:30, second block should have been winding to a close and kids should have been anxiously waiting for the lunch bell at 10:40. The mid-day announcements would be coming over the intercom.

By the time I left, about 11:00, there should have been kids in the halls, duty teachers monitoring those kids, microwaves across campus warming up teacher lunches. The office should have been bustling, Mrs. Kiper, the secretary, laughing and lobbing wise cracks with kids and administrators. The library should have been filled with kids using the computers or playing board games at the tables. The courtyard should have been filled with kids burning off a little energy before third block. Teachers should have been making that last dash to the restroom before the long afternoon classes start.

None of that was happening.

The parking lot was empty.

There were ZERO students on campus.  My room was quiet as a tomb.

My room would have normally had a couple of kids in there eating lunch about that time of the day.

Instead, I found empty desks, library books abandoned in the baskets underneath.

I sighed, looked around, and went to get my things that I needed to work from home.

I missed the sound of kids, and the notes they would leave for me if they came by while I was out.

Every single kid was important to me, is important to me, and it just feels like we didn’t get to finish what we started. It feels tragic and sad…unfinished.

Their journals were still on my desk, graded, ready to return.

We left school on the Friday before Spring Break: March 6. My assignments from that day are still written on the board.

We all expected to come back to school when we left that day. Kids took library books home, textbooks, projects to finish, uniforms to wash, schedules to fill out for next year, and plans. They had plans for their graduation, prom, ring ceremonies, sporting events, and yes, academics. None of that happened.

So yes, all of that literally hangs in the air when you walk in the halls now. It’s a tangible thing.

I cleaned out the snacks I kept in my desk for kids that needed something to eat; that won’t keep until August. I took home my coffee cup, emptied the water in the Keurig. I looked through projects that weren’t finished, some that were, and I scored a bottle of GermX from my supply closet. I erased my board, bagged up things I needed to take home, and I turned out the light.

I am very curious, and perhaps nervous, about what school will look like when we return in August. While the Moderna coronavirus vaccine shows some early promise, there is still a long way to go before we have that option. A larger trial is expected this summer, but obviously won’t be ready before fall.

So, what will opening of school look like this fall? Smaller classes?  Online options? The typical high school classroom is not overly large and is usually filled with thirty or more students. Crowded lunchrooms, auditoriums, and even at university level, think of the crowded lecture halls. How are we going to manage these things?

Schools in Denmark opened several weeks ago with new distancing and hygiene measures in place and restrictions all across Europe are easing. Things such as staggered classes, sectioning off parts of campus, and no large gatherings are all options to consider. What of transportation? School busses filled with kids could also be a danger zone.

What are we to do? Hide from this virus? Wait for a vaccine? Or ignore it and get back to life as usual?

I don’t have the answers. All I know for certain is my own little world, my own small classroom, where sixty-five kids were upended in the middle of their academic year.

So much unfinished business.

Pat Austin blogs at And So it Goes in Shreveport and is the author of Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation. Follow her on Instagram @patbecker25 and Twitter @paustin110.

Hear Democrats Under oath or not at all

Posted: May 15, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Jedediah Tucker Ward: It’s not hypothetical to Dr. Pavel, he wrote it

Michael Grazier: So he says.

Jedediah Tucker Ward: So he says under oath

Class Action 1991

PM James Hacker: (On Phone): No, no, leave me out of it. A routine visit. (Listening) All right – a routine surprise visit. (Listening) Well, say they were invited earlier, but the NATO exercise got in the way. Now they’re not needed, they’re going anyway. (Listening) All right. Nobody knows it’s not true. Press statements aren’t delivered under oath.

Yes Prime Minister A Victory for Democracy 1986

One of the principles of Capitalism is the cost benefit analysis ie: Does the cost of a particular action or decision produce a sufficient benefit to make it worthwhile. It’s risk vs reward. It’s a principle that is older than the word “capitalism” itself

Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?  Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’

Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?  But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.

Luke 14:28 -32

The revelations from the now declassified documents have taught us one thing about our Democrat friends. That while they might be big fans of socialism and even bigger fans of Feudalism (with them in the role of the Lords of the manor) when it comes to the whole “Trump conspired with Russia” business they are strictly capitalists fully in the cost benefit analysis business.

When there was the prospect of being featured on national news programs, thus increasing speaking fees, book sales or their prospects of profitable employment in various Democrat/Liberal institutions they were all in confidently declaring that there was plenty of evidence of the Trump administration colluding with Russia, that General Flynn was corrupt, and that the Obama Administration had no knowledge of FBI investigations into Flynn or Trump

But once it was a question of being under oath with the full penalty of law for perjury applicable, suddenly the story was very different. Like good capitalists they weighted the cost of lying under oath and told the truth instead

Of course since this testimony was classified and was not coming out except as leaks if at all, this did not affect the public statements given to the press or on cable networks. They figured the benefit of their lies outweighed the risk

And then, these documents were declassified.

Suddenly we discovered that these statements that the professional left were making were suddenly not the ones they were saying under oath or saying in classified meetings.

So what lesson should we take from this? What is our cost benefit capitalistic call? It’s this:

Unless a Democrat is under oath anything they say concerning Trump, or Flynn or anything else should be taken with a grain of salt.

We the People decide what is normal not the government

Posted: May 14, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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One phrase that has been bandied about far too often during this Coronavirus crisis is “the new normal.”  It deeply disturbs me every time I hear an elected member from our government, at any level, declare that the end result of their plans for reopening our country will be a new normal. 

Whenever one of our elected representatives uses that phrase they are acting like a dictator.  They are treating us like subjects rather that citizens of a Constitutional Republic.  Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts acted like a dictator when he declared this to be phase four of  his torturously slow plan for reopening this state:

Phase 4 will be the “New Normal” – development of vaccine and/or therapy enables resumption of new normal.

The use the phrase “new normal” as the end goal is a sign of surrender to the virus.  It is defeatist.  It is not something we Americans should ever strive for.  The only acceptable end result for any challenge facing this country is a complete return to the normal we had before the challenge began.

When a  politician declares that the end scenario of any crisis will result in a new normal they are declaring that they want to fundamentally transform this nation in some way.  It is unacceptable to us Americans that our government will unilaterally transform this nation in some way. We the people must always be the the agents of change for any change no matter how small or local.

It also bothers me greatly that phase four of the Baker plan will only commence when a vaccine or therapy enables it.  There is no guarantee when that would happen.  Until then we are stuck in phase3 which is defined as “Phase 3 will be “Vigilant” – additional industries resume operations with guidance.”   It will mean nothing but government interference,

The entire Baker plan, as unveiled on this past Monday, is as slow and arduous as I feared when I wrote last week’s article.  I’m afraid that by the time we reach the end of it the economic devastation will be quite catastrophic. We need to let Governor Baker know that his plan is way too slow.

Is Your memory of the Obama years the same as Bob?

Posted: May 14, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

George Bailey: If Potter gets a hold of this Building and Loan, there’ll never be another decent house built in this town. He’s already got charge of the bank. He’s got the bus line. He got the department stores, and now he’s after us. Why? Well, it’s very simple. Because we’re cuttin’ in on his business, that’s why. And because he wants to keep you livin’ in his slums and paying the kind of rent he decides. Joe, you had one of those Potter houses, didn’t you? Well, have you forgotten? Have you forgotten what he charged you for that broken-down shack? Here, Ed. You know, you remember last year when things weren’t going so well, and you couldn’t make your payments. Well, you didn’t lose your house, did you? You think Potter would have let you keep it?

It’s a Wonderful Life 1946

In yesterday’s post on former president Barack Obama commenting on the Flynn situation I included this line about my own situation:

On the day he was elected I had a great job, great benefits while working from home (not due to a plague either) and making more money than I ever did working in the field I trained in. By the time President Trump was elected I was a temp with no benefits working in a warehouse only making over minimum wage because of the 3rd shift differential. After three years I’m not back where I was but I’m no longer a temp, I have good benefits and my pay is up 42% from that low.

That brought this response if comments from Bob:

The day obama was elected I ran a boat building company with 250 people putting out 150 boats a month. By his second term we had 60 people & where building fiberglass wheel barrows & mailboxes & only 20 or so boats a month. We’re not completely back to full production but getting there. Well till the china flu hit .

Now in fairness it’s easy to comment on a blog, and other than an IP address and an email address (which could both be spoofed) I can’t prove that “Bob is who he says he is, but I suspect that there are a lot of other people who were or are in the situation described by “Bob”. I invite said folks to share those stories in comments.

But more importantly I say this: We’re already seen Democrat after Democrat do their best to keep you closed down, we’ve seen criminals released from jail while restaurants and barbers are sanctioned. If the choice is between your prosperity or even survival and power they’ll take the latter every time.

Do you really want to return to those Obama days under Joe Biden with a Democrat House or Senate to back him up because that’s what’s at stake and the choice you’ll be making this fall..

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