What fight matters most to you?
No bears in my dreams. That's a good sign, right?
Instead, I woke up with U2's "Walk On (Ukraine)" in my head. It's a powerful acoustic version of one of their older songs. I hope that Ukraine survives this horrific fight and the betrayal they are feeling.
Anyone else getting weary? I sure am. But to give up is not an option. We can't fight in every arena, though. Picking a few --or one-- to care deeply about is exhausting enough. In NH, the state legislature seems hell-bent on gutting public education; on one hand, they wanted to dilute what an education looks like, then, they want to have a state-imposed spending cap on per pupil costs, regardless of the actual costs of things like electricity, special ed, etc. With the feds cutting off sources of aid, this will devastate small schools and pit angry taxpayers against the schools they need in their towns. It's untenable. Add to that this foolhardy "voucher" system-- expanding that will suck lifeblood out of schools as well. The only possible good news I've seen is that the Commissioner of Education is moving on and a new one must be anointed. Who knows what we'll end up with, but there's a slight chance it'll be someone who actually supports public schools in both practice and in theory.
The draconian cuts to school meals programs is another thing I get really angry about, especially since one legislator referred to school lunches as "garbage," and he wondered why parents didn't just feed their kids. How tone-deaf can one person get? We send home weekend bags-- dozens of them-- every week for some of our students. The food in them is donated by teachers and community members. We know hungry kids can't learn. We know there are a lot of folks who are beyond struggling for a variety of reasons-- none of which is a lack of desire to feed their children. I keep a basket of snacks in my classroom-- most of us do. I bring in baked goods like banana bread for a "treat" often-- and every student wants some. Many of them do not eat lunch at school; oh, they play it off as "cool," but I suspect that for some of them, they don't have much available, and they don't want to be seen as the "charity case" (stinking thinking, but the stigma exists).
How much more can we make people suffer for the "sin" of being less materially wealthy? The feds are showing us just how evil and depraved some "leaders" are at heart-- their well-fed bodies bumping along, shaking their wealth in our faces, while they rail on about the "parasite class."
I've been there, one of the kids who didn't have a lot of options for lunch, or any meal, for that matter. I grew up having "refrigerator soup" and four people sharing one small frozen pizza. One can make a chicken soup of sorts out of shaved carrots and the picked-over bones of a couple chicken legs.
One of the reasons I care so much is because I've been there. I've rolled change to afford a five-dollar requirement to attend a high school music festival. When officials at any level start denigrating those who have no material resources, I get pretty angry. I will fight for those kids (and the elderly, the unhoused, etc.) because most of us are just that close to walking the same path. We don't need a governmental push to flatten us further. Families deserve healthy food and safe and welcoming schools for their kids. That's where I'm drawing the line.
Okay, end rant. I have to do my taxes today, and I am resentful. My tax dollars should be allocated to those who need them most.
C
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