Sermons from Second

This is the weirdest March in a long time for me.  I'm busy...but I'm happy busy.  I absolutely love what I'm doing.  I have never lied about that.  If I had the money, I would do what I do for free.  I love it.  So being busy doesn't bother me at all.

So...why is this blog worthy?? It shouldn't be...right?

Opening Day is six days away.  Actually, the first pitch is roughly 6 days and 30 minutes away as I write this.  And I think a lot about the Reds.  However....I'm not mentally there.  I know how the Reds and Opening Day and night consume me.  I normally can't wait and everything is baseball.  However, right now, my mind is elsewhere.  I'm thinking broomball and softball.  I'm thinking work stuff.  I'm thinking a lot...and the Reds are definitely part of that...but they are not the front of my thoughts like normal.

In no way does that say my love for the Reds has reduced at all, or my love of baseball.  Next week I'm going to be happier than most people could ever imagine when the season starts.

I think what I'm trying to say is overall there is MORE to be happier about and that I am enjoying than in previous years.  Things are great at home with Jennifer, Quinn, and Azrael.  Not that they weren't last year...but I am just so happy there.  Miami Entertainment is moving forward and MEGA...just wow.  It's great with them.  I really enjoy MEGA and have a great time with them.  They're coming over for WrestleMania.

So really...I just feel good.  Playing softball feels good.  Coaching broomball feels good.  Work and home life are great.  So while I am thrilled to have an important part of my life back...it doesn't get to consumer my life yet in April.  I'm actually missing two games in April to for things at work.  (I could miss another...but let's not go overboard...)

Come mid-May, I'm sure they will be a bigger part of things....but right now, I'm fine with the Reds sharing my time right now.  My students, Jennifer, Quinn, Azrael, friends, and work deserve some of my time also.  

Sermons from Second: "Why are people so stupid?"

Time for a new feature here for my ones of fans!  :-)

Obviously my Thoughts from Third deal with thoughts on various news items I get from my RSS Feeds.

Sermons from Second will be my rants or thoughts (really...I'm a squiggle...that means I go on tangents...) on different issues.  However, this one starts with an RSS feed also.

I sent a friend and the wife a fully image from The Art of Trolling.  For reference:



Now, I'll start by saying I don't know if that was a troll posting or a real person.  You never know.

The wife's response: why are people so stupid??

So I was about to respond to her.  Then I decided I would respond...but instead of to her, to everyone.  (And by that, of course, I mean the...4 people who read this???)

Anyway...

I live in Ohio.  Talawanda High School has a building that is amazingly out of date.  Yet every election until the 2008 for what, if I remember right, was at least 10 years a levy to build a new school was shot down.  In this election, I believe maybe ONE school levy passed and every other one was shot down.  (I know I could check that...but let's be realistic...I get my news from RSS feeds.  I'm too lazy to go look.)

Why are people so stupid?  Our education system is failing miserably because of a combination of apathy, political maneuvering, finances, religion (the old favorite...), etc.

Let's just take the example given above. We're going to, for the point of this argument, go with it NOT being a troll.  How could someone NOT know?  I would place that one of religion and politics...which too often are in bed together in the land of "separation of church and state."  The prevailing feeling is that we can't teach kids about sex, much less SAFE sex.  We have to protect the kids from the EVILS of sex...it is just for procreation, and SURELY they will learn when they are married.  However, violence....by all means teach it, make it better, show it anyway on TV, and glorify it.  Organized religion glorifies violence (after all how many ways/acts of violence have religion as their basis) and vilifies sex.

If I ever have children, I would seriously consider home schooling them.  The ONLY reason not to is the socialization component.  I could teach English and the History family.  Jennifer has math more than covered.  As far as science...we both have a base in science.  Also, our university Lecture Series is PROVING we don't have science teachers anyway.  See...we are bringing Bill Nye (The Science Guy) for our Lecture Series in January.  I think it is going to be amazing, and upon talking to the box office we have eight to eighty scrambling to get the tickets in January.  The reason for most of them is the same.  That is where they learned science...and often where they learned science in classes.  The teacher would have Bill Nye teach their students.  Simple. Easy.  More time to....do whatever they did at their desk.  I could do that.  Anyone could.

I want to finish by saying I know some AMAZING teachers.  I wanted to be a teacher in high school, and now teach a course at a college.  I'm NOT (despite how it may sound) laying the blame on them.  I will say in my life I have had some terrific teachers and some rather dreadful teachers.  A lot of the dreadful ones I've seen that they once had it...and the system knocked them down.  I LOVE watching movies about teachers who find a way to fight the system and educate their students.  Lean on Me.  Stand and Deliver.  Dangerous Minds.  Mr. Holland's Opus.  Dead Poet's Society.  Renaissance Man.  Freedom Writers.  The Ron Clark Story.  Just to name a few.  I love them.  I believe in teachers.  I have a lot of students who I think can be these types of teachers, and when I see some of the education majors, I think we have a bright future.

However, what does pretty much every one of those movies have in common?  First, most are true stories, which I LOVE.  Second, however, is that they have to fight a failing educational system to reach the students. They often have to take resources out of their own (and their families) pockets to teach.  The school system isn't out there helping.  It actually hinders...whether it is against teaching philosophies, policies, material taught, or (most often) funding, our educational system doesn't help.  Why SHOULD teachers have to provide these things out of pocket?  Our resources in this country go to the wrong place.  In 2008 we gave a multi-BILLION dollar bailout to many businesses.  We have spent TRILLIONS of dollars on war, not just in my life time but in the past DECADE.  If we put HALF of that money to a unilateral improvement of our education system, America would not be in the state of decline it is.  If we prepared people better...if we taught English, math, social studies, science, the arts, phys ed, INTEGRITY, etc. in our schools in a more quality way, the problems we see wouldn't be how they are.

Why are people so stupid?  Because the American education system is failing them.

Now...to end on a high note, as I said...there ARE amazing teachers.  This is not only one of those teachers, it is also ABOUT those teachers and improves my day.

Sermons from Second: Just one game?

::I came back and appropriately added the title to the post::

The Reds lost yesterday.  Everyone says the same thing.  "It's just one game."  I have to respectfully disagree.

It's a lot more than just one game.

I remember 1990.  I remember sitting on the edge of my bed watching nightly as the Reds beat the Oakland Athletics to win the World Series.  I remember how excited I was.  I remember cheering in happiness and waking my mom up.  Mostly I remember how my 12-year old self felt.  I felt that it was time.  I was going to be enjoying a Reds dynasty.  I was going to see the Reds the next year and every year thereafter in the World Series.  We had made it.  I went to school the next day and told all of my friends (and enemies...and anyone who would listen) that the Reds were going to win again the next year.  While I enjoyed them winning the World Series, I was looking more at the long term.  With Larkin, Davis, Rijo, Hatcher, and the rest...the Reds would be  in the World Series for years.

I don't really remember 1995.  I don't know why.  I just don't remember any of the games or that same feeling.  It wasn't the strike...I actually sided with the players and felt (and still do) they deserve their money.  Why should the owners get rich and not share with the people who actually MAKE them the money?

1999 was a blip.  I was also starting to fall head-over-heels for Jennifer, that the Reds had taken a bit more of a back seat.  I was also surrounded by friends who didn't care in the slightest.

I remember complaining about the Scott Rolen trade.  Josh Roenicke and Zach Stewart were too high of a price.  I remember Redsfest and Spring Training...and April.  Throughout the whole time, I said the same thing.  I love the Reds.  I want to see them win it all.  I just thought it was a year early.  We were built to win from 2011-2014 or so...not for 2010.  At 32 I enjoyed from Redsfest through the first half of the season celebrating 1990 again...after all, it was really all I had to remember in that way.

I got home just in time to see the Reds clinch and watched the whole celebration in tears.  I won't lie, throughout the whole season I teared up anytime I thought of Reds and Playoffs in the same sentence.  I still do.

Last night I saw the Reds in the playoffs.  They lost.  They lost in spectacular and historical fashion.  However, it's not just one game.  The Reds are in the playoffs.  This isn't guaranteed for any teams, no matter how it may seem like it.  (Even the Yankees and Red Sox have missed the playoffs occasionally in the past few years.

I'd love nothing more than for the Reds to win it all.  I want to see the World Series trophy in Cincinnati.  I want to be at a celebration downtown for the Reds.  This is just my fifth year as a season ticket holder, but I have been a Reds fan my whole life.  I have suffered like the rest if the Reds fans at the misery of the past decade.

I've suffered enough to know that last night was so much more than just one game.  It was the Reds actually playing in the playoffs, and I'll celebrate that, no matter how bad it is.  After ten years, having even one game means so much, that the word "just" just isn't enough.