all the news that print will fit.
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| notes from underground - societal whispers all the news that print will fit. |
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Friday, September 10, 2004 np: bob dylan - live 1964 is vice-president cheney okay? i mean, someone ought to check that he's getting enough oxygen. (from the quad-city times.) Indicators measure the nation’s unemployment rate, consumer spending and other economic milestones, but Vice President Dick Cheney says it misses the hundreds of thousands who make money selling on eBay. what a week for choice bush administration quotes. between this and bush's obsession with the love practices of OB-GYNs, i'm quite amused. luckily, we seem to have a fairly sharp wit in the form of vice-presidential candidate john edwards: “If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking,” Edwards said in a statement. -- we had a patriotic celebration at my school today to remember the september 11th anniversary coming up tomorrow. it was a fairly innocuous event, in that i'm sure the kids didn't even notice the disturbing overtones. at moments, i did expect everyone to pull out their little red books, but i was disappointed. bob buckley, a reporter for WGHP (a Fox affiliate) here in greensboro was our featured speaker. his presence was appreciated i'm sure, but did i really need him undermining all my work at grammar skills by using "ain't" repeatedly in a public speech to high schoolers? not to mention him saying: "If you get out into the world and do...not just well...but good.." how many times a day do i tell kids that you do well, you don't do "good?" he might have been implying 'good deeds,' since his speech was about giving something back to the community that gives you chances, but if so it wasn't worded well. the second speaker, a man whose name i don't even recall, opened by having the kids close their eyes, imagine they came to school, were told to go into the gym only to find people with guns. imagine you're in chechneya, in other words. he then insisted that it could happen right here, any day. sheesh. somehow the rest of his speech just took cliché after cliché and ran with it. he actually ended with: "And always remember..good..better..best..never let it rest..until your good is better..the better, best." he kind of fumbled that one at the end, but i'll let it slide since the fact he used it is egregious enough. -- the only patriotic thing i wore today, aside from a red/white/blue ribbon we were given to wear as faculty members, was an american-flag-design-adorned button which read simply "vote." afterall, there is nothing more patriotic to this nation than participating in our democracy. a point i try to drive home relentlessly with my students. i don't always buy into the 'if you don't vote, you can't complain' slogan. there are plenty of people who actively choose not to vote because they (in many cases, rightfully) feel disenfranchised. but i also honestly believe that most non-voters just don't see any purpose in it, or else are just too pre-occupied, lazy, tired, etc. to get out and do it. politicians have one of the same struggles that i face as a teacher: how do i make my material appear relevant to my students/constituents? in other words, how do we make voters realize that all politics are local? a question we attempt to solve at least every two years. and a question it appears we'll continue struggling to answer as long as our society exists. posted by J. Neas | 9/10/2004 02:58:00 PM
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