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ChoppinBroccoli Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 12:43 AM
Original message
I Want To Smack Every Teabagger I See
Just a little background information first. My oldest son turned 5 this month and is going to be starting Kindergarten in the fall. In the school district where we live, there are several elementary schools, but only one of them has all day, every day Kindergarten, and the one my son would attend based solely on where we live isn't one of them. However, we were told that if we wanted to get him into all day, every day Kindergarten, we would have to request a transfer to the other school (which, by the way, is literally right next to the school he would normally attend), and then win a lottery (because pretty much every parent in that school district is naturally going to want his/her child to go to all day, every day Kindergarten. Well, last week, we found out that our son got into the all day Kindergarten program, so we were pretty excited about that. Between my wife and I, our work schedules would have taken a serious hit trying to accommodate pick-ups and drop-offs for just a half-day Kindergarten program, and we were stressing out over how we would get that to work, so this news was a big relief.
On Friday, we got 2 letters in the mail from the school system. The first one alerted us that our son had been approved to attend the all day, every day Kindergarten program, and told us everything we needed to know about how that would work. The second one advised us that because the recent school levy (voted on last week) was defeated, the school district was cutting out all transportation services (aka busing). Translation: I'm going to have to drive my child to school every day in the Fall. This would normally not be all that big a deal, but the doors to the elementary school don't open until 9:05 a.m. Guess what time I normally need to be in Court on the days I have Court. And since EVERY PARENT with a child in that school will ALSO be driving his/her child to school that day, what do you think the chances are that I'll be able to drive up to the door, drop him off, give him a quick good-bye, and then get immediately back on the road, given the line of cars trying to do the same thing?
Here's what irks me about this whole thing. We live in a fairly well-to-do suburb of Columbus. It's not Dublin or Upper Arlington (the uber-rich neighborhoods), but it's right up there. In the run-up to the vote on the school levy issue, there was a very visible and well-funded "Vote No on Issue 7" campaign waged (Issue 7 was the school levy, in case you couldn't figure that out). And nothing would upset me more than to drive home through the "rich neighborhood" and see these HUGE houses with "Vote No on 7" signs in their front yards. Yeah, I'm sure that extra fifteen bucks you're going to have to pay in taxes to support your local schools is going to REALLY break your bank, assholes.
So I said last Friday (after reading that letter), only HALF-facetiously, that every time I have a scheduling conflict that makes it difficult to drop my son off at school at 9:05 in the morning, I'm going to drive him up to the door of one of these houses with the "Vote No on 7" signs in the yard and tell them, "Here. YOU drive him to school today. Hope you choke on your 15 bucks, Asshole."
I'm getting so damn sick of living in "all taxes are evil" land. I ALWAYS voted for school levies, even when I didn't have children, because I value, and will ALWAYS support education, no matter whether I directly benefit from it or not. Anyone who would vote down a school levy qualifies as evil in my book.
I can understand the frustration and the inconvenience this causes, but I've lost all sympathy because for the liberals EVERY cause (except defense) is considered too important and necessary to cut even a little bit.
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RKP5637 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 12:55 AM
Response to Original message
3. What these butt heads don't get is this is a country, not a corporation. The
balance sheets are different. If one runs a country like a corporation it will fail. The converse is also true. One does not fire people out of a country as non-essential and the same is true for funding of programs.
You just spend money you don't have without end. :rolleyes: That's not OK for a "corporation" but it is for a country? :rolleyes:
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RKP5637 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 01:00 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. We really need all adults in this country to go through a remedial educational
program to understand the whole point of taxes and of collective action. As it is now, the Stupid is phenomenal.
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BlueCaliDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 01:52 AM
Response to Reply #7
11. The Stupid are phenomenal AND growing in numbers. Greed and the American
Me! ME! Me! attitude is making this country rot from the inside out.
I understand some degree of wanting a little more for yourself, but when you have so much and you don't want to share a simple $15 bucks more in taxes to help our future - our children - do better so they can compete with children around the world, that's taking greed to a whole new low. And, sadly, this new phenomenon is very much exclusively an American affliction.
The irony here is thick. Just who is it that is shouting "ME! ME! ME!" here.