The Game of Life

FAIRNESS

In all fairness to the word I will say it is a rather pretty looking word, although a word that is useless in our language. What is fair? I was taught that “playing fair” means playing by the agreed upon rules. These rules are made to prevent arguments over what is “fair”. These rules are not subject to change. Monopoly has “rules” of this nature and they have been the same for over 20 years! No “amendments” or “ratifications” just consistent “rules of the game.”

In our nation today we change the rules on a daily basis; I am thinking this is to insure that no one “cheats” in life. We change the rules to meet our needs at the time. These rules are never consistent and most of them most of us have never heard of. These rules are “written to protect”, I want to know who they are suppose to protect, me or the people paid to enforce them.

For the most part I am a “law abiding” citizen. I usually wear my seat belt, more for the example for my children than for your personal safety. In fact I am not even sure how me wearing a seat belt insures your safety. I “don’t smoke in public” so it is not my smoke that is causing non-smokers to be cranky. Maybe they should light up! I don’t wear fur; this is a personal preference not an “animal rights” movement. I vote when I am suppose to, maybe not for “who I am suppose to” but I make it to the poles, there fore I also have the right to complain….

More than a complaint, for the first time in my life I am right and the people “who make the rules are idiots! I am not sure why the rest of the world can not see it but our “rules” to make “life fair” are the exact reason life is screwed up!!

A prime example that most states have now enacted is the “Mandatory Insurance Laws”. Now I understand the “need” for insurance. I am also under the impression that insurance was originally started for people to buy to protect themselves. I do believe insurance became a HUGE hit in the 1970’s when people discovered “the right to blame”. At this time everyone and anyone was “suing” anyone and everyone. an easy way to make a dime. This started the whole mess we are in now. More “rules” had to be made to make sure we were all “playing fair”, due to insurance companies having the entire nations police force backing them, they can now charge what ever they want as well as make up their own “rules” to a game we have no choice but to play.

In all “fairness” I should be able to “not play” if I so chose. So my beef is not about mandatory insurance but about the prices and how they are allocated.

A young couple in their 20’s with two small children, starting out their lives trying to “play by the rules” unfortunately they discovered that to “buy into the game” was costly so they have to “rent” from another player. Their “rent” is over half of their income as they are “new to the game” and must start at the beginning.

With the “high cost of living” and the “low wages” society pays for beginning jobs these young people quickly discovered they would have to “cut” corners somewhere. Diapers? Baby formula? Already living without a phone or cable they cut the insurance saving themselves $380 dollars a month!!! See our society requires us to have “insurance coverage” on our automobiles, the banks require us to have “full coverage” on any car with a lean on it therefore the insurance companies can charge what ever they want of our young people, not bothering to consider what these same young people will have to “live without” in order to pay for the insurance.

This young couple is heading home from Anchorage to Wasilla, where they were forced to move in order to afford to live outside of their parent’s home. Both their young babies safely in their car seats sleeping in the back, worried about moose and other motorists they set the cruise control at 60 and settled in to enjoy the ride. Red and Blue lights flashed behind them and they pulled over, they were stopped for having a “dirty license plate” in the spring time in Alaska! Not “cited” for any traffic violations the officer discovered they had no insurance. In our state this is an arrest able offense, although the officer that night was nice and did not “arrest” anyone but the car.

Okay consequences for our actions, it is the law to have insurance, and the law states that your car will be “impounded” if you do not have “proof”. Sounds kind of like a bunch of ten year olds talking about the opposite sex. So this young couple was lucky enough to have just received a “tax return” and they happened to have the money to pay the 300 dollar fine and purchase the insurance so they could provide the “proof”. Taking the day off work to accomplish this so they would have a car for transportation to work, a must if you are going to make it to your place of employment on time, they waited for the impound lot to “return” their call, they waited and waited and waited. Finally a call was received from the lot and the couple was informed that “an officer has 48 hours to turn in his paper work.” Seems like plenty of time to “forget” the facts. Without the paper work the car can not be processed and released. So they must wait. This wait is costing them 150 dollars a day!!! In impound lot fees. So now they are “being punished” for “paying their consequences”, what the hell kind of message is that to send to our young people.

"HEY KID PAY THE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR ACTIONS…THEN WE CAN KEEP PUNISHING YOU FOR THE HELL OF IT.”

I want to ask everyone why this is right. Why are we punishing the ones who were not complying for good reason, then do comply? Why is this “little incident” costing my children more than a drunk must pay to “get back on the road”? And how is a young family suppose to “make it” in today’s world?

So this “little ordeal” is not over yet, even though the young couple did what “was required” of them, they were also informed that the car will be released “on bail” when the paper work is processed. What the hell does that mean? Are they afraid the car is going to run? If they do not return to court on the appointed court date, even if they are not arguing the offense, the car will have a warrant put out for its arrest!!! So watch out for the new spike it taxes when we have to pay for all the “retained” automobiles to have wash and wax jobs regularly. Automobile rights activists everywhere will jump on that ban wagon. They have the “right to hold the automobile in custody for 30 days.” Wow that car better not get caught again next time it might get life.

So I want to know why we do not just go back to the days of “flogging”. Seems like a much more humane means of punishment then taking a young family’s transportation to work, charging them all kinds of “momentary fines”, “impound fees”, and still allowing an insurance company to gouge them for another grand up front plus monthly fees of 200 dollars.

This young couple is lucky…they will have family to help them out when they are living in an abandoned house in Mountain View. HELLO WORLD…cant you see it….

You take the car, they still must pay the car payments or the bank will be taking it from the impound lot, you charge them any and all money they have saved for the months bills so they can “retrieve the car” and still get to work then tell them to wait another 48 hours to 30 days, then the land lord wants his rent, the electric company wants their bill paid, the gas company will not wait another month and the cost of fuel to sleep in the car is too high .

Welfare will not “kick in” if you are employed or quit your job due to “lack of transportation”. There is a waiting list miles long to get on state housing, and the local churches are all “maxed out”. So now you have a “desperate young couple”, this young couple has now become high risk for domestic violence, manufacturing and selling drugs for income, and stealing: All due to a “dirty license plate”.

Wake up world my kids are not alone, I am sure millions of young people are driving without insurance, not to be defiant but to survive. Punishing them by taking their “source of survival” is why our young people have turned to “other means” for making money. They no longer “trust” us to “do what is right”. Most of the young people on the streets today have watched society push their parents to the lowest point, why would they trust societies “rules”? Why would they even want to play the game? They are set up to lose the minute they role the first dice. People, the problem does not lie in our schools, it is not “the kids fault”, it is ours, my generation, we have the problem and we need to deal with it. We need to GROW UP and quit “expecting” others to take care of the problems. We need to face up to the fact that we, not the children chose to drive through McDonalds waiting in a line full of cars for 15 minutes when there is absolutely no body in side the store. Obesity is not their fault it’s our life style just as automobile insurance has become our dictator, with the entire police force enforcing their scheme.

So everyone buckle up, make sure your insurance “proof” is in the glove box, pop that hot fry in your mouth, dial up that cell phone, crank the tunes, and drive the two blocks to Safeway for the milk that you can not get at the drive thru. Don’t mind the young family outside the store, they are just passing time” waiting for mommy to get off work” so they can return to their “insured car” and sleep away their hungry tummys.

What is fair?

I hate the word "stupid"...this word should NEVER have become a word in our language...
Did you know that English is the only language that this word is in, in the form it represents for us?
Well this morning in the paper I found another word that sucks...."FAIR".
What is fair? IF everyone in this world were treated the same and recieved all of the same benifitts...would that be fair?
It seems that in a society where "competion" to be "better" than your neighbor, and the NEED for faster more convenient "play toys", fair would not be brought up so much.
When we are kids and scream "thats not fair" it is a way to learn to communicate. It is also a time to learn that..."it takes all sorts.". If we had everything we want...and people were treated the same our world would be BORRING....now there is a misused word.

So what is fair? Six bears were killed near a Native Village near Katmai. These bears were killed over two years ago...now the "naturalists" have realized that the "killers" of these bears have NOT been prosecuted. so now two years later...it is time to bring this issue to the front lines....What is that all about? Most of us either did not hear about this little issue or it was so long ago that we have forgotten.

Animal Rights activists will scream that it was a "heinous crime", (this word seems to surface alot lately...what exactly is a "heinous" crime?) I am not sure I believe them.

Sometime last year I think it was...a man and his buddy "shot at" a mother bear who had cubs. They claim they were "shooting to scare her away."...but their aim was better than they thought I guess...the bear died...leaving behind a couple of older cubs that were able to survive on their own...

These men were also in a "wildlife" refuge on the Russian River...they are serving time. I feel the two cases are on entirely different ends of the spectrum...the men on Russian river were in the wrong...there are many people on that river and NEVER that I have heard of has a bear interferred with a fisherman other that to "steal his hole".
Seems if fisherhumans can do this to each other...why cant fisherbears? It was competion and those men did not want to lose...so they shot her.....

These boys in the Village have lived there all their lives. In fact their lives depend on whether or not they can shoot a bear. If they can not they better stay behind closed doors. The bears in this region are numerous...they "migrate" from the other side of the mountain to fish in the streams near the village. These boys were not being tormented by the bears, but when bears are similar to a racoon in their enviroment...they shoot them. These bears visit their yards on a regular basis...looking for pets and garbage for a quick easy snack. These bears hold an entirly different heiarchy in the village locations than they do in the city. We dont see them...they are here but we dont see them.

The minute someones kid is harmed by one of our "urban" bears....well then we will swing the pedulum the other way and start screaming....unfair....kill the bear.....So which is it....fair to kill a bear...or unfair? I do not get it.

I guess the point of them "bringing" this up again is...well they did not realy get to one...except that the "kids" need punished. Two years later it is a little late I think. Not to mention the money that would go out to "fight" a trial for this one... the money to support these young men when they are put in jail....and the "bad" feelings between the Native village and the rest of the state.

One last bit of information was brought up at the end of the article...by a Village Elder..."they confiscated several large garbage bags full of herbs that we have gathered for our sweat lodge."

So in our war on drugs...we are now jumping to conclusions...and not appologizing for the mistake. I am going to guess that the "feds" do not want to push the bear killings...seems they did their job wrong again...they were in the Village looking for "evidence" of bear killings...they "gave up" when they thought they found something bigger and better that would offer them more media coverage....it back fired on them and they are now trying to "ignore" (now that is a great word) the whole situation....Maybe we should "shoot the feds" saving a select few....put them on the "endagered species list" and breed them to rebuild the population in a controlled enviroment....this way they will learn to do things "our way" and the world will be fair for a bear.......................my reality

Teachers are the "front line of defense"

Okay so it seems the last write up is going to lead to this one. Once again in today’s paper I have read about numerous “laws” that are “on the table”. These “laws” are all about crime penalties; time served, and increased costs. Well if we did not have to continue to “support” the ever growing population of under educated criminal’s maybe we could “support” our local community schools. I see this as a way to alleviate the need to continue reevaluating the issues “on the table”.

I have some personal experience with our prison system for youth as well as adults due to a psychology course I took in school called “criminal psychology”, seems it is also the responsibility of a nurse to free the world of “bad guys” when we discover them in our hospital beds. Another story for another time.

I am seeing first hand the lack of “education” our youth receive while institutionalized in a correctional facility. School is mandatory and these institutions do release “high school graduates”. Unfortunately these graduates are text book educated with a two year olds’ schedule.

They are not taught to be responsible for their “every day” actions. Just the “criminal ones”. They are not given the responsibility of “setting an alarm clock”, filling out job applications, scheduling home work into a busy social life, or even finding time to fit a shower in.

Do to the “need for control” these daily tasks we all take for granted, are “scheduled” into the day. Your “shower time” is given to you as well as when to eat, socialize, work out and go to school. Free time is a part of the day but in a controlled environment there is no “learning to find something to do”.

Upon release these “children” are “expected” to fit in to society and “stay out of trouble”. With no peer group to relate to and no “life skills” to rely on, I see them headed for a “repeat offence”, especially if they have no “support system” on the “out side”.

These are the “criminals” in question “on the table”. Could this problem not be solved by?

Making the prison inmates “work”. For their living too.

Why can we not put a “community” inside a prison, a “community” that is well monitored but self sufficient? A way to “learn” the “life skills” most of these people are lacking….and by…

Re-evaluating our current “position” on the school boards…removing many of them and re-routing the funds saved back into the schools, instead of cutting the “front lines”. Money “cut” from the first line of defense is like suicide. Teachers are our “front line”, they hold the future in their hands, and they are “responsible” for our children’s education and actually have more influence on their lives, as they have knowledge of the “friends” your child keeps.

Once again it seems to me that the “crime” problems and the “school funding” problems go hand in hand. The Children are our future if we do not “help” them learn “how” as well as “when and why” we will keep going the wrong direction.

Again School is so much more than a “text book”, when I was a student it was a “sample” of adult hood. I did not take it seriously then, but I wish I had now.

We are so stupid, we deserve that F

WOW…are we really that dumb?? As children we could not wait to be adults…to live in the adult world and “make the rules”. As adults we have a responsibility to our community for its present survival and well as its future.

I am seeing adults have become “stupid” (a word I reserve usage of unless it is needed). Stupid people are people who make “stupid judgment calls”. Now the state of Alaska‘s voters are being “stupid”. We are all over 18 and have obtained the “rights” of an adult in our society. Why do we still think like children?

As kids we “hated school”…is this why we will not keep the school budgets up to par? That hate for having to get up every morning and go sit in a class room and listen to other students snore, fart, and belch. The hassle of carrying books and studying for exams…and we wont even go into the teachers…their bossy and nosey.

GROW UP!...If it were not for the lessons we learned in school…more than “those teachers” ever taught us…we would not function as adults. Getting up in the morning and having to meet a schedule, taught us how to hold together a job, family and social life. This lesson taught to us at the expenses of our parents who were there to bail us out should we screw up.

The social life in school helps us learn to deal with the differences of opinion and person on the work front…it is so much more than just book learning. We need to realize this.

After school sports, band, art classes, foreign languages, and even “study hall” are important to our communities…not only do they provide something that is structured and time consuming for our youth, (in case you don’t see it…this will keep them off the streets and drugs too…hellooo) but they provide the students with a sense of school spirit. Who did not look forward to going to the Home Coming Game? Sports and music provide entertainment for the community and can be used to keep a community in contact with each other.

My fondest memories are of Homer at a time when the whole town turned out to freeze their buns off and watch a “Winter Carnival Parade” that consisted of mainly local businesses and children…after words…cherry pit spitting contests and bowling…warm meals with friends and bon fires on the beach…oh yah…the reason for Winter Carnival was NOT the parade…but the Schools Wrestling Meet…Homer High hosted one of the largest State competition back then…schools from all over the state would show…people would be camping in “host” families yards…Thanks to the School we made new friends from Bethel to Barrow, Sitka to Dutch Harbor.

This is long gone…budget cuts from long ago…omitted the Villages and Island communities from joining the rest. Anchorage and the Mat-Sue became so populated that they no longer “needed” the smaller schools for competition and new “districts” were formed. I see this as segregation…I see it as discrimination…I see it as unfair…and I will forecast that the “no kid left behind” program is leaving a “huge” portion of Alaska children “left behind.”

When the Peninsula Schools get to the point that they can only offer “core classes” needed for graduation…they will lose a big portion of their students. For many students it is the art, shop, and music classes that bring them to school in the first place. By removing these classes we are removing incentive for them to attend. If the problems that will arise are not obvious I will point a few out to you…

1.Kids without anything to do…will find something to do.

2. Denying these kids anything but Core classes will affect them in attempts to get into a decent Upper Educational Facility.

3. No education leads to lower income jobs…poverty, drug abuse and all the things we are trying to alleviate from our society.

Funding for schools is a serious Nation Wide Problem…it is time we find another source for this income. Tax payers do not want the whole responsibility for the children of their community’s education, nor their communities’ future. As these “children” will soon be responsible for our well being. The Federal Governments monies are tied up in trying to “better” foreign countries education and legal systems. This may do us some service when our crime rates rise so high we need somewhere “safe” to migrate too.

I am not sure of the answer to the funding issues but the answer to our crime problems is written all over the text book.