Saturday, August 20, 2016

Milwaukee gets Trumped

On August 13th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin  a young man died in an officer involved shooting. The official police report stated that the deceased had been armed and refused to comply with repeated orders to  drop the weapon. What followed were riots beginning at the scene of the incident which lasted an additional two days.
           In the midst of all of this, presidential candidate Donald Trump decided to speak to the black community. On the surface a good idea until one considers the way in which Trump had gone about it. Trump went to West Bend, Wisconsin a suburb or Milwaukee and gave a speech in which he told African Americans that their every assertion about law enforcement was "incorrect" then told them that the problems within the black community were the result of "failed democratic policies". He then asked blacks to vote for him.
          I sat back watching and simply couldn't believe what I was hearing.  This display proved to me that Donald J. Trump had no political instincts whatsoever.  He stood in an auditorium in a suburb of Milwaukee whose black population was 1.2% and spoke "to" African Americans.  I thought this is exactly why being a businessman DOES NOT qualify one to be president. Businessmen on Trump's level are used to giving orders and having them followed. They're not used to working with committees or listening to dissenting opinions.
         If Trump wanted black votes, what he should have done was going into Milwaukee itself and arranging a closed door meeting between himself, local law enforcement, and black community leaders and activists with no journalist in attendance.  He could have simply sat there and acted as a mediator between hard working cops and members of a community with whom they have friction. He could have asked both sides what needed to be done to make sure that Milwaukee never had riots shake her. In other words, he could have talked TO black people rather than AT us. There may be some who are swayed by his spin doctors as they appear on television saying "Trump went to Milwaukee" but I for one am sad that he skipped out on an golden opportunity to at least appear as if he gave a damn about something other than his own ego.
         A closed door meeting with civic, leaders clergy and cops would have made it known that he was more concerned with problem solving than with a photo op and that he actually cares NOT about winning an election, but with actually making America greater.


Monday, August 8, 2016

Stupid Statements from Classrooms


There's an old cliché which says: "There are no stupid questions." I would have to vehemently disagree as I've heard questions and statements in classrooms that were so excruciatingly stupid that I wished I had some sort of telekinetic ability to either blow up the idiots who uttered them or at least sterilize them so that they couldn't pollute the gene pool. Some of these things I heard directly others were repeated by colleagues.

"What's the difference between an 'oxymoron' and a regular moron?

"Do we have to do work today? It's MONDAY!"

"Report cards come out next week and I got a zero? Can I get some make up work?"

"It don't matter If I work in here or not. You GOTTA PASS ME!"

"How come I got a F? I was HERE every day!"

"Why do we have to do class work? It's FRIDAY!"

"I know I aint did nothing today, but I gotta leave early for football practice."

"Why you giving us work today.  It's the last day before Thanksgiving!"

"You gave me a zero for copying? He copied off me!" (the person saying this had a 37 average)

"You lucky I don't kick your ass!" (kid half my size)

"Why we gotta work? They gettin' ready to let us go on Christmas break!"

"How come I got a 37 in your class?" (he turned in two assignments during a grading period)

"Man I don't need this class! I'm going to the NBA/NFL/My dad/uncle's construction company!"

"Me and my girlfriend gettin' ready to have another baby! I don't know why, but her mama act like she don't like me."

"You aint from the hood, you wouldn't understand." (I'm from the hood)

"I thought you couldn't get pregnant your fist time having sex!"

"I want a baby! They so cute!" (said by a 15 year old)

"Why we gotta work today? We gettin' ready to go on Spring break!"

"No,  it's only offensive if it ends in 'er' not if if ends in 'ga'. " (explaining the difference between "n:883r" and "n:88a")

"I don't give a (bleep) if I flunk this class it's just (fill in name of ANY CLASS)"

"She my daughter, but I try to be her best friend."

"Man. I just come here to meet girls and sell drugs."

"I don't come to school to mutha-(bleep)in' READ! I come here to PASS!"

"Mr./Miss _______ failed me  cause  (he/she don't like me/ is racist/don't like blacks/Mexicans)"

"I don't feel like doing my work, can I go to the liberry/gym/random location?"

"We wutn't smokin' weed!" (when you walked in and caught them and they were the only ones there)

"My son/daughter doesn't lie."

"My son/daughter said this woman is flunking her because she doesn't like Mexicans." (90% of the students in the class are Mexican and many are passing)

"Why don't you just give us the answers?"

"Can we leave early?"

"Can we go to all three lunches?"

"Hey Miss ______ what's your number?"

"You aint tell us we had a test!" (When you've given them a review sheet with the answers TO the test)

"Man I don't do no homework!"

"What pages the answers on?"

"Why don't you just give everybody 100?"

"You can't flunk me just cause I aint do no work!"

"Can you show me how to make meth?"

"Can you show me how to build a bomb? I won't tell nobody!" (yeah because I'm not telling you dumb ass)

"How come we can't go in the teacher's lounge? That aint fair."

"Give me a dollar."

"I'll just take this class in summer school." (kid doesn't know that you're the only one teaching the class in summer school)