Category Archives: indiana

Da bees

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Well, it’s refreshing that some countries are paying attention.  And acting on it.

Purdue Research on the problem here: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120111KrupkeBees.html

What bothers me when researchers report that the pesticides are causing the problem, instead of advocating eliminating pesticides and using beneficial (complimentary) methods of insect control, they want t come up with some other scientific method.

It’s like throwing a rock through a window and trying to correct the damage by putting a newspaper over it….doesn’t really address the problem, does it?

To me, it kind of feels like avoiding responsibility–avoiding the harder choice of trying to work with nature instead of against it.  Farmers in Indiana never met a tree they liked–if you look at Indiana on the map, you can pick it out from the other states by the absence of trees.  One of the reasons I admire Michigan and Ohio is they actually seem to like trees and it’s pleasant to drive through the states.  (Well, I could say something about Ohio drivers, but I’ll save that for another time….:)

So…the farmers remove as many trees from the acres as they can because they want to use every inch of space for crops…but the problem is that they remove the habitats of the birds that eat insects.  It also creates more wind erosion by taking away the windbreaks…hence drier soil that is more susceptible during drought.

It takes more work to factor in all of this, and the motivation just isn’t there.  It’s just too easy to apply chemicals to control for insects, weeds, and fertilize.

 

Aung San Suu Kyi

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…is coming to Fort Wayne tomorrow. She is giving a speech in her native tongue at the Memorial Coliseum free of charge.

For those that don’t know, Fort Wayne is home to the largest Burmese population in the United States.

Story here:  http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/ipfw-screens-movie-before-a-nobel-peace-prize-winner-visits-fort-wayne(of course, there are the prejudiced ones who put their stupid comments in the comments section….<sigh> and the rightwing radio station has said little, if anything, about the trip.

I want to go, but my car is having issues and I might not get it repaired in time to drive out there.

Anyway, it’s a historical event for this town and I’m happy that she is able to make the trip.

If you wish, you may listen to the speech on the local public radio station:  WBOI Link here:  http://nipr.fm/

 

 

Chicago public school teachers to strike

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Story here.

Emanuel is just another member of “the team” that is trying to undermine public education.  (haha, I typed “undermind” at first–perhaps a better term? 🙂

…because, you know, bankers, financiers, business-oriented people who look at kids as products or resources to be exploited.  They look at the kids with $$ in their eyes–what can we squeeze out of them?  What kind of profit can we make off of them?

This report from Indiana.

From the story:

But Russ Simnick, president of the Indiana Public Charter School Association, said it’s disingenuous to compare charter schools with other schools based on the ISTEP results. For one, such comparisons are between individual charter schools and the overall results of school corporations, in which high and low ISTEP scores are lumped together. Thus, he said, larger corporations have a better ability to mask their lower scores than smaller individual schools. A more honest comparison, he said, would involve lumping all charter schools together and treating them as one school corporation in order to compare with others.

Simnick also disputed Schnellenberger’s statistics on the lowest 50 ISTEP scores; he said only four were charter schools, and all of these opened in 2008. He said it’s not fair to expect such young schools to post high ISTEP scores, especially since many charter schools are in some of the most challenging communities and take in students who just transferred from poorly performing schools.

 

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Unbelievable.  What a way to worm out of accountability.  The teachers from public schools have made the argument for not giving them a failing grade for the above reasons–children from “challenging communities” are difficult to bring up to speed if they are poor, the parents are not involved, and there is some learning/behavioral difficulty.
But charter schools officials want to claim it’s not their fault that the kids are failing?

This from Pennsylvania.  Nepotism? Um, yeah.  Nice little game they have going there.

Notice how they use the same lines as the Indiana officials–the kids are poor performers, they’re special needs…blah, blah, blah.  If you’ve got only a 15% graduation rate, you’re not the people to be teaching kids. Period.

This from Miami.  Taxpayers should not be funding them at all.  But that would cut into the profit margin for the education vultures, wouldn’t it??  You know, privatize the profits while socializing the costs, eh?

 

 

Living in the moment…

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…this weekend encompassed every human emotion possible…

I’ll start with the good stuff…

Fortunately for me, my son is a Bob Dylan fan….so he treated his Mom to the concert here at Parkview Field Friday night.  It was wonderful!!!

It was one of those perfect summer nights that wasn’t muggy, wasn’t too cool nor too hot–perfect.

Dylan took the stage at 8:00 and played until 10:00 p.m. , dressed in white pants and blue jacket.  My son and I were sitting in the stands–I told him he should go down to the area in front of the stage and he said I should go down.  Okay, I’m not usually an outgoing person–I am the wallflower of all wallflowers (I know that sounds really funny reading this blog)….but I couldn’t resist and went down to the ballfield area–I am soooo glad that I did–the positive, warm energy there was amazing. (minus the drunk couple that started to get into it, but thankfully stopped before it got too out of hand.)

I was about twenty feet from the stage–close enough to see Bob smile.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photograph of him smiling–he seemed to be really enjoying playing as much as we did listening–magical. 🙂

The band was super–really together.  Bob played a baby grand piano, which was a thrill–I don’t care how much technology tries to imitate the authentic instrument–I can still tell when it’s not the real thing because there’s no soul to it.  And I loved that he also incorporated a cello in the ensemble–really added to the sound. (Bob didn’t play it–a band member (Tony?) played it.)

My son and I were debating whether Bob would play “Blowin in the Wind”.–he jokingly said he was going to request it if Bob took requests…

On that fateful day of the Big Storm here, I was at the main library, waiting on those hidden books in the storage unit to come up, and happened to see a book written about Bob Dylan.  I was flipping through it, and came upon a paragraph where Bob had an audience with the Pope and the Pope requested “Blowin in the Wind”….and Bob refused to play it for him.  Bwahahahaha.  Cracks me up still…

….so, I wasn’t getting my hopes up that it was going to be on the setlist…

…I had gone back to where my son was seated after they stopped playing the set.  I was hoping for an encore, but I was concerned about losing my son when the crowds started to leave, so I headed back to the seats.

…so you can imagine what happened…

Bob came back on stage and started playing a Rag Time tune…my son recognized it before I did–he was playing “Blowin in the Wind”, but in Rag Time.

Thank You, Bob Dylan, for coming here–please come again.  This concert made my whole summer year.

(I never knew there were so many cool people in Fort Wayne….where have they been hiding?)

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On to the rest of the weekend–

With my Dad unable to return to his place, it needs to be cleaned out, so I went over to help out.  A tough job. Emotions are running high and feelings have been hurt.  I guess that’s part of the process.

Then yesterday–

A resident came to my door with another lady I didn’t know, who was concerned about one of the residents.  She was a friend of hers and hadn’t been able to get in touch with her for a couple of days.  This resident was always up and about, so I was concerned.  I have access to the radio to contact the maintenance folks, so I called them to see if they could pop over for a wellness check.  Normally, the housing folks charge for non-emergency calls on the weeknights and weekends, so the maintenance guy said he’ d have to clear it with his supervisor.  (Yes, money is that tight, folks).  However, while we waited to hear back, the lady’s friend said that her car was in the parking lot and they normally talked every day, and she hasn’t answered her phone for two days.  I went back to the radio to tell the maintenance guy the new information, hoping that he would come over.

After awhile, the EMS showed up, but we were unaware that it was for this lady.  I followed them, wanting to ask them to check on this lady, but there was no need–they were headed for her apartment.  The maintenance guy showed up shortly afterward, to let them in.  When they didn’t come right back out, I knew that she was, indeed, in the apartment, but had not responded to us banging on the door.  Not a good sign.

Then the EMS came out and asked if she normally responded and spoke in complete sentences.  Also not a good sign.  When they brought her out, she was in the fetal position with her knees drawn up to her chest, and her head falling to her chest, as if she couldn’t lift it up at all.  And she was as pale as a ghost.

I haven’t heard any more on her status.  Adding to it is another resident that she was close to died just over a month ago, and I’ve heard that the police and EMS were interrogating her like she had caused her friend’s death…upsetting her even more.  They seemed to have lost the focus of their profession….