One man can

only stand so much! I must speak out! I must have my say!

The Wife says,

"Don't do it." She thinks I've lost my mind. I've got news for

her - done already lost it a long time ago. (For a job, I crawl into burning

buildings.)

She said the

reaction from this article is gonna be worse than the fallout from the

Minnesota article, but I don't care. This man can't stand anymore!

Kids have been

in school for the last two weeks. I know; I've seen lots of them standing

down by the bus stop 'cause the school bus doesn't go door-to-door anymore.

It seems that the county school system is having a bit of a budget crunch,

shrinking revenues and all. Imagine that! (If you really want to see some

shrinking revenues, just take a gander at your 401K plan.)

No, I don't

have the answer to the school budget crunch. If school taxes go up in

order to build more schools and provide more services, then I'll gladly

pay. No amount is too much to pay when it comes to the education of kids.

It's not the

kids I have a problem with; it's some of the parents. Hold on. Here comes

the part that's gonna get people mad at me.

Parents were

on the news last week complaining that the county school buses don't come

door-to-door to pick up their children anymore. Instead, the bus stops

at the corner and their child must walk an extra 30 feet to the end of

the street. Oh, the horror!

I've got news

for you; from the looks of some of those kids, a little bit of exercise

wouldn't hurt anything. Told you I'd get people mad. Wait, it gets better.

Back in the

day, my mom made school lunches everyday for the four of us kids before

we left the house. They consisted of an apple, a banana, chips, a peanut

butter and honey (or jelly) sandwich and, if we were lucky, a small bag

of chocolate chip cookies. With lunch safely packed away in my Batman

lunch box, I took my seat in back of the green station wagon with wood

panels. Then Mom drove us to elementary school; driving your kids to school,

what a novel concept.

The parents

on the news said that times have changed, and it isn't safe for their

child to walk down to the end of the street. They said that they were

just concerned parents. Guess it's safe for the kids to walk down the

mailbox by themselves as the concerned parent watches them from the living

room window while drinking a cup of coffee.

Well, all you

concerned parents out there, do I have a solution for you! Just put down

that cup of morning coffee, get dressed, walk your child down to the end

of the street, and wait for the bus. That's what my mom did when the green

station wagon with wood panels broke down, and as I remember, it broke

down all the time.

Mom stopped

driving us to school when we reached high school. We would either ride

the bus or walk. With my Batman lunch box in tow, we would walk around

the swamp in the backyard, past the giant oak with the rope swing, bear

right around the "Haunted Forest," up the secret path behind

Candi's house, left past the fighting tree and across the football field

to Briarwood High, home of the mighty Buccaneers. When it rained, we would

ride the bus. Walking to school is another novel concept that seems to

have gotten lost nowadays.

Not mad yet?

Keep reading you will be.

You say you

can't walk your kids to school on the golf cart paths. There are too many

golf carts and bikes on them, and it's not safe? Well, I guess you have

a point there. In this land of 50,000 golf carts, there doesn't seem to

be a lot of room left for kids walking to school. Besides, if you really

are worried about the safety of your kids, how about buying them a bike

helmet and make sure they wear it every time they ride a bike and make

sure they wear a seat belt every time they get into a car? Motor vehicles

crashes are the #1 cause of injury and death to children under age 14.

That, I believe, leads us