Labor Day 2010

I was home this weekend cleaning up my mom's place. Mom passed away June 6th of this year and so we go up periodically to help clean and get the house ready to be occupied by my brother Richard. We have had a terrible summer with all of the rains and we have had alot of water in the basement and additional expense to clean and replace damage to the furnace, sump pump and dehumidifier.

While coming thru Fonda on Saturday morning September 4th, Fonda was getting ready for it's annual Labor Day Celebration. As we pulled into town they were getting ready for the parade to start, not very many cars on main street yet not too bad. There were the horses, the flags, the fire engine all that makes small town Americana special, yet, something was missing. Things are just not the same as 40 years ago and I think that is part of the problem we are having today in this country. We have lost small town America and all if it's goodness and virtues. We have lost the small schools who now are consolidated to make it more efficient our politicians and experts tell us, yet, that is not so. We are so over regulated, so manipulated by our government and our leaders and we have been dumbed down so much, who do you believe anymore. The beautiful school buildings in Fonda that we have spent literally hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to maintain are now sitting empty. Kids now get bussed to school and spend hours on the bus. If you want to attend the games or the functions you have to go to Newell to watch. This is efficient, not to me.

Our school administrators are hamstrung by the federal and state governments on what they can teach, how they can teach it. " No Child Left Behind" is a joke. Why do we allow the Iowa High School Athletic Association to set up the districts for football and who you are going to play. Shenandoah High School will travel 176 miles one way to play Prairie City/Monroe in a game this year..Why? They say it is all in the name of fairness and making sure all schools have the opportunity to get into the state playoff system...Hooey..I think the Athletic Directors of these schools didn't think this through when they gave the IHSAA the authority to set up the schedules. I think instead of individual schools being placed in a class you should class the conference instead and let the chips fall where they may.

If I was king for awhile, I would insist that we try to rebuild small town America. Give tax credits to companies who come to the small towns and build infrastructre, plants, manufacturing facilities and have people move to the smaller communities as that is where the jobs are. Good idea, however we would have to bring alot of jobs back from India, China, Mexico etc. so people could have a good job. How stupid we have become. I think those jobs should come back. God forbid that we would have to pay a little more at Walmart to purchase a product made in the USA by Americans not by the Chinese. The enemy is us, we have lost our minds.

I think there would be a mass exodus out of the cities as people are tired of the higher taxes, the gangs, the poorly run school systems. Ok,,,sorry for the rant today. Just hate what has become of a good way of life...