Irene's Weblog

This morning I was reading a blog post of a friend. I don’t know why it pissed me off so much today, but it did. I’m not linking to the blog for a couple of reasons. First, I dont’ feel the need to embarrass the person. Second, you can only link to the main blog. The template used for that blog is terrible. After five posts, the blog entry disappears and it is not searchable.

Here are some snippets from the blog post that angered me the most.

We all know about Miss America 2011, Teresa Scanlan of Gering.  She returned this weekend to wow the area. The 18-year old has maturity and poise well beyond her years.

Okay, can this town stop with the fucking hero worship for just one damned minute? Miss America was home-schooled and has crazy ideas about science, evolution, and religion. It’s what you would expect from a home-schooled, religious education. Her poise and perceived maturity come from the fact that she has been groomed to behave this way through the numerous beauty pageants that she has participated in. They teach you how to act a certain way so the public likes you more. She even plans on going to an extremely religious college. She will only be educated in how to further deceive the public once she’s done.

To this point God has mapped out a tremendous plan for her.  Teresa will execute His plan to the best of her abilities…and her abilities are endless.

No, her own ambitions have set forth a plan for her. She, and every other christian believer, is delusional in believing that some invisible guy in the sky is making her decisions for her. Her abilities are not endless. This implies that she is able to do anything. That would, in essence, make her a god as well.

April(Wylie) Riesberg did so with much less fanfare than Teresa, but she touched the lives of many with the same passion and purpose as Teresa.

Unfortunately April’s plan lasted just 21-years.  Less than a year ago the Scottsbluff High School and Wayne State College grad was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.  Friday, the journey ended less than a week after her marriage to Josh Riesberg.

Shorten this up, will you? April had Leukemia. It was unlikely she was going to live, but she married Josh anyway. Also, I would like to know how much of what did she exactly do? If by touching people’s lives like Teresa you mean shared the “good” lord’s words, then say it. Don’t imply to me that she was good and not tell me why.

I have never met Josh, but what an incredible man he must be.  The love between he and April was incredible.

You never met him, yet you’re sure their love was incredible. How is this possible? Why is Josh incredible? He did what lots of folks do. They know their spouse is going to die, but they get married anyway. It’s a nice gesture on his part to make April feel better and maybe accomplish one of her life’s goals before she dies, but it doesn’t mean he’s incredible.

She knew what the future had in store for her, but all she could talk about was Josh and the opportunity to marry him.

An opportunity is a good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or success. Does this mean that, had she not had Leukemia, that the chance of marriage would not have arisen?

She smiled and laughed and talked about future plans if she would go into remission.  I knew she had great hope.  She certainly had great faith.

Every single person who has ever been given the news that there is a high probability that they are going to die has high hopes in continuing to live. It also doesn’t matter how much faith in an imaginary friend she has. Nothing, except a sudden advancement in science, was going to save her.

God’s plans for two incredible women, Teresa and April, were so different but yet so similar.

Really? How are they similar? How in the fuck are these two lives even remotely similar? If you believe in a god, then you must believe that it’s okay for that god to strike down and kill a young girl with a terrible disease while the other one gets to travel the world with a silly little crown on her head. After all, that’s his plan.

In their young lives they have touched so many and made a difference to all they have come in contact with.

How? What have they done? I never heard of April until this morning, so I can’t attest to any “touching” she’s done. As for Miss America, she’s just another in a long line of vapid women who have excelled because of her perceived beauty, not her intelligence. What difference does Miss America make? Hell, most of the men in the military that she visited didn’t even want their picture taken with her. Seriously, explain to me how Miss America does anything except travel and put on a pretty face?

April’s work is done.

Again, really? You’re going to stick with the old christian attitude that god put her on Earth for a short time to suffer horribly and never experience anything in life because that’s part of god’s plan for her and that plan is finished right now? It boggles my mind that people continue to believe in this sort of thing instead of looking at reality.

Ugh, this whole thing has set me off today. I find the entire idea of religion detestable. It forces people to stop thinking for themselves and accept that some invisible deity that never helps and never intervenes is making some mysterious plan for your life and you should just accept it. The really sad part is that people who believe like this never truly get to live in the short time that they exist on Earth.

They’re begging for crumbs from the table. Despite the fact that Nebraska’s education performance, as well as teacher pay, is abysmal, the Gering teachers eagerly clamored for the crumbs that were offered to them.

“It’s (contract negotiation) a planning process, it’s stressful,” Hague said. “As a district Gering is doing great stuff and teachers are the front line. We want people to be adequately compensated.”

Until you put your money where your mouth is, it’s all rhetorical bullshit.

“They approved $850 to be added to the base of $30,000 for a total of $30,850,”

If teachers only worked 40 hours per week, this works out to be a $0.44 per hour raise for new hires. Apparently, this is adequately compensated. I’ve had bigger raises working in fast food.

Nebraska is last in the nation – 50th – in the percent of state revenue supporting public schools. Nationally, 47 percent of the funding for public schools comes from state government revenues while Nebraska state government provides 31.4 percent.

Nebraska teachers rank 42nd nationally in average salary at $44,957, lagging the national average by more than $9,375. Just three years ago, Nebraska was ranked 38th.

In Nebraska, teachers make 21 percent less in weekly wages than their four-year college graduate colleagues, and more than $6,000 less on an annual basis.

Teacher pay continues to drop, yet, at least teachers in Gering, continue to accept the lower pay or move on to better paying teaching jobs. If this continues, you will see a further reduction in quality teachers in Gering and those that are just “happy to have a job” will take those positions.

The average starting salary ($29,067) for Nebraska teachers in 2008-09 ranked sixth when compared to average starting salaries paid in contiguous states. Nebraska trailed Wyoming ($40,658), Iowa ($35,508), Kansas ($32,094), Colorado ($30,799), South Dakota ($29,987), and ranked ahead of only Missouri ($28,960).

You are not going to lure high quality teachers to a position that pays far less than the national average. Those that are teaching in Nebraska will end up moving to districts in other states that pay more and have the same relative quality of life statistics. It’s not that hard to recognize.

The problem, however, is that many in the state are happy to see the teachers leave. They don’t care if class size increases and they don’t care what educational programs are reduced or flat out eliminated.

If you want to do something before it’s too late, Think Smart Nebraska has made the job of writing to your elected officials an easy task. You can write a letter or sign a petition. But you must act now, before it’s too late.

It’s a fact that the Gering teachers union isn’t going to stand up and make a fuss. The teachers in the district demonstrated that by approving the latest budget. While not all the teachers voted for it, there were enough that compromised that shows they won’t stand up for what matters. Next year, when the budget takes until April to be settled, you can be assured that the Gering teachers will, again, let everyone walk all over them and accept the measly crumbs that are tossed their way.

I’m not a big fan of censorship. So, when I read the story of the janitor I used to work with being arrested on charges of incest yesterday, I was quite shocked. While the story is shocking, the behavior of the news organization at KNEB is distressing for other reasons. A few hours after reading the story, it was changed. The basics of the story are still there, but some details are different, particularly his bond.

KNEB makes no mention that the story was changed nor do they have the original story online. Instead, they have kept the same link to the story and have erased the original post. This is a form of censorship and it’s shoddy journalism. You do not modify a story unless you notify the readers.

One other aspect of the story that bothers me is this quote.

Elio Torres, who is being held in the Scotts Bluff County jail on a $500,000 bond will appear for arraignment in Scotts Bluff County Court Friday morning with an interpreter.

First, this part was not in the original article.  Second, why does Elio need an interpreter? He became a US citizen several years ago, before I moved to the area. I spoke with him often and, while he has a thick accent, had no problem understanding him. He understood English just fine. It reminds me of Sammy Sosa in front of Congress, suddenly forgetting that he could speak English. Don’t get me wrong, if someone truly needs an interpreter, that’s fine. I just worked with the guy for two years and never had a problem understanding him or he understanding me.

While we are on this story, let me also point something else out.

Gering schools Superintendent Don Hague says Torres, a custodian at Cedar Canyon elementary school, is no longer employed with the district.

For those who work at KNEB and have journalism degrees. You cannot mix tenses. Torres cannot be a custodian at the school and also not employed by the school district. Please proofread your stories. Things like this make you look like amateurs.

EDIT, February 18, 2011: They’ve updated the story, again, and rewritten it.  This is the third change to the story, yet there is no indication that it has been changed.

EDIT, March 1, 2011:  This newspaper is a complete joke.  The original story link now no longer works.  Another story is located here.  It’s not like it costs a lot of money to archive old stories.  It’s just people who don’t know how to run a business.

This morning, we had a sheet of ice covering the roads when we got up.  Paul and I left five minutes early so that we could avoid the morning traffic.  Our normal twelve minute commute took thirty-five minutes.  We spent most of the drive doing 5 MPH.

On the way, the local radio station contacted the guy in charge of roads for the county.  He said that he was stuck at home in Mitchell and had not spoken to anyone from his work yet, but he assumed the roads were just as bad in Gering and Scottsbluff.  This was at 7:05am.  This guy even had the balls to say that he might not put salt on the roads if he thought the salt trucks would be in danger. Meanwhile, everyone else in Gering and Scottsbluff was on their way to work, trying not to wreck their cars.

Well, isn’t this just fucking nice?  I pay taxes so that my city will be safe, but, you don’t want any trucks damaged so the rest of us can go fuck ourselves.  This is the city’s job.  They are supposed to be out before anyone else gets up, ensuring that the roads are clean and safe to drive on.  Instead, I got to witness three spin outs, one stop sign runner, and two cars slide up onto the sidewalks.  None of these cars were speeding and I doubt they were doing more than 10 MPH.  The roads were just that bad.

Once I got to work, I discovered several things.  The buses were late as well.  Several buses had to stop because the roads were so bad.  One bus slid into a fire hydrant.  The last bus arrived just before 1st period ended at 9:05 AM.  Teachers were talking about how bad the country roads were.  Most of the country roads are unpaved and were worse than the paved roads in town.  This is because the ice was on the gravel on the road.  There’s nothing like trying to drive over icy pebbles without flipping your car.

More injury reports came as well.  One teacher slipped outside her house and fractured her skull.  She’s being kept in the hospital at least overnight.  Another teacher slipped and fell down his front steps, causing him to injure his back and several fingers on his right hand.

As of 8am, none of the roads had been cleared.  The city, most likely, will use the jackass excuse that the sun had started to melt the ice by then and that’s justification enough for not putting the salt trucks out.  The superintendent should have called a two hour delay.  It would have been totally justified.  He didn’t though.  I suspect it had something to do with the rumored contest between the Scottsbluff and Gering school superintendents over who is going to blink first and cancel or delay school.

So, we got to have a morning where thousands of lives, many of them young school children, were placed in danger so the city could save a few bucks.  The excuses will abound.  They’ll all be bullshit.  They always are.

Well, it’s been quite a while since I posted.  Work has been really busy.  First, we had state testing to do, which is really boring.  The students think the tests suck and are a waste of time.  I, however, have to stand for 4 hours just watching the students take their exams while the teacher drones on reads in a monotone voice the directions and questions.  This is the worst part of my job and the only time of year I wish I didn’t work with special ed. kids and think about jabbing pencils in my ears.

After trying to stay awake and watch other people take exams, you are really tired when you get home.  I spent several nights falling asleep around 7:30pm.  I was happy when the exams were over.

I also spent a day at WNCC with the 7th graders.  They got to tour the college and see what it’s like.  We also got some kick ass turkey sandwiches and I scored extra fruit because the kids didn’t want theirs.  I figured it was stupid to throw out fresh fruit, so I brought home an extra banana, apple, and orange!

The kids are also very annoying lately, especially the 8th graders.  Everyone just wants the school year to be over.  The weather is getting nice and no one wants to be in a classroom when they could be outside having fun.

Last Friday, Mrs. Keller made the kids touch some worms.  It’s one thing to read in a book how to identify parts of a worm and another to actually see and feel where they are.  They really stunk, but otherwise it was a good introduction to segmented worms.  It’s hard for me to see through the goggles though.  I have to take my glasses off because the goggles jam them to my head.  Sometime in the next week the kids will have to dissect the worm.  I believe they have to do a frog too, but I’m not sure.

Last night, we went to Veronica’s place for food and fun.  Rob always makes great burgers.  I wasn’t feeling too well though so we left earlier than planned.  I feel a bit better today though.

On Wednesday, I’ll be going to Laramie, Wyoming with the 8th graders.  They get to tour the university campus and we’re supposed to have pizza for lunch.  Of course, it won’t be real pizza because we’re not in New York, but I’m sure it will be edible.