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Opinion
Letters to the editor
Top Headlines with a student at KP To the editor: A student approached me the other day to ask why I was leaving my position as assistant principal at King Philip and to ask me to stay. I did my best to explain that what I was really passionate about was curriculum and instruction, and that I wanted a job where I could focus more on the nuts and bolts of what goes on in the classroom. I don’t think I got the message across as clearly as I would have liked, but the exchange made me chuckle. This was a kid whom I had assigned quite a few detentions and even a few suspensions. Why should this person, whose interaction with me was almost exclusively for negative reasons, care if I stayed at all? When I really thought about it, it made some sense. The students of today are nothing if not resilient. I look back on my days in high school and marvel at how easy it was. Today’s kids are faced with far more than we: high stakes testing, gloomy economy, war abroad and violence here in America. The college admission process is far more competitive now than when I was going through it. Why should these students be deterred by a detention? They have other things to worry about. In an uncertain world, our students continue to do remarkable things. At King Philip I have seen students lead a movement to raise awareness about Darfur. I have seen the seniors brighten the holidays for Brockton youths at the annual holiday party. I have seen several athletic teams win sportsmanship awards. I have seen students pass the MCAS, despite having restless nights of worry leading up to it. I understand that teenagers aren’t perfect and that they often make mistakes that leave us scratching our heads. I just want to say how hard it is to focus on those mistakes when I see they’re accomplishing incredible things while enduring great adversity. What that student did the other day was reach out to someone whose job was to assign consequences for his missteps. Remarkable. Jamie Vitonis Mansfield Catholics should follow creed in the ballot box To the editor: “Catholic voters help boost Clinton campaign” (March 13) exposes the sad truth of many Catholics today — the “what’s in it for me” philosophy. This failure to live their faith for a “few crumbs” thrown their way is a disgrace and shameful. No matter what else she promises, Hillary (and Obama) both strongly support abortion, same-sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research — all anathema to Catholic beliefs. She/he have promised to appoint Supreme Court Justices who are liberal, much like Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and it is from this body we received the soul-killing curse of Roe v. Wade. Beside these promises, everything else pales to nothingness and brings to mind the Biblical story of one who sold his inheritance for a pittance. This is what “cafeteria Catholics” are doing today in choosing to support anti-Catholic politicians. Indeed, the vast majority of representatives and senators who call themselves Catholic are a dishonor to the church and should be strongly urged to change their stances or leave — including the turncoat, Ray Flynn. Patricia Stebbins East Sandwich Economy clearly needs more gasoline in tanks To the editor: If our government really wants to do something about our economy, they could start with forcing fuel prices down. Can we guess how many of us are curtailing spending on other commodities like clothing, food, eating out, to mention a few, because a choice must be made on how we spend our wages? With home heating oil racing toward double its low last year and gasoline well over $3 per gallon, is it any wonder that retail sales of other products are suffering? Something can be done by our government to stop this. Why then has it not happened? Why haven’t garment or food producers said to oil companies “why are you doing this to us?” Our very culture is suffering a different kind of terrorism — economic. If this is war, then let us, while we are still able, fight back! Our government absolutely must drive oil prices down before it destroys everything that previous generations of Americans paid so dearly for. In the ’60s, then Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev said we would “destroy ourselves from within.” Is this it? Only an insensitive, non-caring government would allow this to happen. Do we really believe that those seeking our presidency are any different from those before them? Maybe so. Two of them have no experience at all! That fact may be better for America. Doug Gobin Attleboro We need better than make-believe budget To the editor: It has been widely announced that Gov. Patrick is counting on $300 million from three pretend casinos which have not been approved, licensed or built for his 2009 budget. I wonder if anyone has informed him that the Twin River Casino, right over the Massachusetts border in Lincoln, R.I., is performing so badly it has been unable to make its loan payments. Pretending that we have three casinos and adding imaginary revenue to the state budget allows Gov. Patrick to spend now and pretend we can pay for it later. This is a receipe for finanacial disaster. If Barack Obama wins and fulfills the rumor that the governor is on the short list for a cabinet post, the money will come due and Patrick will be waving to us from his Cadillac en route to Washington. At that point, we will have a $300 million dollar problem and he will be far from the problem. This foolishness should be stopped now, before we spend money we do not have. Gov. Patrick needs to propose budgets that are real, not wishful thinking. Gary Johnson North Attleboro One problem’s solution breeds another problem To the editor: Your editorial and news items concerning the proposed surcharge on plastic bags at supermarkets had me recalling the old adage, “what goes around, comes around.” Prior to the 1970s, everyone used paper bags without a problem. Suddenly, however, we had Earth Day and “ecologists” telling us how we are destroying the forests by using all those trees to make paper bags. So, enter the plastic sack. Environmentally friendly, they said. We’ll kill fewer trees. And the public gladly switched. Fast forward to 2008. Some of the same “ecologists” are now telling us that using paper is more friendly to the planet than the plastic they extolled three decades ago. Seems they forgot to tell us back then that the stuff doesn’t mix well in a landfill. Wait a minute....McDonald’s discovered that 20 years ago! What happened? I don’t know, but we are now back to square one. The humble paper grocery bag will once again be the preferred choice...until they invent something else! See you in 30 years. Richard D. Perez Norton Take another look at homeschooling case To the editor: Anna DeMarinis attributes the court decision banning homeschools in California to politics (“Be wary of California home school ruling,” March 15). Her understanding of education, however, seems to be completely derived from talk radio and other demogogic media. It turns out the court decision had more to do with child abuse than ideology. Homeschooling came to the court’s attention because one family abused the freedom to keep children at home using the guise of a home school. Attorneys petitioned to remove the children from an abusive home environment and to send them to a public school. The appeals court was confronted with a practice that essentially skirted the law as it was intended. The judges refused to turn a blind eye to the practice of parents registering as a “school” with their children being the only students. By any stretch of the imagination, a home school is not comparable to a district school system to which the law refers. The judges were unwilling to overlook the loophole through which homeschools have operated for many years. The bottom line: 1.Judges unanimously enforced existing law to protect children. 2. The state constitution is unaffected. 3. Although there will be a short term disruption, the homeschooling community will get the law amended so they can go back into business. Homeschooling exists in every state, so it is unreasonable to think it won’t be reinstated in California. Parents should be allowed the freedom to homeschool as long as there are safeguards to protect children from negligent or grossly incompetent parents. Kenneth Watson Foxboro
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Anna DeMarinis wrote on Mar 23, 2008 10:54 AM: