Being thankful for bad things
It is the beginning of five days off. My Thanksgiving holiday if you will.
In days past I would be thrilled to have five days off for Thanksgiving. These days I am not so thrilled. Happy? Yes. Thrilled? No. The reason is simple: Money. Or a lack thereof. Payday is sometime between Saturday and next Monday. Payday actually is a week from Thursday but since I have direct deposit, my money usually shows up on the Saturday before. Or the Monday. It’s like magic. Bad magic.
I don’t know if this is an item falling under the “something to be thankful for” list, but it is somewhat of a relief for those of us whose government work (part-time in my case) carries us into some sort of a regular setting outside of the office.
Authorities in Kentucky have finally ruled the death of part-time Census worker Bill Sparkman as a suicide. Sparkman, as you might remember, was found dead in the woods nude and with a rope around his neck. The words “Fed” had been written in pen on his chest and his government ID was taped to his neck. His hands had been bound with duct tape. Police have determined Sparkman staged his death to appear as a homicide in order that his family could collect his insurance policies.
We will have to take the Kentucky authorities’ word for it that it was indeed a self-inflicted death. I guess if other government workers turn up with bizarre deaths then perhaps law enforcement folks will want to take yet another look at this death as well.
Some of our prominent loud-mouth right-wing nuts got all bent out of shape when people started pointing fingers at them for Sparkman’s death. I can see that. But there are plenty of people with animosity toward the government out there. Hell, the government pisses me off sometimes. But not to the point that some folks are enraged. Remember, Tim McVeigh didn’t start anti-government domestic terrorism just as Osama bin Laden didn’t start jihadist terror.
My advice to Census and other government field workers is the same advice I give myself. Be aware of your surroundings. Leave yourself an escape route. Trust your instincts. If a place and people make you uncomfortable for some reason, avoid that place. Go back and talk to a superior about it or a co-worker. And be as nice as you can be … to your web-footed friends because that duck might be somebody’s mother.
Second in the “thankful for” category: The Texans-Titans game last night. Being a Texans fan, I’m glad as heck that game is over. Two games in a row almost Mr. Perfect kicker Kris Brown missed a field goal that could have put the Texans into overtime. The first time was with undefeated Indianapolis.
But goat times two that Brown might be, he didn’t lose either game alone. Titans quarterback and former Texas QB sensation Vince Young did some fancy footwork that made the Texans defensive line look as if they had come only to watch the game. It’s good for the Titans they had Young going for them because they didn’t have much else. Although, the Texans could have done much better. They could have been sitting in the playoff catbird seat, whatever that is. Oh well, 5-5 once again. That’s even-Steven. Be thankful for that at least.
One certain prediction in health care debate
If I were to say I knew everything there was to know about the Democratic health reform plan, then I think you could pretty easily say that I was lying about such a statement.
The truth is that I, like probably millions of Americans, know little about the plan which originally targeted health insurance of some kind for all our citizens.
But I think deductive reasoning will get one toward some pretty good suppositions about some of the proposed features of the plan floating around out there. I say “suppositions,” not “suppositories,” although I am sure the latter would be an apt word to help describe what Republicans would like the Democrats to do with the plan.
With respect to the so-called “public plan” that polls show Americans favor, it should be easy to see that the only way any kind of positive change will happen is through some kind of a public options. Perhaps the majority of those polled like a public plan because they want health care available to all Americans and the public plan will be the only way such a plan would fly. If you have no public plan, you have the status quo, which is nada.
Another non-starter is the ability for states to opt out. In red states such as Texas, where I live, the state legislature would never pass a public plan no matter how much the voting public wanted it. Why some state leaders, like our screwball governor, think the state should pull out of the whole United States. Public health insurance in Texas if it is not mandated? You got to be jivin’ me.
I may not know a lot about the health reform package but I know if you let states skate on major issues those states will never capitulate until the greater republic decides enough is enough and some form of carrot-stick approach is used to bring the states into line. When I talk about carrot-stick, I refer to examples such as the federal government withholding highway funds until states pass stricter auto or public safety laws. The seat belt and 18-year-old drinking laws come to mind. Pick your own congressional blackmail.
So we shall see what we shall see in the next month or so. I can’t see too far off in the future but I do have one prediction that will probably hit with near-perfect accuracy. That is, I predict everyone will not be happy when the health reform debate is done. How’s that for sticking my neck on the line?
How much hoohah will shooting by school cop bring?
An officer from our local school police force shot and killed a man near a school this morning in what the Beaumont Independent School District calls “self-defense.”
Police Sgt. Don Gordon was on what was characterized as a “routine check” near the Paul Brown and Pathway schools when he ran into a disturbance, said a Beaumont ISD press release. The shooting happened off the campus near the intersection of Pope and St. Helena streets
A “black male” allegedly attacked Gordon as the officer prepared to investigate the fracas. The police officer “had no recourse but to pull his weapon and defend himself,” BISD police chief Clydell Duncan said in the press release. The 26-year-old who was fatally wounded in the shooting was identified as Matthew Beckett of Beaumont, according to the Beaumont Enterprise.
The officer supposedly used pepper spray on Beckett before shooting him, according to KBTV-TV. The news station quoted school district spokeswoman Jessie Haynes as saying Beckett appeared to be high on drugs. No other reports have surfaced this afternoon concerning whether Beckett pulled a weapon on Gordon, prompting the officer to use deadly force.
This is the first fatal shooting for the department, which began patrolling schools and areas near the schools two years ago. The agency has more than 20 officers.
Beaumont ISD has seemed to be continually in the media spotlight, or crosshairs, depending on how one see it during the past several years. The school district has an enrollment of more than 19,000. The district pays its superintendent, Dr. Carrol Thomas, more than $320,000 per year, which makes him one of the best paid school administrators in Texas if not the most well-paid.
Thomas and his advocacy of a multi-million dollar bond issue have been lightning-rods for criticism during the past year or two. Usually, discussions in online comment sites about Thomas and the district end up with the subject of race. Thomas is black as is four of seven school board members. Some would say that shouldn’t come as a big shock since the population of Beaumont is 47.2 percent black compared to a 44.1 percent white make-up, according to Census figures.
One may only expect this shooting, regardless of what the facts from the investigation bring, will stir the BISD controversy pot even more. One also might hope for race not to inflame this latest incident since both the police officer involved as well as the victim are both black. But one shouldn’t hold their breath. This is Beaumont where everything seems racial these days.
A hair-raising Texas governor's race?
Hair could be the focal point of the race for Texas governor in the 2010 General Election. That is, such might ring true if Gov. Rick “Good Hair” Perry gets by U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican Primary and if whomever ends up running for the Democratic nod gets beaten by Houston Hair-care mogul Farouk Shami.
Shami, who made millions producing the Chi hair-care line, is scheduled to announce his candidacy today in Houston for the Democratic Primary. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in a rags-to-riches life after coming to the states from Jordan.
His ethnicity and support of some pro-Palestinian efforts have raised doubts about whether he has a chance especially in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings, allegedly by a Muslim Army psychiatrist from the Middle East. Of course, given Texas containing a little bit of the world inside its borders, Shami can always insist the Palestinian support that he doled out was given to people in Palestine, Texas. The East Texas city is about halfway between Dallas and Houston. It also is the hometown of the star Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.
If anything comes up about any fiscal or other types of connections Shami might have in China, Italy or Paris, he’s got that covered too, what with cities bearing those names within the Texas state boundaries.
Perry versus Shami for governor? Expect some hairy jokes.