Friday Funday: Strange Days Indeed

There comes a time of year for most people in temperate climates when folks realize Spring has actually begun to arrive, and it isn't just a cruel tease before more miserably cold weather returns.

For us, we notice it when our staff members leave buildings without the perfunctory cursing, under their breath or otherwise.

We each look forward to the beauty of spring foliage; the cherry blossoms in our DC location, and the goldenrod and cottonwood trees in Lincoln. We also keep coming back to the fact that the more things change, the more other things stay the same.

We're planning a few changes of our own, soon - although it won't be anything that will result in any serious changes for you, our readers.

There are challenges involved in these changes though, and that may mean a few days away for us, both from the drawing board and the computers.

Still, our overall mood as we head into this weekend is one of relative positivity.

We're not the only ones who seem to be feeling it.

There's a cat in the neighborhood of one of our staff members, who has been less than cordial this winter. This pretty orange and white tabby would sit, huddled against a building or near a car, looking cold and uncomfortable but not unkempt or otherwise homeless. All winter long, she'd watch our staffer hurriedly shuffle from car to house and back again, with a stare that seemed to be filled with jealousy for our warm coats and homes. She'd occasionally come around our vehicles - we'd see paw prints in the snow - but she'd never get closer to us than a few car lengths.

Then something happened recently when the weather really seemed to break, and began to turn warmer.

At first this neighborhood cat would saunter past our staff member's driveway, near the car but not too near, whenever we'd come or go. Then a few days later, she came closer yet. Finally, this semi-feral cat began greeting our staffer every time the door opened, rubbing up against our legs, purring, and patiently waiting to be petted.

The cat's mood appears to have changed, as has our own.

By the way - did we mention this staff member is generally a dog person?

Springtime certainly puts something into the air (other than the irradiated particles we may find this year) that can change even the most dogged traits we each carry.

Whatever it is that's making us feel this way, we hope you also get a whiff of Spring this weekend.

Tsunami Of Stupid

While today is indeed St. Patricks Day (and we hope you remembered to wear green today), for millions of teachers and students across the country, it's just another school day.

It's also another day to wonder if they'll have jobs - or teachers - next school year.

From California to New York, from Texas and Arizona to Ohio and Pennsylvania, state and local governments have painted themselves into the kind of political corner on the twin issues of taxes and schools that we've been warning of for years now. We understand from both sides of the classroom how important great teachers are, to both our individual futures and to our future as a nation.

Sadly, as a country, America constantly complains that our children are not growing up to compete well against young adults in other countries. Yet when reports are released - like the one released this week, from the Programme for International Student Assessment - that say we should pay teachers more and respect them more, the response from state and local authorities across the country seems to come from the idiots at the back of the class: they say, "It's not a revenue problem, it's a problem with teacher pay."

We could respond like some of the more aggressive teachers we've known, and try to use words to beat that kind of stupidity out of people. We could simply continue to throw facts and further studies at our readers which support our position, as well as common logic.

Unfortunately, we doubt that would help.

From Michigan to Kansas, and Florida to Pennsylvania, the reason for these cuts has become as obvious as a tidal wave. Kids and teachers must suffer, so that big business and corporations can get their tax cuts.

There are people who have memory issues, who simply can't learn because their ability to remember things has been seriously compromised. We understand that kind of medical issue exists and feel a great deal of sympathy sympathetic towards people afflicted with such conditions.

However, we don't believe that's the problem with politicians and legislators across the country.

We believe that these politicians are so hubristic that they don't believe corporations will do to them what corporations have been doing across America for many, many, many years.

Corporations will eventually almost always threaten to leave a community if they're forced to pay more in taxes - even if that means simply paying their fair share as a member of the community. Asking them to do otherwise is asking a tiger to remove its own stripes, or asking a scorpion not to sting.

Corporations are not in the business of educating students or directly valuing education. They are in the business of making money. Spending money on anything - be it taxes, wages, or capital improvements to increase worker safety - is an action that works against that goal. If we keep that in mind, it's obvious that corporations will threaten to leave if they're forced to pay more. As history has shown, some of them will take their jobs and leave, whether their taxes are cut or not. Some won't.

Local and state governments need to remember: their job is not to coddle businesses to the point where they hurt their own citizens. The job of government is to make sure their state or their community provides an environment that wise businesses and corporations will choose to locate in - complete with well-educated workers. If some corporations choose to leave, others can always be brought in.

Kids will always need high-quality education, regardless of whether there are corporations in their communities.

Of course, if you were lucky enough to have good teachers back in the day, you probably already knew that.

Is There Anything To Worry About in Japan? Yes. And Here Too.

We must admit; we've been pushing off this commentary for the better part of a week now, for multiple reasons - including that the more research we did, the less we liked what we found.

In short, there is a great deal to worry about regarding the combination of natural and man-made disasters going on in Japan. Thankfully, most of what you've been hearing from the fearmongers in the media aren't the things you need concern yourself with. For example, Godzilla won't be crawling from the waste tank of one of the affected power plants any time soon.

What you SHOULD be worrying about are the reactors here in the U.S., and how vulnerable they really are. What's more, you should know that the U.S. government, for the most part, already knows how dangerous many of the nuclear facilities around the country are.

Unsurprisingly, the nuclear reactors in the U.S. that are most at risk of going through something similar to what is going on in Japan were reactors that were cheaply designed, and cheaply built. In fact, 23 reactors in the U.S. are of the same design as the reactors now failing in Japan - the G.E. Mark 1 design.

We spoke with David Lochbaum, Director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, as have many of our colleagues in the media recently. Mr. Lochbaum is an expert who continues to sound the warning that nuclear power plants in the U.S. are vulnerable, and that steps need to be taken to reduce the risks involved with nuclear power. He confirmed that our worries are more on target than the hype many media outlets are pushing, from both the left and the right.

We all understand the growing hunger for electrical power, both here in the U.S., and around the world. Neither we nor Mr. Lochbbaum - or in fact, most scientists who have thoroughly studied nuclear power - seem to think nuclear power should be completely removed as an option for future power needs.

That being said, before considering it any further, we need to take care of the disasters waiting to happen that exist in our communities already. We need to repair - or get rid of - those facilities that cannot be made substantially more secure. We need to find a proper and effective way to dispose of or reuse nuclear waste. And it's worth saying a second time that we need to do ALL of these things before we even consider any further nuclear power development.

You've heard it said by us a thousand times: anything worth doing is worth doing well. Nuclear power, in general, has not been done well at all.

The nuclear disasters going on in Japan right now could have been avoided. Better plans could have been established, better facilities built, better disaster scenarios implemented. As many have said, the reactors survived both the earthquake and the initial tsunami wave. What they did not survive was the failure of those who were supposed to be responsible, and instead chose to take higher short-term personal gain, while everyone else in society got stuck with the real tab for nuclear power mismanagement.

In the future, we doubt that will happen again.

For now, if the question is, are we are concerned about the issue of nuclear power being safe? The answer is still yes.

If the question, however, is: "Are we running out and buying iodine tablets because of what's going on in Japan?" No, we're not.

There is no magic pill any of us can take to fix the problems that stretch before us.