Le Sequoit

Key a Hummer Today

Things are a bit hectic right now, so I'm going to toss an oldie in so's you don't think I've lost interest.

I've finished What's the Matter with Kansas? and have ordered some books from the other camp. In that so many conservatives look to me like momma's boys (some of them even call thier wives "mommy", for cryin' out loud), I'm waiting for the mail to bring One Nation, Two Cultures by Gertrude Himmelfarb, mommy of Bill Kristol.

Coming also in this package is Bobos in Paradise, by the oft-mentioned David Brooks. I don't know anything about his mommy. Just so the mailman doesn't drop this package on his right foot I have ordered Lies My Teacher Told Me : Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, by James W. Loewen. Although "everything" sounds a bit bold, it seems like a must-read.

Anyway, the point was to slip in a rerun and cut. This was a letter that found its way into the Milwaukee Journal in 2001, my reaction to a story about the difficulties kids and moms were having with school transit issues.

What about the environment?

I read with great interest Meg Kissinger's article about parental pickup at school, but was disappointed that the issue of environment was not addressed in any way.

Each day, as I make my way around traffic at the local high school, I grow a little more depressed at the sight. It's not enough that across America, millions and millions of gas-guzzling suburban assault vehicles are unnecessarily spending millions of hours warming up and idling. Additionally, we are contributing to the next generation's increased blindness to alternatives.

Ironically, the very people who are our hope can most easily be efficiently transported, but they are not.

There are sports heroes and academic heroes. There are also a few high schoolers who recognize the waste and harm of our ways, and walk or ride the bus voluntarily.

Those are my heroes.

In the words of a particular favorite of mine, Linda Ellerby, "And so it goes."

posted by sequoit @ 9:20 AM