Don't Blame D150 For Guns

I'm sick of the District 150 blame game.

It's the STREETS of the Southside, East Bluff, and other urban areas of Peoria that are jam-packed with guns and knives and clubs and shivs. Why are we surprised this stuff enters our schools? What are we expecting?

What we have is a cultural and sociological problem, people. It's well beyond a school problem. It's like someone on the Titanic getting pissed because the waiter won't seat them when the ship is going down. There's a bigger problem to be addressed! And until the culture issues are adequately dealt with, the problem will never leave our schools. Ever. Period. Finito.

You can put in metal detectors, sniffing dogs and psychics in our schools, for all I care, and you're still only addressing the symptoms.

So where's that leave 150? In the crapper, unfortunately -- at least as it pertains to violence in our schools. And now their new truancy program (laudable as it might be) is nearly guaranteeing that the troubled gun-toting gang-banging thugs will continue to share the same classrooms, restrooms, lunchrooms and hallways as your kids and mine.

Screw race. That's not what I'm talking about. The vast majority of the black, white, yellow and brown kids in 150 are working their butts off and being...well...kids. But the element that believes they should be playing an active role in the war-zones that are our neighborhoods? Those kids...well...are still just kids, too. But they're kids that are loaded guns carrying loaded guns that are willing to fire loaded guns.

I sure don't have any answers. But I do know that finding that answer must first begin with addressing the real issues. And the leadership and policies of District 150 are not the issue. They're just the waiters, fighting like the rest of us to do some good while struggling to remain afloat.

Maybe we all are.

And Speaking of Masochists...

Funny thing about sado-masochism:

If a masochist asks to be beaten, wouldn't a true sadist refuse?

Just more hypocrisy, I say.

Beat em, don't beat em, I don't care. Just call it what it is.

I'd Like To Thanks The Academy...

Actually, thanks to two of my favorite bloggers for pointing to my new site.

• Bill Dennis @ The Peoria Pundit, and
  
  
• Polly @ Polly Peoria
  

It's nice to be welcomed to the neighborhood. Bill went so far as to label me competition. Don't see that happening. I don't care enough to even try!

(Besides, who wants to sit through every council meeting...and not even get paid to do it!?!? Methinks Bill's a bit of a masochist.)

Forrest Hell Road

How can the State of Illinois (i.e., bloated bureaucracy) complete a new freeway faster than the city of Peoria can patch a single frickin road?

I'm talking about Forrest Hill between Gale and Sterling. It's been a mess now for two years, and I can't begin to count the times I've almost driven headlong into on-coming traffic. Warning! One out of five drivers miss the cue that their lovely four lane road suddenly turns into two. Silly me. I would have imagined the orange barrels would have given the secret away.

Get off your ass, Public Works. Gimme a road!

A Blogging We Will Go

When it comes to blogging, I'm what talk radio would call a "first-timer, long-timer". In other words, I've been reading the local blogs for awhile, now, but this is the first time I've ever dipped my toe into the ion-infested cyber waters, so to speak.

I figure Polly, Willy, Vonster and, of course, the Pundit shouldn't get to have all the fun.