Riggins take on the issues

Before I get to today’s comments, I need to make a correction of sorts from the last column. In that writing I chastised the school board for not being aware of budget shortfalls until the tentative budget was put forth. Apparently, reduction in force (RIF) notices were to be sent, but an employee neglected to do so within deadline constraints. The board was aware of budget issues. I concede the point.

That does, however, raise another question. Why was the deadline missed? Numerous possibilities come to mind. It could have been unintentional, which is negligence. It could have been intentional, such as that employee acting on direction other than the Board’s. It doesn’t really matter.

The main question I have is “Why is that employee still employed?” I don’t know who it is and don’t need to. An employee who misses such an important assignment should be fired. I daresay that if Carolyn Ross (ex-superintendent) were still there, the howls for dismissal would be incessant. That is not a defense of Ross, merely an illustration of a lack of consistency.

Anyway, on to other issues. Comedian Jim Norton recently said to the Progressive Left, “You have become what you hated.” His comments pointed out that progressives have become like the conservative book burners of the 50s and 60s.

His comments included, “You are the speech repressors, you are the hypersensitive ones, you are the ones who want people fired immediately, you are the ones calling for people’s jobs.”

That has needed said for some time. It is, however, in my mind a sad commentary of our time that only a comedian can get away with such statements without a quick and vicious backlash from the left and its media. If anyone else made those statements they would be turned into pariahs.

There is no doubt that political correctness is taking over our society. For example, recently a school sent home a flyer for an end-of-school activity that included games. Parents were outraged that the activity was touted as the games being in a non-competitive spirit. And of course we have all heard about school restrictions on how children can play during recess. Anything involving the perception of violence is not allowed at many schools. You know, things like cops and robbers, pointing fingers like guns (now a Level 2 weapon is some areas), and anything else that might allow boys to be boys.

The city of La Vista, Nebraska, recently held a Memorial Day celebration they called Faith and Freedom Day. It included as one of the events a memorial service sponsored by a local church. An atheist activist group objected. One member approached the mayor with the complaint that the activity crossed the line of separation between church and state.

There are two versions of the event. The one by the atheist is that he approached the mayor in a calm and non-confrontational way. The mayor says the approach was adversarial from the outset. Believe who you want. The important thing is that the mayor told the atheist to take him to court and that “minority groups”, which I assume to mean groups with limited participants and not ethnic minorities, were not going to run his town. The interesting thing is that this occurred too late for a court hearing. In other words, how could the event have been stopped? Go, mayor.

Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson is back in the news. Last week he was in the news about an April sermon that was less than open about homosexuality. The left wing media was furious, but it didn’t get much traction. A&E chose to ignore this one. Phil Robertson hasn’t changed his position. You know what to expect from him.

Saturday, Robertson was honored at the Louisiana Tech commencement ceremony for the annual Tower Medallion, an award chosen by its alumni. Three college professors chose to walk out of the ceremony. What, only three? Maybe political correctness is finally running its course.

Finally, Memorial Day has past, but here is someone else who understands how to stay the course. The commencement speech at the University of Texas was given by alumnus Adm. William McRaven, a Navy SEAL. The message is powerful and appropriate and is worth a listen. You can find it by searching YouTube. Encourage your graduating seniors to listen as well. The speech is about 20 minutes but doesn’t seem that long when you listen. If we only had that clarity of message from our president.

Tom Riggins is an LVN columnist.