Sound Off for Oct. 31
Last week, callers Sounded Off on topics such as quarantining students and teacher pay raises.
Ridiculous guidelines
I just wanted to sound off about the Geneva leaf pick-up guidelines and potential fines involved and number of pick-ups. Again, the guidelines are ridiculous. The city parkways are to be maintained by the homeowners and it's basically the city trees that are depositing leaves and if they want to keep them on our parkway and kill our grass until the next pick-up, they should have way more pick-ups. It's ridiculous the city's leaf pick-up program does not rival any neighboring city guidelines. I don't know where our taxes are going but they certainly aren't being allocated in the right direction.
Very nice money
In response to "Geneva teachers" in last week's Sound Off, I don't know about Geneva teachers but Kaneland teachers are having a swell time at our expense. In the contract approved last fall, teachers got 4.86 percent raises this year and will get 6.21 percent next year and 5.6 percent the following year. Those look anything like your pay increases? And when you consider that most of Kaneland's teachers are in the $40,000 to $60,000 range, and many making lots more, that's very nice money.
Quarantine students
I believe that when a school is closed because of concerns about a contagious health problem, all students should be quarantined in their homes to prevent them from possibly spreading the disease to the general public at places like malls and other buildings.
Medicare conspiracy
I'm calling in regard to the article entitled "Get rid of Medicare." I agree that the government should not run the health care system. This person also states we should get rid of the Medicare and the Veterans Administration. If it were not for the veterans, many of whom were injured or disabled in the service of this country, we would not be living in a free country. As his education and history is lacking, he never heard of Hitler, Stalin, Tojo or of Pearl Harbor. He is a product of our underworked, overpaid educators who did not learn or pay attention in the history classes. As to Medicare, it is a product of conspiracy by the drug companies, doctors and lawyers.
Lack of outreach
As an Army Vietnam veteran, the various veterans' groups showed no interest in me. My service was in support, which is 80 percent of all soldiers with the balance being on the front line. My unit was not part of the 1st Cav or the Big Red One but a support unit that the veterans never heard of. Because I had no war stories to tell, after the first contact, there was no follow-up. In the minds of the veteran groups or any other organization, there is a lack of outreach and there is too many inward cliqueishness.
Doesn't matter
I'm calling regarding the story in the Oct. 24 paper, "St. Charles East student faces charges in crash" by Jonathan Bilyk. I think the story is horrible. The story talks about a student that goes to St. Charles East and they were off of school Wednesday through Friday because of all of the kids calling in sick. That has nothing to do with the story. The story, according to this, took place at 9:30 at night. That has nothing to do with the kids being off of school. The story says that his alcohol was .058 and the legal limit is .08. That doesn't matter either. The fact is he has been drinking and had alcohol and marijuana in his system and he caused an accident when he didn't have a valid license and he went away from the scene. What does that have to do with the kids being off of school? I think that Jonathan who wrote the story should do a better job in writing it because it has nothing to do with the kids being off of school.
Lunch ideas
If Geneva teachers are providing lunches for students who forget theirs, those teachers should use their noodles, pun intended. The school my foster children attend has large jars of PB & J and a tin of raisins and a note goes home with every student served, asking for 50 cents. At a Catholic school I worked at, the children in the student's class were asked to share their lunches with the forgetful one and I never heard of a student going hungry. At the school my son teaches at, which has a cafeteria, parents are asked for $3 in emergency money at the start of the year. If it isn't used, it goes back to the parents. Now that's using your noodle.
Only one Fox
I'm calling about the Democrats criticizing Fox News for being an arm of the Republican Party. What about the Democrats' arm? They have CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS and NPR. So they have many more spokespeople for them than what the Republicans have. The Republicans only have one, Fox News.
No free lunch
Without tort reform, there can be no real health care reform. Anyone who believes otherwise should remove their rose-colored glasses. There is no free lunch. The current administration has two choices, neither of which is desirable, raise taxes and/or ration services.
Unique decorations
I'm always annoyed to hear people whine about how teachers have to buy things for their classrooms. They don't have to spend an extra dime and many don't. I taught for a decade and if I needed decorations, I'd send a note home with the kids, asking if anyone had something they would like to donate or display. Often I got collections, of coins or buttons or bugs, that were much more unique than anything I could buy or put together myself. I always had much more than I could use and shared with other teachers who did the same thing.
