"School Days, School Days, Good old Golden Rule Days"

Well, it has happened again. A female teacher has had inappropriate relations with one of her male students. Maggie Laughlin, 23, a math teacher at a Mentor, OH junior high school is alleged to have oral sex with a 15-year-old student in late May of 2008. This became known after the eighth or tenth incident. There seems to be an epidemic here as this has often occurred before. In Lexington, NB in August 2006, 25-year-old math teacher, Kelsey Peterson had sex twice with her 13-year-old former student. In October 2006, Sharon Rutherford was convicted of having sex with two students under the age of 16. In February 2005 Pamela Turner, 27, a physical education teacher in Tennessee was charged with statutory rape when she had sex with one of her 13 year old students. In December 2003 a Tampa, FL former model— turned teacher, Debra Lafave, 24, had sex with one of her 14-year-old students. The ultimate case involved Mary Kay Letourneau a Seattle teacher who had sexual relationship with a 12 year old sixth-grader; who once bragged to a classmate that he could "sleep with the teach." Their union eventually produced two children. Letourneau spent more than seven years in jail and then married her lover—21-years her junior.

Coincidence here; I think not! Let's be the devil's advocate (in this case the defendant's advocate), and say these teachers were NOT responsible for their actions. There are at least three videos on YouTube where a teacher has been hypnotized in a classroom situation and filmed. Granted, they were acting as if they were clucking chickens and not performing sexual acts but the fact is they were not themselves and had no control over their minds or bodies.

What could appear to more innocent than a female teacher willing to help her struggling male student with his "problem?" The precocious "child" hypnotizes and seduces her, then leaves her with a post-hypnotic suggestion for further encounters. The unwitting teacher sees her pupil repeatedly not knowing that she is being duped. The events eventually come to light when the man-child cannot control his glee and begins to broadcast his tryst throughout the school. The law views the student as the victim and the hapless teacher as the seductress (which is the furthest from the truth).

A simple act of kindness and professionalism could cost the teacher her job, her career, as well as thousands of dollars in fines, bail money, court costs and legal fees. A young lecherous student whose only aim is self-gratification could ruin her life.

K.

My Life's Partner, My Friend, My Equal

I met a couple today that had been married some fifty-two years who have shared a project that kept them both busy with displaying an egg decorated lawn these past fifty years. Called Eggshellland, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/eggshellland/ for a photo montage, this couple has put their entire free time in emptying, painting, planning designs and building eggshell displays that are up for only an eight day period between Palm Sunday and two days after Easter. Their designs are based on common and popular themes such as Disney and Warner Brothers characters, local sport teams and a perennial, brightly decorated cross.

They are a true husband and wife team, with the wife doing the entire theme designing and planning and her husband, the painting and production. The eggs are painted in 24 brilliant outdoor sign paints called 1Shot, made in Gary, IN. Their children, grandchildren and other interested people have helped with the set up and execution of the design layout. Only four times has the weather threatened their fragile project with hailstones or crushing heavy snow, damaging thousands of brightly painted shells. Vandals have too have had their effect, but only once, a decade ago.

I guess, the real reason for this blog is to tell you about a couple who have decided to put their lives in a fish bowl one a year, for eight days; to let people see, experience and admire their creative talents. They have enjoyed showing their displays just as much as the visitors who have goggled in front of their home during Holy Week. They were not afraid to put themselves out and in some cases, have let others in on their creative venture.

Betty and Ron Manolio, I wish you many more years together in your creative journey as show us your combined talents. You are a couple this world should admire as well as emulate.

K.

"...'cause no matter how far away you roam."

Taking the two statements “there’s no place like home for the holidays,” and “you can’t go home again,” seem to be contradictory. Yet both are very true and can easily coexist. Thanksgiving has come and gone, people have returned home and Christmas 2007 is yet to be. Although we would very much like to go home for the holidays, the home we would to return to really doesn’t exist anymore—it is but a memory locked in our minds. Each of us has preconceived notions about the things we liked best; and one of them is the holidays. The camaraderie, the excitement, the people we’ve met and loved, the whole aurora of the moment, exists only for a single day and then is filed away until it is brought our again the next time.

Yet that very brief time is what each of us lives for, ask the military personnel stationed away from home. Years later that same solder, airmen or sailor will recall that moment way from his loved ones with some fondness especially if they were with companions enjoying that same event. Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, or Fourth of July, it is the moment of happiness and togetherness we crave, After all, are we not social creatures accustomed to being with others of our own kind? The most difficult times are during the holidays. Suicides and depression increase; in some cases, the people who are suffering these experiences are surrounded by other people (in most case not of their own choosing).

With all that in mind, it is extremely important to remember others this holiday season e.g. distant relatives and friends and military people far from home. Email, write, phone or text message letting them know that you are thinking of them and that they are still in your thought and minds.

Have a very blessed Holiday Season and Happy New Year from Mrs. K. and myself.

K.

Taking the two statements “there’s no place like home for the holidays,” and “you can’t go home again,” seem to be contradictory. Yet both are very true and can easily coexist. Thanksgiving has come and gone, people have returned home and Christmas 2007 is yet to be. Although we would very much like to go home for the holidays, the home we would to return to really doesn’t exist anymore—it is but a memory locked in our minds. Each of us has preconceived notions about the things we liked best; and one of them is the holidays. The camaraderie, the excitement, the people we’ve met and loved, the whole aurora of the moment, exists only for a single day and then is filed away until it is brought our again the next time.

Yet that very brief time is what each of us lives for, ask the military personnel stationed away from home. Years later that same solder, airmen or sailor will recall that moment way from his loved ones with some fondness especially if they were with companions enjoying that same event. Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, or Fourth of July, it is the moment of happiness and togetherness we crave, After all, are we not social creatures accustomed to being with others of our own kind. The most difficult times are during the holidays. Suicides and depression increase; in some cases, the people who are suffering these experiences are surrounded by other people (in most case not of their own choosing).

With all that in mind, it is extremely important to remember others this holiday season e.g. distant relatives and friends and military people far from home. Email, write, phone or text message letting them know that you are thinking of them and that they are still in your thought and minds.

Have a very blessed Holiday Season and Happy New Year from Mrs. K. and myself.

K.

Last curtain call, the show is over.

Well, I tried. I wrote several blogs that I thought were relevant to today’s world. But I have to face the facts. MySpace.com, Blogger.com and others like that were designed for the late teen to early thirty group. It’s wasted on everyone else. It’s great for meeting friends of your friends and their friends etc. It’s great source for photo exchange, to show pictures of the relatives, acquaintances, immediate family, vacation sites, parties and so on. Its’ a twenty-first century neighborhood bulletin board. It’s a great source to share trivial, nonsensical information.

It’s a lousy place for developing literary works or to vent your spleen, or getting others to share or critique your views. Who cares what you think, that’s your problem. Live with it; deal with it. Get a life. Where the next party? Did you see so and so? Hot huh?

I feel let down, disappointed, crushed. So if you got any questions about car problems, relationships, money or finances, ask me. Otherwise I’m dead in the water. No propulsion system.

K

More than Just Walking the Dog; It is a Lesson in Life

I notice when I take the dog for our evening walk that everything looks so much different. The streetlights add a whole new dimension to the scene and highlight features that had been glossed over before. When seen from a higher elevation such as a hill or observed from an aircraft returning home from a distant trip, the dark velvet carpet now has sparkling diamonds added to its texture. Some familiar landmarks are masked by the darkness. Others seem more pronounced and visible, things that were always there but were seemingly overwhelmed by the presence of other objects.

Perhaps life itself is like that. We see what we want or choose, or even more philosophical, as culture and style have dictated. Suddenly we see things or even people in a different light. There were there all that time but we had not noticed them. There were obscured, hidden or even overwhelmed by others or other objects around them.

In the movie Family Man, Jack Campbell played by Nichols Cage sees Kate Reynolds, played by Téa Leoni, in a totally differently way even though they had lived together in a "in some sort of parallel universe." Jack sees Kate in a all-together different manner and is astounded.

Kate: How can you do that?
Jack: What?
Kate: Look at me like you haven't seen me every day for the last 13 years.
Kate is flattered and pleased that her husband has suddenly become her admirer as well.

What will it take for us to see the "real" world around us; a different light, a circumstance, situation or belief? Will we appreciate that object or person even more and wonder why we had overlooked the obvious? As the radio announcer from another era used to say to his unseen audience, "tune in tomorrow for another thrilling episode."

K