Making a (small) difference

As the father of two boys, I have lamented the decline of civil society here before, including the lack of men behaving as men, lack of manners being taught to children, and the increasing willingness of men and women alike to leach off of others.

These are all big issues, and admittedly I have no idea how to combat them on a big scale.

However, the story I have today is just a tiny tale, a mere vignette. And maybe if it says anything, it’s that you or I don’t need to combat these issues on a ‘big’ scale, if ALL of us combat them on a small one.

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On Saturday, I’d left the local shopping mall and was now in my car at the end of a lengthy line, waiting for the traffic light to change. Once the signal finally turned green, I noticed that my lane was hardly moving at all.

After a second, a third, and then a fourth cycle of the traffic light, I finally made it down close enough to see what the problem was: a car (containing a mother with her three kids) was stopped in my lane with her hazard lights on.

Virtue or Vice: Setting an Example for our Children to follow….

What is wrong with our culture?

From the Associated Press, via WEAU.com:

RACINE, Wis. (AP) –Two employees of a Racine child care center are facing felony child abuse charges.

Police say a video surfaced on social media showing three young children restraining and beating a 2-year-old boy at the Bundle of Blessings Kid Kare center last month.

Sgt. Jessie Metoyer says one of the employees, a 22-year-old Caledonia woman, is the mother of two of the children who physically assaulted the toddler. Metoyer says the three children held down the 2-year-old and punched and kicked him. Police say the video was taken by one of the two women.

The Caledonia woman and a 23-year-old Racine woman are each charged with child abuse by failing to prevent bodily harm. Both women appeared in court Friday and remain in jail.

Metoyer says the 2-year-old is doing OK.

When I first heard this, I didn’t know what to think. Punching and kicking a 2-year-old? And the daycare worker films it, and then posts it to Facebook??

Sadly, yes…

Food Freaks

One of the very first posts we ever did here concerned folks who take their appreciation for cuisine to a level to which I simply can’t relate.

I mention it because I recently was privy to a conversation where two such people were complaining to each other about the lack of locally available Arame (it goes on a salad, I guess?) and then began trading superlatives over the palatability of something called Bottarga (no clue…). When one of them began to discuss how Haggis was literally wrecking their marriage, I left the room.

Hey, I’m a simple guy with simple tastes. If food does it for you, knock yourself out. It’s only when it starts to ruin other people’s lives that I have to draw the line.

Which is what made me think of this post from last April. And so, here it is:

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Let’s get it straight who I’m talking about first. Not “foodies”: Food FREAKS. Cause I’m definitely not referring to your normal, everyday person who just likes food, or really good food, …or even kinda weird food (e.g. my Bottarga aficionados above).

I couldn’t care less if somebody DVR’s the Food Network during the day, or if their kitchen looks like it’s ready to handle tonight’s dinner crowd at the Four Seasons.

NOT my kitchen (…just in case you were wonderin’...)