Teachers

Boy, teachers are in the news aren't they? Since Wisconsin and Ohio protests and the talk about unions and teacher tenure, the average classroom teacher got thrown into the limelight without permission.

Limes are bitter so it's a bittersweet situation. I am what I am because of my teachers and parents. They are so critical in a child's development yet 40-60% of the children today do not have what I have. Don't you think we are going backwards in some ways?

With budgets broken, the world broken and hurting, now even teachers are being analyzed. It's a sign of the times and not a good one.

Yes we need reform in everything but it gets into a pushing and shoving match. Someone sold the idea of collective bargaining when worker conditions were bad and now you have the unions shoving the guys with the money and those guys are low in funds and the shoving match escalates.

They will have to meet in the middle sometime. Both sides need to concede and you know how hard that is for people. At least we are so far from the stone age but the last 50 years, my lifetime, has seen so many changes.

If people will only work together, we can do this. Now that we have so many problems we really need to work together. I see factions of groups of people that work together but I don't see one solid push to do things right because so many people disagree on how to do it.

It's always been that way, hasn't it? It feels like we became more clanish and groupish to a fault when all along we really needed to work together.

I don't like seeing farmers or teachers getting bashed but some of them earned it. LuAnn and I and so many others have worked so hard not to let that happen.

I am sure you have, too.

Ed Winkle