He swings in on rope, not asking what the other end is attached to, sword in hand and feather sticking out of his hat. He lands in the midst of the crowd and challenges them all. “I’m back and I’m disgusted with what I am finding!” No one moves or speaks, they just stare, a look of puzzlement on their faces.

Ok, maybe it is not that dramatic but that would be cool! Ok, maybe not the green tights or the pointed leather booties. (We’re men, we’re men in tights. Yeah, tights!) I know, it has been a long time since my last post, my apologies. But it has been a very long time for me. The things I’ve seen, the stuff I’ve done… Ok, briefly, for those that are going to ask.

Since my last post I have seen drag queens, zombies, hypocrisy, and mislead freedom. I planned for horrors yet unseen while I held my breath knowing those in charge could not be counted on. I have seen more skin of more people. (Put some damn clothes on people! Unless your female and size 14 or above, then you are allowed to take it all off.)

I have dreamed of a world where all the people in charge were appointed by me and it was a wonderful place. A place where crimes were punished quickly and publicly. Good was rewarded and bad was shunned and humiliated.

But that is all that needs to be said and I will move on. On to some random thoughts I have had and put to paper recently.

So, someone please explain to me why the bicyclist that ran the red light, cut off the street and onto the sidewalk almost running over several people walking has the right to demand I share the road with him? I will gladly share the road with other law abiding citizens but as I have not seen one person on a bicycle in this town obeying the same laws I do why should I look out for them?

As a society, we force feed our children fast food an apathy while the media tells them they are fat and lazy. We tell our kids that hard work and being responsible is what will get them ahead in life but in the real world it comes down to money and who you know or how much noise you can make. We lie to our kids thinking they are too young to understand the truth but at what age are they old enough? And is that different for each kid and each generation? Children look to adults for everything, like sponges they absorb everything; even that it is ok to lie… We tell them not to do things that are bad for them but they watch us do those same things. We swear, speed, j-walk, and even cheat and then we wonder why each generation is getting worse. We are teaching it to them!

We send our kids to school to learn and be socialized but take no interest in what they are getting taught till there is a problem then we blame the teachers and the system. Teaching our kids is our job, we, the parents, are the ones ultimately responsible for their education. We choose to pass that on to our local schools and the teachers they hire but that is the same thing as a manager passing on a job to a subordinate, ultimately it still comes back to us. Teachers are simply our employees and as such we should be communicating with them constantly, adjusting things that are not working properly and checking the work they are doing. And here is the important part, are you ready? IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO TAKE THE TIME TO DO YOUR PART, DO NOT GET MAD AT THE TEACHERS!! Enough said, moving on….

People of self importance amuse me. I have encountered a few recently and though they are a pain in the butt, mostly they are only important in their own mind. They hype themselves so often that they have come to believe it’s true. Some people have the ability to make the hype come true but most don’t. The ones that do were important to begin with and hype was not necessary. For the others no amount of hype will ever be enough. A lot of celebrities have bought into their own hype even though they are just people, like you and me, doing a job, unlike you and me, being over paid for it. But at the point they are inconsiderate or rude to the fans that keep them working they have lost perspective and are no longer worthy of the position they hold.

Demographics are interesting, they help you understand the who, what, when, where, how, and how much in most situations. Demographics for a group of people would be ages, races, genders, religious beliefs, income, marital status, and so on. You know, we have all seen the question and thought “Why do they need to know all this?” Well, here is why. If I own a business that sells products to consumers, knowing all that about them helps me determine what products to carry. If 80% of my customers are between the ages of 15 and 20 then I will not stock a lot of products that are primarily bought by senior citizens. I also will not be advertising in AARP’s monthly magazine. You will most likely not see an ad for Mtn Dew or Cheetos in a health food magazine because the people that read that magazine are not the people most likely to by those products. Understanding demographics can help most businesses and not knowing them can kill a business faster than poor service or over pricing.

So there I was driving down the freeway, my thoughts on why each generation seems to care less and less about laws, manners, or just common courtesy” when a police call sped past me doing at least 20mpg over the speed limit. My first thought was “shouldn’t they have their lights on if they are rushing to a call?” Well I followed them, not speeding but watching to see where they went. They got off the freeway at the same place I was so when I pulled off I was surprised to see them parked at Wendy’s. I was saddened. How is it that the people we pay to enforce our laws don’t seem to follow them? And why should our children look up to or respect the police if they punish us for breaking the law but they do it on a regular basis? I got to thinking about how many times lately we have heard about politicians breaking some law or another and just getting a slap on the wrist, if that.

Once again I am pointing out that we are teaching our kids by example, whether we like it that way or not, that the rules don’t always apply so they don’t need to always follow then. There is no consistency in what they are taught and what they see everyday going on in the world.

c Shell Franklin