My search for JOY continues but it’s tougher during this hottest month of the year. Boy, do I miss the FIFA games that spread joy everywhere, winners or losers.
But it’s time to face reality. School has started again, way too soon IMO. Waiting until after Labor Day isn’t such a bad thing, as parents and school districts are beginning to realize.
Like many governmental edicts crammed down our throats, so many educational changes aren’t always the best idea, such as posting the Ten Commandments in every classroom across Texas. That might have done better if the lege had a better religious record and understood what Amendment I in the Constitution about Freedom of Religion means.
Then the governor’s vouchers that impacted public schools by decreasing funds and students, and sending parents in a frantic search for where to go next. The thousands of families who applied for that educational windfall are now declining the voucher from lack of schools to accept their kids in a location that’s viable.
Many families are choosing to home school their kids. That might be okay, but everyone suffers under that scenario. Not all parents are knowledgeable enough and have time enough to teach anything, and handing a kid a laptop isn’t the best way to get an education.
Such constant government intrusion into people’s lives bites where it hurts the most. The take-away is that those elected officials benefit from graft in every situation. Those stolen pennies add up into huge payrolls for the rich, famous and other wanna-bes.
The blame is pointed at our many elected GOP officials, who have all grown rich on the backs of the voters who expected better of them. For the last 30 years one party has controlled Austin and Washington, perfect examples of party fealty gone awry. Republicans have held the majority so long that they bear responsibility for the unfair gerrymandering that is wrecking our democracy. And getting rich themselves while they’re at it.
This country is in a mess! I’m using a broad brush, but there are more liars and billionaires in legislatures and congress than voters knew, yes in both parties. Citizens believed candidates promises, blindly believing the demeaning names and labels opponents were called, voted and then returned home hoping they’d made the best choice.
Sadly, few ever delivered any of the promises that put them in office. But politicians’ blind loyalty to a greedy, corrupt and unethical party leader puts elected Texas officials into the same bracket: spineless and immoral and guilty of aiding in destroying the American Constitution.
Voters now hold the dice as the November mid-term elections approach, which is causing MAGA cohorts some headaches. The GOP is frantically trying to reduce voting locations to disenfranchise voters or exhaust them from trying to find their precinct. They are trying to cancel voting by mail to keep seniors away from elections, and selling access to social media accounts for millions of dollars to gain stock market advantages; or cut medical care to pregnant women and begin testing soldiers’ testosterone levels (that will give women second thoughts about joining up); and the lists just go on.
Meanwhile, Trump’s war with Iran has depleted American weapons stockpiles, while he blames everyone else for the failures of his many efforts to change the Federal landscape in Washington. Billions of dollars spent - wasted - on gaudy changes that he promised were “already paid for” - but aren’t. Taxpayers - us - are holding the bill while he boasts and gloats at his illegal actions of defacing famous buildings.
Voters expect political exaggerations, but one recent letter writer to a regional publication exclaimed with gusto that “everyone knows” that DJT#47 is “doing the best he can …with (people) trying to destroy him….and that people are jealous of him being rich and blame him for the economy …. which is doing great”, ad nauseum.
“Everyone” doesn’t agree with the writer’s opinion; I respect her right to express an opinion, thanks to the First Amendment. But no one gets the facts they prefer. The president has acted above the law daily since being sworn in to protect and uphold our Constitution and she is wrong! DJT#47 is costing America billions in legal fees and that much more in graft. His personal fortune has swollen since 2024.
That writer is one reason Texas (among other states) is in a predicament. A lack of education and exposure to accurate sources leads people to buy into the super conservative, right-wing lies to retain power.
A majority (50%) of Americans have not read one book in the last year. Newspaper readership has shrunk from the economy, and presidential orders have affected every other aspect of society from budget cuts. A large percentage of people get all their news from social media, secondhand, not from a trained journalist or news source.
Thanks to the strong-willed ultra conservatives, that’s one reason Texas is sitting at the bottom of the federal ladder: 48th in education; 49th in medical access; probably 50th in childhood care and food scarcity. Woe be us. The list is long and scary.
Recently Gov. Greg Abbott reversed his support for data centers, because of the protests from homeowners who live there. Now, if the Guv and GOP will back off and give voters the chance to make their opinion known about everything --on a Constitutional Amendment.
I want them to know what I think! On things like: land usage and restrictions on data centers and other gigantic projects that will affect our life ever after; and get out of Big Bend National Park! Other issues like reproductive rights and medical decisions; and on daylight savings time (yes or no?) versus a return to “natural” time. There are advantages and disadvantages to either, but LET THE PEOPLE SPEAK!
Texans are prohibited from creating their own petition for any Constitutional amendments; that’s reserved for the Legislature (the ruling party)!
So - Joy for August comes down to the Olfactory System, one of the eight human sensory systems -- the Smell Test.
Like intuition, people have an innate ability to sniff and decide. Has the milk gone bad? Or does someone pass the smell test, like letting your daughter go out with that guy she just brought home. Yes or no?
Adults have to decide what they want for their future. Greed does not bring JOY.
So be careful this Labor Day holiday coming up. Your vote is needed in November.
Shelly has worn more hats in the communications field than Carter had pills but forgot to retire when she closed her promotions business. She earned a BA in Journalism at NTSU (before it became UNT) and has never lost her love of words.