Politics, politics, politics...

Always a subject that can rile me up, a subject I'm interested in. I've been trying to avoid the national news, because the Democrats are setting themselves up to Lose the next elections. And the President is being his regular self-absorbed, egotistical, 'I'm the bully of the school-yard' self.

But surprisingly, this week I'm struggling with politics on a local level. Because I just found out (quite by accident) that there is a school election coming up on May 8th for the town I live in. Ummm, hello? Why haven't I heard about this? It's not posted anywhere, not even the school's website. Nothing in the post office, nothing on the city's website, nothing came in the mail...What the heck is up with that? A coworker said they probably only mail out notices to parents so they will be more likely to get the funding approved. That sucks. And is probably true. Thank goodness for my home page, with my local news!

I've had a heck of a time finding info, calling multiple school board and superintendent offices. Turns out there are TWO elections. One on the 8th for the elementary school district, and one on May 22nd for the high school district. Both of which I am supposed to vote in. The shock in these people's voices when I ask them if there is any material I can read before going to vote. I mean, really...Don't you think I oughta be informed????

All of these levies they are trying to get approved are last minute because our state government couldn't put aside their pathetic squabbling to approve a state budget, school budget and one other thing I can't remember because I'm tired right now. So they adjourned the session and left town. So the Governor has to call a "special" session, which is going to cost Montana taxpayers millions, so they can squabble some more over who has the right idea on how to spend the money the government doesn't even have yet (projected surplus). :( What a freakin' bunch of idiots. And sadly, I did help put a few of them in office. From what I can tell, however, it's a handful on each side of the aisle that are causing the problems, the ones in control of the powerful committees. They're able to stall/kill/table bills and motions just because a different one of theirs was. Pathetic. Give them a good spanking and then ground them all, I say. They're acting like 5 year olds and should be treated as such.

One of my coworkers said to me "Just vote no." Arghhh. Am I the only one that understands the importance of sufficiently funded schools? I mean, they get bad because they are the first place we cut funds when money is tight. And frankly, I live in this town so I'd like the kids around me to grow up not stupid, okay? A better trained/educated work force attracts better paying jobs, and helps the economy for everyone! [Banging head against wall] What if it's actually a good plan? Economically feasible, well-planned, and won't hike my property taxes that much. Geez. Just voting "no" right off the bat doesn't sound like a good idea. Neither does voting yes, either.

Granted, just throwing money at the school won't fix all the problems. But if there's no money to have enough space or teachers or computers, what the heck can we expect? Maybe if we paid a realistic wage to teachers, we'd have better quality ones. And maybe if we stopped molly-coddling kids and make them accountable as well...

Whoa. I'll stop now. My point is, whatever happened to informed, educated and thought-through voting? Maybe then things wouldn't be so screwed up in this country.