Worcester County Freedom Trail

Man, we can’t even honor our vets in school any more. This poor kid has now been suspended for carrying a harmless memento — an expended rifle shell that was given to him by a veteran on Memorial Day. Have our schools have become so overrun with hoodlums that school staff can’t tell the good from the bad? And now this kid might be assigned a parole officer? Give me a break!

This from the Telegram:

Ten-year-old Bradley Geslak was suspended from school this week for bringing a Memorial Day souvenir to school.

The Toy Town Elementary School fourth-grader had received two empty rifle shell casings from blanks used during the town celebration held at the GAR Park Monday morning.

He brought one of the casings with him to school the next day.

“He was just playing with it at lunch,” explained Crystal Geslak, Bradley’s mother. “He wasn’t showing it to anyone; he had it in his hand and was playing with it.”

Bradley said a teacher saw him with it and told him to hand it over.

“The teacher told me to give it to her and I did,” he said.

After the piece of brass was confiscated, Ms. Geslak was called at work and told to come and pick up her son; he was being suspended for the next five days.

Her son was in tears when she got there.

“I was totally shocked. I couldn’t believe this was happening,” she said.

“Ordinarily, I try to think ahead about things, but to me, this was something good, not bad. It was just an empty shell, not even from a real bullet. A sharpened pencil would be more dangerous than this piece of metal.”

Her son had been given the two blank shells by a uniformed veteran who participated in the ceremony Monday. Bradley gave one to his grandfather and kept the other souvenir for himself.

Having received the souvenir from an adult, he never considered it wrong for him to have it, his mother said.

“He was so proud to have been given them. His dad’s a veteran, his uncle’s a veteran, both his grandfathers are veterans. Memorial Day is a big thing to us. It’s a very important holiday and we have a big celebration every year,” Ms. Geslak said.

According to the family, a school official said on Tuesday that the shell would not be returned to them. The family said they were also told that the next step might involve assigning a probation officer to Bradley.

School officials refused to comment on the incident yesterday, citing privacy regulations.

“I cannot give any comment on school suspensions,” Principal Deborah Peterson said. “I cannot confirm or deny a suspension took place, and I cannot speak about anything involving a minor. It’s all confidential, just like at a doctor’s office.”

Attempts to reach Superintendent Brooke Clenchy and School Committee Chairman Michael Niles for comment were unsuccessful.

“If he had been suspended for having a bad attitude, I could have understood it. I would have supported them in that. But not for this. He didn’t even know he did anything wrong,” she said.

Ms. Geslak will have plenty of time to think about that in the coming days, because the suspension also means that she has had to give up hours at work to be with her son.

Hitler was one of the most evil human beings to inhabit this planet. Unfortunately, he wasn’t one of a kind. There were and are other megalomaniacs who have killed millions of people for no good reason at all. Ann Coulter calls it like she sees it. This from her column in Human Events:

After decades of comparing Nixon to Hitler, Reagan to Hitler and Bush to Hitler, liberals have finally decided it is wrong to make comparisons to Hitler. But the only leader to whom they have applied their newfound rule of thumb is: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

While Ahmadinejad has not done anything as starkly evil as cut the capital gains tax, he does deny the Holocaust, call for the destruction of Israel, deny the existence of gays in Iran and refuses to abandon his nuclear program despite protests from the United Nations. That’s the only world leader we’re not allowed to compare to Hitler.

President Bush’s speech at the Knesset two weeks ago was somewhat more nuanced than liberals’ Hitler arguments. He did not simply jump up and down chanting: “Ahmadinejad is Hitler!” Instead, Bush condemned a policy of appeasement toward madmen, citing Neville Chamberlain’s ill-fated talks with Adolf Hitler.

Suspiciously, Bush’s speech was interpreted as a direct hit on B. Hussein Obama’s foreign policy — and that’s according to Obama’s supporters.

So to defend Obama, who — according to his supporters — favors appeasing madmen, liberals expanded the rule against ad Hitlerum arguments to cover any mention of the events leading to World War II. A ban on “You’re like Hitler” arguments has become liberals’ latest excuse to ignore history.

I was in a meeting today talking with a local manufacturing guru. He was pointing out all the work Senator Edward Kennedy has created in this state, including lots of SBIR grants for local researchers. While I like SBIR grants, I don’t really like of the federal government subsidizing massive work projects that are better left to individual states (anyone remember Kansas helping to fund the Big Dig

The conversation quickly turned to Senator John Kerry, who’s been forced to play the junior senator from Massachusetts his entire Senate career. Not that I mind that as he can do less harm in that position. But it looks like the rumor mill is awash in the idea that Kerry is looking to move into the Administration, possibly as Secretary of State for Obama, if Obama wins. [No, I don't think he'll win, but there's always the remote possibility.]

John Kerry, Secretary of State?!?! Holy cow. What a disaster that would be. Although he does have one important credential — he knows how to spin issues as well as or better than most politicians. So maybe we can use him to confuse our enemies into doing what’s right!

According to Barney Keller, Communications Director of the MassGOP:

It’s no surprise that Senator Kerry is looking to abandon Massachusetts, and I have a feeling most people won’t mind. John Kerry has accomplished almost nothing in his 24 glacial years in the Senate and his reputation for ignoring his own constituents is known far and wide.

This from Newsday.com:

The airplane came to a stop, the door opened and out popped Tony Blair. At the bottom of the stairs to greet the former British prime minister on Saturday was Sen. John Kerry, looking every part the diplomat.

Four years after a failed presidential bid and amid a race for a fifth Senate term this fall, Kerry’s moves have prompted some questions:

- Is the Massachusetts Democrat positioning himself to be secretary of state in a potential Barack Obama administration?

- Could a Kerry appointment create not one but two Senate openings in Massachusetts, assuming Sen. Edward Kennedy cannot complete his term after being diagnosed last week with brain cancer?

Kerry would likely face competition from Sen. Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a former Peace Corps volunteer who also sits on the panel, and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, a top Obama adviser.

Over the weekend, Kerry wrote a Washington Post op-ed column chastising President Bush and John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, for criticizing Obama after he said that, as president, he would be willing to negotiate with U.S. opponents such as Iran.

In recent weeks, the Senate has also passed Kerry-sponsored resolutions seeking humanitarian aid for Burma and Robert Mugabe to step aside as president of Zimbabwe, while Kerry has filed legislation to remove South African President Nelson Mandela from U.S. terrorist watch lists.

I like these new resolutions. Still don’t like the idea of John Kerry as Secretary of State.

This from State Committeewoman Dawn Taylor-Thompson. Just one of many reasons why homeschooling is looking better and better.

SCHOLASTIC BOOKS is now promoting propaganda.  Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” an alleged scientific, factual piece, subtitled “The Crisis of Global Warming,” is being marketed on page 3 of my 10 year old daughter’s April 2008 Arrow Book Club school advertisement.  It sits beside suitable children’s works like  “The Giving Tree,” “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” and “Indiana Jones.”

Gore’s unscientific work, awkwardly situated there under the Scholastic guise of “Earth Day,” is highly debated in the political world, and more importantly, in the scientific one.  Such hotly debated, controversial material should not be the subject matter for tender, easily swayed, impressionable minds.  But I guess that’s the very reason it’s there.

Actual scientists have noted that methane emissions from cow flatulence (gas) in India, alone, have negated emissions reduction in the United States.  Interesting.  Thousands of scientists are banding together against the truths alleged as science.  How inconvenient for Gore!

Funny how the Weather Channel has been talking about the past year being among the coldest years in (recorded weather) history, yet left-winged political pundits keep touting the earth is getting hotter!  What!  Our experts are contradicting each other?  That never happens.  In fact, according to RSS MSU satellite data, the year 2007 was the coldest year this century, even though mainstream media predicted it would break records amongst the warmest.  And according to the WMO, 2006 was colder than ’05, ’04, ’03, and ‘02.

I would have bought “Avatar” for my 6 year-old son and “Dora The Explorer” for my 5 year-old daughter.  Instead, I am proposing a boycott on SCHOLASTIC BOOKS until they retreat from indoctrinating children into the world of liberal politics and go back to marketing Dr. Suess!

I can’t imagine how hard it is to function when you’re constantly in the public eye. Yet when political candidates step forward, that is the life they choose. So they need to make sure they stop and think before uttering words that will be etched in the digerati (and occasionally the MSM) forever.

Senator Obama is racking up gaffe points left and right. Yesterday’s Memorial Day speech was probably not something he wants us to remember. This from Newsbusters:

Having mispronounced the name of the Florida city he was speaking in on Friday, as well as erred about what president was in the White House when Hugo Chavez took over Venezuela, Barack Obama talked about seeing dead people in the audience during a Memorial Day speech in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

“On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today – our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.”

Seeing dead people in the audience wasn’t Obama’s only gaffe on Monday, for it has now been revealed that he also spoke about an uncle “who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps.”

American troops didn’t liberate Auschwitz; Soviet troops did.

The ABC News blogs also report a few more doozies:

- Obama talked about people from Afghanistan speaking Arabic, when it’s Iraqis that speak Arabic (or Kurdish). In Afghanistan, the people speak any of a half dozen other languages — including Pashtu, Dari, and Farsi. But not Arabic.

- Obama complained about sending our agricultural specialists to Baghdad to help farmers stop growing poppies. Um, you mean Afghanistan?

And then a quagmire regarding his support, or lack thereof, of FARC’s guerillas.

And here are a few oldies but goodies from the Chicago Sun-Times:

Marking the anniversary of the March 1965 “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Ala., Obama, speaking at a church, said his parents got together “because of what happened in Selma.” Obama was born in 1961.

The Tribune dug this up: Obama, in his memoir, Dreams of My Father, writes of a story in Life magazine that influenced him — about a black man trying to bleach his skin white. No such article could be found in Life or Ebony.

Another Obama stump line is that “I’ve been long enough in Washington to know that Washington needs to change.” He is running against Washington yet his campaign is populated with political professionals who are Washington insiders

Politics can be very entertaining!

Excellent article in today’s Wall Street Journal by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc), a member of the Budget and Ways and Means Committees. He discusses a four-part plan for preventing entitlements from completely eroding the foundation of liberty and individual responsibility that are the basis of America.

While Congress will have a partisan debate over the federal budget this week, there is a growing, bipartisan consensus about the greatest threat to our nation’s long-term economic prosperity: the explosion of entitlement spending. Unfortunately, Washington is not planning to address that problem this week, or any time soon. By doing nothing, we are shackling our future with unsustainable debt and taxes.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the rest of government will consume nearly 40% of the economy by the time my three young children reach my age (38). This will require more than doubling the average tax burden of the past 40 years just to keep the government afloat. Continuing down this path will eventually strangle our economy.

To meet this challenge and secure our fiscal future, I’m introducing a comprehensive legislative plan called “A Roadmap for America’s Future.” Here are its components:

- Health Insurance. The bill provides universal access to affordable health insurance, by shifting the ownership of health coverage from the government and employers to individuals. It provides a refundable tax credit – $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families – to purchase coverage. Individuals will be able to buy insurance offered by any provider in any state – not just the one where they live – and carry it with them if they move or change jobs.

- Medicaid and Medicare. The bill modernizes Medicaid by giving states maximum flexibility to tailor their Medicaid programs to the specific needs of their populations. It also allows Medicaid recipients to avail themselves of the health-coverage options open to everyone else through the tax-credit option.

- Social Security. Workers under 55 will have the option of investing over one-third of their current Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts.

- Tax Reform. The current federal tax code is complex, burdensome and discourages economic growth. It cannot be fixed with incremental changes; it needs a complete overhaul.

Here is an inspirational story about our last remaining World War I veteran, Frank Woodruff Buckles:

Frank Woodruff Buckles is stooped and bent from his 107 years, but he is not bowed. His spirit glows with the life he has lived.

First and foremost, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Buckles is America’s last doughboy.

Of the more than 4 million who served in World War I, called the Great War, he has outlived everyone.

In loving memory of our fallen heros and heroines on this Memorial Day.

It is unbelievable the extent this country’s government will go to prevent smart people from becoming successful. First it was the politically correct movement — heaven forbid one person is smarter or runs faster or is better at dodgeball than the next guy. Now, on the heels of California’s fight over homeschooling, Tennessee is joining the battle. Tennessee now says homeschool degrees from religious schools are not really degrees after all.

This from the Arkansas Republican Assembly:

Here’s a great way to connect with people who share our interests — Meetup.com.

-  The Worcester Republican City Committee has just started a new Meetup.com group. Join today.

-  You might also be interested in the Conservative Forum of the Commonwealth that meets here and there around Worcester County. Join today.

It appears that Fitchburg’s new Mayor, Lisa Wong, is taking her role as financial steward quite seriously. I think this is the first municipal budget I’ve heard about in years that is actually making real monetary cuts. I’m not happy to hear about the big hit to the library budget and the fact that the massive school budget seems to be left out of the process, but I’m impressed that she understands the word “cut.”

This from the Fitchburg Sentinel:

Mayor Lisa Wong gave City Councilors an almost $98 million budget that outlines many of the severe cuts department heads have been fretting for weeks.

Wong said the budget includes about 30 position cuts, but not all of those will mean the laying off of city employees. Some of the job cuts — including 12 in the Fire Department — will be not refilling vacant positions due to attrition.

The City Council will be vetting the budget during public hearings with departments heads before the new fiscal year begins on July 1.

“I’m very pleased to submit a balanced budget,” Wong told councilors Thursday night at City Hall.

“It’s been a long process.”

Wong said she’s proud of a budget that does not rely on projected or inflated revenues and accounts for the true costs of city services.

The cuts to the police, fire, library and recreation departments were, as expected, severe.

The budget outlines 12 positions that will be vacated because of retirement in the fire department that will not be filled and two further layoffs. Services at South Fitchburg Fire Station will also be cut.

The budget will see a 13 percent monetary cut compared to fiscal year 2008, or a change of about $800,000.

“Police and fire services are a top priority for the city and there was a cooperative effort to minimize layoffs and maintain services,” Wong wrote.

The police department has a 10 percent monetary cut, or about $680,000. The reductions for the department four job cuts and two transfers to other city departments – four patrolmen position cuts and transfers for a systems manager and a crime analyst.

The library has a 68 percent cut while the Recreation Department has a 39 percent cut and the Council on Aging sees a 10 percent cut. The Veterans Department has an 11 percent increase.

The library will be reducing its days open per week from seven to three while the senior center will be lose one day of service also. One pool will at Coolidge Park will not open next year.

The Department of Public Works has a proposed 11 percent cut, while the Board of Health has a 4 percent increase.

Council President Thomas Conry said he’s happy that Wong has included councilors in on the budget creation process.

He said his biggest concern is public safety.

“In tough economic times public safety is very important,” Conry said. “We need to make sure we have the property services to serve our citizens.”

But Conry said he doesn’t know where else the city can cut. He said one area he would like to examine is the School Department budget.

“I’ve only heard things about the School Department budget, I haven’t seen it yet,” he said.

The department has a 4-percent increase from last year.

“Do we really need to increase it that much?” Conry asked.

More than half of the city’s total operating revenue is made up of state assistance. Of the $97.993 million budget, $51.494 million is from state aid.

Property taxes make up the second largest chunk of revenue and are expected to bring in $35.61 million. Local receipts totaling about $8.269 million make up another portion of revenue.

The public schools make up the largest city expense, with 47 percent of city expenses devoted to the department. Employee benefits make up 22 percent, or about $22 million.