Docudrama

There’s no getting around it, Mondays suck.  I know that’s not a blinding flash of news to anybody that works for a living but I felt it needed to be said.  Having said it, I don’t feel any better about Mondays; at all.

Our president must feel the same way about Mondays because his “virile” response to Putin’s Crimean adventure was met with humor and downright scorn in Moscow which felt emboldened enough to declare Crimea free of Ukraine and open to annexing it as part of Russia.  As stated by the Saudi Arabian foreign minister Obama’s foreign policies are that of a 3^rd World country not a superpower.  Even the Cantankerous One must be at very loose ends trying to defend this latest Obamian debacle (he’ll still try, throw his hands up and say what could he have done).  Obama counted on his European “allies” to stand up with him and this puerile Carteresque stance was doomed by their dependence on Russian natural gas.  Putin’s march to re-conquer what he sees as Russian Territory (read – Soviet Union) continues apace.

Technology got me again yesterday.  I was blithely passing the Monday afternoon fervently praying for an early Friday when I received a text from one of the political bosses asking if I was coming to a meeting that started in downtown Worcester, ten minutes earlier.  I’ve come to depend on the calendar reminders with those annoying pop up reminders throughout the day but apparently that feature failed yesterday (or I’ve developed a resistance to their presence).  I executed some fairly imaginative driving to reduce the amount of time and embarrassment at being so late to the meeting.

The wife and I spent the evening watching documentaries (I blame it on the general Monday malaise) which included The Stories We Tell.  This was a film by Canadian actress Sarah Polley in which she reveals the story of her deceased mother and the extramarital affair that led to her birth.  It was an intimate look into the lives of the people involved, including the man she grew up thinking was her father.  I loved the way she brought the story home; it’s an excellent object lesson in how people tailor their recollections to match preconceived notions (much like the Cantankerous One and anytime anyone criticizes the president). 

Finally, it’s nice to be reminded every now and then that some people do “get it”.  One of the fabulous Roothuggers sent me the following which I’d seen elsewhere but bears repeating:

In September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a History teacher did something not to be forgotten. With the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks in her classroom. When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks. 'Ms. Cothren, where are our desks?'

She replied, 'You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.’  They thought, 'Well, maybe it's our grades.' 'No,' she said. 'Maybe it's our behavior.' She told them, 'No, it's not even your behavior.' And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom.  Kids called their parents to tell them what was happening and by early afternoon television news crews had started gathering at the school to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the desk-less classroom. Cothren said, 'Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he or she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.'

At this point, Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniform, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.   Cothren said, 'You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. They went halfway around the world, giving up their education and interrupting their careers and families so you could have the freedom you have. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don't ever forget it.'

Cothren was awarded Veterans of Foreign Wars Teacher of the Year for the State of Arkansas in 2006. She is the daughter of a WWII POW.