Trey’s Blog

First of all, let me state that I do not condone evading the police. I read this story today and it reminded me of a question I’ve had in the past, but never asked. Here is the story/scenario:

An innocent bystander was killed Tuesday morning during a high-speed chase in southeast Houston.

My question is this… would this innocent bystander still be alive had the police not been chasing this person? I know it seems obvious the person committed a crime and must be cited for that crime, but is that citation worth the life of those around the chase? I’m curious what you think. Let me know in the comments section.

First of all, let me say there is probably nothing more heinous than a sex crime because it involves both mental and physical abuses. With that said, I think requiring registration (that is made public) of sex offenders or anyone for that matter is a huge violation of privacy. This is not to say that I think sex offenders should be walking around freely doing whatever they’d like, but we should definitely rethink our judicial system that let them back out. If we think these people are so risky that we must register them and have the rest of the world monitoring their every move, then perhaps we shouldn’t be letting them out in the first place. If some one’s actions warrant their home be listed as SEX OFFENDER, giving the public the all of the information they need for vigilante justice, then perhaps we are doing things all wrong. To thwart this malicious behavior, we should have steeper consequences. In no way, should we allow these people out in public, where they can strike again, or be stricken against. Am I the only one who thinks that the public register is a violation of privacy? Or do these criminals that haven’t been given proper justice lose that right to privacy?

I’m fully aware of the ‘No kid left behind’ campaign by the Bush Administration, but I do not like that fact that this implies that ‘no kid will get ahead.’ I’ve heard from many sources, mostly from school teachers and administrators, that around the second grade, most kids learning levels/skills will level off. Perhaps what they mean is that the children who are behind should be caught up by then, by what this also means is that the children who are excelling will be unchallenged until the rest of the herd catches up. Is this all they have to offer our kids who excel? I know many parents, like myself, may suffer from pride in our children, but it wasn’t until I heard the goals to be reached by the end of Kindergarten that I got worried. They mentioned children should know certain basic site words, be able to count to 100, and other such tasks. My daughter can do these things already, so this tells me that for the next 9 months, she’ll be relearning her ABCs, coloring pictures, and learning to count. She is not the only one in her class who is showing these signs of boredom. My wife and I know of at least one other student who is already capable of completing the tasks set as the goal for the year. Since she is in Kindergarten, my daughter must wait until Spring to be tested for the gifted and talented program, whatever it is called now, but that is not necessarily what I’m looking for in educating her. I’d presonally like to not label her while challenging her.

My daughter’s birthday falls only four days after the enrollment cutoff date of September 2. Because of this, she had to wait a year to be enrolled in Kindergarten. We felt she was more than ready and the Principal of the school would not allow us to enroll her earlier than her birthdate would allow. Here we are a year later and she is showing signs of first grade readiness. While other kids are learning how to write their names, she is reading and writing stories. This puts me in a position I didn’t want to be in because I’m not in favor of having children skip grades unless it is absolutely necessary. I simply wanted her to start Kindergarten when she was ready one year ago.  When I was young the cutoff date actually came closer to the start of school date, so it made a little moer sense, but I would also venture to guess that kids who showed signs of readiness were not told to wait their turn. Challenge our kids!

I’d love hear feedback on this. If I’m wrong, please provide me the proof so I can learn to be right.

Is it only me who thinks David Blaine is a publicity hound who draws everyone’s attention on things that aren’t really magic? Drowning in a bubble, standing on a post, sitting in a cube… how is this magic? ABC is nuts for allowing this bubble thing to be broadcast for two hours last night only to have him wear himself out too early to break the breathholding record, which was the whole point, right? I’ve heard several radio stations mentioning how the two hours was a big waste of time. I didn’t actually watch any TV last night, so I can’t really say for sure whether it was a waste of time or a BIG waste of time. Do some magic, David. Anyway, that is my rant.