SUMMER MUSINGS

Several things are taking up my time this summer. First and foremost, I am the coach of our high school girls' soccer team. We are running and conditioning in preparation for the coming season. When I say "we" I mean we. All the coaches on our staff run with the players. I always got aggravated when I had coaches who yelled at me to run more who probably ran very fast from the couch to the refrigerator. I don't exactly know what the players thing about that, but we do it and they deal with it. It does cut down on the whining factor. It's hard to whine when the soon to be 56 year old coach is running next to you. Maybe not every coach's way of doing things, but I'm comfortable with it.

I'm also busy preparing lesson plans and materials for a new class I'll be teaching this year. I have taught Advanced Placement U.S. history for the past few years and I love it. This fall, I'll teach Honors World History for freshmen. It works out because most often they feed into my AP classes in their sophomore year. I love working with upper level students, but believe me it's a lot of work. They do a lot of work and it has to be checked and graded. Lots of work for me, but it's fun to teach history at that level. I love history and I love to teach it. History is a story and if taught that way it holds the kids interest. History is quite simply the best soap opera out there. Period.

I also spend a lot of time reading history and politics. I just read The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes. It was a really good take on the New Deal and the Great Depression. It represented a different take to the "accepted" history that the New Deal ended the depression. A study of history puts the lie to that. Many of those on the left take this as a given fact, although my friend Truth 101, commented that he didn't hold that misconception, which speaks highly of his grasp of history and honest intellect.

I just finished Glenn Beck's Common Sense, an interesting book that was filled with just what the title says. He didn't go out of his way to attack either party. I have become disenchanted with both parties and their profligate spending. Both parties spend outrageous sums of money in an effort to solidify power. As Beck says, if you think politicians care more about what's good for America than they do about keeping power, you have no common sense. His reprinting of Thomas Paine's Common Sense was a nice addition. Reading it will give you an idea of how possessed of clear thinking and yes, Common Sense, the founders were. Once again, our Founding Fathers got it in a way that present day politicians don't even approach. I think the saying on the masthead of this blog applies. There have been great politicians in our past, but I don't see any out there now. I just don't see them in either party.

I agree that our country is in peril. I hope a giant will come on the scene to lead us. Just some things I've been doing and think about. Thanks for reading.