Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Civics Lessons

Lesson 1: You can make a difference (maybe)

I received a letter from the mayor of Augusta yesterday, in response to my letter regarding the spraying of herbicides in the area where M's summer apprenticeship program met in the mornings. It was both more and less than I expected:

"Dear Ms. Lani:

"Thank you for your letter of July 15, 2009 with respect to herbicide around the flagpole in front of City Center. I am checking into this and appreciate you pointing this out.

"Sincerely yours,

"Roger J. Katz, Mayor"

More, because it sounds like an actual response, instead of a brush-off. Less because it usually takes me several paragraphs to brush someone off when I have to write letters of this nature. Who knows if anything will become of it; I guess I'll have to wait and see if any more pesticide flags pop up on the lawn in front of City Center.

Lesson 2: People suck

Our school union budget failed--again--despite passing overwhelmingly at the interminably long and torturous town meeting I attended two weeks ago. (If you're into pain, read the blow-by-blow of three of the four-and-a-half hour meeting here). There are just some people who don't think they have an obligation to educate children, and many who think they should use our kids to "send a message to the Blain House" that they don't want an RSU. This sort of thing just reduces me to pejoratives about my fellow Mainers like "wh*te tr*sh" and "f*ckers" so I should probably just stop here. B*stards.

2 comments:

  1. Kudos on your letter. That is making a difference! Sorry about the budget - grf.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oy! The process is ineffective in the extreme. If it were worth a damn we would know why people voted against it. We'd be able to split the I Hate Property Taxes and Children people from the Consolidation Sucks people.

    ReplyDelete

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