My first diary entry, so please go easy. I thought I'd write one on a more weighty topic, but this frippery may have finally been the Bushworld insanity that blows up my outrage meter.
What's done it?
School district rejects band's London trip
More on the flip side.
Taken
in its entirety from the online edition of the (Ft. Myers, FL)
News-Press, with malicious disregard of copyright:
The threat of terrorism will keep the Fort Myers High School band from marching in London's 2007 New Year's Day Parade, despite an invitation from that city and band boosters agreeing to foot the $273,000 bill.
"We're leery of loading 140 students onto an airplane and flying across the ocean to London, where they just had a terrorist attack," said Herb Wiseman, who oversees secondary operations for Lee County schools. "We don't think at this time that it's worth the risk."
In July 2005, bombs set by terrorists inside city buses and London's subway system killed 52 people. The city has been on alert since then.
The New Year's Day parade in London is billed as the "greatest annual street parade in Europe" and is a giant fundraiser for local charities.
Some estimates put the crowd at 1 million.
Wiseman said school officials want school trips to stay within U.S. borders. He said there are plenty of opportunities for marching bands such as college bowl games or holiday parades in major cities, where student safety is assured.
Some Lee County schools have circumvented that guideline by declaring a trip as a non-school-sponsored event that occurs during school breaks or summer vacation.
Fort Myers High band director Mark Dahlberg sent a notice to parents Friday to tell them the trip was a no-go.
In addition to the parade, the seven-day trip would have included tours of Buckingham Palace, Stonehenge and Westminster Abbey, plus time to see a concert and theatrical production.
"I totally understand where they were coming from," Dahlberg said. "The kids were disappointed, but they understand, too."
Congratulations, we've found an actually existing specimen of the 33% who still support Dubya. This is the base in action. This is the most pitiful example of the pants-soiling Fox News Nation I think I've ever seen.
Never mind that there are at least two or three school bus crashes with injuries every school year in these parts. Never mind that the pitiful wages paid by the local school board, combined with the soaring cost of housing, means we have a permanent teacher and staffing shortage. Never mind that, just recently, for the third time in as many years, a school bus driver neglected the necessary post-route inspection and left a sleeping child alone on an empty bus.
The marching bands must stay close to home because the rest of the world is full of bearded ragheads who are out to blow them up and steal their instruments so they can hock them and use the proceeds to destroy our American freedoms!!!
Or something. That these chuckleheads are directing local education policy would be worthy of a hearty laugh if it wasn't such a criminal abuse of the public trust.
I'm raising the white flag. I can no longer muster the pretense of defending Florida against the many snarky jokes lobbed its way. I'm passing this along to Keith O. in the hopes he can make somethng out of it. As for yrs. trly., I'm going to down a jeroboam of neat bourbon and pass out on my front lawn, in the hopes I can sleep through the Apocolypse.