Up on my soapbox

For some reason today I am having trouble letting the injustices of the world roll of my back. Instead, they are festering inside me like a gangrenous gallbladder!

Injustice #1 - Health insurance, deductibles, lab fees, high cost of medicine.

Why is it that people who have no income, no health insurance, and don't pay taxes don't have to even consider the cost of their health care - while people who do have an income, do have health insurance, and do pay taxes have to pick and choose what tests or procedures are the most important and often forgo preventative health care because they can't afford to have a lot of things done.

Injustice #2 - Gas prices.

How can the price of gas go up $.15 in one afternoon? How long are we as Americans going to put up with this? In the spirit of Robin Hood, I think we should have a "National Pump and Run Day" - sending a message to the oil companies that we have had enough! United we stand - Divided we fall. Give me liberty or give me death. Where's our courage to stand up and say, "Enough is enough!"

Injustice #3 - Homework, busy work, and what do teachers do during class?

I think homework is wrong. I can understand having to complete an assignment that you didn't get done in class -but that should only be a few problems/questions. A teacher barking out an assignment as the kids are walking out the door, in my mind, is not acceptable. The six hours devoted to school should be enough to complete the work needed. Kids don't have that much time at home. I am SOOOOO tired of Joel coming home with homework in EVERY class.

We constantly question Joel if he is utilizing his study hall and class time to get his work done. He swears he is, but that there just isn't any class time to do assignments and he only has a study hall on Tuesday.

Last night, after basketball practice from 3p-6p and a JV scrimmage game from 7p-8p, Joel had 20+ Algebra problems, 6 questions in Science, vocab/spelling note cards to make, a history study guide to complete, and a 20 page story in literature to read. He got everything done except he didn't finish reading his story in literature. Adrift on an Ice Pan wasn't Joel's idea of a good story. He refused to read any more after he got to the part where the guy eats his dogs.

I don't blame him - I never liked that story either.