THE FLUB-A-DUB AWARD
February is a good month to
not have so many days. Whoever thought of that was really smart.
Vice-President Cheney had a
bad February. In fact, he said it was the worst time of his life. As much as I
can make out of it, he seems to have quite a few bad days. HeÕs the kind of guy
I find hard to like. It seems like he would have been better off in the 10th or
11th century.
HeÕs kind of a Genghis Kahn type guy: ItÕs either my way or get out of the way.
I donÕt trust him. And I definitely wouldnÕt go hunting with him. He forgot
Rule #1: DonÕt shoot your hunting partner. A major Flub.
It appears ex-FEMA director
Michael Brown has decided that perhaps he doesnÕt want to be the scapegoat for
the horrible government response to Hurricane Katrina. Seems he did make calls
to Mr. Bush and Mr. Chertoff, his boss at Homeland Security, concerning the
impending disaster with the dikes. Mr. Chertoff was busy sleeping so he could
attend a conference the next day. And Mr. Bush, well, Lord only knows what he
may have been doing. None the less, neither one of them got very excited.
Chertoff blamed 9/11, which is pretty typical of the Bush administration. When
all else fails, blame 9/11. Lousy terrorists. Just once IÕd like to hear Bush
be truthful. ŌHey, IÕm sorry I appointed a stooge, but heÕs been one of my
cronies for a long time.Ķ Bureaucratic bumblers. The result is mass incompetence.
One Flub after another.
After strong bids by Cheney
and Chertoff to take FebruaryÕs Flub, the title goes to School District 205,
who have made a disaster out of what should have been ongoing adjustments to a
tanking city economy. None of what is happening in Galesburg happened
overnight. Businesses have been leaving town for the last 25 years. The school
population, while fluctuating some, has been trending down. Young people are
not staying in Galesburg to raise their families. The population is steadily
growing older. The tax base is getting smaller. The storm has been brewing for
quite some time. The school board, the city council, the county board, even the
Zephyr, have been in a state of denial concerning the likely outcomes from all
of this. And now itÕs panic time. The storm has arrived. The money is leaving.
Fortunately, people often respond best to a crisis. They say, out of FlubÕs can
come creativity and direction. LetÕs hope so.