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. He’s the kind of guy I find hard to like. It seems like he would have been better off in the 10th or 11th century. He’s kind of a Genghis Kahn type guy: It’s either my way or get out of the way. I don’t trust him. And I definitely wouldn’t go hunting with him. He forgot Rule #1: Don’t shoot your hunting partner. A major Flub.

It appears ex-FEMA director Michael Brown has decided that perhaps he doesn’t 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 I’d like to hear Bush be truthful. “Hey, I’m sorry I appointed a stooge, but he’s been one of my cronies for a long time.” Bureaucratic bumblers. The result is mass incompetence. One Flub after another.

After strong bids by Cheney and Chertoff to take February’s 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 it’s panic time. The storm has arrived. The money is leaving. Fortunately, people often respond best to a crisis. They say, out of Flub’s can come creativity and direction. Let’s hope so.