Merry Christmas Everyone!
Thanks to Robert Dragani and LPL Financial for their gift of a fresh wreath to help us celebrate the season!
We received a very cool Christmas Card (right) from our friends at SRKM Architecture. They used an elevation from Sand Hill Farm apartments as their cover picture adding a couple of wreaths on the door. A great idea to memorialize the project this way! We really appreciate their efforts and can’t wait to see if the building looks as good in person as it does in pictures. Thanks guys! Merry Christmas!
Sand Hill Farm Apartments are moving along. Footing and frost walls have been poured. We’re taking advantage of this week’s warm spell to get the perimeter insulation in place and complete the backfill. Installation of interior underslab infrastructure will begin Thursday. We hope to be pouring slabs next week. Things are moving forward!
I received a copy of this article (right) from USA Today from a friend. Didn’t realize that we were both kindred spirits and fans of Penn Jillette before this. Back in the ’90s I actually subscribed to PC/Computing Magazine mainly for his one page op-ed on the last page.
Reading this article, I find it is amazing that colleges once know for opening young minds have become some of the most closed minded places in our nation. Freedom of Speech is more and more limited to freedom to parrot the current group-think. Heaven forbid anyone’s safe space is challenged. Obviously this isn’t just a college phenomenon, but it’s disappointing to see the degree to which it occurs there.
I often ponder how much this is due to the prevalence of the Internet. I have to admit I’m one of the people that would be lost without it, so I’m not advocating against it. (Of course I’m not! Here I am pontificating on it to a select few that would never read what I write without it!) But… when it has become so easy to find “news” that just agrees with your existing view, it means you are never challenged by other ideas. It’s too easy to find the source you like and just nod along.
I am rarely home in time to watch the evening news, so my main source of news is the Sunday morning recaps. I generally watch Fox News Sunday, then CBS Face the Nation, then NBC Meet the Press and finally PBS’s Washington Week. (Occasionally while on the treadmill, but sometimes that gets my heartrate up too much!) That generally gives me a reasonable smattering of viewpoints from Liberal to Conservative including a few in the middle. Sometimes I hear something infuriating, but then that’s why I watch and attempt to see that viewpoint. I don’t agree with either side all of the time. There are two many gray areas… Something that is ignored in our current political climate of Hard Right and Hard Left pandering to their respective bases and ignoring most of us in the middle.
Mr. Jillette says that Lenny Bruce was shocking in the 60’s and would be shocking to most college students in 2017. A jolt to the system can be a good thing. And this is a play… named “Buyer Beware”… so attendance wouldn’t have been required… and there was forewarning in the title… It’s unfortunate that the group decided that not only would they not attend, but that the option to attend should be removed. Maybe some of their peers were open to being shocked… Maybe it would have been good for them.
Last week was a rough week. Two funerals for a parent of two different good friends. Those obligations just added to what was an already stressful week. Fortunately neither were unexpected. Both of of the passing parents were in their 90’s. It’s never good, though.
The second funeral was for a Navy veteran and he received military honors at his funeral. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this done. Both my grandfather’s and my mother-in-law’s 3rd husband’s funerals included military honors. It is always a moving and touching display.
The respect for the Flag that the seamen displayed was particularly noteworthy considering the current controversy. I wonder how many of the football players using the National Anthem and Flag presentations as a time to protest have seen this? Would it affect their choices?
I don’t dispute that they have the right to protest. That’s one of the things our Flag represents. Veterans often would be there first to affirm that, though often with a look of despair as they also recognize the disrespect. The Flag represents so much more to so many people. To many, the Flag is sacred. Would the players have better served their cause by choosing another form of protest? it would appear so… My favorite unsourced quote about Free Speech is, “While it is true that you have the right to free speech, you do not have the right to be heard.” To the NFL’s chagrin, some fans are now former fans because of the protests. They’ve chosen not to listen. Probably not what was intended.
I wasn’t an NFL fan before the protests started, but this has brought them onto my radar… and not in a favorable light. Without commentary on their goals, I wish they would have chosen another form of protest. Another comment I heard recently resonates. “If we don’t teach our youth respect for our Country, will they feel bound to protect it if necessary?” There was a news story about a Pee-wee football team that chose to kneel during the national anthem because that’s what their “heros” are doing. We reap what we sow… and sometimes we regret it.
Image borrowed from a Daily Mail article on Beau Biden’s funeral.
I just finished an article in the September/October issue of Building Indiana by Brad Benhart, Associate Professor of Practice at Purdue University’s School of Construction Management. A quote in the article resonated with me as it’s been something I’ve been talking to my friends in education about for years. “The message needs to change to all kids should learn skills for a career. College is not for everyone, and our society needs education and training to match the needs of the workers required.”
My perception for years has been that high schools quickly divided students into two categories, either college bound or not. The discussion with those students was then modified to where the college bound students were directed to classes that would get them in the best schools and with the best preparation to do well when they got there, while the goal for the remaining students was a high school diploma. Well, a high school diploma doesn’t get you much anymore. I’m not saying it isn’t important, but if you want to advance in any company, you will need additional education. At a minimum there will be on-the-job safety training, but more than likely, to advance you will need outside training. Whether that is an apprenticeship program in the construction trades or a some form or associate degree from a technical school.
I’ve been pleased in recent years to see a change in thinking in the schools in our area. Many of them are providing technical school equivalency training in high school. Non-college careers are receiving more discussion. Things are improving, but we still have strides to make to end the bias towards college programs. We also need to instill the idea of life-long-learning as a positive thing and requirement for survival in today’s society. When I receive an application from a student who has been through a high school building trades class, they do receive preferential treatment because they have shown an interest and hopefully shown some aptitude for the trades. Unfortunately, this does not qualify them as a Journeyman Carpenter as some of them seem to think. Easterday Construction will help them achieve that goal through apprenticeship training if they are serious about it, but it requires a commitment to additional education on their part.
I don’t think this qualifies as a rant… I’ll reiterate that I have seen progress in recent years. But as per the quote, kids need to learn skills for a career. And if it’s your career, you should be interested in learning all you can to be the best at it you can be. This means education… and Life Long Continuing Education… Never miss the chance to learn and improve.