CCMS Career Day 2010

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April 23rd was Career Day at Culver Community Middle School.  As discussed here earlier, I volunteered to speak as a Landscape Architect since April is National Landscape Architecture Month.  The schedule called for me to speak to five different groups of kids in 20 minute time slots. 

Speaking for 20 minutes wasn’t really a big deal, though it was hard to decide what level of detail would be interesting to 7th graders.  Of course the nightmare scenarios were 1)  a sea of blank staring faces or; 2)  a horrible reinactment of “Are You Smarter Than a 7th Grader” with me as the brunt of the joke.  As it turned out, the worst part was a planning mistake on my part.  I was right that 20 minutes of material wasn’t a big deal, but by the time I was doing the third presentation I began to forget whether I was repeating myself since I remembered saying it before to the previous group.  By the end, I also realized that I wasn’t used to  talking that much!  My throat was actually a little dry and scratchy.

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Regalia Quote

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“…the CBO data shows that since 1979, not only have the income tax shares of the lower four quintiles continued to drop, but the lowest quintile has been in the negative since 1987, and the second lowest has been negative since 2002.  This means that the lowest 40% have not been paying any federal income tax but have, instead, been getting subsidized by the government through such incentives as refundable tax credits.”

From Dr. Martin Regalia:  Econ 101, Tax Facts: Where the $ Comes From in Free Enterprise, April 2010

Replacing Bayh

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As part of the program at the March Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) State Board of Directors’ meeting, we heard four of the five Republican candidates running against Brad Ellsworth for Evan Bayh’s Senate seat speak.  There were three politicians, Marlin Stutzman, John Hostettler and Dan Coats.  The fourth, John Bates, Jr., has not held political office in the past.  This wasn’t a debate.  Each candidate was allowed to make a short introductory speech and then they took questions from the audience.  It was set up in half hour time slots, so we received individual presentations.

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Fairy Tales

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The political season is well underway.  We’re only a couple of weeks from the Primaries and the rhetoric is already high.  I have high hopes for some of the candidates I’ve heard from.  I recognize the same B.S. from a lot of the others.  I hear that this is the most important election of my life…  among other hyperbole.  

I plan to vote.  In a few cases, I plan to vote for someone I think will do good things.  In other cases I plan to vote for the lesser of evils, just as I have done in most elections.  I’m hoping the mood of the Country is such that we hold them to their promises this time around.