An Enjoyable Evening with My Kids

Andrew with a 9" bluegill

It's been a fun and restful Winter Break. Yesterday was a good example. After a good karate practice in the morning, Andrew and I went afternoon/evening ice fishing on Prior Lake. It was beautiful at dusk, the last pleasant day forecast before a chilly, single-digit cold front moves in for the next week. The fishing was slow, but we did catch a few sizable bluegills including the beauty pictured with Andrew.

Later, after a tired Andrew went to bed, Elizabeth, Jeffrey, and I had another one of our late night chats with topics ranging from the differences between the Spanish and French classes at EHS (the French ones go on field trips and watch many more films), France's ongoing failures at war, the weirdness of SES, the royal houses of the Holy Roman Empire, the gap between regular and AP classes, and Jeffrey's rant about the bugs in his new PS4 game Battlefield 4.

I love these ongoing, late evening talks with the kids. A couple of weeks ago, Jeffrey explained why integrating technology into his academic courses was usually a waste of time and resources. And, for the most part, he was right. He did think that teaching technology was useful, so my job would be safe in his world.

Thoughts on Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman Case and the Stand Your Ground Law

George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Protests have been staged, both in person and digitally. Most have focused on race, but my thoughts have turned to the type of society/culture we are becoming.

So I will take leave from my Equity Team training (realizing, even as I do so, that it is a privilege that is afforded me) and take race out of the equation. Strip away, too, descriptors of gender, profession, motivation, age, and appearance. Consider the essence of the case and its outcome: an armed person may stalk and harass another person who, if he confronts and/or threatens that person, then may be legally shot.

Stand your ground. Just be sure that you're the one with the gun out first. Not guilty.