I guess I've almost calmed down about security issues but I think that most people are blind to the implications of they way they do things. Security is one thing. The schools have put in measures almost by reflex because everyone is doing something similar. They don't seem to have thought through the implications of what this means for the community as a whole. The kids are locked up but the community that supports the school and the kids are locked OUT and in many ways alienated from the whole process. This is fine, I guess, until the school taxes go up and lots of people scream. Usually the kids parents are supporters of the school costs but these measures are eroding the support of even those adults by excluding them too. It's all subtle but the school board will be amazed one day when the populace refuses to vote more money.
Girl Scouts has a similar thing going. The council doesn't like to see cash balances carried over from year to year in troop bank accounts. This is realistic, They want the money spent on the girls who worked for it as most of the money in those accounts are proceeds from fund raisers. There is no guarantee that the girls will stay from year to year so most of the money ought to be spent in the year it was earned. One thing that Council suggests, almost reccommends, is that the money in the troop accounts be used to re register the girls for the next year of scouting. Now this is quite convenient. The bulk of the funds come into the accounts about the time that meetings are winding down for the year and registrations are due. It can be a lot easier to just write one check from the tropp account rather than collect checks from each family. On the other hand, when the whole registration process is so removed from the parents they do not get an opportunity to "buy in" and demonstrate their support for the troop. I prefer to collect the annual registration fees from the parents and let the troop funds pay for more of the trips and things that dues would cover. This way I spend the money on the girls but the parents have an annual opportunity to be included in an important way. They like not needing to supply more money for troop dues.
As you might guess, its a heavy Girl scout time. Service unit registrations are on my table to be given out next Monday. With any luck I'll get most of them back by the end of June but we know that the rest will trickle in all year. My girls are into lots of trips and prigrams at the moment. Teddy Bear Tea with the Manners try-it was yesterdays event. Next week we team up with a Daisy troop to do bridgeing activities. The My Body try-it is the focus. Then a last Cookie booth sale at Earth Day Celebrations. Keeping track is tough.
Aikido is undergoing schedule changes. The morning attendees have dwindled to the point that the classes are going on hiatus. I still have an early morning Tai chi class on Tuesday but will need to find some other excuse to get up early on another day. There is talk of adding a class or 2 to the evening schedule. So I may not lose out on total hours per week.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Terror at home- time to blog again
I woke up this morning to find out what most of the news-following world knew yesterday. Some cretin walked onto a college campus and shot lots of people, more than 30! It's hard to believe that such things happen and I am very sorry for all the people who died or were injured. I'm sorry for their parent, friends and collegues too.
On the other hand I am afraid that this incident, terrible as it is, will be an excuse for further eroding the day to day trust among people.
Last week I was required not only to sign in with full personal contact information but also to leave my drivers liscence with the guard. Was I spending hours in a high security facility maybe a jail or courthouse or legislative building? Was I visiting at some sensitive commercial site? Maybe a R&D building for a new energy system? No not one of these. Wait for it, I was at a High school to collect my 17 year old neice from the nurses office. The office door was 20 feet from the guard station and in full view of the guard. I was in the building for less time than it took for the check in proceedure yet was I allowed to step down to the nurses office? NO In the town I grew up in, in the school building I pay heavy taxes for, I was practically phisically prevented from walking down the hall to get my neice without producing all the formal nicities.
When and where has any sort of public danger come from a middle age female who said they were picking a kid up from school? What kind of risks is the school running by letting me walk down the hall to get her? If I had run off and disappeared around the corner then maybe they might have been justified in investigating waht I was doing but no, they assume the worst.
This security issue has gone over the top. There might be some justification for requiring some people to take off their shoes at airport check in security but what possible justification is there for making everyone? My daughter nearly missed a plane recently partially because she was required to remove the shoes of the two toddlers that she was travelling with! That is just overkill. For years El Al, the Isralei Airline, has had real security at their check-in areas. It must work, no one has blown up or hijacked any of their planes but they don't feel the need to make toddlers take their shoes off to do it. Why can't the TSA be as clever?
On the other hand I am afraid that this incident, terrible as it is, will be an excuse for further eroding the day to day trust among people.
Last week I was required not only to sign in with full personal contact information but also to leave my drivers liscence with the guard. Was I spending hours in a high security facility maybe a jail or courthouse or legislative building? Was I visiting at some sensitive commercial site? Maybe a R&D building for a new energy system? No not one of these. Wait for it, I was at a High school to collect my 17 year old neice from the nurses office. The office door was 20 feet from the guard station and in full view of the guard. I was in the building for less time than it took for the check in proceedure yet was I allowed to step down to the nurses office? NO In the town I grew up in, in the school building I pay heavy taxes for, I was practically phisically prevented from walking down the hall to get my neice without producing all the formal nicities.
When and where has any sort of public danger come from a middle age female who said they were picking a kid up from school? What kind of risks is the school running by letting me walk down the hall to get her? If I had run off and disappeared around the corner then maybe they might have been justified in investigating waht I was doing but no, they assume the worst.
This security issue has gone over the top. There might be some justification for requiring some people to take off their shoes at airport check in security but what possible justification is there for making everyone? My daughter nearly missed a plane recently partially because she was required to remove the shoes of the two toddlers that she was travelling with! That is just overkill. For years El Al, the Isralei Airline, has had real security at their check-in areas. It must work, no one has blown up or hijacked any of their planes but they don't feel the need to make toddlers take their shoes off to do it. Why can't the TSA be as clever?
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