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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Bunnies & Squirrels
The average home was worth a little over $70,000. The average income was a little over $21,000. Rent was a little over $300. You could buy a new car for less than $8,000 and moments later fill it up for $10.
Also, my mother enrolled me in pre-kindergarten on Long Island. I was four years old and what I recall about this time in my life is probably as far back as my memory goes.
My family lived right along the NYC/Long Island border and enrolled me in this class a half-day program with maybe 20 kids. It had two teachers and two classrooms and those classrooms had names over the doors.
Over one door was written: Bunnies.
Over the other: Squirrels.
I ended up learning later on that the two animals represented the skill level of the students in them.
The Squirrels were the 4-year-olds who could tie their shoes, knew their name, possibly had the ability to write their name.
The Bunnies were .not.
I ended up in the Squirrel class. Which Id imagine is a good reflection on my mother, since her son who just hit the age cut-off days earlier had been graded a head up over some kids who were nearly five.
What brought this long-forgotten era back into my mind was the House Republicans government shutdown stare-down with the White House.
Right now the Republicans in the House of Representatives are having a crisis. They have leadership who wants to be responsible and move to fund the government and a caucus that isnt paying attention. That caucus The Tea Party doesnt understand the function of conservative government is to make progress happen at a slower pace not to completely grind to a halt because of a hissy fit.
In other words. The bunnies and the squirrels are in the same classroom, and the teacher cant do his job.
Made doubly worse, this is the teacher:
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Yeah.
Under normal circumstances John Boehner would just be chalked up as one of the worst Speakers of the House ever, since hes presided over the least productive congress ever except hes been played a historically bad political hand.
Now, before I continue Im not saying pity John Boehner. I dont agree with much he stands for and worse, how hes conducted himself as Speaker since 2010, but even he wants to keep the government operating.
Not because hes not conservative.
Not because he doesnt want to de-fund Obamacare.
But because John Boehner is one of the few experienced elected officials on the Republican side of the aisle who recognizes the real-life not conceptual consequences of a government shutdown. And thats before even getting into how awful he realizes the optics will be for his party if they get tagged with causing the shutdown.
Hes a teacher crying out for help, stuck with caucus equivalent of students who would rather eat crayons than write with them.
These people Boehner has the misfortune of calling his colleagues are going to eventually cost him his job and probably his partys status as majority. Its just a question of when.
Graduation day is a little over a year away. Lets see if America is ready to send the tea party back to the Bunnies room.
http://thesterlingroad.com/2013/09/28/bunnies-squirrels/
Rex
(65,616 posts)A few woodland creatures live in the DU forest.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)hootinholler
(26,449 posts)He's a bunny hold-over from last year.
Lars39
(26,109 posts)Last edited Sun Sep 29, 2013, 08:48 AM - Edit history (1)
Totally marginalized.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)When did you learn that the two groups were classified by skill level? How old were you? Who told you? (If you remember.)
I do not feel sorry for John Boehner. He is not such a nice guy. He and the rest of the Republican leadership got themselves into this mess.
The Congress spent a long, long time debating and tweaking and arguing and considering the passage of the American Care Act. The Tea Party did not have the votes then. Even if they have the votes in the House to slow down or end the ACA now, they did not have them when they needed them. Some provisions of the ACA have already gone into effect. It would not be right to stop the implementation of the rest of the bill now. If changes need to be made after Americans try this bill, they can be made. But, the Tea Party is wasting precious resources, money to keep Congress in session, time that could be spent dealing with a lot of other important issues and political good will, just for some sort of legislative kamikaze stunt that will get them headlines for a few days and then earn them nothing but ridicule.
John Boehner should threaten to resign if the Tea Party continues to refuse to cooperate with the Senate and the White House. The House cannot pass a bill on its own.
WooWooWoo
(454 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)It wasn't done that way where I worked. I can see why that would be a good idea. It would make it easier for a teacher to help kids develop the skills they need. If one child can tie his laces, but the next one can't, how much time do you spend on teaching the two of them to tie their shoelaces?
By the way, I had a terrible time with things like tying my laces (probably couldn't see far enough to figure out what they were), telling time (also a vision problem) and simple tasks like that. So, I needed extra help. Maybe if I had gotten it, someone would have noticed early on just how blind I was.
Life is funny. Something like bunnies and squirrels can make such a difference.