5 years

Ok so today is the 5 year mark of my dad's death. Sometimes it doesn't seem that long ago while other times it seems like it has been forever and a day ago. I miss him but I also know that he is in a better place and has no more pain. for that i am grateful! It has been a journey has been up and down. When he passed I couldn't have imagined what it would be like without him. There are times it feels like he is still here and other times I can feel the void of his absence.

He had his flaws. He was not perfect but regardless of everything he was still my dad! I think of him often and ironically there are times I hear his phrases come out of my mouth. I miss his laugh and when I would come home from where I was living in California we had a standing appointment every evening to watch Who Wants To Be A Millionaire back when it was an hour long and Regis hosted it. He would get flustered when I would answer the questions before the 4 multiple choice answers would come up on the TV. He would say "would you wait and give me a chance to see the options." I just told him you either know it or not. As the contestants got to the higher monetary amounts usually if the got to the 250 thousand mark we would make wagers on what the right answer was. The one I remember the most was from a celebrity episode and Rosie O'donnell was going for the million. I'll never forget the question. The russian writer Anton Checov (sp) was best known for writing about A: childrens lit B: law C: world history or D: medicine. Before the choices came up I said medicine. My dad said no way. So when the choices came up and medicine was one of them he still doubted I knew it and thought it was a wild guess. So he raised the bet to 20 bucks. His answer was c world history or law but could choose between the 2. Needless to say Rosie walk away with 500 thousand for her charity because she has no idea. Well all I will say I got my 20 bucks with the question of how I knew that. I don't know I must have heard it at some point in my life. I just knew it.

He always told me and others that I was sponge. I soak up everything and retain it. I rarely forget things. Not to say I never do but not all that often.

So for my dad the answer is still D: medicine I sure do miss those moments with him. Carpe diem (sp) dad I know I am trying to do so.

Please forgive the spelling and gramatical errors I am writing the via my cell phone while I'm at a doc appointment.

Revision of letter

My original letter was too long. So I edited it and resubmitted it. Below is the revised letter to the editor.

I would like to enlighten the public regarding a candidate running for school board, Dave Weigand. I find it interesting that Ginny Maziarka has not spoken much about him or come out and publically
endorse him. Is it an attempt to keep her name separate from his so he has a chance at winning? Let me point out Maziarka and Weigand were in TOTAL agreement with the attack on the public library. They
stood together along with Dave’s wife Mary to stop the voluntary day of silence at the schools, and then the districts harassment policy. It is clear that a vote for Dave Weigand is a vote for Ginny Maziarka and the ousting of any kind of teaching student’s tolerance of anyone that may not share their ideals, anything regarding protecting ALL students regardless of religious or sexuality views. The schools aren't the place to debate religion or find ways to incorporate it into the social and education minds of students. Schools are not a subsidiary of Focus On The Family. It is a place where ALL kids deserve to feel safe and protected and be whoever they are.

Maziarka and Weigand share the same ideology as been shown by issues they jointly support. Those who go to the polls to cast their votes for school board must know these things. It would be a slippery slope to vote for Weigand. Our district need people who want to help improve our schools not undermine and restructure it to fit the Christian churches values. One can be held accountable by those they choose to surround themselves with and the causes they support. Vote no on Dave Weigand for school board.

No Weigand for school board

This letter has been submitted to the West Bend Daily News Letter to the Editor...

I would like to enlighten the public regarding a candidate running for school board. I am speaking of Dave Weigand. I find it interesting that Mrs. Ginny Maziarka has not spoken much about him. Or come out and publically endorse him. Is it an attempt to keep her name separate from his so he has a chance at winning? Let me point out Maziarka and Weigand were in TOTAL agreement with first removing books and the attack on the public library. They stood together along with Dave’s wife Mary to stop the voluntary day of silence at the high school, and then the harassment policy put together by Kathy Zarling at the district. Not to mention the more than numerous filings for open records of library staff, school board members and so on. It is clear to me that a vote for Dave Weigand is a vote for Ginny Maziarka and the cause to oust any kind of teaching student’s tolerance of anyone that may not be heterosexual. Anything that has to do with protecting ALL students regardless of religious views. The public schools are not the place to debate religion or find ways to incorporate it into the social and education minds of the students. Family and religious values are to be taught at home. The public schools are not a subsidiary of Focus On The Family. It is a place where ALL kids deserve to feel safe and protected and be whoever they are.

Whatever the reasoning for either Dave or Ginny not being vocal about their connection but there is one and they share the same ideology as has been shown by issues as the library, homophobia, harassment policy disapproval and the list goes on. Those who go to the polls to cast their votes for school board must know these things. It would be a slippery slope and down turn to vote for Mr. Weigand. Our district need people who want to help improve our schools not undermine and restructure it to fit the Christian churches values. One can be held accountable by those they choose to surround themselves with and the causes they support. Vote no on Dave Weigand for school board.

Deny

Just so none of you people out there get confused, I am officially in denial. I refuse to acknowledge that we are having a blizzard as defined by the Nation Weather Service. When I look outside I see a beautiful clear starry night. The temp is on the 70's and they say is to be even warmer and a great day to go surfing at the beach I am currently sitting on.

I just wanted everyone to know how deep my denial goes when it comes to winter. I believe that sn*w is the new 4 letter cuss word.

Crap Shoot

It has been one of those days, week actually. It never ceases to amaze me how some think that I can’t see through their crap. How they can start a conversation with you and then say but before I go, on how are you? I am aware that they really want to talk about themselves. Their ongoing problems, ones they can change but don’t because of fear, pride or whatever. When is enough enough?

When do you hit the brakes and just yell stop. I have had it. I can’t do this anymore. I don’t have the energy to take on this issue again. Especially one that can be change by a shift in attitude. My reserve tank is empty. I am doing by best to keep my own head above water right now. What I don’t need is another leech grabbing hold of me trying to suck more life out of me. Are you kidding me? Get off and give me room to breathe already.


How long do we stand by people when they do nothing to help themselves? How long do we allow people to keep pushing our heads under the water as we bob up and down trying to catch our breath before we get pushed under again? Eventually something has to give. Either they will kill us or we will kick them off and go ahead without them. Let them drown on their own. Do you let them or do you still reach out a helping hand? Or do you just save yourself?


Ah well, I’m sure I am just lamenting because I am having a crap shoot of a day. At some point, it has to get better right?

Whatever, I am going to bed.

Now is the time

It is in times like this where we find out who are real friends are.During the times we have nothing tangible to give to others just our heart and our friendship. When we are along and bored and people know how to reach you and the avenues of communucation now a days are wide open and yet the phone stays silent, and the E box just collects junk.

It becomes apparent during these times that if you are the only one making an effort to stay in touch with people maybe those people do not deserve to be called friends. I am expempting those certain individuals who told me ahead of time what their plans were. Too many others just are too caught up in their own stuff and frankly selfish when it comes to who they call friends.

This who thing just exas erbates things. I din't get a formal invite to my best friends little girls 5 b-day party because she was not sure if I would be feeling up to it. I just told her ya won't know until you try. She eventually invite me when asking about some pictures I needed to get to them. I don't have the plauge, I have breast cancer. Which is being treated accordingly. I cannot give it to anyone and I don't need to be avoided just in case. I am still me. Goofy, funny. opinionated, sarcastic, over thinking individualI have always been. I just think others are afraid when they hear someone has the big C and they don't know what to say. I say talk to me like you always have. If I am not feeling well enough to attend the party I will let ya know. Just don't treat me different. Many people I have called friends have fallen to the wayside since I told them.

During times like I a have where at times I can get depressed becaue I am so tired much of the time, and I am bored just laying around here. I would hope htat my friends would remember that when they ned someone to be a friend or be with them I am always the first person they call and I will do whatI can to get there no matter the distance.

Maybe I need to create a new gauge for friendship. I don't want to be a friend of conveinence or only if they need something. I want o have my phone ring from time to time and just hear a friendly voice on the other end say I just called to say hi what's up with you lately? I don't want to be the constant instigator of those calls and Emails.

This experience the last few days have beenenlightening to say the least. If you want brutal honestly right now I am crying (which I never do) but I am because I finally see the big picture of who my friends are and are not. It saddens me. I'm lonely and people seems so afraid to be around me like they can catch it. I don't understand it but it is what it is.

I do understand people have bus y lives with work, school, family etc. But it does not take but a few minutes to punch an Email out,or place a phone call. I don't know maybe it's my frame of mind and being bummed out tonight but it just seems like it would be easier to go back to what I know for sure years ago. IF I am going to survive and thrive thatI need to pull everything I need frommyself and never reply on anyone one else ever. Friends are good but acquaintances are sometimes better. With friendships there becomes a certain trust and healthy dependence on. The best analogy I can think of right now as I amfalling asleep typing is imagine a 2 lane raod but 1 lane stops 1/4 of the way. Now I am in the lane that goes all the way to the end and sopme of my so called friends are at that end coming towards me, but the road ends before we even get to the half way point. And they can't figure out anyother was to reach at least that half way mark. If it were me i would get out and walk it, or go off road to ge there. I am a very loyal friend and will do whatI have to to get to my friends if they need something. Just as my friend in So Cali. she neded me and in less then 12 hours of hanging up the phone with her I was on a plane and not only that had landed in San Diego , rented a car and was at her hours. This was 12 hours after she said she needed me and I knew she was in bad shape. I am not asking for anythign drastic like that but I have had 1 phone call and that was tonight and one text. It's lonely, but it is a good thing I am used to feeling that way at many different tmes in my life. It is a familiar feeling to me. I can cope with it. I guess I just thought that I was finally past that and hadsome great friends. Guess that whole thought needs to be reexamined. Maybe I just need to pull back from everyone. It would save me the tears that are falling now, and sorrow in my heart.

Oh well that is life, or at least mine. I don't have he same energy to be the one to always make the contact first. So my guess is even more will fall to the weigh side. I don't ant them too but thatis up to them. whatever, I am fine. Always have been always will be!

Please forgive any spelling errors I am more than half a sleep writing this. Don't feel like running a spell check.

Crazy Dreams

OK it is 3 AM and once again, I am waking from yet another strange dream. I have to tell ya I have had a lot of them lately. I don't know if it is the medication. I think it may be part of it but as far back as I can remember I had very strange active dreams and nightmares, and when I was young night terrors. So anomalous dreams are not out of the ordinary.

Now let me regress.. A few weeks ago, I had a dream that every time I would wake up and go back to sleep it would pick back up where it left off. That one involved some people I had recent contact and some I have and never would even know. I was leaving a building at a university with a friend of mine that was with a professor and me. Along with us, other students were in the class were leaving the building at the same time. Upon walking out of the building there was a group of what looked like terrorists opening fire on everyone. Let me clarify this was only a dream and did not happen in real life. Therefore, in the dream some of the students were able to runaway. The rest of us were told to sit on the ground and not move. So the 3 of us that walked out of the building together began trying to negotiate with these people because by this point, the police had arrived and those holding us hostage had demands they wanted met. So we were trying to keep talking to them and going through all the motions of our combined training in working with difficult people or situations. I than woke up.

When I fell back to sleep it continued where it left off. Except this time enters the white dog Kiki that I fostered last winter and have again this winter. With her owners, she is a little escape artist and gets out frequently. With me, she can't get out because I have a fence in my back yard. However, in my dream she was running around and barking and chortling which sounds like singing or talking kind of. Anyway, no one was shot and after I woke up for the last time I thought wow OK that was weird. I will say I think I do understand the meaning a correlation of it. Recently I had done a presentation for a class with a friend at a university and was talking about my life and different things that had occurred during my life. My dream was representative of my fears of the repercussions of sharing such personal information with strangers.

So tonight, I wake up after another crazy dream. In this one, I was floating above myself not flying just floating, and I was not dead. It was as if I was just kind of checking things out. I remember I was feeling lonely and was trying to see what everyone else was doing that was so important. Everyone I saw was busy with all of their responsibilities, work, family, children, and all their other responsibilities. So wrapped up in their own lives that they could not see beyond what was right in front of them. Alternatively, they were afraid of all the unknowns so they stay inside the safety of their own bubble. I understand that there are certain aspects of my life in which I do the same. I know the demands society places on people. However, while I was floating around I saw so much more. The selfishness of people, and the humility of others. The self-lessness of some and those that thought they were owed everything from others. I remember in my dream asking myself why I feel so much compassion for everyone and seem to be looked over by many others. I felt like I did not matter to anyone and was there taking up precious air that could be used for more worthy endeavors. It was a very lonely feeling, isolated. Like I was the only one that was keeping in contact with my friends by making the first move by calling or E'ing Very few of my friends initiate it with me first. That sometimes makes me wonder if they are really my friend, especially if it a one sided give and take that was all giving from me. Not all are life that but a majority of the times it is. I hate the loneliness and boredom.

Then as the dream progressed, I was hovering over myself and started seeing myself at all different ages. At those ages, I seeing all the other strange dreams I would have at those ages. Some were reoccurring like my Charlie friend that I would in my dream of course find in a closet in the basement and as soon as I walked in the closet mutated into a huge jungle rain forest. There we would play and climb on trees and play with all the other animal friends in the jungle. You see Charlie was a monkey. Yes, I said monkey. I had that dream a lot as a kid. In addition, tonight I saw it again in my dream but it was like a dream in a dream. I know this sounds crazy but it was what I was dreaming.

Then once again, there were terrorists firing at me and only me this time. There were others that I knew that were watching this and laughing at me as I was trying to dodge the bullets. I knew they were real bullets and they were laughing. Some of them my friends. Than just as I saw one coming that I could not get away from I woke up with a start.

In trying to figure out what this one meant I think part of it was because every now and then I think of people I call friends and the call me friend but it seems like the only times I hear from them they need something from me or whatever. I sometimes question if they are friends if I am the only one instigating and keep the friendship going by being the ones that calls or Emails.

I also think that part of it is I trying to recapture the good things from when I was a kid, and my Charlie dream is a sweet comforting memory. Maybe that part was telling me that I need comfort right now. Friends that are supportive of some serious health things going on with me and feel like it is just me against the world and this health issue. That I have to do it alone as I have with every other thing in my life. I need that support and sometimes just an escape from it for a little bit of time. To just have fun with someone where the health issues are not the entire conversation point. Just fun, to laugh with others, talk with others or whatever.

I will be really honest and expose my emotions here and I am not real good or comfortable with doing it but I am feeling it right now. There are times since I have been going through this I just get so discouraged and wish I could talk to someone who would encourage me. Friends… We all need them. I start balling because sometimes that is all I can do. On the other hand I feel like I am imposing on my friends and don't want to burden them with my feelings. My friends know me as an upbeat happy person who is willing to go to any lengths to help my friends. Sometimes I just get discouraged when I am in a place where I feel like I need a friend to do for me what I do for them.

As far as the part where I was being shot at, at one point I could tell that one of the shooters was me. Now here again let me just clarify I am not feeling like I want to harm myself in any way. Nothing even close to that. Maybe I was trying to be shot so I could feel alive or maybe it was my trying to kill those horrible parts of my childhood. Alternatively, maybe it was even me punishing myself for opening myself up to strangers so completely, and was feeling vulnerable about it. I don't know but that lonely feeling never left during the entire dream. Another possibility is I was trying to kill this issue with my health in me.

I don't know any ideas. I am open to them.

I did write this at 3 AM but fell asleep before I got it posted so the tme stamp is 7 something AM.

If Only

I'm not feeling very well tonight so I am going to post what has been swirling around in my head the last few days. I have had a lot of retrospective thoughts. I guess that's normal. I've just been kinda depressed lately and I'm not really sure why. I don't know if it's because I have been so tired or because if I'm battle scared and war weary. Maybe it's because I am getting ready to start another round of treatment once I find out if the docs want to do another round of outpatiet external radiation or if they are going to try the inpatient 5 day internal round. I'm not sure why I have been bummed I just am. I am tired of being tired! Having to care for an aging parent who's needs seem to increase monthly, daily at times does not lessen the level of exhaustion. Ah well, whatever, I'm fine. It does kind of explain my posting tonight. So, let the blog commence....

How many times in our lives do we look back at things and think of all the if onlys? If only I had been stronger. If only I would have been smarter. If only I had been or done this or that. I am guilty, as I tend to think about these things from time to time. OK OK I do it more than from time to time. I do it all the time. Not only do I think about it, I apply it. I believe it. I take all of those if onlys into my psyche and apply them to my life and different events. It’s easier to blame one’s self that try to surrender to the thought that someone else holds the guilt. To affix culpability to someone else and expect him or her to accept it is beyond comprehension. For some to garner an understanding someone needs to take that responsibility. It’s easier to forgive others before one’s self even if others think that person in that instance has nothing to forgive themselves for. I am not saying that this is something that all will understand but it is a mindset many subscribe to.

I don’t know why I thought about this right now. Oh well. I guess my point is if for every if only we may hold in our mind we could also ask the proverbial what if as well. However, that too is an open-ended question. Both are questions that do not have any solid answers for. Yet for many they will search their entire lives for the answers.

So the real question becomes how much energy and time will one devote in the search during their lifetime. This also leads to another question. What if one had been stronger, smarter, faster etc., how would that have altered everything that would come after? I have been asked in the past if I could change anything or event in my life would I? Sounds like a what if type of question to me.I have always answered no because the entire compilation of events has shaped me into who I am today. My values, the social justice fights I choose, my compassion, and everything else. Included I suppose it would be accurate to say that because of some of these things they have made me bitter to certain things, hardened me to other things, more alert or a hypersensitivity to thing. With the good comes the bad.

Therefore, it is a matter of choice what to take with you as time goes by. Yes, good and evil go hand in hand and has from the point of creation but we still have opportunities along our way in life to make a decision what we want to carry with us. If we do leave something behind, or as a modern society would say dealt with and moved on that space would need to be filled with something. Something would inevitably replace it. I think that anything we carry with us can be a weight. We always hear that carrying negative things or baggage with us all the time causes us to be weighed down and heavy. The analogy that negative baggage weighs us down. Yet, no one talks about how even the good baggage can be weighty. Thus wouldn’t everything we experience and have imprints of either physically, emotionally, mentally or otherwise, good bad and indifferent have weight? Don’t all things we encounter provide us with a gage on how we handle similar situations in the future?

For example, I do not like to have my back to a door especially in public. Even my bed faces the door in the basement. The interior door that leads to the playroom, work area and laundry room is directly to my left and visible via peripheral vision. The door to the freezer room and bathroom is to my right and also in my peripheral vision. I know why I position myself the way I do it’s not important to go into it here. Is it a weight or just simple self-preservation? Or is it a lasting reaction to past events? If it’s the later, couldn’t it also be a good thing? No one can sneak up on me, and I always see what is coming my way.

So here is a question for you to answer. It would be interesting to see what those of you who read my blog think. Question: Are all experiences good and bad, anything that creates a memory of any kind, is it a weight you carry with you in all you do now or are just the bad things the weights? Can the good things or memories become weighty after time as well? Do the good things create a sort of expectation that everything similar to that must live up to? What do you think? Would you change anything in your lifes history? If so would you do so even knowing that it may alter who you are today or even physical cirrcumstances? What if the one thing you would change would alter history just enough that you would never meet your spouse or even have the children you do? Would you still do it even if everything you love now would be either shared with someone else or you may not have at all? Would you still change even the smallest of things?

OK that is my rabbit trail from my way to cerebral at times brain. If only I didn’t think so much or so hard. On the other hand what if I didn’t? What characteristic would replace that trait? Sorry, I just had to add that.

Time Traveling

First let me begin by saying yes I know it is late or early for some 3:33 AM. I am having a bad night physically. I am sure by now most of those that read this know I had my 20 year class reunion in August. What most did not know at that time was about a week before I heard the words that altered my life and shook me to the core as nothing ever before or since. The doctor came in the room and gently and softly said she was sorry but the mammogram, ultrasound, and MRI all showed that I had one rather large tumor and another that was not as big. They did the biopsy and again the doctor came in the room and said I have an aggressive stage 2 breast cancer. OK now I had to figure out how to process this. I couldn't. I didn't tell anyone, literally no one. Hell, no one even knew I had a mammo. Slowly I began to tell a very small circle of people I felt I could really trust. I was referred to a cancer care center and I have since had surgery and it was discovered that there was actually a third. The problem was it was growing between the collarbone and the breastbone. Like being wedged in. Now my doctor who is wonderful began to consult with other docs to figure out how to remove it without breaking or fracturing the bone because of the high concentration of cancer cells the chance of them getting into the bone according to the docs would only have given me maybe a 30% survival rate. The next surgery they did it with 3 surgeons in the room. I was terrified going into the OR but felt confident. I have since had many more imaging tests and they showed that there was part of that tumor they did not get. So it is still there. I have been going through radiation therapy and it is exhausting. It scares me and puts things in a perspective that I have never had before.
Now to the time traveling. Tonight first, I am in physical pain, and to be honest emotionally I am not in a good place. I have lived a colorful life to say the least. I fear that if this tumor is unable to be taken care of I don't what my life expectancy is. I have learned over the years of my colorful life to smile and just act as if nothing is wrong. I am very good at that, mastered it. Tonight I am having a bad night. There are so many things I want to do and kids I want to help and future teachers to help them understand kids as I was. Therefore, it has thrust me into a place that I am unfamiliar with. So I have begun to share my life story with future teachers. I did so on Tuesday to a group of college students specifically going to be special education teachers, which I was a sped kid too hyper and smart for my own good. I don't know if it the docs can get this into remission or not I don't know how much time I have on this earth no one does and I have decided that it is time to share my story with those it can help. I have the help of a former teacher which is a HUGE blessing. I couldn't do it alone. It is still difficult. I tire very quickly. It's like taking someone who lives their live at a 100 miles an hour and taking them to 50 mph instantly. That has been the hardest adjustment. There are times I am still in denial that this is even happening to me. I feel like I brought it upon myself because of things I have been through in my life. It doesn't matter if it was willing or not I still feel it is my fault and I brought all this on myself.
Due to speaking to these college students has sent me on a journey that is difficult but I want my message to get out to many people as possible so when they become teachers or whatever they will have a greater understanding of those kids that have live a life similar to mine. I want other kids to not have to experience things I did in school or home. The problem with that is it brings it all back to that moment. The time it happened, my mind goes back to that age and I feel it as if it is happening all over again. Now with the cancer my perspective on life. I need to share my life so others can learn learn from it. I will do anything I need to do regardless of how difficult it is. I can handle the physical pain; the emotional pain is more challenging. Sharing my life story is even more difficult.
My perspective on life has changed and I don't know what it holds for me. Will I live or die from the cancer. I am terrified to share it but I will do it through the terror. It is not easy thank God; I have a friend that helps me through the hard parts. She is a blessing in my life and was in sixth grade. She just didn't know it then. I hope she knows it now.
This person does not get everything I have been taught to believe but that is OK. Sharing my life with a group of strangers let me tell you it challenging, but this person challenges me in ways no one has done before.
I don't know that my future holds, but I am going to do as much as I can and make s much of a difference as I can. I know that I need to share my life with people and as hard as it is, I will do it. I will do whatever it takes to make a difference for all the kids like I was. You can look back at other blogs I have written to see what some of those are.
Maybe it is the medicine my defences are down I am taking, but I feel compeled to share just a few instinses. (I edited somethings out here in case my young neice or nephews see this) I have had some awful experiences with former teachers. However, I have survived it all. Not without repercussions, but what can you expect when I basically raised myself. I have compassion for people more don't. My life isn't that bad there are bright spots, my parents aren't bad parents, nor were all my teachers were horrible only 2 in particular.
This whole cancer thing and speaking to future teachers has caused me to think differently. Life is precious and I try to make a memory of everything that I do.
Tonight is a tough night for me. I am feeling very discouraged tonight, not to mention the physical pain tonight. I put a smile on my face and just continue on as if everything is just fine with me. Even when it's not. Which is now. I am afraid to tell people the latest result of all the imagine tests.
My life is what it is. I can't change it, but I can help others with it. I am fighting to beat this but there are times I feel I just can't do it. Thank God for good friends, a great doctor, and the prayers that are going forth for me. I have never run from a fight or backed down from a challenge. I am tired of the pain and and being tired. I am still feisty and there are days I feel I can beat this and other days that that I want to through up my hands in defeat and just let the cancer take its course.
If my life story will help one future teacher or save one kid, it's worth it. I had never shared it with anyone until speaking to the university students until that evening. I walked away from the college students was a milestone for me. Being told you have aggressive breast cancer everything. I will say that it puts thing about life in a completely new perspective.
When I was talking to the college student it really, it was difficult. They seemed respectful of my life. I pushed myself harder to get the job done.
So I do have pain and but to save 1 kid or help 1 sped teacher it's all worth it. So the physical pains groans on, I have a smile on my face, this time traveling through my life as hard but continue I must.

Response to school district tax levy issue

To all the proud, No voters at the last school board meeting. How proud you must be. No band or orchestra in 6^th grade, no band lessons in high school, higher athletic fees, loss of teachers and aides, cutting librarians, program support teachers, gifted and talented teacher cuts at all levels, increase in class sizes 35 – 40 and mandatory one additional class to be taught, getting rid of 1 east and west teacher and replace them with an aide. Wait let's not forget counseling services, school social workers, athletic directors, dean of students at McLane, possibly eliminating a principal position at elementary level, all gone without a tax levy.

Hang on there's more beautiful things the no's I am sure are proud to stand behind. The elimination of business and technology departments and all classes go too. Middle school exploratories, world culture and tech ed. Elementary fitness, which the no's can scream about childhood obesity and laziness of our youth but still use TV and video games as babysitters. Makes sense right? Sure, sarcasm was needed there.

The most humorous part was reducing the school week to 4 days and increasing the hours per day to 9.5 to 10 hours those 4 days. Show me a school age kid that will sit in a classroom in a teachable frame of mind for that many hours and I will show you a kid that is over stimulated from hours at school and extra homework demands from it, beyond exhausted up most of the night doing homework or work and homework, plus the after school extra-cirriculars they may get home by 8 or 9 maybe. Now you also have a weekday without school but parents would still be working, which creates a higher demand on the family budget for daycare or babysitter for the younger ones, and more time for the older ones to watch TV or play those video games all day eating I am sure very nutritious snacks that will not add to the obesity issue. I am sure those video games are very educational teaching all kinds of good things relating to all the cuts of classes the schools would have to make. Maybe they will go to the public library to check out all the porn they have head so much about lately, the horror…

Before you go and holler about the schools needing more money take the time to find out why and what drastic measures they will have to take to get it otherwise. Don't just educate yourself from just the conservative aspect; look at the liberal side as well. Somewhere in the middle is the answer. We all know that these are fiscally tough times for every family but to push it onto our children's shoulders and the effect it would have on them in the future for college entrance or employment if kid wants to go into business or the tech industry we would be sending them to college or out into the world much farther behind than other districts. Our kids would be at a severe disadvantage competitively they wouldn't make it past the first cut. Think about that. Talk to an educator as I did, ask them what they think about this and how they think it would impact their ability to continue the quality education they give our kids now with longer days, less teachers and aids, no counselors or social workers to offer student support, higher class sizes and more classes to teach. Ask that educator if all of these cuts are done and they don't get a salary increase for all the extra time they would be mandated to teach added classes that if another district offered them a job with the same responsibilities but a salary increase would they go. Let me answer that for many of them, in a second. Try to find quality educators to come and teach in West Bend when we get a reputation for not caring about our kid's futures and ability to merge into adult society successfully.

Stop thinking about this as what this levy would do to you, and ask yourself what it would do to all the kids. Is $100.00 bucks or so a year worth under educating them? No! Take the 10 bucks a month you spend on fast food, coffee, case of soda, or something and set it aside at the end of the year you will be up $200.00 bucks.

The district did not set out secretly planning ways to 'get' the taxpayers. The district was put in this mess by the state cutting their funds without telling them before this year's budget had to be completed. Pat Herdrich or any other school official is not trying to screw anyone or squeeze more money out of people to spend on extra candy vending machines or so the admin and teachers can give themselves all raises and fly to Europe for fun. They are asking for it so classes are not cut, teachers let go, and in the end, the students are the ones left with the consequences. This is defiantly a NEED not a WANT.