Antelope Valley Blogs

The Divine Institution of Marriage 

SALT LAKE CITY 13 August 2008

Introduction

The California Supreme Court recently ruled that same-sex marriage was legal in California. Recognizing the importance of marriage to society, the Church accepted an invitation to participate in ProtectMarriage, a coalition of churches, organizations, and individuals sponsoring a November ballot measure, Proposition 8, that would amend the California state constitution to ensure that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be legally recognized. (Information about the coalition can be found at http://www.protectmarriage.com/).

 After writing to 2 council members and 1 assembly person, I magivally receieved a call from "Don" the Special Education Supervisor for Southern Kern Unified. He basically said he wanted me to hold on until the nurse gets back. I was slighlty thrown aback by that request as he is well aware of the state law involved here.  We then made an appointment to meet at the school the following week to which he never showed and hasn't returned my calls. Hmmm...I should have expected that. Another surprising tidbit of information I discovered was the principal at the school, who I have been dealing with , is actually the assistant superintendent. What in the world is really wrong out here?

I'll keep you all posted.

Dear Rosamond Parents and children,

I would like to take this opportunity to inform each and everyone of you that the Southern Kern Unified School district is currently without a nurse. There is not a single person in the whole school district who is medically trained in any form or fashion. What does this mean for you....well if you are a parent it means your child is in danger if something other than a playground boo boo occurs. If she gets stung by a bee and whoops she has a bad reaction, you get the pleasure of waiting for 911 to respond and oh yes a lovely bill to follow. If your child has an asthma attack , her care will be left in the hands of the untrained office staff (don't get me wrong..I love the ladies that work in the office BUT they are not clinically trained and deserve a nurse to take care of these issues). If you are a child you can expect well intentioned band aids and ice packs but please do not expect too much as you will be competing for attention as these ladies are extremely overwhelmed.

As an additional FYI...the district has been aware of the fact the one and only district nurse would be on maternity leave since ,at minimum, the end of the 2007-2008 school year.  I understand underfunding but now that they have let go teachers, closed a school, and moved all our kids into crowded classrooms, I am sure the budget would allot for a temporary nurse until the permanent one is back.

Ladies and Gentleman, if you think gasoline prices are high now just watch and see them climb higher and higher. The question why, and that question is asked over and over. The blame for it is always the gas companies are ripping us off. But are they really?

They are making great profits because like all businesses they put on the price a certain percentage of profit, as the price goes up so does the profit. This isn't the reason the prices are high at all, no it's the people that will not let us drill in places like Alaska, off the coast and change coal into fuel oil or change shale into oil by removing the oil from the shale.

Its because we will not let the oil companies build refineries and we think the only place to get the oil is from some where else besides here in America. We have around 825 billion barrels of oil in our coal three times more that what Sandi Arabia has in oil, but do you see us removing it from the coal? No they would rather see us rely on foreign oil, oil that could be cut off to us at any time then where would we be?

If Climate change is not enough, we have energy crises   Who or what is the cause and how do we correct it?

I believe that city government should foster community involvement in schools. Specifically, the Palmdale City Council can harness the resources of the community by providing incentives and subsidies so as to entice residents and businesses to adopt a classroom at one of our many local schools. Whether the contribution is in the form of money, resources or man-hours, it would be a greatly needed boost in enriching the classroom experience and would increase the success rate of both teachers and students.

Teachers already spend so much of their own money in their classrooms just for the basic supplies. They do so because of their passion for providing their students with a quality education. Teachers need our help, and I believe the City Council has the opportunity to bring the community together in this endeavor.

Further, we need to continue to be pro-active in seeking out schools, including public, charter and private schools, who are qualified to enter into reciprocal agreements with the City of Palmdale for the provision of afterschool recreational activities and academic enrichment services. We can expand Families in Action to include a Students in Action program, which targets students who are performing poorly and their parents, to assist them in academic and vocational studies while the students earn school credit.

Our city government should extend its influence in any way possible to encourage individuals, families and businesses to assist the hardest hit schools, but especially pre-schools and kindergarten classes. We need to continue to keep the pressure on the State to return the millions of dollars borrowed from education that has not been returned as promised. Our classrooms are overcrowded, teachers are being laid off. Campus nurses and computer technicians are being reduced. Campus safety is being compromised. This is not fair to our children, who deserve everything that we were offered by the schools systems of the past.