Lonely solo sneeze
You should be half of a pair
Greedy triple sneeze

I spent my weekend proofing and re-proofing a paper on the world’s most boring topic Germany’s invasion of Crete. Do you know what an Aspie’s term paper looks like? “Number, date, number, city, number, fact, number.” Doug spent his weekend helping create a diorama of Germany’s invasion of Crete. “That’s not the right kind of gun. They used a different ammo than that.” If homework is supposed to make you smarter, why do I feel like I lost brain cells?

Memphis has Germantown and Knoxville has Farragut. I like Germantown and I like Farragut. They are beautiful and clean. When I am looking for a gift, I can always find a special shop with unique treasures in their communities. The enormous houses, gourmet groceries and designer clothes are the same in Farragut and Germantown. In both towns, the working class is tolerated and the poor are invisible. The teenagers in both towns have credit cards and their substance abuse is quietly ignored. The only difference is that Germantown has its’ own school system and Farragut does not. After I heard from one person after another that Farragut should have its’ own schools and not Knox County’s schools, I asked a Farragut resident why they don’t do that. “We can’t because we would have to buy our own. Besides, I think there’s some law against it.” With all the lawyers living in Farragut, it seems like they could pass some legislation to create their own school system.

While I consider myself a Tennessean, it would be more honest to say that I am from Memphis. I choose to live in East TN because I love the rolling hills surrounded by mountains. I love the way everyone knows everyone else through family and church connections. I like the fact that people talk to strangers as if they have known them all their lives. I am happy here.

When I worked, I traveled to other counties and saw and heard things that I knew were based on generations of fear and hate. It wasn’t until this week that I realized how naive I was not to see the prejudice right here in Knox County. It made me grit my teeth so much that my head and jaw ached every night this week. The physical pain and emotional exhaustion crescendoed when a nicotine stained finger pointed at me and lectured me about her “right” to say whatever she wanted to say. At that moment, I wished I had the “right” and the courage to punch her in the face.

I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by some of the things that were said at community forums this week. I don’t feel the way those parents feel. There are empty houses in my small subdivision. You are welcome here. I want our children to go to school together during the day and play at each other’s houses in the afternoons. We can fight together to keep our children in the nearby school instead of the one all the way across town. We can raise our children not to fear and hate.

I have always known that politicians treat everyone else like children. Some of them think they are helping those children who are too naive to know what’s in their best interest and others just think they need to control the naughty little children. They don’t believe Americans are capable of understanding the underlying motives for decisions or intuitive enough to understand the implications for the future. Our lack of participation in elections just convinces politicians that their beliefs are accurate.

This week I’ve found two types of politicians. There are a few, extremely rare politicians who actually take the time to listen and carefully weigh the consequences of their decisions before they make them. Most of the politicians in Knoxville completely shut themselves off from the people they are supposed to represent. They condescendingly “feel your pain” but make decisions based on connections, favors and back room deals. Sadly, these politicians don’t even realize how far they’ve shut themselves off from reality. Even sadder, they stay in office because of their political maneuvers and the complete failure of most Americans to simply show up at the polls and make informed decisions.

I’ve also found a large group of people who spend their time looking for ways to ridicule politicians. I have met some very kind, thoughtful people this week whose names I have heard maligned for years. Granted, some politicians (S.C.) are easy targets with their stupidity, but others are just going about their lives, undeserving of harassment for their body type, name or accent. The hecklers don’t offer any constructive input or attempt to remind politicians what people in the real world actually need, they just hee-haw and complain. They are a large part of the reason politicians shut themselves off from the rest of us and treat us like children.

I’ll probably change this post later when my mood improves.

As predicted, siblings who are 6th grade or older can be grandfathered (except at the new HVHS) and the few neighborhoods who were very vocal (and financially strong) are going to be removed from the rezoning. This means that our tiny little corner of Morrell and Northshore will still be zoned to cross Morrell, cross Kingston Pike and travel all the way down Sutherland to West High School. I have written dozens of e-mails, been in the newspaper and on the television. At least two of the school board members know EXACTLY where I live and how easy it would be to draw the border at Morrell and Northshore instead of at the line of the very expensive subdivision right behind us. Underdog Austin East is still going to have more students sent in before the city of Knoxville does something to change the neighborhoods around it. Instead of doing the right thing for everyone, the school board is going to do the right thing for people with money.

Although I’ve been to enough concerts to see how often women use the men’s room, I have never been desperate enough to do so. Many years ago I was telling Doug about a conversation I had overheard in the ladies room when he informed me that you don’t “chat” in the men’s room. Last night, I heard the political chatter from the men’s room all the way down the hall. Are bloggers habitual rule-breakers or are they are so opinionated that they just can’t quit the analysis regardless of the environment?

I have a love/hate relationship with balloons. I love the way they look, floating and waving happily. I love the effect they have on children. They are festive, fun and relatively inexpensive. I’ve been to parties where the obscenely indulgent quantity of balloons created an other-worldly atmosphere of joy. Inevitably, a child will allow one to slip away and the torrent of tears always breaks my heart. Even worse, a balloon will pop and the tears of loss mix with wails of fright. The anticipation of the balloon tears looms like a toxic cloud around every balloon.

van full of children + 2 dozen balloons = too much of a good thing

My mind and body are drained of ability. In the past two weeks, I have learned about the uplifting good and depressingly bad sides of Knoxville politics and communities. I need to process and get beyond some of the raw wounds before I try to post my observations. Time for sleep now.

Please, please send some love to this family.

Sarah: “We’re painting a diversity mural in the hallway. It will have a lot of handprints around it.”
Amy: “They’ll be all different colors.”

I think it’s time to make the message more mature now America.