Hateful Bastards!

In general, I try to be a fairly tolerant person. My basic motto is, "live and let live." If what you're doing doesn't harm me or my family, well, carry on.

However, there are those in this world - in this country - and now, in this town - who believe that they have the God-given right to decide Not only what's best for all of us, but what's right and what's wrong. And best of all (yes, I am saying that facetiously), they believe they - and only they - have a direct pipeline from God, a stamped card allowing them alone to say what He wants.

Yup, those people (I'm not going to identify them - follow the link) were in town this week, protesting and picketing the funeral of Sgt. Joe Vanek, who was killed in Iraq. Why were they standing alone south York Road with signs? Because they believe - no, they know! - that God wants out sons and daughters (and fathers and mothers) to die in Iraq due to our tolerance of homosexuality.

Their God is a hateful, spiteful, non-tolerant God - obviously, not the same Christian God that many of us acknowledge. Their God preaches hate. Preaches exclusion. Preaches ego and self-importance.

I wish they would stay in Kansas, and let Christians (and Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, etc.) who believe in peace and harmony and the innate goodness of humans live as we wish.

I'm generally tolerant. But for these people, these hateful, spiteful asshats . . .

Stay the hell out of Elmhurst. We do not want you here.

Attention High School Athletes

If you are a high school athlete intent on playing your sport for a D1 college, or have a child who wants to play a D1 sport, read this.

DO NOT sign a Letter of Intent without legal advice.

Progress?

Driving down, I think it was, Arlington Avenue the other day. Center of town - about a block north of the train tracks. See a house on the west side of the street - a really nice older house, farmhouse-style. Two 0r three stories (couldn't really tell for sure, as I wanted to pay attention to my driving), wrap-around porch, large lot - in other words, a beautiful old farmhouse. Gorgeous.

Except for the sign in front - the sign posted by the builder that's selling the house as a tear down.

A tear down??

I can see small houses, those ranches with a single-car garage, houses that have a terrible layout, houses that have a single bedroom, no room to build on, nothing really promising a future - - but this? This was a big, old, stately house in the center of town. It's a house that I would seriously consider buying as-is. It's a house that has character, style, substance, heart.

Yes, yes, I know, I've never been in it. It could be falling down, cracked walls, termites - sure, it could be a wreck.

But how many houses of that type, in the center of Elmhurst (in the area of property logged as estates) are left to fall into ruin? It might be a tired house, but is it really past the point of repair?

It's the exact type of house that Bob Villa would swoop into and restore. It's exactly the type of house that, if I had the wherewithal, I too would buy and restore.

But no. Instead, be ready for the next McMansion, the next cookie-cutter brick house that sits on 90% of the land, leaves no yard, and could be found in any city or town in the state? Be ready for a little more of the character of Elmhurst to fade away.

Be ready for more beautiful houses to be razed to make way for generic structures built by greed and myopia.

I love Elmhurst. But sometimes I hate Elmhurst.

St. Peter's Sleep Out

We're pretty lucky to live in DuPage county, and in Elmhurst in particular. That's why it's so refreshing seeing a church like St. Peter's acknowledging the fact that, yes, there are homeless people in this area. By holding a youth "Sleep Out Saturday" recently, they brought attention to the fact that among the million dollar homes and shiny BMWs there are also over 3000 homeless people in DuPage. And, of those, over 40% are children.

Homelessness is a rel issue that needs attention. It's more than people who have substance abuse problems; it's more than elderly; it can happen to anyone. both parents lose their jobs, after a few months the money runs out, the house payments can't be made - boom, suddenly people who were "living large" have nowhere to go.

There are shelters throughout DuPage County - one of the best organizations providing shelter is PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter). They operate a shelter in Villa Park throughout the autumn, winter, and spring months, but it's not enough. That's why the efforts of St. Peter's, and the teens who participated, is so important.

Help when and where you can.

York Parent-Teacher Conferences - Part 2

Okay, after the initial screw up, York had a solid "Plan B" in place.

Automated phone calls at 6:30 Sunday eveningn let parents know that the on-line system was down, and that live registration would begin at 7:00pm in the fieldhouse. My wife immediately left for the school.

She arrived to find order and assistance. And, about 200 other parents. Anyway . . . the staff at York had tables and registration materials in place; had schedules for all the students printed and available, so parents could make sure they saw the correct teachers; had people directing the parents as to where to go; and had all this done before a single person arrived.

It tells me three things.
1) York really had no faith in their on-line registration system. If they had, then Plan B would not have been put into place before Plan A failed.
2) York has plenty of parents that care about their kids. Like I said, over 200 parents were their before 7:00 to sign up for conferences. That means they all got the call, dropped what they were doing, and went to York. impressive.
3) Finally, York needs to start now in finding a stable, workable on-line registration system for next year. Don't wait. Do it now.

So kudos, York, for pulling a success out of a massive failure.

York Parent-Teacher Conferences

This is a major clusterfuck.

first, the on-line registration crapped out on Thursday, when registration was to begin. Emails went out letting us parent know that on-line registration would be rescheduled for Sunday at 6:00pm. So here we are, my wife and I, trying like hell to get in on Sunday evening. Two computers, one for each child. Here's what we get.

Girl-student - - log in, get to her teachers, click on a time, get an error message. Try to use the back button: error message. Long pause. Re-try the button. More Microsoft error. So, go back to log in again. Manage to do this, get back to the teachers' schedules - and two of the teachers are already completely filled.

So try with another teacher. Click on the time - and get an error message.

Okay, fine, the system's hosed. Call the school.

Why no, we're told, everything's working just fine. There will be a delay in the response, due to the amount of people trying to register. Please be patient, and keep trying. oh, and have a nice day, and thanks for calling (yes, she did say this).

So we try again. This time, we can't even get to the portal to get the kid's teachers. At 6:15 we give up.

Thanks, York, for making it not only difficult, but stressful, annoying, and frustrating to talk to the teachers about how the kids are doing. You've done a fine job of demonstrating how not to handle an on-line registration. You constantly talk about how it's important for the parents to work with the teachers, then make it impossible to do so.

I'll be so damned glad when they graduate. This is fucked up beyond belief.