crazy, but it kind of makes sense

This is a letter from a school superintendent here in Michigan asking Gov. Snyder if his school can become a prison - read it, it makes sense.

Dear Governor Snyder,

In these tough economic times, schools are hurting. And yes, everyone in Michigan is hurting right now financially, but why aren’t we protecting schools? Schools are the one place on Earth that people look to to “fix” what is wrong with society by educating our youth and preparing them to take on the issues that society has created.

One solution I believe we must do is take a look at our corrections system in Michigan. We rank nationally at the top in the number of people we incarcerate. We also spend the most money per prisoner annually than any other state in the union. Now, I like to be at the top of lists, but this is one ranking that I don’t believe Michigan wants to be on top of.

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.

This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!

Please provide for my students in my school district the same way we provide for a prisoner. It’s the least we can do to prepare our students for the future...by giving our schools the resources necessary to keep our students OUT of prison.

Respectfully submitted,

Nathan Bootz, Superintendent, Ithaca Public Schools

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couldn't have said it better

He may wear eyeliner from time to time, but he makes a good point.

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clever, clever, clever

i love a clever ad!

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cupcakes & beer

on tuesday i turn one year older. at this point some might not exactly see it as a huge reason to celebrate. i should have more money at this age, own a home, have children, have a least one marriage under my belt.....why do birthdays, which are intended to celebrate our whole existence {yay! i'm glad you were born} tend to be more a time of reflection? it seems a perfect time to catalog all of the things we have yet to accomplish and, more importantly should have accomplished by now.

don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining about my life. i own my own business, have a wonderfully close family, utterly fantastic friends.....which leads me to my reason for blogging, my lovely friends. we had a girls night on friday, nothing crazy - a few drinks, birthday wishes & lots of laughs. carrie, our resident fabulous baker, even made me {i may have lightly hinted that she could bake something if she wanted} delicious raspberry & lemon cupcakes. we're not talking a mix from a box, these were homemade & FANTASTIC!

so the brightside to turning one year older? cupcakes & beer!

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the I-75 project

love this. visit Norm Magnusson's site to view the markers + learn more about this fantastic project.

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common sense is not so common

so let's not dwell on my poor blogging manners, i've been busy. i know, i know, not a very good excuse but it's all i have.

so........i just spent well over an hour reading the posts on this site, clientsfromhell.net - hi-lar-i-ous! thank god i've lucked out + have never had experiences with my clients like the submissions on this site, but i can see how easily it could happen.

April 28, 2011

"What do you mean “payment”? You told me you were freelancing?"

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corinne vionnet

artist corinne vionnet scoured the internet for snapshots of monuments taken by tourists. after collecting hundreds of photos of one monument she then compiled them into one image. i love the texture and water color effect. wish i could get out of my comfort zone to take on a project like this.

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