I promise...

lewleadbeater.com

notes from the edge

Home

Email Me

				THE
Column Archive				VIRGINIA GAZETTE
				WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
I promise…				January 9, 2010

I’m not one who gives much credence to New Year’s resolutions, since they rarely pan out and usually fall by the wayside a week or two after they’re made. Witness the number of resolutionists who pile into our rec center the day after New Year’s, only to totally disappear within a month or two. It happens every year.

They’re like Rover, the dog in the “Red and Rover” cartoon, who resolves each year to stop chasing squirrels. Next time he’s out for a walk, the squirrels are heading for the trees again. And so it goes.

Yet there are some areas for which resolutions, or at least helpful suggestions, may be in order as we start the New Year. My list for 2010 would include the following:

We should resolve to get over the misconception that we’ve completed the first decade of the 21^st century. We haven’t. The word “decade” is derived from the Latin “decem,” which means “ten.” Hence each decade must end with a ten or a multiple thereof. Thus the first decade of the century will be over at the end of 2010, not 2009, unless you’re fond of reckoning years in nonads or groups of nine. In other words, the numbers one through ten constitute a decade, so the new century began with the year 2001.

Airlines and airports should resolve to learn how to spell the word they use when a flight has been scrubbed. The word “cancel” has only one “L” in the past tense because the accent doesn’t fall on the second syllable, so let’s make that “canceled” and not “cancelled.” Thank you.

Be it resolved also that whatever architect was hired to plan the overhaul of the locker rooms in the newly renovated Williamsburg-James City County Community Center be sent directly to Dante’s circle in hell for architectural dimwits. What devotee of insanity gave him the idea that jamming zillions of lockers into two short aisles and plopping three tiny benches in front of them was the way to go? The result is that patrons are jammed in like lima beans in a can, fumbling all over each other and contending for some tiny space on which to put their gym bags while changing. Are we all so modest that we must have a full row of privatized shower stalls?

Be it also resolved that custodians in the rec center be given instruction in how to change light bulbs and install washers on showers. One light in the sauna has been out since the facility reopened (and what happened to the sauna back rests?), while at least one new shower head is already shooting water all over the stall for lack of a washer. Why do we have to rely on highly trained bulb and washer gurus in maintenance to correct these situations?

Add to that drains that are above floor level, leaks in the ceilings and dangerously slippery shower stall floor tiles and you have the epitome of shoddy planning, shoddy workmanship and shoddy inspection procedures.

The School Board should resolve to get its act together relative to redistricting and the placement of new school buildings. Forcing students to wander around the system for the sake of diversity, school lunches or whatever other reasons are concocted is socially and economically foolish.

In addition, whoever came up with the plan to locate schools out in the middle of nowhere on Jolly Pond Road should be consigned to the same circle in hell as the rec center planners. The inanity of this is equaled only by our earlier decision to stick two neighborhood schools in Norge and Toano adjacent to a heavily traveled four-lane highway. Try walking to them.

What we seem to be promoting constantly is a school system of the buses, for the buses and run by the buses. And that costs big bus bucks.

Delegate Brenda Pogge (R-96^th) and Governor-Elect Bob McDonnell should resolve to remove themselves discreetly from the back pocket of the National Rifle Association. The last thing we need around here is more people storing guns near courts, their workplaces and schools. And are gun owners really so addicted that they have to buy more than one weapon a month? Let that limit stand.

Finally, I resolve not to write any more columns about socialism, since some readers evidently confused what I was saying with what really goes on in North Korea and other communist states. Socialism and communism are not the same, unless you consider Spain, France, England, Germany, Italy, Greece, Canada and most northern European countries communist states.

But, like Rover, I resolve not to chase that squirrel again. Happy New Year.