• About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Pickem Terms and Conditions
Monday, May 16, 2022
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem!
    • Login / Sign-up
    • Results by Week
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem!
    • Login / Sign-up
    • Results by Week
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish
No Result
View All Result
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
No Result
View All Result

Restarting the diesel

Guy Speckman by Guy Speckman
April 22, 2020
in Ponder the Thought
5
SHARES
126
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email

Someday we will be able to brag to our grandchildren about restarting an economy. The stories will be glorious.


I once had a diesel car. It was a 1979 Cutlass. Not sure why they put a diesel engine in a Cutlass, but they did. This seems like a relevant point because, I could never get that car restarted when it froze up in the winter. I’m hoping we got something other than a ’79 diesel under the hood of this economy or it’s going to be a long year (decade). Might need some jumper cables and ether.

RelatedNews

Budget, wars and tweets

Jesse James, Mother’s Day

Falling midgets, government propaganda


This pandemic has taught me that as a child I was right, and my mother was wrong. She used to say, “is that a want or a need?” She spent a good portion of her life as a single mother of two, so needs were a priority. Anyway, the rules were pretty simple back then. Turns out that by 2020 standards, her rules were wrong. In this new world of essentials (needs), I have discovered that the line between wants and needs is dramatically different than she led me to believe. According to “essential” lists put out by states, marijuana is a need. She would have never bought into that. Little Debbie cakes are a need and not a want based on the new “essential” services. I’m no health expert, but I’m guessing Little Debbie cakes will kill far more people than the coronavirus, but I digress. Alcohol is an essential. Let us not even argue that point. Life is never consistent folks. If twelve-year-old me had told my mother that my marijuana, Little Debbie cakes and a little “nightcap” were needs and not wants, I would have taken a slug to the chops; but in 2020, they’re all essential. Maybe not for 12-year old’s, but essential, nonetheless.


Speaking of slugging your kids, that has also changed. Apparently it’s frowned upon to physically discipline your kids at this point in the world evolution or de-evolution. That sure took a long time. My mom was a lefty. Had to dodge that thing from time to time. If you didn’t duck at the right time, it was lights out.


I’m giddy in anticipation for 2021 and beyond in the world of education. I am a frequent critic of the public educational system. I think it is top heavy system that has gotten away from their core responsibility of educating children. This is not a critique of the teachers and administrators. At this point they are only doing what the system has become. How they explain the future importance of testing and classroom education will be interesting going forward. Public schools are celebrating across the nation the efforts to “feed” children during this pandemic. I admire the effort as well. At the same time, districts across the country have struggled, if not given up, with educating children remotely during this event. By and large, most districts have thrown in the towel on actually progressing education forward. At what point will state and federal educators begin to move their priorities away from social services and back to educating students? It is a rabbit hole that is difficult to get out of because the needs they are filling are not frivolous. It is important that children not be hungry and have clean clothes and access to mental and physical health; I am just advocating that it is not the role of schools. Federal and state policies have forced our educational systems into being a public steward for eliminating or managing hunger and other basic needs, while sacrificing the pursuit for educational excellence. During a time that we should have been able to build up or show off ability to educate in new environments, we have instead had the resources of our educational system providing base line social services; it’s one of the perplexing issues of our times. It will be interesting if anyone notices going forward. Guy Speckman can be reached at gspeckman@me.com or looking for some large jumper cables.

Tags: covid-19
Guy Speckman

Guy Speckman

Guy Speckman is a Landmark contributing columnist with his Ponder the Thought column. Speckman is the former owner of the Savannah Reporter, where the column appeared for nearly two decades. Speckman is a former city government manager, serving as city administrator in Maysville, Plattsburg and Savannah before entering business. He is a graduate of Northwest Missouri State University (1989). He is originally from Plattsburg, Missouri. He and his wife own and operate a real estate valuation firm and a daily legal newspaper and are the parents of two grown children.

Related Posts

Guilty of damaging hotel room used by homeless

Guilty of damaging hotel room used by homeless

by Landmark Staff
April 29, 2022
0

A quick decision by the jury A Platte County jury has convicted a man for starting a fire in a hotel room used as a temporary shelter for the homeless. Travis Betts, 43, of Prairie Village, Kansas, was found guilty...

Defund the police

‘Defund the police’ is a nothing slogan

by Landmark Digital
April 1, 2022
0

EDITOR: Missouri Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer submitted an article to March 23 Landmark regarding his sponsorship of legislation to increase funding for the Kansas City Police Department. No argument there. But Luetkemeyer says, "At a time when radical city councils around...

Ron Porter

Former Platte City alderman dies at age 86

by Landmark Staff
January 28, 2022
0

Funeral services Friday, Jan. 28 Ronald Francis Porter, 86, of Platte City, a former member of the Platte City Board of Aldermen for many years, died on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. His family said he had been fighting the Omicron...

Tricia Friddell

‘She has a lot of energy’

by Valerie Verkamp
January 27, 2022
0

New chamber director brings enthusiasm Tricia Friddell, who started her career at the local NBC affiliate in Columbia while attending Mizzou and hosted a morning radio show in Virginia Beach, was recently named executive director of the Platte City Area...

Next Post
COVID-19 Protest Rally

Protest rally

Popular News

  • Large logistics park planned east of I-29

    Large logistics park planned east of I-29

    198 shares
    Share 79 Tweet 50
  • Area distillery releases first new bourbon in 30 years

    20 shares
    Share 8 Tweet 5
  • Memorial Day Weekend Celebration planned

    7 shares
    Share 3 Tweet 2
  • City extends lease on temporary police station

    6 shares
    Share 2 Tweet 2
  • The Landmark enters 158th year of publication

    6 shares
    Share 2 Tweet 2
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Pickem Terms and Conditions
Call us at 816-858-0363

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Subscribe Online
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem
    • Results by Week
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?