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Falling midgets, government propaganda

Guy Speckman by Guy Speckman
April 29, 2022
in Ponder the Thought
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True story. Saw a midget get blown over by the wind last week. He laughed, I laughed and it seemed like something normal for 2022.

I’m not sure if “midget” is politically correct these days. Insert “little person” if I have erred in my socially acceptable terminology.

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I can tell you that to my knowledge no “little people” were injured for the writing of this column.


He was doing a bit of a skip type walk that surely contributed to the “tip over,” but it was definitely a fall by wind influence, so still pretty funny.


While everyone is arguing about whether to say “gay” to kindergartners, I’m still over here screaming that we need personal finance classes in middle and high schools. Meaningful personal finance!

Wouldn’t it be a promising idea to teach the negative and positive power of compound interest to students? Shouldn’t this be a core requirement by at least their freshman year? It seems obvious to me, but I also don’t understand why anyone is talking about sexual orientation with first graders, so maybe I’m just old fashioned.


I’ve spent most of my life in small towns or relatively rural type areas. The most surprising, and alarming, difference that I have noticed in my new found city life is the amount of local government propaganda that is directed at residents. I’ve only been here a few months and had multiple slick newsletters from both the Park Hill School District (which I do not live in) and the Platte County School District (which I do live in). I found the newsletters to be nothing more than pure propaganda.

Last week I got a slick magazine type mailer from the City of Kansas City. I’m not sure the purpose of the publication other than to tell me how great Kansas City was doing. I honestly would have been happier with a snowplow when it snowed, but I suppose that is opinion.

Anyway, it’s bad, folks. Local government is spending an inordinate amount of your money to tell you how they are spending your money. Ponder that every now and then.


During wars or conflict, allied forces have been known to drop flyers on the civilians to try to explain our role or our position. Is that much different than local government filling our mailboxes with similar information pieces?


I have never been “tipped over” by the wind. I have, however, been tipped over by Bud Light, whiskey, and the like.

I’m laughing with my midget friend, not at him.

(Guy Speckman can be reached at gspeckman@me.com <mailto:gspeckman@me.com> or reading government propaganda)

Tags: park hill school districtplatte county
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.

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