ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS HE AINT NO BURDEN

I’ve been reading in various magazine articles claiming we old folks (I don’t like being called a senior citizen) are a current and future burden on the economy, health care, and just about anything else some young pundit can think of. We are sometimes pawns in the political game. During the debates on health care, one side tried to scare the bejesus out of us with the claim that the bill would set up “death panels.”

Now maybe some of you young bloods resent me taking up space and not being productive as I was in my younger years. Too bad.

When they were young, My mother and aunts supported my grandmothers, and I and my cousins supported our parents through taxes that paid for Social Security and Medicare. Now my kids support me and other old folks through paying taxes.

One of the duties of government is to see that we old heads are cared for in our declining years. Most of us live on pensions that sometimes are not enough to pay all of our bills, especially if we get sick.

I did my part during my productive years, and now that I’m not as productive, I don’t expect to go into the woods and lie down and provide food for the animals.

What I do expect of my government, which taxes my pension, so you see, I still pay taxes, is to help me when I can no longer help myself.

You young bloods must accept the fact that you, too, will be old one day and I wonder if you will see yourselves as a burden on society.

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS THEY WON’T GO WAY

Here in America, there are some contentious issues that just won’t go away. I mean they’ll be with us as long as the nation exists. Abortion, the death penalty, racism to name only three. But the one that has been nagging the human race down through the ages is the conflict or seeming conflict between religion and the state. In our great nation, the founding fathers tried to settle the conflict for us Americans by putting in the Constitution the doctrine of the separation of church and state.

Well sir, every since the founding fathers wisely separated church and state, them religious folks have been tryin to make that separation disappear.

The most recent of their efforts here in my home state of Tennessee became evident in 2008 with legislation that authorized the state to create a course for a “nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible.” Based on the legislation, the Tennessee Board of Education has drawn up Bible Curriculum Guidelines for teaching the Bible in public high schools starting next fall.

What, you might ask, exactly will be taught?

Highlights from Tennessee’s Bible curriculum: Courteous of the Tennessean newspaper  in Nashville.

• Students will read biblical narratives, identify chief characters and analyze plot, literary form and intended impact on the reader.
• Students will learn and discuss pivotal historical events and geographic locations and compare the religious, social and cultural lives in the ancient world.
• Students will show how the Bible has impacted art, literature, music and thought by reading pieces of work that use biblical allusions and listening to music that relies on biblical text.
Source: Tennessee Board of Education

Now, the legislators, teachers, and anybody else who cares to consider the matter knows there will be court challenges and the state will more than likely lose.

My question: is it possible to teach a nonsectarian, nonreligious Bible course?

It seems to me the very fact that one of the textbooks is the Christian Bible makes the course both sectarian and religious.

And I’m betting who ever teaches the course will, in one way or another, proselytize.

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS I CRY FOR HAITI

I tried to avoid writing about Haiti because looking at the images on TV and in news magazines was too heart rending for me. And I hate to see a grown man cry, especially me. But when I read an article in the  New York Times, published January 22, 2010 by Mark Danner about the history of Haiti, I had to say my piece. He calls Haiti “everybody’s cherished tragedy.” He argues that Haiti’s problems “have been caused by men, not demons.”

This prompted me to ask, as many pundits on TV and in the news magazines and newspapers have, will we, that is, America really help Haiti this time?

A more important question is in view of Haiti’s history of corruption by all of the men who have ruled the island nation, can Haiti be helped?

After order is restored and things are back to normal, well as normal as they can be in Haiti, will the elites who govern the nation put the money many nations will donate to help rebuild in their pockets or use it to help the people, who are mostly poor?

I predict that the US and other nations, after a while, will leave and the corruption will begin.

I cry for Haiti, a country rich in history, some of it good, most of it terrible for the poor citizens.

I cry for Haiti whose people have endured and will do so again.

I cry for Haiti in the hope that the earthquake will bring its rulers to their senses.

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS EARTHQUAKE AND FIRED FOOTBALL COACH ARE NOT EQUAL

I was going to discuss the two messes bout race. You done read bout them. Senator Reid made what some call a racist remark bout Obama during the campaign and some folks is upset bout it. Some folks also upset bout the census including the word “Negro” as a choice for us Black folks. These two is minor problems compared to what is happening in Haiti and here in my hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.

A devastating earthquake hit Haiti. The University of Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin resigned after just one season to take the head coaching job at the University of Southern California.

Now, I’m a loyal fan of the Vols football team and have been since I was a teenager, even though in those days, the Vols had no Black players, and a section of the stadium was set aside for us “colored.”

But I worry bout my fellow citizens in Knoxville when the news bout the coach shares equal space on the front page of the Knoxville News Sentinel with the news about the earthquake. They also share about the same amount of space in the pages of the paper.

It seems to me that we here in Knoxville have our priorities screwed up. But then I think bout how the Vols bring in money every Saturday they play.

Them earthquake victims dont bring in nothing. They need money, medicine, food, and God knows what else.

So, ifn you’re reading this blog, find a way to help.

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS SNOW STORM STOPS EVERYTHING

When I was growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, the school never closed because of snow. Man, many of us had to walk to school in sometimes 6 inches of snow. Okay, I know that aint much for folks living the Midwest and northeast, but to us it was a whole lotta white stuff. I didnt know could stop traffic until I moved to Chicago. In Knoxville, I sometimes helped my uncle pull cars out of ditches, but that was bout the extent of any inconveniences because of snow.

Well, here I am back in Knoxville, and on Thursday a snow storm hit East Tennessee. It wasn’t as bad as the ones that hit the Midwest, but for us, it messed up commuters trying to get home, and closed the schools in every county in East Tennessee and some in Southern Kentucky. Schools closed today also, Friday.

Man, I cannot get used to the idea that a little snow can stop everything, traffic, school, folks gettin to work. Here in the city, only bout an inch fell.

When I was growing up, I liked the snow until I learned to drive. Once I leaned to drive, I drove the jeep my uncle and I used to pull cars out of ditches, which meant I stayed out in the snow a lot longer and got a lot colder. That was when I started to hate that white stuff. Now it keeps me inside the house sometimes until the sun comes out and melts it.

If it never snowed again, I wouldn’t miss it one bit. Snow is dangerous.

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS HE DON’T DO RESOLUTIONS

At one time in my misguided youth I made New Year’s resolutions that I never kept. This made me wonder when I reached middle age, which was around 50, why was I wasting my time planning to do things I knew I would never do. So, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions.

But, I do try to start off the new year with a clean slate. Therefore, I discarded all my notes on subjects for this blog so I can begin accumulating new notes for 2010.

I’m an optimist. I believe this year will be better than the next. I believe this despite the fact that the year for me start off on a negative note: I didn’t get a raise in my pension. But, I’m still healthy and able to pay what few debts I have.

This year I believe the economy will get better, maybe not a full recovery, but better than last year.

Bankers, as they are already doing, will try to figure even more ways to get around the new credit card regulations. I know most of us can’t go without them credit cards but I sho wish we could, then we could tell them bankers to shove it where the sun don’t shine.

The Iraqis will go on killing each other trying to gain a political advantage.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban will be heard but rarely seen, and the government will be as corrupt as it was before the recent bad elections chose the same man as president.

North Korea will continue its dance in trying to get the US to sign a nonaggression treaty.

The government of Iran will continue to blame the US and Europe for troubles of its own making.

Lastly, conservatives will go even more negative on President Obama. Nothing he does will be right.

Well, there you have my predictions for 2010. And no I don’t plan to look back when 2011 rolls in to see if they are correct.

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS IS ALL RIGHT

I was gon rag on Christmas like a lotta folks do around this time of year. You know, talk bout how commercial Christmas done become, starting bout round Thanksgiving.

But I thought bout my age and something the great basketball coach John Wooden, who is 90, said: he said for him at his age, every day he is alive is a good day.

Just to be alive this Christmas 2009 is good for me at my age. I hope that I can say the same bout next Christmas in 2010.

All of you bloggers out there, I hope you had a good Christmas and will have an even better new year.

Just remember that every day you’re alive is a good day.

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS CONGRESS SHOULD STOP MEDDLING

I only recently, like this morning, read in the New York Times dated December 9, 2009 bout Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas sponsoring a bill to force some kinda playoff system for determining the national champion in college football.

Well, the philosopher of common sense just wants to know what is in it for them congressmen what are sponsoring the bill? I mean congress folks dont do nothing that dont get them reelected. So now they done made it their business to tell the colleges what they better do to determine what two teams play for the championship.

Man, I dont like the way the college champion is determine. I mean that Bowl Championship Series dont do a very good job. Hell, we all know that.

The economy is in bad shape, we still fightin two wars, we needs healthcare and them congress folks busy quarreling over it, and surely need jobs. I wants my representative to solve these messes and not be meddling in something that aint hurting nobody. Let the NCAA and the colleges take care of the football championship mess.

I say tell them congress folks to stop meddling in something that dont concern them and take care of the real problems.

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS HE CAN’T DO IT

Man, I tell you being Black in America is a hard job, even in the era of the first Black president. The recession done hurt us more than any other Americans. Theys more of us outa work and more done lost they homes cause of the mortgage mess them White folks started.

More racism is accepted on TV and other places what put out the news. We all know President Obama done got goo-gabs of hate mail.

Man, the Congressional Black Caucus wants the President to do something bout the mess we Blacks in. We still gettin the short end of the stick.

The problem is they aint too much the Pres can do. Let’s face Black folks, without the White folks, Obama would not have become president. Now you askin him to make a special effort to give us Black folks some special favors? Get Real. It aint gonna happen. Cause he still got to deal with the White folks. He cant do it.

So, come on, let’s give the Pres a break.

Maybe some of them programs the politicians talkin bout will help us as well as other folks in America.

ALVIN S. SIMPLETON SAYS CONGRESS AINT FOR THE PEOPLE

In my high school civics class, I was taught that we send them senators and representatives to Washington to represent us. Course, they caint always represent our will cause sometimes our will may be against the national interest.

I’m not so sure that they represent us at all, to tell you the truth. If they do, how come they let the corporations who give them money to run they election campaigns write the laws? We all know that the insurance companies and drug companies aint gon lose nothing in the health care bill. Ifn you dont believe me, just take a look at that there prescription bill for us old folks passed a few years back. How come the government dont want us to get them cheaper medicines from Canada? Hell, the same companies make the drugs sold in the U. S. of A that’s sold in Canada, so it aint got nothing to do with safety as some politicians claim.

Money talks when it comes to gettin elected to congress, and the folks with the money is them corporations.

Ifn you dont believe, ask yourself how come the congress caint stop them subsides to farmers who dont need them?

Where is the voice of the people?