Mistakes of the Past

As I've been away from Blue Hill shortly after my 1987 graduation, I expected things to change over the years, people, businesses, houses, and even the school. When things change, they usually change for the better so these types of advancements shouldn't surprise anybody that has a perception of reality. I've seen these types of changes in several dozen visits back to my hometown. My grade school, that every year at enrollment, smelled of cherry wood varnish. I recall the newel post at the top of the stairs being tacky with newly laid varnish every year. I remember walking into the library, cavernous at the time, and recalling the smell of stale books, that musty, basement like odor. The smell of the homemade chili and cinnamon rolls baking in the cafeteria permeated every corner of every room. That changed when I graduated to the high school. There the smells were different. It was the smell of cleaning solutions and hard, cold metal of locker doors. The harsh odor of chemicals oozed from the chemistry room. Near the front it was the smell of the wood shop wafting down the hall on the current of air coming from the open shop door. These smells, I know personally, I hold as intimate. The grade school has since closed, merged with the high school to incorporate everything under a single roof. A move for the best, to be sure. Even as the move is for the best, it is still difficult to see trash litter the old school yard and only imagining what could be inside destroying my childhood. These are changes that were expected. Changes for the better. What hasn't changed however is the adolescent actions of those that are still tangled in the web of idiotic actions of their family members or themselves. There is an old addage, paraphrased, 'Those that don't learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.' I know that perhaps this post will go verboten by the master of the blog, but I will chance that it will remain available for all to see. I've noticed the last few times I've been back home, that it was still the same old people, doing the same old stupid things. I will refrain from mentioning names, but those that read this will know to whom I reference. It's the same people and same families that were causing trouble when I was in school. It's the same people and families causing trouble before I was is school! Many in the professional, analytical world would contribute this type of patterned behavior as either coming from a lack of guidance or just plain ignorance. I would have to say from my point of view that it is both! This type of antiosocial behavior is imminently criminal, bordering on psychotic to say the least. Some individuals included within this verbose text, of which I apologize to those that lack the attention span to read, are using an argument of, 'I didn't get enough respect when I was younger.' Again, change is for the better and don't you believe that a change in your pattern of thinking is overdue? For those that find it humorous, as your family has in the past, to rebuke society, thumb your nose at its laws, and create havoc, we say your time is over. We as a society cannot afford to waste time with your childish antics nor should we be expected to. We as a society expect you to toe the line just as we do to move forward through life. It is time the paradigm shifts! It is not valiant to constantly throw yourself face first into the windshield of the law anymore than it is heroic to fight city hall with a sword forged with anger, resentment, and hostility. Our time for change has come! Our time to be rid of you as a plague of society is our earned right by the mere fact that we have not only gone forward without you, but in spite of you. You make your presence unwanted by your simple existance. Be gone with you and your trivial ways. Brad Hargis Springfield, MO