42 degrees Fahrenheit in my bedroom when I woke up this morning. Someday I'm gonna have all the walls up and a wood stove to warm me. Hopefully, within a few weeks (the wood stove is on order and will be installed next week--I hope!). Cold here today.
So I walked the other direction. Past the neighbor's turkeys. Down the hill to where the bus stop used to be for the girls'. I say "used to be" because the school district cut our bus service this year. They also cut the after school program.
The cardinal rule with school budget cuts is to affect the fewest kids possible. So the eight or nine kids who live on our Ridge, and further up the mountain where the Rastafarian Commune is, have their bus service stopped.
And the after school program? Since we have the smallest elementary school, ours got cut. Never mind that the Concow school district has the poorest kids, the most "at risk" kids and with parents that (if they are lucky enough to have a job) travel the furthest to get a greenback or two.
Meanwhile, it costs $800,000 to send one soldier to Afghanistan. Bring one soldier home and we could fund the school bus service, fund the after school program and create bus service to Paradise, Chico and Oroville. With much money left over for funding other Concows through out this land.
Empires collapse from within. The poor and the vulnerable are the first casualties.
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