What is with the heavy backpacks??

Some years back, I posted this basic post on the Catholic Education blog. Not one person replied! I have updated what I wrote then......

I am continually dismayed by the weight of my children's backpacks/school bags. I have seen a fairly steady increase over the years in the weight of the backbacks of my school-age children. When my son was a student at a private Catholic high school, his backpack was ridiculously heavy - easily 40 lbs. However, in defense of the school, they recommend a second set of books for home, which we did his first year but did not do thereafter because he used his commute time on the train (45 min each way) to study and needed his books with him to do so. Therefore, a second set at home did not help him. In addition, that school required families to purchase their own books, so a second set really doubled an already hefty book bill.

My daughter is in fourth grade at the wonderful St. Mary's Interparochial School. I have gone out of my way to notice the weight of the backpacks in pretty much all of the grades. On one occasion, several years ago, brought the weight to the attention of my daughter's teacher. The teacher assured me that she is very mindful of the books needed to complete homework assignments and is careful not to give multiple heavy book assignments on the same day. (My daughter had brought home books on her own accord on the day I was concerned about the weight.)

I think the evidence is fairly clear that the heavy backpacks lead to back problems, muscle strains, etc. Also, as a general rule, girls cannot be expected to carry a backpack as heavy as those carried by boys. As for the suggestion that the kids get backpacks on wheels, someone (with far more influence that I, a mere parent, have) has decided that such bags are definitively NOT COOL, are unwieldy, and still have to be carried up the stairs, etc.

Has anyone else noticed how heavy the backpacks are these days? Does your child's school have a policy about the weight?

Too Much Homework Makes Jane A Dull Girl

Every year, I complain about how much homework our schoolchildren have to do. I see that other friends are also complaining, and so I thought I would (pretty much) repeat here my thoughts that I put on the Catholic School blog a couple of years ago......

I think the little ones get way, way too much homework. First off, a Kindergarten and First Grader don't really read yet, and so it is really Parent's Homework. By this, I don't mean that parents do the homework but, rather, must be there to read assignments, directions, spell words, etc. I also think that the homework for kids in K through 6th or 7th should be to play outside for a couple of hours. They will learn more problem-solving skills by sorting things out with their playmates than they will writing spelling words or coloring some worksheet!! I think kids today are at a huge disadvantage from the pressure to "learn, learn, learn," and "work, work, work." I can only speak from my own experience and the experiences of my friends, but we never had homework until junior high school and we all grew up with a love of books (we didn't "have to" read), good problem-solving skills (figuring out how to pick teams for a ball game or how to make a go-cart or snowman), responsibility ("be home by dinner"), and then went on to do very well in college and professional school.

Of course, we can't let our kids just run around in today's environment, especially those of us who are city-dwellers. However, we can take the kids from school to a nearby park, and ask other parents/caretakers to do the same. We at St. Mary's do this, but we can never really stay more than 45 minutes or so because we have to get home to "do homework." And, sometimes, by the time the parent can get around to sitting down to read/explain the homework, the kids are tired and grouchy!

As for older grades (mostly high school), while some homework is fine, it has been my experience that a fair number of teachers expect the kids to teach themselves! "Read Chapter 7 and be prepared to take a quiz on it tomorrow." Wouldn't it be better if the teacher first taught the children Chapter 7, then assigned a review of the material in the textbook, and then gave the quiz?

Finally, all of the homework leads to heavy backpacks, which is probably best left for another discussion!! (See my next post!) I am not sure how to fix the problem of too much homework too soon, but I do believe that it is a problem and would like the opportunity to try to fix it!!!

TEASING, NAME-CALLING, YO-YO FRIENDSHIPS, CLIQUES & BULLYING

Today I write about a problem that unfortunately permeates every school - the age old problem of bullying. How do we deal with bullying in our schools?  While this Blog Post focuses on Catholic schools, I think it readily applies to all schools.  To start, there is a definitional dilemma..... The word "bullying" conjures different thoughts in different folks, but I use it here to refer to a broad range of conduct that is antithetical to any Christ-centered learning institution (and should be antithetical to any learning institution).

I am sure that all of the Catholic schools would self-report that they do not tolerate bullying. And if, by that, they mean they will not tolerate a student pushing, shoving, beating, or in any way touching another student, they would be correct. (At least this kind of misbehavior is now not tolerated, unlike when I was a kid.)  However, "bullying" as I use it here is more far-reaching and includes hurtful teasing (as opposed to good-hearted kidding around), name-calling ("fat" "ugly" "four-eyes" "crybaby" "dog" "cooties", etc. etc.), the problem of cliques, and the problem of "yo-yo friendships" (e.g., you are "in" one day and "out" the next; you are my friend today but ignored tomorrow). These last two categories apply more to girls than boys, but all are a real problem and can cause lasting damage to a child's self-esteem.

The question I raise is how can we, as parents, help schools to put in place policies that specifically state that the less overt - but equally insidious and damaging - "bullying" (teasing, name-calling and the like) will not be tolerated, and then offer practical solutions for teachers, administrators, and parents to detect such (mis)conduct, to correct and discipline the offending student(s), and to work toward making each school truly a Christ-centered learning institution?I suspect that the problem of "bullying" - as I use the term here - is far more prevalent than we are willing to admit. As I said above, when asked, school officials say the right things - bullying is not tolerated here, etc. etc. - but I think they are focusing on a very narrow type of bullying - the kind that is physical in nature. (However, look at the boy in Philly who just died after being physically bullied on the playground at school. The school did nothing about the incident. Whether they will do something now that the child died remains to be seen.)

Sadly, I do not think that the school officials really want to know whether the other kind of bullying - the insidious, psychological bullying - is present in their school. The reason? They are already stretched too thin and they cannot inject themselves into every little problem that a particular student may have. I agree with that, to an extent.  I think it is important, and in most circumstances preferable, for children to try their best to work out their own problems.  Having an adult (teacher or parent) always on hand to "fix" the problem does not do the child any good in the long run. However, my suggestion is not to have the adults inserting themselves into every little problem.  Rather, let's try to give the kids some tools to work out their problems.

For example, is there a way to make "bullying" (teasing, ostracizing, name-calling, exclusion, etc.) "uncool"?  Conversely, is there a way to make it "cool" for students to stand up to "bullies" (again, using the word most broadly) and even for them to report the misconduct if necessary?  Is there a way to make "respect for their fellow students" something that is encouraged every day?  Ideas that come to my mind include: using the daily prayers as a vehicle for raising awareness of the problem and its adverse effects; and making respect for others a part of classroom activities - with teachers constantly teaching children the importance of respect.  Children could be asked to volunteer ways that we show disrespect for others and then to tell what respect would look like. We could ask them how they would feel if the disrespect were directed toward them.  We could follow that with a challenge for the children to examine their consciences about whether they ever showed disrespect, stood by while they witnessed another student do so, and/or whether they have ever been the person to whom the disrespect was directed.  Students could be asked how they might challenge themselves to be more respectful of others.

I am also interested in ideas to combat the problem of "yo-yo friendships" and cliques.  Arguably, these problems are more prevalent among and for girls.  Significantly, these problems (like most everything else) are starting younger and younger.  My daughter is only in the first grade and is already reeling from "yo-yo friendships." One day, girl X wants to play with her and be her friend; the next day the same girl X is running away from her.  Yo-yo friendships are hard for older girls to understand - they are impossible to explain adequately to the little girls.

While I do not think that a school can - or should - "make" any one student be friends with another, I do think that a school can - and should - make all students know that they must respect all people. This means respecting the fat kids, the stinky kids, the kids who wear glasses, the kids who are super-smart, the kids who are not so smart, the kids with acne, the kids who are not great athletes, the kids who live in another part of town, etc. etc. Telling the student being bullied to "ignore it" does nothing to empower that child.  We need to find an effective way to teach the targeted children how to deal with bullies (and this they must learn, as bullies certainly exist in the "real world"), and to teach the bullies that their behavior is not cool and will not be tolerated.

My suggestion is that the students be taught about respect day in and day out, so that respect becomes as much a part of their foundation as are reading, writing, arithmetic, the Pledge of Allegiance, and daily prayers. Of course, respect is taught and reinforced first and foremost by the family. However, given the amount of time our children are in school and given the critical socialization that takes place there, it must be incumbent on our schools to teach and reinforce the importance of respect - not just toward adults, but toward their classmates and schoolmates as well. For those of us with children in Catholic schools, isn't this at least part of the reason we chose a Catholic education for our children?

It is my hope (and belief) that if the teachers know (and are regularly reminded) how destructive this kind of behavior is to the long-term well-being of the children, look for it, and correct it - in keeping with the demand for respect from all students to all students - the problem will diminish and our children can keep to the business of learning!

Reflections from God's country

Nestled in the Northern Woods of Maine, just a few miles from Mt. Katahdin, on the shores of Ambejejus Lake are two cabins built by my father many years ago.   This is the place from which I write today.....

Up here, the cabins are called "camps," and when you are here, you are "up to camp." When I was a child, we had only one of the camps.  We did not have electric, an indoor toilet, or running hot water.  We retrieved our drinking water from a spring some miles up the Golden Road.  We would transport it in plastic jugs and dump it into a barrel that then had a line to the drinking water spout of the kitchen.  All other water was lake water.  Washing dishes meant boiling water on the stove and then carrying it to the sink.  Likewise, taking a bath meant boiling water on the stove and carrying it to the tub, where it was mixed with cold lake water.  For the most part, we kids (my two brothers and I) bathed in the lake -- shampoo & soap were always kept handy at the dock.  We read by gas light, and reading was a favorite past time of mine.  No televisions, no computers (of course, back then, no one had a personal computer), no telephones.  Going to the bathroom at night meant bravely taking a flash light up the path to the outhouse, hoping and praying a bear would not lay in your path.

We saw a lot of bears when I was a kid, not at our camp but in Baxter State Park.  This was when the park had campground dumps where campers dumped their trash (now there are no dumps and there is a carry-in, carry-out policy).  We often took a drive in the early evening to one of the dumps where we would spend an hour or so watching different bears.  We also saw (and still see) a lot of moose up here.  A favorite spot is at Sandy Stream Pond, also in Baxter State Park.

Once a week, we would go "to town," which meant a visit to the closest town, Millinocket.  There, we would do laundry (always one of my chores), go food shopping, visit the library (I was limited by how many books I could carry -- about ten, depending on the length), and stop at the post office (my favorite stop, since I would receive a week's worth of mail from my friends back home, especially Diane & Terra Lee) and would likewise mail all of the letters I had written).  If there were any other errands, we would take care of them as well.

My parents came up to camp every summer, for the whole summer, from the time I was ten until just three years ago.  I came up for the whole summer until  I was a sophomore in college (with the exception of the summer between my senior year in high school and freshman year in college.... that summer I spent lifeguarding and hanging out with my high school friends, but, even that summer, Diane, Terra Lee & I came up for a week or so).   When I was fifteen, I got a summer job at the Trading Post, a little general store that sold gas, beer, smokes, bread & milk, nightcrawlers and other worms for fishing, and various other necessities.  It was the last stop in civilization for anyone trekking to Baxter State Park or climbing Mt. Katahdin (a terminus point for the Appalachian Trail).  I worked for an amazing woman named Teddy Boynton.  (I wanted to name Maxine "Teddy," but couldn't find a proper name that I liked from which we could get the nickname "Teddy.")  I worked hard and made a lot of friends.  The Trading Post would be my summer job spot for many years (every year I was there through my sophomore year in college). 

I stopped coming to Maine sometime in college, and didn't return until after I was in law school, and then only for a week or so at a time.  After law school, I didn't come back to Maine until I was working for Dick Sprague and, again, could only come for one or two weeks a summer.

By this time, my parents had rennonvated the main camp (added electric, an indoor bathroom, running hot water, etc.) and built a second camp, which everyone called (and still calls) "the red camp."  Over the years, they rennovated the red camp as well.  Now both camps are completely modernized, and both have great decks to sit out on, while taking in the sounds of nature (and children playing).

Three years ago, my parents decided they enjoyed their retirement in Florida too much to come up to camp anymore.  Two years ago, they most generously gave me both camps.  We spent last summer here and are spending this summer here.  I hope we will spend all of our future summers here!  It is so beautiful, peaceful, and calming.

While I am very grateful for the modern updates to the camps and am happy to have a television on rainy days (of which there are very few), I do wish my children were forced to rough it a little more!  I think that my love of reading and overall survival skills were nutured and honed here!

Jody, the love of my life, also loves it here.  He loved being at camp as a kid, and loves it even more now.  Jody visited us with his family when he was just ten years old -- we celebrated my sister-in-law Jackie's second birthday up here!  My in-laws continued to come up to visit my parents every summer once we children were grown, until the falling out between them and my parents (that's a story for another day).  My parents, my in-laws, and our neighbors here (Bobbie and Max Mansfield) were all fast friends and had many happy times here.

Maxine was named after Max, who was killed in a car accident when I was about five months pregnant with Maxine.  They had sold their camp the summer before Maxine was born.  This was a huge disappointment since they had built their camp the summer before we built ours and it is hard for me to remember when I did not know them!  They were a great couple, and Max was one of the finest men we'd ever known (hence, the name Maxine).  I was good summer friends with their daughter, Melanie, and we did a lot of fun things together -- hiking, boating, and even going to the Coast for lobster!

Our new neighbors are a really nice couple from town.  They have three little girls who are a source of endless playtime with Maxine.  It's wonderful to watch her building wonderful memories of her own up here!  Maxine has another good friend up here -- Vivi.  Remember Teddy, who I worked for as a teen at the Trading Post?  Well, Viv is her great granddaughter, born just six weeks after Maxine!  (Sadly, Teddy passed away right after Gus was born but I remained friends with her children).  Jody & I are good friends with Vivi's mom (Bethaney) and dad (Thomas, the son of Teddy's daughter, Laurie), and they introduced us to another fantastic family -- The Hradels from Michigan.  Meg & Craig have  two daughters, also right around Maxine's age -- Bella and Eva.  Needless to say, Maxine is in heaven up here, what with so many little girls to play with!

Gabriel is at the age where he wants to be home with his friends.  He has had several friends visit over the years, and enjoys the time he spends with them here.   This summer, however, his friends have only been able to visit for a couple of days and so he is itching to get home.  :-((

Gus loves it up here but he is home, enrolled the summer program for the University of the Arts.  He will be up at the end of the summer -- hopefully before Gabe goes back for soccer practice.  (Last summer, they were not here together at all!)

As for the boys, I always felt like I brought boys to Maine and took young men home.  (I realize that, after the first time, I must have been bringing young men here and bringing slightly more mature young men home, but you get the picture.)  While here, the boys can usually be found tubing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, swimming and/or fishing.

At night, Jody & I try to steer Gabe away from television.  He has learned how to play pinochle, which we play three-handed.  Meg & Craig introduced us to another great couple -- Yolanda and Conrad -- who are big pinochle players, and we've played with them.   Last week, we played with them, and let Gabe play too, so we played five-handed.  This was how I played as a kid with my late maternal grandparents (Grammy & Poppy) (the "O" for the original "Poppy," Jody having claimed that moniker now).  It's wonderful making memories with my son based on memories I made with my grandparents!  Actually, Jody & I played many a pinochle game with his late paternal grandparents (Little Mom Mom and Pop Pop), so the pinochle memories run on both sides and are rich indeed!

Well, I think that pretty much wraps up today's blog.  I wanted everyone to get  an idea of where I am, what it's like, and what growing up here in the summers meant to me.  I have added a couple of links to Facebook albums of photos from our time here last summer, but I'm not sure whether they will show up on the blog.  If they do, enjoy them!!  If they don't, email me and I will send you the links.

Until next time..........

Beck's Keynote Address to Christians United for Israel Summit

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil:
God will not hold us innocent.
Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 Take the time to listen to Glenn's keynote address.  It was very powerful and very moving.  The link is above.

May God bless you, our country, the Jews and Christians being persecuted in the Middle East, and the nation of Israel.

 

An Incredible Letter from an AA pilot

Hi All,
In doing some reading tonight, I came across a fantastic letter, written by an American Airlines pilot.  (Canadian and British comments appear at the end of the letter.) Here goes:

Open Letter From An American Airlines Pilot

YOU WORRY ME!

By Captain John Maniscalco, American Airlines Pilot

I've been trying to say this since 911, but you worry me. I wish you didn't. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don't blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me.

I notice you because I can't help it anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don't fully understand their grievances and hate, but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.

On September 11, ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings, killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children's mothers.

The Palestinians celebrated, the Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Arab world. So, I notice you now. I don't want to be worried. I don't want to be consumed by the same rage, hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.

How do I differentiate between the true Arab/Muslim Americans and the Arab/Muslim terrorists in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR constitution, while they plot the next attack that will slaughter these same good neighbors and children?

The events of September 11th changed the answer. It is not my responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great country, with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its different citizens, with all of its faults. It is time for every Arab/Muslim in this country to determine it for me.

I want to know, I demand to know and I have a right to know, whether or not you love America . Do you pledge allegiance to its flag? Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car? Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation; that He will protect it and let it prosper? Or do you pray that Allah with destroy it in one of your Jihads? Are you thankful for the freedom that this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots who gave their lives for this country? Are you willing to preserve this freedom by also paying the ultimate sacrifice? Do you love America ? If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it.

Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking as a community and as a religion to protect the United States of America .. Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the innocent, because I worry about who you regard as innocent. No more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks, because I worry about what is unprovoked to you. I am not interested in any more sympathy; I am interested only in action. What will you do for America - our great country - at this time of crisis, at this time of war?

I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets. I want to hear you chanting 'Allah Bless America '. I want to see young Arab/Muslim men enlisting in the military. I want to see a commitment of money, time and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to this nation as a whole.

The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to regarding the WTC attack. Many of these people live and socialize right now in Muslim communities. You know them.

You know where they are. Hand them over to us, now! But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisals.

The very few Arab/Muslim representatives that HAVE appeared in the media were defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United States proves who was responsible before taking action. They seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed towards them in the United States and abroad than they did with supporting our country and denouncing 'leaders' like Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and Arafat.

If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people, then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up. What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good, pure, and true, when your 'leaders' are teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance? It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if huge numbers of the world's Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion. A form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again. A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide. A form whose members are recruited from the prisons around the world. A form whose members (some as young as five years old) are seen day after day, week in and week out, year after year, marching in the streets around the world, burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from a peaceful religion, only to take up arms against the great United States of America, the country of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted, that their traveling members refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the name of Islam.

We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us -our rights under the greatest constitution in the world. I want to know where every Arab Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this country to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is protecting you and your family.

I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American. But there can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance, and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand. Until then, “YOU WORRY ME!”

CANADIAN COMMENTS:

I totally agree with this sentiment. I hope you will forget all about the 'political correctness' mandate we've had rammed down our throats, and see if this doesn't ring true in your heart and mind. For Canada , with all the multiculturalism we've been told is so important....why should we not, as Canadians, expect that the millions of new people immigrating to our country will show their love for our country, their allegiance to our country, their willingness to obey the laws of our country, and acceptance that we are a Christian country? Just because they are able to enjoy exercising their own religion, they should not expect us to be ashamed of ours. They knew Canada was a Christian country when they came here. Why are we erasing Christianity because immigrants who are unwilling to adopt our way of life expect us to? There is just too much insanity in the world, and we have to start taking a stand.

I hope you will forward this, so that others will feel they are not alone if they are starting to feel the same.


BRITAIN’S COMMENTS:

At last a clear non racist example of the concerns that the vast majority of our Nation’s population probably share. The pilot’s letter encapsulates all that is fair and just about national pride and protection of one’s national culture. I fear it may be too late here in UK but we too want our country back in the form that attracted all these different cultures to come here in the first place!! In all our conversations with a wide range of friends and acquaintances we have not met one that disagrees with our own views. If only we all had the courage of our convictions to pass this on – it is a statement that should be accepted as the heart-felt feelings of someone with honest commendable national pride.


THIS IS TOO GOOD TO JUST READ AND DELETE -- LET'S SATURATE NEW ZEALAND , AUSTRALIA , UK , EUROPE, USA , CANADA AND THE REST OF THE “FREE” WORLD WITH THIS ONE!

The Hidden Child

I am sorry that I haven't blogged lately.... family must come first and I have had a rush of family obligations these past couple of weeks.  Also, I have been "studying" for my performance on the Glenn Beck Quiz Show, which tapes later today.

It was in the course of my "studies" that I came upon the subject of tonight's blog..... a PBS special titled "The Hidden Child."  Now I know you may be surprised that I am recommending PBS, but, hey, they have great nature shows (aptly named "Nature") and tonight they ran a program called "The Hidden Child."  It is the true story of Maud Dahme, a Jewish woman who, at age six, was hidden by Gentiles in Nazi-occupied Netherlands.  Of the 1.6 million Jewish children living in Europe before World War II, only 100,000 survived the Holocaust!!  Most of those 100,000 were hidden children, saved by righteous Gentiles. 

I marvel at the timing of this important documentary because  I fear that many in the West pay lip service to "Never Again!!"  Why mere lip service?  Because we (by whom I mean the collective "we" in the West) say "never again" and then do nothing in the face of the Evil who plainly state their intention to wipe Israel off the map and exterminate each and every Jew.  We say "never again," but what action  do we take to prevent a repeat of the horrors of the Holocaust?  Not enough, in my humble opinion!  It is so very important to educate ourselves about the intentions of those who hate Israel and the Jews.... and don't forget that those who believe Israel is the "Little Satan" also believe that the United States is the "Big Satan."

In the next few days I will post links to books and articles that I highly recommend you read.  In the meantime, watch "The Hidden Child."*  And then pray to God that you will have the courage and resourcefulness to be a refuge for those in need (or that you will be blessed to find refuge if you find yourself or family in such need).

 *Here is a link to more information about "The Hidden Child":
http://www.njn.net/television/specials/hiddenchild/

Glenn Beck's Quiz Show

People who know me well know that I have been a fan of Glenn Beck for many, many years..... I remembering driving the boys to school years ago and listening to Glenn on the radio (think: "you twisted Philly freak"). When he went to television, I watched (and still watch) faithfully. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, there was an ad for audience participation in a "Glenn Beck Quiz Show" so I figured I would email the program and see what happened.

Well, lucky lucky me, I was selected to be on the quiz show! It will air on June 17th. I'm not sure whether I will be on a team, or one of the super-lucky ones to go head-to-head with Glenn! Anyway, I am really excited, and I just hope that I don't embarrass myself!

To my liberal friends who have never watched Glenn (but who probably would have an adverse reaction to hearing his name)..... maybe you will tune in to see me make a fool of myself (hopefully not) and see for yourselves that Glenn is a good guy, a smart guy, a patriot, and that he doesn't have horns or spew hate! lol

To my conservative friends who watch Glenn (maybe not as religiously as I do), you will probably enjoy watching the news quiz...... Of course, you probably already know who the "spooky dude" is and how Glenn really feels about Woodrow Wilson. Hopefully you won't be yelling answers to your television screen because I am not getting them! lol

That's all for now.... just wanted to let you all know the big news!