The enemy on the Banks of the Hudson

Located  50 miles north of New York City on the banks of the Hudson River  is the United States Military Academy. Founded in 1802, the Academy has graduated over 50,000 cadets into the service of our country. We know many of the names. Grant, Lee, Eisenhower, Pershing, and McArthur are just a few of the honored alumni. Six members of Congress have direct connections to the Academy. Four were faculty members and three Republican congressmen; Geoff Davis  and  Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, and John Shimkus of Illinois are graduates, as is Sen Jack Reed, D, R I.

I wonder if any of these congressmen or senators will any comments about Chris Matthews referring to Obama’s trip to West Point as maybe going to the enemy camp. Matthews has sais much with which I disagree and I will long remember the”tingles” comment. But to make even a passing reference             (which he sort of backs away from) to West Point as the enemy camp for the country’s commander-in-chief, just totally baffles me. The  more i think of it, the more irritating it becomes. I have to wonder, does Matthews really believe that statement? I have no doubt that there are a number of left leaning journalists who probably do. We support the troops, just not their mission. Yeah, right.

He has since apologized  and  for that I applaud him. Let us hope that it can become a bit of a learning experience. Say, engage brain before operating mouth, maybe. Do you think a little road trip to see the place for himself would be  agood thing? Nah, probably not.

Bad Eagle Scout

Typically, when one hears the words Eagle Scout, they bring  a rather positive connotation. I have  a nephew who earned the honor  and  I have great  respect for his accomplishment. But, it seems that even an Eagle Scout comes in second place to the vaunted “zero-tolerance” policy in the Lansingburgh Central School District  of Troy,NY.

Our Eagle Scour in question is  named Matthew Whalen. He says he was suspended for 4 weeks for having  a 2 inch pocketknife in his vehicle. The knife, a gift from Whalen’s grandfather,police chief  in a neighboring town, was discovered during  a search of the young  man’s car done by school officials. As an aside, wonder why the search was done? But, I digress.

The suspension is almost over and Whalen is due to return to school tomorrow. His parents  want his record expunged of the offense, as Whalen intends to apply to West Point later in the school year.

So far, they have not heard at all from Superintendent George Goodwin, who actually had the discretion as to  what punishmnet to mete out for possession of the knife;  what the district calls  viloent conduct. There is no zero tolerance policy that required him to apply the suspension that he did. He has stuck to his guns, so to speak, at least to this point.

Attorney Victor DeBonis has agreed to represent the family pro bono( good deal for him with the publicity, of course)  and hopes to avoid a lawsuit. The school board meets on October 27 and the family and their attorney hope that  action will be taken then or at a  special meeting.

Barring a satisfactory response from the school board, DeBonis plans to contact the state education commissioner. By the  way, that individual is one David Steiner who only took his oath of office on October 1.

Don’t you imagine that there are people hoping this will all go  away and wondering how to avoid the less than flattering light in which the Lansingburgh district has been placed. One thing puzzles me. Doesn’t this kind of thing usually happen in California  rather than upstate New York?  Guess not