Happy Hump Day, Y’all!
Who’s glad we got here today!? I know I am! Also, I wanted to give a belated birthday shout out to my boarding school basketball (and football) coach, Mr. Maurice Blake. A lot of the “boys” showed him “love and respect” yesterday which was his 89th birthday! My hat (converse sneakers and football cleats, too!) go off to a man who has changed the lives of a lot of us who went to St. Paul’s School over 40 years ago! How many of you remember someone from your schools that long ago?! Popular singer here in Miami, “FLO RIDA”, surprised his elementary school teacher at her retirement party this year by just showing up!!! She was certainly “floored” by “FLO” and they exchanged niceties. I plan to meet up with Coach Blake as soon as his son gets back in town north of here in New Smyrna, FL!!
When I was in boarding school, and later at college, one of the things I remember many historians I read saying is the following: “Power corrupts! Absolute power corrupts absolutely!” I posted this one day as an intro to EE on a social network but I am not sure how many people “got it”. Well, here’s a “small” example. Two South Florida mayors – one of Sweetwater and the other is the mayor of Miami Lakes – were arrested yesterday after being caught in an attempt to acquire monies from the federal government for their individual cities using a “fake” consultant company set up by “The Feds”. The consultants were put in place to be able to identify the interests of “wrong doing” once the monies were awarded to Sweetwater and Miami Lakes. The catch is, the mayors planned to KEEP the money for themselves, which they made clear to the phony consulting firm, rather than put the money into the individual programs that they were identified to go to for the citizens of each city! How tacky is that!!!???
Another story was on the news is an example of corruption on the local government level, though in this case, it involved Miami Dade Correctional Officers. This one found the correction officers using the “Handicapped Parking Spaces” for themselves, and, never … I said NEVER had a “handicap sticker/hanger” in their vehicles and NEVER got a ticket after being there for nearly two hours in some cases! The story broke because an attorney who has had some hip surgery and other physical challenges has NEVER been able to use the handicapped parking spaces because, as Carmel Cafiero of Ch 7 News discovered, they were ALL being used by correction officers with NO HANDICAP!!!! The attorney finally complained to Miami Dade Courthouse Officials, which brought “Carmel On The Case”, and still nothing had been done! Can you say, “Penny Ante” criminals of local government!?! How sad is that? As I often learned to speculate, though not too far, if stuff like this is going on at a local level, imagine what’s been happening on the higher levels of “power” in every city?!
Have a great Wednesday and be well!
Peace,
John I. Cook, Director
Educational Excellence 