HAPPY ST. PATRICKS

      So for all those who celebrate and enjoy St. Patrick's day, I hope you had a good day. Around this house, you wouldn't know it was St. Patrick's Day. My friend Mike,  missed out on the green beer they had in his residence. 

    So when I was a child going to school in the country we did very little about St. Patrick's day. We may have drawn a few shamrocks and colored them green but not much more.

    To be more exact we did not really recognize St. Patrick's day. We were country people and country people did not take notice of frivolous days. Our community was German Lutheran and they didn't do much celebrating. Garrison Keillor described a young Lutheran's guide to the symphony orchestra and they were very serious. 

    Another more serious hitch to St. Patrick's celebrations was that my family and community belonged to a religious denomination that didn't celebrate things unless it was described directly in the bible and sometimes even then they argued or bickered about it. 

    Well, I left  the little farm community and got another look at celebrating special days. For a while it was more like Halloween and tricks were played. A common trick was to put green food dye in a toilet tank. On flushing the toilet some people were surprised.

   Once  I started teaching in middle school the big issue was that you would be pinched if you didn't wear some green. I only made that mistake once and after that I wore something green or every kid in the school would pinch you. 

   The story behind St. Patrick's day is well worth knowing.

   So going from no fun St. Patrick's to all kinds of fun it's been an interesting ride. 

Happy New Year

     It's 7:00 PM mountain standard time here.  It's early New Year's Eve. Some people are already in 2016 and some have much more time to go in their New Year's Eve. Some people mark New Year's Eve with great celebration and some, like me, pass it as most other evenings in my life. I've done it both ways. I've partied my face off and as I said I spend very quiet New Year's Eves.

      Some people like to look back on 2015...the year in review. I'm not big on looking back at my own 2015. I don't really think about it. I am a current events junkie so I like to listen to a review of news events for the past year. In fact,I will listen to more than one review. (Ooh somebody just let a fire cracker go!) I like reviews to be separate as politics, sports , music...

     Other people like to look ahead to 2016. What will 2016 bring them. What do they hope for in 2016. Some people are big on making resolutions for 2016. Some resolutions people share  can be very interesting. For myself, I'm not big on resolutions. I have enough trouble remembering my resolution let alone acting on it. I try to fool myself by saying I will make resolutions as the year goes by.

     I admire those people who take a balanced approach and think about the happenings in the old year and look ahead to the New Year. 

     I do look back at one major New Year's Eve event in my life. 49 years ago tonight I had the first date with my wife. It was a blind date and, of course, we went to a large New Year's Eve party!

     Whatever you do to mark the new year I hope you enjoy the evening. I hope you had a great 2015 and I wish you all the best for 2016.

An Epiphany!

       A few weeks ago I posted "We Threw the Bums Out" . We had an election and a party that had been in power for 44 years lost the election.  Election results were shocking. A party that held only four seats in the last session won 54  seats. It was a major change.

      Yesterday, our new premier, Rachel Notley and her cabinet were sworn in. 

      This ceremony was like no other. It was held outdoors. The weather was perfect for the day. 10000 people came to the event! There were families with young children, young people ... a wide variety of people. There was no dress code so tee shirts and shorts and many other variations were seen. The ceremony was brief and not too quiet or solemn. After the swearing in the new Premier and her cabinet immediately went out in the crowd and mingled with the people. People were not expecting this and were surprised. Many people had photos taken with the new premier and lots of photos were selfies. What a sport! There were several bands that played . There was free ice cream! People had a great time.

     Now before this we had old , rich white men in suits who were sworn in. Not that there's much wrong with old white men. I'm one of them. The ceremony would take place in the Lieutenant Governor's mansion. The premier and his new cabinet would move to a swanky hall where a sumptuous feast took place. Only the bigwigs attended.  Ordinary people were completely excluded  from this government event.

     Yesterday's event got me thinking. We are always complaining about so many people who don't vote. We know few young people vote. 

    So my epiphany is that if we involve citizens in political events instead of excluding them , we may increase voter turnout. 

     I think yesterday's event should have some influence on increasing voter turnout. Young people were exposed to a government function. It was fun!  

     I hope that many of these people will become voters because of a positive experience with an important political event.