Several things caught my eye today in the newspapers we read daily.
The first was the announcement by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that. because of increasing teacher shortages in public schools in the state due to COVID, members of the New Mexico National Guard may be deployed to fill in as substitute teachers.
This raises several questions and some observations. First, the governor said that the substitute National Guard teachers did not necessarily have to wear their uniforms, but could do so if they wanted. But, she stipulated, none should be armed.
So what kinds of courses would the guard members teach? Field stripping of class computers? Tactical maneuvers to avoid the cafeteria on bad food days? How to organize student pickup and drop off convoys? PT including a five-mile run instead of PE classes with badminton and medicine ball tossing?
And my wife wonders if students will display much stricter discipline when someone in a military uniform is standing in front of the class, even if they’re reciting lines from Shakespeare.
And how about bugle calls instead of school bells? “Reveille” instead of the first bell to begin classes, “mess call” for lunch in the cafeteria and “assembly” to meet in the school gymnasium to watch a 40-year-old film about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases.
And of course “taps” when the school basketball team goes down in defeat.
And on another subject, University of New Mexico football coach Danny Gonzales, whose Lobos finished the season 3-9 (1-7 in Mountain West Conference play) announced he has recruited a new quarterback through the transfer portal.
Gonzales proudly announced that the recruit, Miles Kendrick, “knows how to win.”
However, it should be noted that Kendrick played at the University of Kansas, which managed only a 2-10 season (1-8 in Big 12 conference play) during 2021. As much as I like the University of Kansas, I don’t think anyone could honestly say that players from a program suffering years of a losing tradition (last winning season in 2008) “know how to win.”
And finally, a truly sad note on human behavior in Hatch. Police said two men got into an argument over who would load a child’s bicycle in the back of a pickup. The disagreement led to one of the individuals pulling out a gun and shooting the other person, who died of the gunshot wound.
I wanted to share a brief personal update. Our seven-year-old granddaughter in Austin, who contracted COVID early during the outbreak of the virus in 2019, caught it again last week in a breakthrough case. She had been vaccinated after her first bout with COVID, and is not suffering as badly as the first time around, when her temperature spiked to over 103 degrees. But now her little brother, age 3, has caught the virus and is recovering. His symptoms so far have not been too serious.
AND I JUST GOT NEWS THAT OUR SON’S YOUNGEST SON, AND OUR WONDERFUL NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS, HAVE ALSO CONTRACTED COVID, BUT ARE DOING OKAY.
In the last few weeks we have learned of so many friends, neighbors, members of our family, church and casual acquaintances who have contracted the virus. Most of these are breakthrough cases and the individuals seem to not have severe symptoms, but we really don’t know the long-term effects.
Please get vaccinated if you haven’t already, get the booster if you haven’t already and keep using masks and social distancing when necessary. I’m darn tired of this thing going on as long as it has, and I think we all need to do what we can to stop it.
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