The Good Spirit School Division does it right. I was fortunate enough to attend their first day of in-service last Wednesday and former Olympic gold medalist Mark Tewksbury was the keynote speaker. The message throughout the day was incredibly upbeat and Tewksbury did an excellent job beating home his message of 'Why Not Me?'. Tewksbury also told the 450 plus teachers in attendance to 'never underestimate the effect that you, one person, can have on other people in your life'.
Organizing such a day (Good Spirit School Division tries to hold an event such as this about once every five years) is no small undertaking. director of education Dwayne Reeve and communications coordinator Lynel Martinuk deserve major kudos. And, all of the folks at the Division office have shown, to me in the three years I have done business with them, that they take education and shaping young people about as serious ly as a school division can take it.
It's also nice for all of us to see there is more to life when it comes to exciting sports than just hockey. In my mind, the three most exciting sporting events I have ever seen come from swimming (Jason Lezak catching Alain Bernard in the 2008 Beijing Olympics during the 4 x 100 freestyle relay), horse racing (2009 Kentucky Derby won by Mine That Bird), and I am going to have to say after watching it again, that Tewksbury's gold medal backstroke swim at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
Honorable mention to the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who won four straight games against the New York Yankees after falling behind 3-0 in games during the American League championship series. Red Sox fans should watch that over and over because the dumpster fire they are today, they are not likely headed to the playoffs again anytime soon.
The death of an 18-year-old girl, who was working on a highway construction crew near Midale last week, was unnecessary and tragic. We have all seen signs asking motorists to reduce speed to 60 km/h when passing workers. I travel on highways a lot and I will admit to not always slowing down. Maybe if I was handed a ticket I would smarten up. I'm also willing to bet the vast majority of drivers ignore that reduced speed sign when passing workers. It's wrong and needs to be taken more seriously. One time, I did slow down and was actually passed by other vehicles!!
In Quebec, a 30-year-old woman is dead after she drowned during a wedding dress photo shoot. It's been awhile since I've gotten married and I have no immediate plans to do it again, so this idea is foreign to me, but apparently there is a new fad called 'trash the dress'. In this case, the woman wanted some pics of her swimming in the dress. Evidently, the dress got weighed down with water and took this poor woman away and she could not be rescued.
Here's an idea: sell the dress to a person who can't afford a new one instead of wrecking it. If someone can please explain 'trash the dress' to me so it makes sense, you can see my email address at the top of this article. Furthermore, there are pictures of this 'river' in various newspaper articles on-line and I wouldn't get in there naked let alone with a suit or wedding dress on (not that I dabble in cross dressing or anything).
In the latest incident that takes the cake on being totally stupid and ignorant comes word in Nebraska that a preschool is asking a three-year-old deaf boy to change his name because it violates the school board's weapons policy. Yup. Apparently 'Hunter' signs his name by making what looks like shooting gestures with both hands. He crosses his fingers when he does it, a modification to show it's his proper name. It's no longer politically correct to call this nonsense politically correct. This is just galactically stupid. And, I don't even think galactically is a word.
With all due respect, the Yorkton Crown's decision to try the 15-year-old granny basher as a youth instead of trying to get the case in as an adult was a mistake. I'm sorry, but at 15 years old, if you are old enough to commit an adult type of offence, then you are old enough to do adult time. Apparently, this 'kid' was facing a shopping list of charges but some were withdrawn as part of a plea bargain.
The moral of the story is that if you are going to commit one offence, you may as well do a bunch because if you get caught and decide to come clean later on, the credit received for being honest is that you get let off the hook for some of the crimes you've committed. What a bunch of pushovers we are.
And, in Winnipeg on Friday, a woman was told she could not bring her bare-chested toddler into the air-conditioned courthouse because of a policy that says everyone must wear a shirt. The compromise? The child had its chest wrapped in paper towels.
Nice person of the week mentions to Deanna Hansen, Neil Lamberty, Brady Harland, Damon Kustra, and Ellen Ruf.
