There is a scene in the movie Raising Arizona where a couple of delinquent brothers go to rob a bank. They feel pretty confident about their plan because they fancy themselves sophisticated criminals. As they bust in the front door of the dusty, country bank, one of the brothers shouts out, “All right, ya hayseeds, it’s a stick-up. Everybody freeze. Everybody down on the ground.”
There is a long awkward pause as the tellers and farmer clientele stare back at them. The criminals are flustered. Finally one of the farmers says, “Well, which is it, young feller? You want I should freeze or get down on the ground? Mean to say, if’n I freeze, I can’t rightly drop. And if’n I drop, I’m a-gonna be in motion.”
The rest of the robbery does not go well.
This scene was the first thing to pop to mind when I heard that Governor Snyder had signed the House version of Detroit Public School legislation. Because, correct me if I’m wrong, but hadn’t he previously been telling us that his version with more money and charter oversight was the only effective solution for the DPS? And now he’s telling us the very different House plan is just fine? Well, which is it, young feller?
In the end I figured not enough people have seen (or nearly memorized, as I have) Raising Arizona, so I decided to go with the dictionary definition bit for this week’s cartoon. It’s much clearer what I’m calling the governor out on because he’s Snydermised before — the infamous Michigan Roads legislation being the last best example.
John Auchter draws cartoons. Lots and lots of them. You can find them at his incredibly popular website auchtoon.com.
I would add to this his recent Snyderizing a genocide curriculum reform for public school kids that specifically singles out Holocaust and Armenian events but fails on the mass slaughter of Indians and Bison under our feet. We can’t teach our children how their direct descendants effectively wiped out nations of people and the food source that sustained them.
direct antecedents or ancestors or something
Great Grandpas maybe
Whose antecedents or ancestors? Mine stayed mainly northeast and others came about 1900, as far as I know they were avoiding conflict which is why they came here/
Tim C., I have to argue it’s a well known fact that European diseases decimated the native American populations in advance of westward expansion. If there had been 3 or 4 times as many Indians all bets are off, they’d have had the trade means to purchase weapons in bulk and we all know certain tribes adopted the horse and had cavalry. That’s not to say genocide didn’t exist
Snydermise ..perfect. Like his agenda items that weren’t there until they were. Like Right to work. And he wonders why many don’t believe a word he says.
Our State Legislator Geniuses, with their world-girdling wisdom, are telling us what to teach and learn. I sincerely suggest they require all Michigan kids to learn Latin and Classical Greek. Heck, this is what Winston Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt studied.
Our Michigan kids, overall, would be very far ahead of kids from other states in Latin and Greek by the time they applied to college. Even the kids who got Ds in Latin at least would know a little Latin. Can’t hurt.
And, seriously, the Michigan Legislature should require rifle training. Make America great again! Back in the day, all American kids, at least all American boys, hunted, or at least shot bb guns at the Y. Heck again, I used to shoot bb guns in my family’s basement. One time, Eddie Gala and I found a dead crayfish, and hung it up in my basement, and shot at it, back when America was great. Make America great again!
Why in the world should they study of Latin or Greek be encouraged when many kids can’t master English? Etymology is interesting to me but I’ve always enjoyed science, history and English literature.
“All right everybody, we’re about to start the robbery proper.”