Column 70 for February 4, 2001

Last week I told you the tale of asking permission to quote from a column originally published January 21st of this year in the Mobile (AL) Register. I have received, and dutifully signed and returned same to the Register. The Register column was titled "We must do a better job of risk assessment" and was written by the paper’s editor, Mike Marshall. I do appreciate Mr. Marshall’s permission.

Now let’s get the legal stuff over with… All quotations in the remainder of this column are Courtesy of the Mobile Register 2001 ã All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. I will go on to say that this material is neither accompanying any materials which solicit contributions, endorse anyone for elected office, nor suggest this paper's endorsement of any third party, issue, product, or service. Whew! I’m glad two of my kids are attorneys, or I might have to give up writing!

Anyway… Mr. Marshall, after telling a tall tale about duck hunting in Texas, goes on to describe the dangerous practice of firing guns into the air to ring in the New Year. "It’s incredibly dangerous, said DaVon Grey, spokesman for the Mobile Police Department. During the holiday weekend, we had multiple calls out to places where people had been firing weapons." Mr. Marshall then said, "There was no great hue and cry after we printed that story. But this year, our councilmen’s remarks brought the hazard into sharp public focus."

"And all the ensuing tumult produced a happy result: The City Council has scheduled a public hearing on the matter and – I’m guessing here – it will finally do something meaningful to discourage the custom."

Mr. Marshall continues, "No one has ever been killed - thank God - by a bullet tumbling back down to Mobile on New Year's Eve. But I can promise you that over the past four decades hundreds of people have ended up being quite dead because of the poor funding of Mobile's public schools."

"Poverty and ignorance kill with ballistic precision, and education is the sole remedy to poverty and ignorance. In part because we have insisted on low taxes, our teachers have been over-worked and under-trained. Consequently, they have been unable to reach some students who are reachable."

"And those kids become zombies, unskilled, unschooled, dumb and unhappy, many of whom die from crack, or alcohol, or a bullet. Or they kill somebody else."

"That's a death tax that should outrage us all."

The irony of the situation was pointed out by Mr. Marshall in his next paragraph: "Yet our front-page articles this past week about the impending proration of school funding did not provoke near the response that attended those errant New Year's Eve bullets. We need to approach this crisis in K-12 funding with the same sense of urgency; in fact, much greater urgency."

"Mobile's sky is falling" was Mr. Marshall’s conclusion.

Mr. Marshall is no Chicken Little. We know our own community is growing like crazy whether we like it or not. It’s not difficult to see the laser-like gleam in our local developer’s and robber land baron’s eyes. Everyone wants low taxes, but we best take a closer look at our OWN risk assessments.

Are we, the current residents, wise enough, do we care enough, to plan and properly finance our local children’s educational needs for the next 5 to 10 years? I worry about it, maybe you should too. Be careful looking up, or you might get hit with a chunk of the sky. Education is a matter of life and death.

As always, Peace. tomiswho@mindspring.com