Yesterday, I went to a graduation ceremony.

No, not mine. Thankfully so. 

A Gooferment High Skrule graduated almost 300 children.

There were so many things I could talk about.

OBSERVATIONS

• The Gooferment bureaucrats speaking flowery phrases.
• The lack of the crowd to follow a few simple rules for the enjoyment of others.
• The Gooferment fire truck that broke those rules for certain individuals.
• The flag with the fringe.
• Numerous speakers extolling how “special” the graduates were. (Aren’t at least half below average?  “Well, that’s the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”)
• The propaganda about how much the collective had accomplished in the last four years.
• The large number of Gooferment bureaucrats earning big bucks with similar sounding titles.
• The complete lack of acknowledgement to the Taxpayer who are all robbed to pay for this “education”.
• The Pledge and the National Anthem. With some silent protests.
• The pandering to a returning vet who’s cousin was graduating. And the dias encouraging the fire truck to break their own rules on decorum.
• The calling out the six youngsters who were going into the military. (I was filled with sadness at that!)
• The decorated mortar boards where members of the graduating collective tried to express their individuality.
• The young faces who are so naïve.
• The valedictorian taking a selfie. 
• The strange behavior of one politician when the mayor gave a speech. (He walked off the dais and faced away towards one of the bleachers. Maybe he was her security. But why that direction. Very strange.)

CONCLUSIONS

• The complete lack of candor by the adults to the children about the “facts of life”. They are faced with a terrible economy, a staggering national debt, and a political elite that are out of touch and out of control.
• The inability of people to control themselves. Behaviors I would expect at a football game. Attire that I wouldn’t allow at a garage sale. And, language by young women that even a sailor wouldn’t use in mixed company.
• The inability of Gooferment to do anything right was reinforced. Names were mispronounced. Songs were amateur. And, the band was out of tune. 
• The traffic in the area was messed up by the Gooferment scheduling two graduations of nearby high schools on the same night.

• AND finally, my recognition that I am old and crotchety. Sadly burdened with paradigms and memes that will not allow me to “go with the flow”. Probably because I see where “going with the flow” as brought us to.

Dona Nobis Pacem

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