Pancakes, then off the cliff

E. Boyer

Something pleasant, to start…Sunday morning is often dad-duty in Piedmont. I seldom venture much beyond Piedmont on Sundays, therefore my Sunday observations are limited to these 10.5 square miles.  If you haven’t experienced an early Piedmont Sunday morning on foot, I must caution that you’re “pleasant experience account” is at a deficit.  Piedmont, in the early hours before all the gears start churning is hard to beat.  It’s a lovely calm of green and quiet and in these pre-sunshine hours, the charming, old houses, tended lawns and thoughtful little parks are beautifully softened with an air-brushing of sorts, a magical gauzy filter that the best photo app could never recreate. 

It’s in these wee Sunday hours that dads and kids are soft-shoeing around the grass and play structures and sandy pits. Some sit silently enjoying their coffee, observing as their toddlers explore the curiosities that abound, allowing them to teeter and tumble, dig, poke, prod and occasionally eat things that aren’t necessarily food.  Others take the opportunity to impart wisdom on how best to stack the twigs or mold the sand; once the goopy blob resembles something, they give their final assessment with cheerful enthusiasm, “You made a pancake!  That’s very impressive!”  I can’t help but wonder if the toddler thought it looked more like Howard, the family dog.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s dads and kids spending a glorious morning in the park...love and quality-time wrapped into one.  It’s this softer side of Piedmont that is so completely enchanting. 

Once the gears in our town do start to churn and the day-to-day starts rolling it can be harder to spot those tender moments….

Just up the hill from the charming father-child scene there’s the still-contentious lawn over which, it’s rumored, never-seen Methusela’esque creatures stand watch in the event that a dog cavorts about and mucks it up, rendering the lawn useless; for what, I don’t know. I would have thought that cavorting dogs were the very purpose of such a grassy patch. Turns out, you can get a hefty ticket for that. Such a silly thing.

From there it veers off the cliff.  Topics that used to seem paramount are now trivial side notes; the abysmally sub-standard community pool, a so-called athletic director hired under questionable circumstances, cell towers, the lack of transparency within the PUSD, playfields, acts of hate and racism in our schools.  Those have all been put on the back burner these past few months when a controversial Mayor, Facebook and un-fit teachers took center stage.

There was a time when I foolishly thought social media might be a handy tool for recipe exchanges and seeing photos of friends and family in distant corners. Focus your audio, folks: if you plan on dipping your toe in the political pool on Facebook, gird yourself sufficiently; it’s not for the tender hearted. 

You see, our President is off his kadoova, which has emboldened some to spout their inner-most ugly thoughts in the form of posts, which in turn has all the “friends” on Facebook bickering like wild cats.  Honestly, the fur was flying.  It goes something like this: you snuggle-up on your couch in your stretchy weekend pants with a bowl of Kettle Chips, a glass of wine and laptop at the ready. Then, you log onto Facebook and as if by witchcraft you suddenly feel cloaked in anonymity and
un-touchability.  You see a post that gets in your craw and before you know it you’re typing a blue streak; teeth grinding, expletives flying, jaw clenching and then it happens…you hit the button that lets the whole world know your darkest stretchy-pants-wine-and-kettle chip-induced thoughts.  And just like that you go from being a regular old city council member and Mayor to an absolute oddity and outcast. Poof!

Sadly, there’s another troubling topic on Piedmont’s list of current events: in the coming weeks we’ll hear a lot of about the difference between a crime and something that is merely inappropriate.  We’ll hear that men have been objectifying women and girls since the beginning of time.  We’ll hear that the only reason this is coming about is because of the Harvey Weinstein accusers. Don’t be fooled or intimidated, folks.  The PUSD and it’s band of unconditional supporters will defend the institution like Davey Crockett at the Alamo.  It’s a blindness that I truly cannot comprehend.  Administrative leave? God sakes, is Mr. Booker so far gone that he can’t see even the most obvious wrongdoing?  When will this public servant rise to the position and stop putting on a show at the expense of our children?  Why we would ever tolerate such abhorrent behavior from someone charged with educating our children is beyond me.  I often wonder why, in a situation like this we don’t storm the walls and demand that a teacher such as the one on this case be immediately removed.  How I long for a bit of activism!  Achieve the honorable?  My goodness, Mr. Booker, we aren’t even coming close.