Public school, philosophy on good government, mobile telephone voice mail, getting along…

I don’t give my mobile telephone number out much, and it’s mostly because I don’t live and die by my mobile telephone. For the first dozen or so years I had it, it was literally a “car phone” for me. If I was in the car, I had it to use, and there it stayed. Only recently have I begun carrying it on my person when I’m out.

When I’m home, unless I need it to make a “free” long-distance call, my mobile phone is off and in my truck. So in and around starting the truck, fastening my seat belt, opening the garage door, and the like, part of my ready-set-commute routine is to turn on my phone.

I had a voice mail this morning. This is fairly rare, given the hours during which I’m not available to answer it. I absently pushed the button to listen to it, and:

“This message is from the Board of Education. It concerns a student. (dramatic pause) This is the superintendent of schools reminding you to vote yes for our children on Tuesday, August 14. The countywide 1¢ sales tax increase is so important for…”

…blah, blah, blah.

(Edited for specific names and places, etc., but you get the gist.)

Unfortunately, I lacked the presence of mind at that moment to save the voice mail message, else I could play it for you now. Hell, I didn’t even realize that it was today’s blog post until I got home and told Lea about it, and it should have slam-dunked for me right then.

Folks, I think the government sucks at damned near everything, okay? What do I want from my government? Say it with me: “defend the country, protect the rights of the citizens, and precious little else.”

However, Lea and I have made a strategic decision to go with public school for now, because realistically, we cannot both send the boys to private school and have Lea stay home, and we have decided the latter is more important at this juncture. The gamble that being sincerely and genuinely involved parents will sufficiently offset any bureaucratic nonsense seems a reasonable one.

But needless to say, I have my guard up as my firstborn enters the public school system. I’ve behaved, mostly because there’s been little to misbehave about. I’ve had complaints, but they’ve been minor and kept to myself. It really has gone better than I thought it would.

And then my mobile telephone number, a number I provided on an emergency contact list for emergency purposes, is used to drop some ridiculous, deceptive, for-the-kids bullshit political ad into my ear at 6:57 am, when I’m starting to think about my day at work and trying to get through my third morning of not smoking.

It certainly behooves me to get along, so I’ll continue to keep quiet for now, as far as any official complaint goes. I readily admit that this could be isolated and not at all a common practice, and I’m not going to launch ICBMs in response to a single mortar attack.

I certainly hope no more obnoxious government recordings await me first thing in the morning anytime soon, though.

Incidentally, the tactic backfired. The special election had slipped my mind; the phone spam reminded me to go vote No.

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