S7s: 3/20- March Madness

1) NCAA Wrestling from Madison Square Garden this weekend. I watched some of the semifinals on Friday and was amazed. The Finals last night were terrific.

• Nolf vs I-Mar, Snyder vs Gwizz both lived up the the hype.
• How good is Nashon Garrett? A pin 21 second in the semifinals?! Against the defending national champion! 
• NYC was a great venue, despite my skepticism going into the tournament. 
• I am so impressed with Penn State and the level of wrestling they are able to achieve. Cael Sanderson has become a legend as a coach as well as a wrestler. And they're loaded for a good run for a few years. 
• Congratulations to Virginia Tech for finishing 3rd and NC State for a top 10 finish. 
• No champions for the Iowa Hawkeyes, but three finalists and a top 5 finish for Coach Brands' team.
• He didn't wrestle last night but he was interviewed several times: Jordan Burroughs is a winner, class act and great ambassador for the sport of wrestling. 

2) There was another national tournament happening this weekend. I followed very little basketball. I know my bracket is in the 12th percentile right now. Wrestling was more compelling to me.

3) Lady Knights Track had two meets this past week: the Jus Running Relays on Tuesday and Times-News Invitational on Saturday. Some solid performances. 10th place yesterday at Times-News. We're still a work in progress, but you can see we've got some great athletes. We need to get healthy. Spring Break will be much needed for my athletes. 

4) All Area Wrestling Teams announced by our local media outlets.

• Times News Wrestler of the Year was Josh Blatt. Well deserved and great honor for Josh.
• All-Area Wrestlers for the Times-News: Morgan King, Will Baldwin, Paul Searcy.
• Basketball teams had 17-18 players on the Times-News teams, while wrestling only had 9 total. Wrestling has 14 weight classes, basketball has 5 positions. Seems Daniel Dowling, Cele Cardenas should have made it. Possibly Pete Willingham, Damian Murphy and Joshua Feliz. Rosman High School underrepresented also.
• Citizen-Times All-WNC: Josh Blatt, Morgan King, Will Baldwin
• Searcy one of the best wrestlers in WNC but I can't argue with having Wilson on the team-- they split this season, but Conan placed higher at Regionals and State. 

5) I read this article the other day: In Love with Donald Trump

It's so good. Christians don't agree with Trump, his character or his morality. But people love his message. Why? Because we pursue the things we love and he's selling us what we love. And the love of many Christians is less in Christ and more in the offerings of the world.

6) Obama made an appointment for the Supreme Court. I know nothing about Merrick Garland. He may or may not be a good Justice. I do believe that the Senate has a duty to hold hearings on Mr Garland. It doesn't mean that they have to appoint him, but his case to be Justice needs to be heard.

• There's the argument that if the roles were reversed that Democrats would block the nominee from being confirmed or heard. It's like gerrymandering: just because the other side does it doesn't make it right. The nomination process can take months, so if we're looking at the next president appointing the next Supreme Court Justice, we're looking at the Supreme Court sitting with one Justice short for nearly two years.
• Any wonder why Congress has an 11% approval rating according to the Pew Research Center? 
• In case you're wondering, Gallup Poll for March 13 had the President at 51 percent approval.
• The Republicans are going all in, especially if they have to nominate a third party candidate or block Trump at the Convention. Between that and the refusal to hold hearings on the President's nominee, they are playing a dangerous game with perception. If enough moderates are turned off by the stance of the GOP led Senate, they may be putting their majorities in the House at risk. A longer shot is that they lose their Senate majority. 

7) Speaking of the President, he made an official visit to Cuba today. I am looking forward to more normalized relationships with Cuba. The policies of the last 60 years haven't worked there. I can't wait to visit the island. 

Some Thoughts

First, many prayers to the victims and families of all involved in attack Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. There's been plenty of blame passed along: the left blaming the right and the right blaming the left. Right now, we're still trying to figure everything out. Let's wait until we have all the facts before we start making judgments.

But I do believe that the leaders need to be more responsible with their political rhetoric. Sarah Palin said in March, "Don't retreat, reload" and proceeded to publish a poster with members of Congress in formerly Republican districts that voted for the Health Care Bill. Their districts were marked with Crosshairs from a gunsight. Giffords' opponent in the election, Jesse Kelly, invited supporters to a rally that invited them to "Get on Target" and involved shooting a M16 with the candidate.

Did either Palin, Kelly, Glen Beck or any other pundit endorse the attack on Gabrielle Giffords? I surely hope not. But with the militant talk that you often hear, are you surprised? Even if the attacker was not a right leaning, Fox loving conservative, the speech and hate is irresponsible and incendiary. It would be like me being a parent and swearing all the time and then astonished and angry because my 3 year old daughter cusses.

Two-
I love the Constitution. I consider it one of the great documents in history. I get excited teaching it. It's the oldest Constitution in the world that still is in use. Many countries have modeled their Constitution after ours. So what could ruin the Constitution for me? Congress, of course.

The 112th Congress opened its session last week with a reading of the Constitution. Why would this be so bad? Oh, let me count the ways:

1. This was a political move to appease certain factions (Tea Party) and not a genuine reading because of their "love" of the document. It was purely cosmetic. Yes, it was a bipartisan reading, but do not mistake the partisanship that lead to the reading.
   
2. They read the "deleted" Constitution, not the "amended" one. The 3/5 Compromise was not read. Nor was 18th Amendment that prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol (the 21st Amendment that repealed the 18th was read).
3. The GOP introduced new procedures that say all new legislation must cite its Constitutional authority. Sounds good, but it is the role of the judicial system, primarily the Supreme Court, to uphold whether or not legislation is Constitutional. The role of Congress is not to interpret the Constitution, but to make legislation.
   
4. It was boring! I want my students to love the Constitution the way I do. The way Ray Brown does (he walked across the USA to talk about it!). A nearly two hour reading interrupted every 20 something words for a new Representative to come read does not make your average American, much less one of my ninth graders, think: "This thing rocks!" See for yourself:

Three-
I thought Congress rallied really well during the lame duck period to get some crucial things passed. Tax law passed, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repealed, START treaty approved and 9/11 Responder's Bill passed. There was one bill not passed that I was really pulling for: The Dream Act.

I understand, they're in this country illegally. But this was a bill that could help everyone. Students affected by the Dream Act are the very students we want to have contributing to this country. We've had a few students at my school at the top of their class who were not pursue further education because of their legal status. These are students who did not make the choice to come to the United States, who've lived here nearly their entire lives and who would give back to their communities if they had the opportunity.

I hope the Dream Act is not dead. I wonder how different the lives of some of my students would be if they had access to this.