Educator and Chief

I stopped by Bubbie’s this morning and he was already in rare form. He has been thinking about the war in Iraq and the young men and women that are putting their lives on the line for…well…whatever.

His random ranting covered the many comments that we’ve all heard in the news lately.

“We need to win the war.” You mean we haven’t? We’ve destroyed a country and toppled its government.

“We need to spread democracy.” We are not a democracy, we are a democratic Republic.

“We need to send more troops.” This really boggled Bubbie’s mind and set him off. Don’t the representatives we elect, including the President realize that we don’t choose them because they are smarter than us; we elect them to represent us. They are to listen to the majority consensus and vote accordingly to express the views of the electorate.

Oh, of course they don’t know this; they think we’re a democracy and that they are smarter than us.

The World is My Ashtray

Bubbie’s View this morning, is out the windshield of his ol’ Ford pickup truck. Sitting at a red light, five or six vehicles back from an intersection; the drivers of the two cars immediately ahead of him take their last drags off of their cigarettes and flick the white butts out their drivers’ side windows. Bubbie, a non smoker, is disgusted, annoyed, infuriated and saddened, all at the same time. He would like to ask those people why they think it is OK to toss those butts out of the window. Do they think that they are littering? Do they think that others may not appreciate seeing the millions of little white cigarette butts littering every roadside and parking lot? What about the fire hazard? Do they realize that throwing a burning cigarette butt onto dry, roadside debris can cause a fire? Do they care about the environment, or the legacy and lessons they are leaving our children?

Please, if you smoke, help me to understand the thought process behind this anomaly. Why don’t you put the cigarette out in your ashtray and deposit them in the garbage when you get to your destination? I suspect it is because the butts are dirty and smell stale after they accumulate for a few days, which smokers don’t care for; but I’d like to hear what the smokers’ answer is.