Untitled: In Response To GPS Devices Now Used In Some American Schools (Poem)

What's the big deal

If the officials require the students to wear student ID badges
with RFID, GPS tracking abilities

so that the AUTHORITIES can know where the students are
every second of every day
watching them like blips on a computer monitor?
What's the big deal?
Some students claim they have a right to privacy.
Privacy? On school grounds? I though we established that they have no right
to privacy with the long tradition of mandatory searches without warrants!
Some parents claim it violates their religious freedom having to wear the mark of the beast.
Come on...I thought it was made clear that in this land of free religion they have no religious rights in schools!
which is why you can't say the C word, the H word or the Q word during the holidays.
And in case it isn't self-evident enough
I thought we already accepted
as a culture
a long, long time ago
that children must go to school school
whether they want to or not
forced by the law.
and that when in school
they must be watched closely by authorities
must do exactly what they are told to do by the authorities.
They are not allowed to wander freely without the authorities
Must move only when the bell tells them to move
and only in directions determined by the authorities.
Must eat only when and where they are told to eat...by the authorities
Must ask permission to go to the bathroom and not take too much time doing their business or risk punishment by the authorities
They are forced to exercises but only in certain times and certain ways dictated by...an authority.
They must read not what they want to read but what they are told to read...by the authorities.
They are denied free speech and encouraged to forgo the right of critical thinking.
And their press-the student newspaper must be approved by the authorities.
In classes, their thoughts and ideas are graded according to the degree to which they match the official views
of the authorities.
Students accused of an offense are permitted no due process—no trial, no legal recourse—their fate is decided solely by...the authorities.
And voting? Of course students are allowed to vote--for homecoming king and queen!
Unless of course they have committed some major offense such as refusing to wear a tracking device
Like in John Jay High or Anson Jones Middle School where their rights to vote were taken away by
the authorities.
So let them wear the GPS trackers
and make them wear uniforms
I recommend bright orange
and serial numbers
just so those whiney saps who complain about rights
and privacy can stop complaining and finally
admit and accept the school system for what it is
a prison.

The Missing Bread

This is a sample poem from my upcoming book

"The Customer is Often Wrong."

Even though the book is a poetic comedy act--I do believe that there is a serious philosophy to be had in the argument against the customer being always right--it has created a culture of abused workers and customers who get rewarded for stamping their feet like children. The good customer gets no recognition either--there is more incentive to be a complainer than to be well-mannered. Even though this book is meant to be funny, there is a serious undertone as well that I hope makes it through.

_________________________________________________________________________
“Can I get a large loaf of white bread?”
“We're out of bread right now.”
“Out of bread?”
“Yes, out of bread.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“How can you be out of bread?”
“Well...people just kept asking for it, we kept selling it,
and then we didn't get anymore in.”
“Could I get a small loaf of white bread, then?”
“Ma'am, we are out of all kinds of bread, not just the large loaf.”
“Do you have any whole wheat bread?”
“No Ma'am.”
“How about a small whole wheat?”
“Nope.”
“Any Multi-Grain?”
“No ma'am, we are OUT of bread Have none.”
“Are you sure?”
“I'm sure.”
“Maybe a raisin bread?”
“Ma'am, we have no bread, at ALL.”
“Not even a rye bread?”
“No rye, no white, no whole wheat—we have no bread whatsoever in the store at all,
of any kind at all.”
“Could you check the back?”
“There is no back, what you see on these shelves is what we have.
And as you can see, they are empty.”
“Hmmm...” she says finally as if in deep thought.
“Yeah, sorry about that.”
“That's alright...I really came here for milk anyway.”
You cross your fingers and pray to God that that you haven't sold out of milk as well.

Attention To Detail

Have you ever heard someone walk up to a clerk at a supermarket
and ask for a half gallon of "Napoleon" ice cream?
Napoleon?
You want a Mussolini and a Stalin with that three for five?
Why don’t you go to the deli counter and ask for some
"Ro-to-sory" chicken?
Then swing by Starbucks to get a cup of coffee with
french vanill ER
and splend ER
Do you want some sod ER with your pizz ER?
Not that the A or the ER really matters on soda,

Because if you asked for a Pepsi and they gave you
     Coke, you wouldn’t
even,
notice!
And you can’t remember which one
A Mento makes explode, can you?
Good thing that chemists don’t so easily forget what happens when you mix bleach,
with…
that other thing…

I had a boss once who was OCD,
counted everything over,
and over and over,
and over.

1…2…3…4…
1…1…
1…2…3…4…
4…3…2…1…
….
….
1…2…3…4…
BUT, he never…
got the numbers wrong.

I have been berated,
my opinions negated,
freedom of speech denied,
because of my astute observations,
that the menu advertises penne pasta,
and these underhanded,
two-faced, bait and switch snatchers,
give me…
RIGATONI!
Are people that blind, culinary speaking?
There is a great difference! Can you not,
taste it?
smell it?
feel it?
see…that one of the noodle tips..
is more…
POINTY!?

Call me compulsive,

Call me uptight,
that I won’t eat a hotdog, without a hot dog bun!
Maybe it wouldn’t matter if I was starving,
from the third world,
food would be food.
Maybe these minute differences don’t matter…
So then…
I guess it wouldn’t matter, on Wall Street
if we switched the 474, to a 744?
or a 693 to a 396?
Then again, maybe,
If people had known the difference,
between the Japanese bombers, and Japanese Americans,
really knew the difference,
The Manzanar relocation center in 1942, might not have happened.
Maybe if we watched the details,
Harvard professors who are also African Americans,
wouldn’t get carted off to jail,
just for trying to get back into their own homes.
And maybe if we paid real attention,
we might have known the difference,
between one Arab nation and another,
known our real enemies,
know that it’s not the Turban, that indicates ideology.
Maybe, if we knew the details,
we could differentiate between innocent and guilty,
maybe…
I don’t know for sure.
Maybe this new wave of OCD, compulsive people coming up in the world,
is nature’s own way of countering the mess we’ve made,
by not paying attention.
I don’t know if the world would truly be better if we paid attention to detail,
but I do know, what it looks like, when we don’t,
and it, is a mess.