Dealing with tragedy

 

Lately, we’ve dealt with a few terrible tragedies. First, we’ve had this terrible incident with the missing girls out of Evansdale. Then, we have this shooting out of Connecticut. It’s hard for people to understand why this stuff happens on earth. As a historian, I’m no stranger to old books. I found the following passage in an old song book from the late 1800’s. The prose is a little different than that which we use today, so it may be a little more difficult to follow along than a more modern passage, but the message is quite clear. I have found comfort in it several times as I’ve come to grips with some of the terrible things that just happen to happen in everyday life.

Let the reader note, in the following passage, the author mentions “Thalbergs”. This is in reference to a piano virtuoso who was very famous at that time of this writing. To use his name as a noun like this is like calling an automobile a “Ford” for Henry Ford, but in this case, Mr. Thalberg was considered to be the best of the best. The author of this piece is just listed as “Beecher”.

A grand mistake of the old reasoners in their arguing for the goodness of God, was that they tried to prove that in the world there is more evidence of design for happiness than there is of design for pain. Now that position cannot be maintained. There is just as much evidence of a design to produce pain as to produce pleasure. For every adaptation of pleasure that you will show me I will undertake to show you one for pain. This life is clearly rudimentary. Men are here to be hammered into something of worth in the next state of existence. Pleasure is to be desired or expected, but as incidental. Earth is not the place for pleasure. It is the place where men are fashioned for eternity. A piano factory is not the place to go in order to hear music.

Suppose a man were to start for some great piano manufactory with the expectation of being enchanted when there by innumerable Thalbergs. He goes along dreaming of the divine harmonies which will greet him when he approaches the place where these sweet-toned instruments are made. He anticipates as much more of delight than Thalberg had given him, as there are more instruments in the factory than were on the boards of the concert hall.

“I am going to the place where all those pianos are made," he says as he hastens on. "They turn out hundreds of them in a day. Oh! How will all sweet, bewildering sounds entrance my senses when I draw near. Hymns and songs of never-wearying melody will sing out to me from every door and window."

He comes in sight of the building, and instead of hymns and choral melodies, he hears harsh noises. There are heavy poundings, gratings, sawings, and raspings. There are legs, uncouth and clumsy to be worked into proper size and gracefulness. There are strings to be tried, and separate parts to be fitted and knocked together; there are great, heavy packing-boxes to be made, and various other awkward and noisy work to be done. Tools are thumping about; cords and tackling rattling; plenty of confounding noises, but no music. The man stands and sees the workmen ply the hammer, and saw, and file, and punch, and chisel and auger; he sees dust, boards, and shavings flying in all directions. Clatter and clatter surround him. From the windows come broken bits of board, wire and iron; also all the different notes of racket and din; but he hears no sweet melody.

Then the man says in astonishment, “Do they call this a piano manufactory-this confused place, full of all jangling noises? No, no; this is no piano producing establishment. This is only a dusty and noisy workshop."

Yes, it is a workshop, where are being fashioned the instruments which, when touched by skillful fingers, have power to enchant the world. But it is not the platform on which they are to be played. Not there are they to give forth their sweet harmonies. We are in the workshop of humanity. We see evidences of this, turn which way we will. We must feel the mallet and the saw; the punch and the bore. We must be split and ground and worked smooth. The pumice and the sandpaper are for us, also, as well as for the things we fashion; and at last, when we are all set together, polished, and attuned, we shall be played upon by the music-waking influences of Heaven - Beecher

My letter to the Valley Board regarding Whole Grade Sharing–Written 12/11/2012

 

The following letter was written to Board president Mark Howard, and CC’d to the remaining 4 school board members. To date, only Mr. Orr has contacted me and he is in favor of preserving our school as is.

Mr. Howard,

    My name is Eric Durnan and I live in Wadena. I have three children who attend Valley Schools, currently in grades 5, 3, and K. I am very disappointed with the way this whole grade sharing situation has played out. It is very rushed. I have read the responses from the other districts and two of them have said as much as well. In fact, this whole situation of us being in “dire need” seems funny to me. I don’t remember any of this being on the radar screen last year, and then all of a sudden, here we find ourselves needing to do something NOW! Any time that happens, whether in personal life, government life, or in situations like this – it raises my suspicion level. Either someone was asleep at the switch or the situation isn’t really as bad as is being said. Regarding the latter, it’s funny how you all yell “fire” right now with a solution in hand. It’s as if some up there at the school wanted this outcome long before you sounded the alarm. You’re the head of the board so you know the answer to this and ultimately it’s your baby.

    My wife and I have called both Starmont Schools and Central Schools in Elkader. We are taking out open enrollment forms for our children. We are going to tour the two schools here in the coming weeks and fill out papers to one of the schools. We are doing this as a hedge against what you do. I already have two older daughters who go to North Fayette, and I do not want any more children tied up with that school district. North Fayette is the district of busing. I have never seen a district so bus happy. My daughters live in West Union, and the #2 daughter starts her day off with a ride to Fayette, and after a couple of classes, she hops on a bus and travels up to West Union for the rest of the day. For awhile, they bused her out to Hawkeye. They bus kids all over God’s creation! While our kids here would only be bused further for high school, I want no part of it. I bought a house in this community for the express purpose of having my kids in the Valley District, where they could go to school in one place. We bought our home here so our kids could enjoy the smaller class sizes. My daughter Jenna’s class (5th grade) is a very small class of about 20 kids. They are very close and tight knit. It’s what we like. I understand that there are financial ramifications of smaller classes. However, that’s your job as a board member – to figure these things out. I understand that you all have determined that whole grade sharing is the option that you want, but it wasn’t the only option on the table. You didn’t even properly investigate any other solutions. You could have made due with less. Whole grade sharing is the nuclear option, and the one you seem to have your mind set on. I have been told by a few parents that sports seems to have a lot to do with your decision. In fact, sports seems to be a major part of these considerations. I send my kids to that school to be educated – not to play sports. Maybe other parents have different ideas about school. With the internet, there are other options for students wanting to take classes that Valley cannot offer. When I attended the North Linn Schools down at Troy Mills in the late 80’s and very early 90’s, we shared teachers and textbooks with Center Point-Urbana, Alburnett, and Central City schools. Guess what? They no longer do that as they got their acts together and made adjustments. It was a short term solution. Sharing those things bought them the time they needed to figure out a long term solution and it preserved their districts. In fact, North Linn is currently in the process of building a new building for their elementary. They will now be like Valley and have all of their children on one campus. I spoke to a good friend of mine down there and while they too have declining enrollment and revenue coming in, they’re making due. There’s no talk there or in any of the surrounding schools that he is aware of about whole grade sharing at this point.

    My grandfather was Leo Durnan Sr. and my father is Bernard Luke Durnan. My father’s photo is there in the entrance to the Valley School, having graduated there in 1966. I remember very well my grandfather talking about the merging of the Wadena, Elgin, and Clermont schools. He said that one of the arguments then was that there was declining enrollment. Grandpa, having fathered 19 children himself, was not at all sympathetic to that argument and told the school board that he had done all he could do to help the situation. He said others were going to have to step up to the plate to help out. He also said that the invention of the school bus was one of the greatest threats to local education. In that great debate, that was one of the chief concerns – local control of education, versus what we have now – a handful of members representing a much larger area. Now we’re being given the exact same arguments, and the proposed solution is the same. Merging and busing. You may call it whole grade sharing, but it is essentially a merger. What shall we have then? Will there then be 5 school board members representing nearly 1/2 of Fayette County? When will this stop? In 50 years, will we all be told again that enrollment is dropping and that we must go to a county wide system? I suppose the limits of these mergers is dependent upon that school bus. As long as you can throw a kid on a bus, it’s easier for you to ship kids around rather than find solutions at home. My wife and I want to be a part of a school system that first off, doesn’t put us in these positions in the first place, and secondly, can be creative enough to handle these situations when they arise without taking the “nuclear” route. We want local control of our schools where we have a stronger voice. We want our children to be educated as close to home as possible. We want the smallest class sizes possible. We like the school that we have today.

    The fix that you are all proposing to us today mainly benefits those living in West Union, Elgin, and Clermont. It seems that the other towns be damned. I have spoken to two ladies who sit on these ad-hoc committees and have expressed my concerns. I was told that North Fayette and Valley expect that they will lose some students over this, and that Wadena, Hawkeye, and Fayette were the three towns that they expected to lose the most students from. I can see why. Hawkeye and Fayette will have to send their students over 20 miles to school at the Elgin campus for 2-3 years. That adds up.  Fayette is 9 miles from West Central in Maynard and Hawkeye kids, especially those west of town, are much closer to the Sumner-F’Burg school system. In Wadena, we will have to send our kids about 16 miles to school for 4 years. We will for the first time have kids going to two different school buildings. No longer will we have the convenience of “one stop shopping”. That was a plus for us when choosing to buy a home in this school district, and has always been a thorn for us when dealing with North Fayette. Both Starmont and Central offer “one stop shopping” for us. The Starmont school building is only one mile farther away for us than the Elgin facility, and the Central campus is only about 1 mile farther away than what the West Union campus will be. If we could turn back the hands of time and give us back our three respected community school boards again, I’m not sure that the people of Wadena would vote to go into a merger with Valley knowing their kids would be sent to West Union. I would be willing to bet that Starmont would probably be the school of choice for us.

    Who draws up school district boundaries? Is it not the school boards? I don’t know – that is why I am asking. What are the rules for it? What is the possibility of allowing the communities the chance to vote for which school they wish to belong to? Since tax money is involved, I assume you there at the board want to maintain as much real estate as you possibly can, but we are the tax payers, and I want our money to go to the district which serves us best. I do not believe the citizens of Wadena would believe this new school would serve them better than say, Starmont. However, if we were allowed a vote, and if the vote was to stay with Valley, I would honor it and would feel better about this whole situation.

    I have spoken to the superintendent at Starmont and he told me that he has two other families from town here who have taken out open enrollment forms and that amounts to three children. We would be the third family and we have 3 children, one being a special education student. That’s 6 kids from Wadena who are probably leaving Valley just from Wadena if you choose to merge. I spoke to the principal at Central who says that we are the first family to inquire of them to his knowledge, but that normally the superintendent there handles this and the superintendent was not there when I called. Both schools said they would love to have the children from Wadena. Both have said that if enough children would be involved, they would attempt to hammer out an agreement with you to send a bus here for these kids. Why not just let us vote if we want to stay or go? That’s what I would like. In fact, I think it would be a swell idea to let every community involved in this mess the opportunity to vote for what they’d like to do. I have no doubt that West Union, Clermont, and Elgin would vote to merge. That’s fine. It’s what works best for you. It’s not what works best for those of us in the outlying areas.

    In closing, these are the questions that I have:

1. Is this permanent? Will there ever be a chance that Valley will be Valley again or will this be “forever” (i.e. merger)?

2. What will be the school board representation? Will it be two separate school boards or one (again, i.e. merger)?

3. Who determines the school boundaries and what are the rules on how they can be changed?

4. Would it be possible to allow the communities involved the right to vote on their future and switch school districts as may be better suited for each individual community?

5. Would the boards be open to allowing redrawing the lines based upon community vote?

6. Will Valley, or whatever school that is formed, allow outside district buses into these outlying towns to pick up the kids who would be better served by these other schools in the event you won’t consider redrawing school boundaries?

7. How will this affect our property taxes?

    I am sure you are getting a lot of positive and negative attention over this whole matter. I’m plain disgusted that it has even come to this point, and wish that some other solution which preserves our district would receive as much attention as this whole grade sharing. You all seem to have put us on a path that guarantees that my children will not be graduates of Valley C-E-W no matter what. Thank you for addressing my concerns and questions. –Eric E. Durnan   Wadena, Iowa

Repaired my KitchenAid Mixer

     I own a KitchenAid KP26M16 stand mixer which I bought in the early spring of 2009. About a week and a half ago, it gave up its ghost. I bought my mixer mainly for bread dough. I use high gluten flour and I wouldn’t recommend anything over 6 cups maximum, but generally, I make it one loaf at a time, and use between 3 and four cups of flour. I use it several times per week. This mixer has always been pretty noisy. I was mixing dough with it that final day and it just stopped and made a grinding sort of noise while the dough hook sort of flinched. I was livid! I paid really good money for this thing, mainly because it’s American made and here it broke down no different than a Chinese machine which costs far less. I was going to be God damned if I was going to buy another one after that! I thought, $400 for 3-1/2 years just isn’t worth it. Well, I did a little investigating online and found out why KitchenAid is still worth the money and why “Made in America” still means something. These mixers have moving parts and those parts eventually wear out. Unlike the Chinese machines, the parts for these KitchenAids are readily available, and these mixers can be fixed relatively cheap and be back in service. The worst part is waiting for the parts. On my mixer, the worm follower gear chewed up. I found the website www.mendingshed.com and ordered parts from them. I ordered every gear that they had with the exception of the top gear for the accessories (mainly because I don’t use any accessories with mine) and made sure to order an extra worm follower gear (I’ll be ready next time). I got the can of grease which can be used many times. It contains enough grease that I should never have to buy more grease again, even if I replace the gears every 4 years or so. I tore mine apart, cleaned it up really good, and put it back together with the new worm follower gear and fresh grease. I even greased the planetary gears lightly. Once it was put back together, I ran it for a spell to work the grease in better. It runs much quieter and hopefully will give me many more years of service.

      In short, expecting your mixer to never die is a lot like expecting your car to run forever without ever needing repairs. I know there are a ton of stories out there about older mixers never needing repair. My dad owned a tractor built in the 1940’s that hardly, if ever, needed any repair. I’m not sure why that is, but the fact is, most of these modern pieces of machinery need occasional repair. I’m just glad that these mixers can be repaired, cheaply, and fairly easy.