Let me start by saying that I have not been trained as a school administrator or ever acted in that capacity. I can say that I have been to school and suffered the excitement of anticipating the next day off because of snow. That being said, why can’t we call school closed the night before if we know and are practically certain that the storm is coming? Especially when we have not had a snow day all year and it is the middle of February. The night before is so much better if you know there is no school the next day. Plus, parents can make plans for child care and such.
Waking up after thinking you would be off school and finding out otherwise is akin to waking up on Christmas morning to find that your presents were delivered to the wrong address. Why don’t we give our children the excitement of knowing the night before and spare the possibility of hurting them if no storm comes? After all, isn’t it all about the children?
The “six hour snow” as it will be hereafter referred to in later columns (if ever mentioned again) did little but throw a little sleet on Little Rock and make people think that the roads were going to get bad. What it ultimately did was give many of those mourning Whitney Houston an extra day to play her records and watch her videos on VH1.
The death, while notable, shows again how interested the masses are in things that are not directly relevant to their lives and the energy that we (with the help of the media) will put into paying attention to anything to take our minds off our day to day lives. The conspiracy guy inside of me wonders if there is any significance to the timing of her death being the night before the Grammys.
I saw a cartoon on Facebook that showed a row of flag-covered caskets and some commentary about the deaths we should be paying extra attention to instead of that of celebrities. Even as the media has the power to tell us what we care about, they usually give us what we want. If the country demanded more info on those that died serving this country, we would surely get it, maybe even in the form of a reality show.
We don’t demand it, maybe because sometimes the background music of reality is easier to ignore if we entertain ourselves with other lesser tragedies. Maybe the backlash I have seen about the hoopla made about Ms. Houston’s death will in some small way refocus our attention on the world and what is going on. Unlikely, but maybe.
I will miss Whitney’s singing and maybe, like Tupac, she will continue to release songs long after her death. I know there is a movie scheduled for release in the fall in which she had a role. I wonder if Whitney would have been better off if she had never met Bobby Brown. Maybe it is all the drugs; maybe she is the one that brought Bobby Brown down. Why is it always the man’s fault?
As you read this column, I will be in Ft. Lauderdale at a seminar where I am scheduled to speak. I have not figured out how I will work Whitney’s death into my hour of continuing education, but I feel that somehow I must try. There are lessons here for all of us to take away, if none other than no one lives forever and everyone seems to love you just a little more after you're gone. Something for you to think about while I lounge at the beach way up in the CHEAP SEATS!
Bill James is a criminal defense lawyer and co founder of the James Law Firm with offices in Little Rock, Conway, and Fayetteville, Arkansas. He can be contacted at Bill@JamesFirm.com.