Sunday, July 5, 2009

When in the course of human events...

One of the mantras those not happy with the way Holy Cross School is being run is the ever popular, "Why don't you just leave", sometimes expanded to the "if you are not happy with what you are paying for, why don't you just leave?"

Easy answer, really. It may well come to that, but do you think it would stop? This isn't about money; I've been paying this for so long, and it's automatic nature make it more of a utility bill or a car loan that never seems to end that I really don't think of the money aspect of it.

But...the utility comparision IS a fair one. I pay for service, I expect to get it. If my service was great for a number of years, and then it went downhill, I, of course, could always just leave, but I also have the right to try to get the service back to the level that it was before.

As I strolled downtown Dover on the 4th, another of those blasted analogies came to me. Those men who signed that Declaration of Independence certainly heard a similar mantra from many of their countrymen. "It isn't that bad", "If you don't like it, you can leave", or "it beats what else is out there" were all reasons, among many, for the Founding Fathers NOT to try to improve the situation. They tried all sorts of means, and were rebuffed time and time again, but many of their neighbors, who were more worried about their personal affairs, thought it best to keep quiet and just stay on the farm, and hey...I don't read that much, or drink tea, so it doesn't apply to me.

Our "independence day" may well come, but like many of the Founding Fathers, I still feel allegiance, but the intollerable acts are piling up. And, like Great Britian, who learned a hard lesson from the loss of their American colonies through this rebellion, perhaps Holy Cross will learn a painful and expensive lesson.

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