A Job I No Longer Want

 There was a time, about 15 years ago, when I seriously considered running to be a member of the local school board. I had been a frequent and vocal attendee at board meetings, especially during the two-year-long battle to build a new high school, and I thought I had something to offer to a group that seemed relatively calm and reasoned, even in the face of sometimes irrational opposition.

Though I continued to think about it after my kids graduated, the events of the past 18 months have changed my mind. Our board has, thankfully, faced little of the violent confrontations over COVID regulations, critical race theory, or any of the other controversies that have come before other school boards in the area, but I fear it is only a matter of time before the crazies descend on us. An example is the Black Lives Matter gatherings in our town last summer--we were inundated by outsiders during those events, people who came from neighboring communities to use our peaceful demonstrations as a way to spark unrest.

Although only residents of our school district can speak at a board meeting, it is not unlikely that outsiders could populate the audience or form a protest outside the meeting instead. I'm waiting for the school year to start with trepidation.

TV Drama and Current Events

 How much should episodic television acknowledge and build stories around current events? Last night, I watched two shows, All Rise and Bull, which dealt in part with things that have happened since they stopped production in the spring. 

Both are, of course, legal dramas, and the new set-up in their fictional courtrooms reflected the pandemic--masks, social distancing, plastic shields on desks, etc. In fact, the courtroom part of Bull actually began with the judge explaining what the new safety protocols would be and why. Once that was past and explained, however, the story could well have been told a year ago.

All Rise, though, was completely dependent on the events of the past few months for its story. And not just the pandemic--several of the regular characters, and the defendant in the central trial, had been involved in the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer and their experiences shaped their actions in this episode and look to do so in the future.

I wonder how this will look to audiences who view these series in syndication or streaming in the future, when the context for them will be long gone. I recall that, as an example, Law & Order had very few episodes directly connected to the events of 9/11 and, indeed, waited a couple of years before delving into them from a legal perspective. The cops all wore black arm bands and black bands on their shields for the 2001-2 season, but there were no overt dialogue references to their experiences on that day or the aftermath. The West Wing did one "special" episode that dealt with the issues surrounding 9/11--but not the events themselves--and then never mentioned it directly again.

Is serial drama better off not paying attention to the "real world"?

Rittenhouse Scare

I thought the killing of Jacob Blake in Kenosha was bad enough. If anything this is worse:

Kyle Rittenhouse, a rifle-toting teenage Blue Lives Matter and Trump fan, has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting two people dead and injuring another during protests in Kenosha over the shooting of Jacob Blake.

Rittenhouse, 17, was arrested in Illinois and faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide, according to Lake County, Illinois Clerk of Courts public records.

And then we get the usual idiots actually defending Rittenhouse's actions. These are the words of Tucker Carlson on Fox News:

“Kenosha has devolved into anarchy because the authorities in charge of the city abandoned it. People in charge from the governor of Wisconsin on down refused to enforce the law. They stood back and they watched Kenosha burn,” Carlson said.

He then added: “So are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder? How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”

How anyone can defend this...or defend Tucker Carlson...is beyond me.