These Things I Know

1410518558(Reprinted from SRQ Daily)

When it comes to family, I am a traditionalist. I believe in the tradition of loving parents and meals together at the end of each day. I thinks it’s good to fight with your spouse. Not to correct a mistake, but because the marriage is that important. Marriage is hard. That is why so many people get divorced. If two people are willing to make the commitment, then I support them. Pam Bondi is no longer doing her job by appealing the ruling on marriage equality. She is campaigning. She is pandering to a base that is fast becoming irrelevant.

Our homeless problem is not a “homeless” problem. It is an addiction and a mental illness problem. It is a County problem and a City problem. It is an “us” problem, not a “them” problem. It says more about who we are then it says about who they are.

The government we have is terrible. People who don’t vote allow bad people to win an election. Those of us who do vote are tired of working hard to get you to eat your vegetables. Stop whining about being disenfranchised. Grow up. Take a seat and sit down at the table.

Common Core, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top and now the Florida Standards do not keep the parent out of the classroom. Ninety-nine percent of parents would prefer not to be in the classroom. When we are, it’s because there is a problem. And the problem is never over whether little Tommy can recite the constitution. If a parent is not involved in their child’s education, it is because they chose not to be, not because some federal funding prohibits them from being there. The only thing I ask is that who we hire to teach our children and make decisions about what they are being taught are actually people who are educated in their field of study, not a politician who will say whatever sound bite will get them elected.

History, like science, is factual. It is not subjective. Art is subjective. Just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean I get to rewrite it. And neither do you.

Marijuana is no more dangerous than tobacco and alcohol. Responsible adults should be able to decide for themselves how to regulate its use. And a licensed physician should be able to prescribe marijuana to a patient if that is what the treatment calls for without retribution. Stop making people break the law when it comes to easing the pain of a disease.

Sea Level rise has occurred faster in the past century than in the thousands of years before. It should not take a scientist to figure out that we need to try and do something to slow it down.

Our future will be defined not by our past but by those of the future who do not carry our baggage or our water. My hope lies in the generation of my child and those that grow up with him, for they have yet to make their mark, yet to become apathetic, and yet to whine about how they are so misunderstood. Our problems are not their problems. I would like to keep it that way.

SRQ Daily Columnist Susan Nilon is the president of Florida Talk Radio and owner of WSRQ Radi o. She hosts The Nilon Report on WSRQ Sarasota1220AM/106.9FM weekdays 4pm-6pm. Email her at[email protected].