To my friends throughout Westfield, and especially in Ward 3. As you read in the Tues. paper or saw on T.V. coverage of the School Committee meeting; I presented an idea. First of all, I was very aware of the impact of a good friend and colleague, but as you know, not just due to my history with education, but my wanting to see something positive happen in Westfield, and that is positive and constructive for our students, and the general public.
I proposed that with the very positive Aviation Repair program at WTA, why not add in pilot instruction. We have the parts, thus the economics of it are there: Aviation Repair, at Barnes, an airport; and people who are flight instructors. With all that is going on around us can we have some constructive imagination, positive creativity from someone? The Aviation program gave us national recognition, and it is giving our students an opportunity for some really good, 21st century jobs. With the airlines industry begging for pilots: why not go for it? For those self-called conservatives, this is where supply meets demand, and scarcity gives it value. There are so many things we could do with a little imagination, innovation and creativity, but there is too much: JUST SAY NO to anything innovative. And, I am so tired of hearing that we did not need that when I was young…well you are not anymore, and our world has evolved so much due to creativity, invention, and discovery…it is NOT the same world as it was in the 60’s or even at the end of the 20th Century. We have arrived, to borrow from Shakespeare, at the undiscovered country. Ancient dysfunctional thinking as dualism no longer can work, if it ever did. We cannot be Human Ostriches with our heads buried in the sand, or maybe for today’s times, so locked into our devices that we no long are able to think for ourselves, nor self-committed to doing what is popular rather than being original thinkers in a world that is so open to it. Conformity to what? Oh, we do not want to pay for the voyage from the present to the future. If it costs money or takes effort NO!! It only takes a year or so to be left so far behind, that catching up will cost us greatly. Sorry for the rant, but at age 70, with nothing to gain or lose that I am not already losing the consequences are few. I have no plan to run for office, achieve something notable, but if I can by what I say, and advocate, to encourage someone to act; but as JFK said, to pass the torch to another generation gives value to myself, and hopefully others. It is better to have some kind of purpose, and with it self-worth, vs. being worthless, and useless to anybody, but myself; that has never been my style. It is better die fight for what you believe, than on your knees (to borrow from Camus and so many others)
So for all those: “me here and now” Existentialists, I hate to break it to you, the here and now has gone and went. Again, sorry for my further rant but, doing the positive thing vs. the negative nothing is worth ranting about. We have lost so much of what being an American is really all about. America is where people found opportunities to develop their ideas, and to make them work. It was liberating from the conformist Old World. It took daring and effort to be an American; a chance to think for ourselves and to make the impossible possible. What shame on us for giving up on what is America, in exchange for not being responsible for anything save ourselves. And thanks to them, the American Dream is becoming a nightmare. Your former Ward 3 City Councilor, Brian Hoose…[email protected]
