When my son was very little and first learning about the responsibilities of homework, he had a difficult time sitting to finish his work. He didn’t like it. He didn’t think it was fair. He wanted to play games, not do work. I spoke to his teacher at the time (a wonderful woman who is still one of my favorite educators that my children have had) and she encouraged me not to force him to do his work. She told me that when the homework is connected to personal consequences in his mind, he’ll begin to develop a more organic relationship with the work.
The next day when he was stubbornly refusing to do his homework I simply told him that it was his choice. He didn’t have to do the work, but he did have to accept whatever happened at school the next day for coming in with incomplete work. He happily agreed and ran off to play somewhere that didn’t have homework. When he came home from school the next day, he was weeping. He’d gotten a “sad face” on his work and was embarrassed. I reminded him about the choice he’d made the night before. He went straight off to do his homework and we’ve never had another issue homework since. He’s 18 years old now.
My analogy – of course – is not about homework, but about consequences, a concept that seems to have been buried under a growing mountain of bulls*** these last couple of months. Case in point: Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz has asked the Trump administration to send federal funding to help with the clean-up around Minnesota and specifically in Minneapolis after the disastrous George Floyd riots and ensuing Antifa insanity in which monuments and businesses were burned and destroyed.
“We need to come together to ensure Minnesotans who were victims of this destruction have access to critical infrastructure they need so they can go to the grocery store, pick up their medication, and live their lives,” Walz said in a statement Thursday. “Together, we will rebuild.”
He also appealed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for financial assistance to help cover the cost of debris removal, emergency measures and damage to public buildings and equipment.
“We’re asking our federal partners to step up and help our communities recover,” he said.
Walz’s office estimates the cost of the damage to more than 1,500 businesses in Minneapolis and St. Paul at over $500 million.
NEWS: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has asked President Donald Trump for a federal disaster declaration to deal with damage from the late May rioting in Minneapolis and St. Paul. pic.twitter.com/Owc2iqsC9Y
— Theo Keith (@TheoKeith) July 2, 2020
Walz and other state and city officials across the country have stood idly by while looters and rioters burned businesses and neighborhoods to the ground. They did nothing and continue to do nothing as public property is defaced and destroyed. As their own citizens beg for protection, they have turned a blind eye to miscreants while forcing taxpayers to shut down their places of business and churches because of “COVID concerns.” They hypocrisy is frightening. The entitlement even more so.
Trump should be doing everything he can to avoid sending one dime of federal funding to Walz or any of his compatriots across the country. His willful ignorance and abandonment of his own citizens should not be rewarded. Walz let his state burn, now he needs to let the state rebuild. If his voters dislike the enormity of that task they can let him know at the ballot box.
Actions (or lack thereof) have consequences. Governor Walz didn’t do the work, so he needs to get the sad face.
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