Elaine Ambrose

Bestselling Author, Ventriloquist, & Humorist

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In Defense of Idaho Education

By

Commencement Speaker, University of Idaho

I am a product of Idaho education – 12 years in the village of Wendell and four years at the University of Idaho, graduating with Phi Beta Kappa scholastic honors. I enjoyed a successful career working in several Idaho business, including KMVT-TV, Idaho Bank & Trust, and Boise Cascade before starting my own publishing business.

I majored in journalism at the U of I and revered the AP Style Book from the Associated Press. Unfortunately, the AP has become a cesspool of progressive bias, and this latest article by Keith Ridler has more manure than my father’s hog farm. The title is wrong, he cites right-wing sources without balance, and he manipulates the article to fit his false claim.

In the biased article, “Businesses: Idaho Education Politics are Hurting State,” only ONE actual business spokesperson responded to the AP inquiry, and the response did not criticize Idaho education. The quote comes from Micron Technology, a company that employs more than 6,000 people in Idaho. Apparently, they can read and write.

The article also states Idaho “has had one of the worst graduation rates in the nation.” That is not true.

Here are some key facts he ignored: New York State spends more than $27,000 per pupil. New York has a 78% high school graduation rate.

Idaho spends about $7,800 per student. With an 82% graduation rate, Idaho has a higher rate of high school graduation than New York. 

What does New York receive in return for spending almost $20,000 more per student than Idaho? The answer is: A lower graduation rate. Money isn’t the answer. We need a better educational system without the control of the National Education Association supported through biased articles from the media.

I encourage Idaho parents to become more involved in education and investigate the curriculum and books available at libraries in local schools. They might be tempted to obtain a book about homeschooling. 

To conclude, I’m proud to be a third-generation Idahoan, but I’m concerned about my grandchildren’s education. I hope their classes teach them the skills necessary to become a productive, successful adult. I also hope they learn how to decipher truth from fiction in the media.

Don’t Name the Shooter

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shooter

Eric Harris. Dylan Klebold, Adam Lanza. James Holmes. They’re famous. Google their names and instantly retrieve pages of references, links, and related articles. Their victims don’t have the same prominence. They’re dead and gone.

In my opinion, it’s time for the media and law enforcement officials to agree not to name the alleged or convicted shooters involved in mass killings. Deny them the notoriety they crave and maybe prevent future copycat killers. I suggest that any mass killer be identified as Asshole Murderer.

According to University of Alabama criminologist Adam Lankford, fame is revered as an end unto itself. “Some mass shooters succumb to terrible delusions of grandeur and seek fame and glory through killing,” he was quoted in an article in The Los Angeles Times.

He noted that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators of the April 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, both illustrate and feed such delusions. They both sought fame and gained infamy by their actions, and their example has been cited as inspiration by school shooters since, in Germany, Argentina, Finland and Canada.

Adam Lanza is famous for his horrific crime of murdering 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Can anyone beyond the town name even one of the victims?

During his trial, the media continued to show the distorted face of James Holmes. He was found guilty of killing 12 people and injuring 58 others in the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Why do we need to see his face or hear his name? Lock him away and focus on the names and lives of those who were murdered.

Right now, we don’t know much about the young man who entered a classroom today at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, and systematically murdered at least 13 students and injured several others. Let’s keep it that way. Initial reports say that he posted a warning on social media. Only a sick, evil person would premeditate and publicize such a horrendous act. He is not worthy of having an identity. He is nothing.

I’ll leave it to the mental health professionals and other officials to assess and create programs to identify and treat mentally ill people. And, I refuse to engage in the no-win gun control debate. Thousands of shootings occur in gun-free zones.  Chicago, Illinois, for example, has tough gun-control laws yet there have been 2,326 shooting victims in Chicago so far this year. Murderers don’t obey the law.

For now, don’t read or repeat the names of the murderers. Remove their wicked memory from humanity. Instead, send condolences and prayers to the victims and families of today’s senseless tragedy.

Midlife Cabernet: How to Avoid the Pending Doom of Civilization

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If we only relied upon the gruesome stories and gloomy reports in the media, most of us would trade our good silver for canned goods and a case of wine and then escape to a private bunker in the wilderness. We have visions of becoming the leather-clad, weapon-wielding character of Tina Turner in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. But most of us could never bend over long enough to fix all the laces and latches on those boots!

Before you feel the pressure to exchange your designer purses for backpacks and trade the cutlery set for Bowie knives, try turning off the news, shutting down the alarmists web sites, and closing the negative magazines. Unplug and walk away from paranoid and exaggerated pessimism that seems to seep like a toxic sludge from every media outlet. Use that time to focus on and participate in all the positive activities in your community and country.

There are volunteer organizations that right now are helping kids learn to read, taking hot meals to lonely senior citizens, building homes for low income families, and assisting special needs children go to school. There are unsung heroes who bring casseroles to widows, donate blood to the local blood bank, and rock sick babies in intensive care. Others are writing inspiring books, composing valiant symphonies, and singing new songs of freedom.

These people don’t make the news. They don’t march in the streets or threaten lawsuits. But they walk among us sharing random acts of goodness. Every day. The next time you have the urge to give up on society and curse the darkness, light a candle and find a cause. And keep the silver.