Tragedy, controversy and more

We offer for you today, a multi-topic blog.

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Like many others, I was saddened to hear the news about what happened to the Watkins family of Heavener.

Eric, only 21 years old, and his seven-month old son Bryor, were killed in an auto accident near Verdigris last Friday. Eric’s wife and Bryor’s mother, Ginger, was also in the vehicle, but survived the accident.

The Watkins vehicle was struck by a vehicle driven by Keaton Hannah of Verdigris, an 18-year old who had just hit another vehicle, left the scene and then crashed into Watkins' vehicle.

Hannah was charged with manslaughter, DUI and leaving the scene of an accident.

I don’t understand why somebody is charged solely with manslaughter when they drive while drunk and then take the life of another person. I do know that to be charged with murder, it typically must be premeditated, but is this enough punishment?

I know Hannah will have to live with the memory of this the rest of his life. But hopefully the justice system will throw the book at him. And hopefully they can find who supplied the alcohol to an underage driver and go after them, too.

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Next up, the superintendent situation at Poteau continues to draw controversy. The school board named Wayland Bonds of Moore as the interim superintendent at a meeting on Tuesday.

Bonds recently retired as Moore superintendent. He takes the place of Dr. Alice Smith, who is retiring at the end of the month. In case you missed it, assistant superintendent Hank Harris was earlier named to the position, but that offer was later rescinded by the board in a controversial 3-2 vote last week.

Supporters of Harris are passing around a petition in support of him. The petition has over 400 names on it, but was not presented to the school board at the meeting on Tuesday as they hope to add more names to the list.

The issue has left the community divided. Supporters of Harris are outraged and no official reason has been given by the board on why the offer was rescinded.

Harris' supporters have held meetings and threatened to do other things to pressure the board to try and reinstate him.

I do not feel like this will accomplish anything, other than get the board members to plant their feet firmly in the ground. If somebody does not support the actions of a board member, they should remember this when the next election happens. Threatening to do this or that is not the solution.
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And to wrap up this blog, I watched Glenn Beck’s talk show yesterday afternoon. Typically, I do not watch talk shows as they are a waste of my precious time.

But I was flipping through the channel and caught him talking about basically how the country is headed for a mess. His studio audience consisted mostly of college students.

Beck’s message was the students and others have a great opportunity and could turn things around. He also talked about how the college system is flawed, which is something I have believed for a long time.

Instead of wasting time taking classes that will never help students in their career choice, they should be taught how to succeed in their chosen profession. Much like the technical schools do.

Beck also pointed out the cost of attending college is growing faster than it should.

It was interesting listening to the students. Some complained about how they can’t find a job and it was like they should be owed a job after completing college. Others were taking action and starting their own businesses or interning for companies to learn the profession.

Naturally, some complained about having to intern and not get paid anything for it. One of the persons in the audience said they learned so much by being an intern that it more than made up for not getting paid.

It was easy to see who will succeed and the ones who will struggle and complain that it is the economy’s fault or the fault of somebody else.