I came back to Fredrickville this afternoon to see that a spate had broken out between the two other columnists. Having withdrawn totally into minimalism, I shall say I was amused, and let that be that.

On Friday, there was an assembly. I have three points I would like to make about it, which I feel will be relevant whether my readers were there or not.

The first: Mr. Rogacki, the opening speaker, left out "under God" in the pledge of allegiance. It was received with mixed feelings.

The second: The speech that the Marine sergeant made was decent. I felt he lost the audience's support however when he stopped merely ejaculating propoganda, and began trying to rationalize the war with Iraq, as well as referring to George Bush as "a president we elected." I felt these were sore subjects with the student body, half males, who worry about the draft, if it is re-instated.

The third: The student speech was seemed to be slightly geared more towards showing off linguistic power than actually speaking about the event. I found the quote by Thoreau to be very out of place. Thoreau refused to join the military. He was thrown in jail for a night for refusing to pay taxes to support the Spanish-American War. He wrote an essay entitled "Civil Disobedience." I feel the Thoreau reference was nothing more than unresearched name dropping.

I do however support Veterans Day, because I think we can all hold a certain esteem for the old fashioned solidiers, those men, and possibly women, who left their homes to fight for a just cause. More and more, people join the military because they want to, not because they are called to. When someone joins the military out of choice, they become more like an automoton, and less like someone for whom we can feel empathy.

I think the super human juggernought said it best;
Try to not ever split infinitives.
I would learn the subjunctive, if I was you.
Pronouns must agree with its antecedent.

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