Here's an impassioned e-mail I received today about schools being canceled long before the first surface froze or snowflake fell:
Hi Scott,
Yes, today should not have been a snow day for our schools. I am totally confident in saying this, I know if this state's new savior Scott Frost had been consulted about whether or not to close schools, he would have said, "schools stay open." "Do whatever it takes to get to school, enjoy it, work hard at it, learn from it, and be thankful for the opportunity." The woman you talked to on the phone this morning who said, " we should always use our best judgement to protect our kids in these situations," was wrong. The less we challenge ourselves, the dumber and lazier we will get.
Imagine we are at war and having to defend our country. The weather forecast says a chance for some snow, ice and cold temps. Do we tell the enemy, "Hey, it looks like it will be bad tomorrow so we shouldn't be out in the elements, so lets have a snow day with no fighting?" "We're not used to this kind of weather." "Yeah, sure, no problem," the enemy would say. And then the next day we would be reluctantly saluting a new flag.
When I feel I'm wimping up, I read about my uncle who served in the Korean War and that sets me straight again. This country was founded on many great principles, a couple of them being sacrifice and hard work. Sometimes I had to go to school riding in a rusted 66 Chevy pickup with no heater and with a passenger door that had to be held shut every time we took a left turn. Today, our cars are four wheel drive, all wheel drive, autonomous drive, whatever drive, blah, blah, blah, and that's still not good enough? Why is so much money spent making classrooms look like amusement parks, but our busses can't make it through a little snow and ice?
Something is terribly wrong.
Thanks for reading and giving Omaha a truly great morning show.
Matt in Gretna