The last-minute legal maneuvering by Cox Communications to keep KODE and KSNF on its systems in Lamar, Carthage, and other Missouri communities has the appearance of being nothing more than a legal shell game, or perhaps an illegal shell game. The courts will most likely end up deciding that, since Nexstar Broadcasting indicated in today's Joplin Globe that the situation is headed to court.
This appears to be the first victory Nexstar has won in the public relations game since Cox's move smacked of desperation, and as Nexstar COO Duane Lammers told the Globe, "I find it ironic that they don't value our stations enough to pay for them, but yet they'll spend any amount of time and energy to cheat to keep them."
Whether you agree with the company's stance or not, Cable One's decision not to pull any such shenanigans comes off as a much more principled stand than what Cox did Wednesday.
Of course, this could be just a delaying tactic by Cox so it can keep the status quo until the Federal Communications Commission decides on the Cox complaint against Nexstar.
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Many Joplin-area homes are built over sites that are on old mining property and a group of South Middle School eighth graders are trying to do something about it.
I was one of four judges for the second annual Project Citizen at South. Eighth grade social studies teacher Rocky Biggers once again tackled the herculean task of having each of his six classes put together a project designed to make people aware of a problem, study different methods that have been used to handle similar problems in other places, then present a public policy and an action plan to get that policy put into effect.
Among the projects submitted by this year's classes: Proposals for a study hall to help students deal with ever-increasing amounts of homework, the addition of a character-teaching program currently being used in the Neosho School District to eliminate the teacher advisory program at South and allow more time for a study hall (two groups had the study hall idea), replacing a low-water bridge in a dangerous area, providing a bicycle path from 20th to 50th, and the mine subsidence project.
Monday afternoon after school, we judged the students' portfolios. Tuesday night, in the SMS auditorium, the students made their presentations, then responded to tough questioning from the judges.
The two winning projects will attend the state Project Citizen competition in Jefferson City, which I believe will be held later this month.
The winning projects were the mining subsidence project and a proposal to put a daycare center at Joplin High School to help cut down on the dropout rate.
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This morning's Globe's article about students' lack of understanding of the First Amendment points out one of the dangers of the test-obsessed educational culture in which we live. No Child Left Behind and other such initiatives are well-meaning, but get us away from the original purpose of public schooling...to educate children to become good citizens and help them learn how to participate in or society.
I have found that if students are taught about the First Amendment by someone who knows what it is all about, they understand it. That is not always happening. Many times, the knowledge that would build greater participation in our society is being withheld so we can prepare students to make more money when they get into the work world.
We have allowed big business to turn schools into training factories. Instead of teaching students the basics of reading, writing, mathematics, science, civics, and critical thinking that helped build the core of our society in the past, we are spending more and more time moving them in the direction of whatever corporate America wants.
Eventually, what that does is to ensure that the people who have the money and who run big business will continue to be the people who run this country since these are the people who are being placed in private schools which are not operated under the principle of what is good for stockholders is good for our country.
These misplaced values have also required more and more students to attend colleges, simply because they have to have it in order to have a decent job. That has not been the case in the past, and should not be the case now. When the stock market rewards companies that cut workers and move jobs overseas or allows one merger after another to take place with each one costing hundreds of jobs you are forcing people to go into debt for more schooling or job training. Then when those jobs are eliminated or outsourced, overqualified people are forced to take low-paying jobs in order to survive.
If students are not taught their First Amendment rights by someone who has an understanding of what those rights are, society will continue to move so far in that direction that it will be impossible to turn back.