Daniel Schreiber:  

walked out of Hanover Central feeling like I'd just been paroled. The few places I really fit in were few and far between and only ancillary at best. Not to mention that like most things in life, high school required a lot of ass kissing, conformity (which by the way, I totally suck at) and cow-towing to authority figures- all things I've not ever done well in life. So while most would consider that my attitude to be some kind of social malady, I consider it a true virtue. At some point you simply have to decide to stop trying to fit in just to be nice and get along and say FTS! The entire Hanover experience and the perception of it during each individual's period of incarceration there was very different for each one involved. Those of us who had talents and abilities in areas other than chasing the guy with the ball, keeping the guy with the ball from throwing the ball into the basket, or stealing the ball from the guy you tried to keep from throwing it into the basket and throwing it into the basket yourself while he's trying to keep you from throwing it into the basket- well, I think you know where I'm coming from... Those of us who had talents and abilities toward music, art, science and math, those of us who could learn 200 pages of lines for a play, bring home a gold medal from the State Solo and Ensemble Band Contest, those of us who went to the chemistry room with bag lunch and learned to do equations on a mechanical slide rule in lieu of going to the cafeteria to act like nincompoops, those of us whom, while the rest of the sluggo's were busy planning for Saturday, were busy planning the next 50 years- In short, those of us who saw the big picture, questioned authority at every level and at each and every turn, challenged the status quo, spent little to no time majoring in minors or in the usual high school trivial pursuits that so many others were so dutifully wrapped up in were called nerds, geeks, freaks, brains, and my particular case, Beethoven, a tag which incidentally, I wore proudly. Having earned a Bachelors in Music Education and later an MS in electrical engineering, in my never to be humble opinion public education is nothing but a racket. The American public education system is the single handed biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American Taxpayer. It is one of the frauds going and little more than a tax funded daycare center. It is set up around and geared toward the least common denominator. The smart kids are held in check, the morons are promoted. The really smart inquisitive kids- especially the boys, get chemically castrated with Ritalin and a whole host of other psychotropic drugs because they are deemed to have ADD ADHD LMNOP QWERTY XYZ and a whole host of other alphabet soup acronyms generally diagnosed by some dipwad teacher playing psychiatrist. The good news is that regardless where you fall on the IQ scale they will figure out some way to get rid of you after you have spent too many years in the senior class. The United States spends the highest amount per student per capita of any country in the world and yet we're somewhere around 27th in math in science. You think your getting your money's worth? Don't make me laugh! Ever wonder why there are so many 5 star schools graduating so many stupid kids that can't point to North America on a globe or count your change back when the computer breaks at McDonalds? Well Hells Bells Myrtle, they (the schools) grade themselves!!! The goal is to create a docile and compliant workforce that responds correctly and predicatively to figures of authority, all the while keeping them ignorantly dependent upon a weekly paycheck. Did they (high school and college) actually teach you how to go out and create wealth or just how to go out and get a job? Case Closed! Just because you have that degree hanging on the wall that says you passed all the tests doesn't mean you know what the hell you are doing. Everything they taught you was to assure your conformity to and dependence upon the status quo. A few of us- and I count myself among the lucky few who saw the BIG picture, simply could not be trained to conform to the daily little mouse race that was designed to prepare us for the much larger rat race we would confront later in life. Once you understand that anyone who tells you anything does so in consideration of their own agenda first and foremost- you understand everything you need to know. Like high school, prisons come in many forms. For me, Corporate America was just another prison. I've never done well in Corporate America working for the MAN. I made a lousy employee because I suck at conformity and don't take to being told what to do at all well. Eventually, it (Corporate America) always begins to think that it owns you, it starts pushing you around and it makes you do it's bidding. It may make you move to other places to do it's bidding, places you may not want to be. It may make you wear it's uniform and it WILL make you do things you may not want to do, and things that you may morally or consciously object to- but you sell out- all for the false security of that weekly paycheck you've become so complacently dependent upon. Yes, I've had "real jobs" working 8 to 5 chasing money and title- it nearly broke me. My only regret is that while in Corporate America I didn't stomp on a few more fingers as I clawed my way up the ladder of success alongside everyone else all so dutifully engaged in screwing each other over for a lousy percentage. I can tell you first hand nothing is more rewarding than signing the front of your own paycheck instead of the back, or kicking that sleazy piece of sh*t fractional reserve banker out of your front door so hard his ass leaves a skid mark on the sidewalk. He wouldn't give you the time of day when you when you were trying to get started. Then several years later, after you have beaten all the odds- he shows up at your shop out of the blue, wants you and him to be buds, and then starts telling you all the wonderful things he can do for you- with your own money of course. He'll even loan you your own money back to you with interest. As long as things are going good and he gets his juice every month you all get on famously, your buds! If the situation should change- maybe even through no fault of your own, like the horse sh*t economy the politicians and the big bankers on Wall Street keep handing out to us, Mr. Fractional Reserve Banker turns on you like a rabid house pet and sets out on a mission to totally destroy you. Yes, I know, he can- it was in his contract, but just because he can doesn't mean that he has to. But, that's what gets these types of sniveling pieces of crap off. They are scumbags all and fair weather friends at best! PAY CASH! Don't borrow their lousy money! Pull out your wallet and give yourself a creditcardectomy. Start buying local and keep the money in your own community even if you have to pay a few bucks more than you would at the big box store. Go to your local farmers market and find the farmers who are growing organically. Make friends with them and support them. That way you know not only where the food your eating came from but also that they treat the environment they grew your food in and the animals they raised with a little humility. If you don't (and you can bet your sweet ass I don't) like way big retail, big hamburger, big coffee and all the rest of the biggies use your hard earned money against you by channeling it into all kinds of goofy wacko causes that you consciously, morally or politically object to, then start off by voting with your wallet. I DID!!! And that includes all the Hollywood dipwad lefties that get payed far too much money to play make believe and simply parrot lines someone else wrote for them. What's really sad is that when they show up in public and open up their idiotic soup coolers what comes out is pure stupidity. Hey Hollywood- NEWS FLASH!!! You're all nothing but a bunch of professional worthless people. I write this tome so that anyone whom cared enough to read it and find out what I've been up to since 1974 could do so. As I have not really bothered to keep up with anyone from the class of '74 (or anyone else for that matter), virtually everyone has returned the favor in great abundance. I have no fond memories or remember whens I would care to waste my time rehashing over a coffee clutch. All of that crap is best left in the wayback machine where it belongs anyway. But, if you feel I haven't already abused you enough, look me up, maybe we'll do a Starbucks (fat chance). Where else can you get a putrid tasting, overpriced cup of piss shoved at you by some silly barista/part-time actor type with blue hair named Sartorious who just got his third nose ring- and it's still weeping- into your coffee! Speaking of an outfit using your hard earned money against you by channeling it into all kinds of goofy wacko causes. But, after all, they do serve fair trade coffee which means they voluntarily pay more to the coffee growers than do the coffee brokers and that makes them all feel good about themselves. Because in modern day touchie feelie America where the collage kids need cry rooms with puppies, coloring books and finger paints when their candidate looses an election or someone simply comes to speak on their campus they don't agree with and therefore feel threatened by countless micro-aggressions, emotion now trumps thought and logic at every turn. In closing... As I slide down the banister of life I shall always remember Hanover Central as the splinter in my ass, and Steve, it's totally awesome how after all these years I'm still living rent free in your head...