Trooper Day

If you had been on Cleveland State’s campus this past Wednesday, you would have seen dozens of state troopers, the SWAT van, mobile crime labs, the canine unit and the mounted unit all up and down East 18th Street. If you thought we were under siege by a deranged gunperson, no one could blame you. But wait—all is well. It was “Trooper Day”, with the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Pennsylvania State Police coming to recruit students. Many students did think something was wrong and were afraid to come over to that side of campus. We had to go over and convince them that everything was OK.

The PA State Police landed a helicopter on the soccer field, and that was a big hit. I have a photo of our director standing by the helo with the pilot and a couple of troopers. I told him the caption should be “Governor Klein arrives in the state helicopter”. The troopers were happy with the number of applicants they had and they want to do it again next year. We have some ideas on how to make it more welcoming: balloons, a DJ, and a popcorn machine. We also want to do it earlier, since we stood in a freezing cold, rainy wind all day. And the helicopter? Turns out he landed on the wrong field. He should have been on the practice field—they had to chase him off because there was a game scheduled that same day.

Silly Season

We are gearing up for elections in November here. There are several seats on the school board, another school tax issue and miscellaneous judges running. I called and asked for a sign for our front yard urging passage of the school tax, and it arrived the other day. Even though we don’t have any kids in public schools and only one of ours ever did attend public school here, the high school art program was very important for Shane years ago. Besides, good schools should help property values.

On Saturday afternoon, a little old lady came to the door and asked Kathy if she could put a sign in our yard supporting one of the school board candidates. Kathy said, oh sure, and the little old lady stuck the sign in the ground and went on down the street. I missed all this action so I looked up her web site and discovered she was a Republican! The horror! But she was also an art teacher for many years, a school principal, and has worked in almost every school in the district. Who else could know the issues as well? I showed Kathy the photo on the site and she said—how about that—it was the candidate herself. So the sign stays. Hey—she’s 73—I don’t believe she’s the next Sarah Palin.