Beware yellow toenails

Yep, beware yellow toenails.

Aren't thick yellow toenails something that happens to old folks?

I know I had a yellow toenail. I used an antifungal liquid that I applied with a brush around the edges of my toenail. The toenail grew normal and the gross part fell off. Since then, fungi seems to be under control.

Now what does this have to do with the title. I read an article on how your foot can give your personality. Crooked fingers mean one thing and long fingers mean another. But the warning I liked best was yellow toenails of a smoker can mean lung cancer. I would post the website but simply repeating that last part gags me.

Since my fingers aren't part of the gag reflex. I share the baloney with you.

My favorite webview this week was a site that determined your IQ with 15 questions. My IQ was 193 which was pretty remarkable in that the IQ tests of my schooldays were considerably lower than this genius reading. Truthfully, I had downright average scores.

In other words, you can't believe much of what you read on the web.

I hope you laughed at that, in agreement of course.

Last night when I heard the verdict in Ferguson, I did say a prayer for all involved.  I just don't have sympathy for the protestors. What is tearing the city down good for. Organizing for better representation and helping one another is progress.

I taught school which is a close cousin to law enforcement. I remember a pretty girl frantically crying that a student of mine who I will call Lucia was going to beat her up when she walked home.

I got up and did what I needed to do. My work day had ended an hour before. I called Lucia's grandmother. She assured me her grandchild was in the house. I sent the other girl home. I called her house to make sure she got home safely.

Next day, that girl came in and told me that there was no problem with Lucia. I had created a problem. I told her I did not know her before yesterday. Don't come by my room afterschool no more.

Lucia came in that morning and looked at me balefully. Lucia and her grandmother didn't complain at all.

Would I have done it again? Yes, I would not allow children to fight when it can be prevented.

 I don't know what the purpose of the girl changing the story. I know Lucia got in trouble every once in awhile for fighting. However, she was not in trouble because of what the girl said. I had sent the situation to the guidance counselor. Plus Lucia was my student.  I had a bias in Lucia's favor.

Lucia told me she made the threats.

I often wonder if it worked in kids favor to encourage them to be truthful. The world is so damn crooked. All those conflicting and changing witnesses to the shooting make you question their motive.

It is a shame that so many are giving opinions and not respecting the rule of law. The law gets it wrong. The law gets it right.

I do have sympathy for the police officer. The disrespect I experienced from some students was outrageous. I had a principal to ask me what I did for a student to call me a bitch one time.

Ferguson has serious problems. They have a concentration of people who have a low income, are not represented in government and not on the police force. The anger that spills out has more to do with frustration than race. 

I don't think those who choose to throw bricks to break windows and set police cruisers on fire are doing anything to convince anyone that the police are the problem.  Ferguson will not have a problem in a year. Folks will need to move out of the burned out area to have a job, a store to shop or a safe home to lay their head.

On a gut level, people have felt terrible discrimination and that anger wells to the surface. People with good emotional intelligence can put their mind in the right place. Many just don't know how. .  I am white and I see this in the white community. Crazy justifications for indifference are rationalized. People who are deeply caring that can turn around and spout incredibly negative ideas.

The only person I understand is Michael Brown's mother. No one accepts a child's loss. 

But for everyone else, "The truth shall set you free." Of course, Diogenes still paces the world in search of an honest man or woman. To have feet of clay ...