I thought so...

...voting is hereby canceled.

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

This post was inspired by my listening to "Shackled and Drawn" while preparing the CAT cave for a visit from WildBlue satellite service later this morning. (Wouldn't want the dust lions and tigers and bears to devour the technician.)

Yes, my mind drifted to the "good old days" and how it felt trudging back to school after a lengthy holiday...espcially the Easter break, when the kids declare the year over...let the party begin!

Sigh.

I dedicate "Shackled and Drawn" to those who follow in my CAT tracks...

BTW:

Music is definitely in the ear of the beholder, fine tuned by personal experience.

I finally came to that realization in the aftermath of my wife's passing...that lyrics to old songs took on new meaning, new songs took on personal meaning. A sign here, a sign there, everywhere a sign, sign.

Shackled and Drawn...

The Boss has heard of Cairo School District Number One and James Gibson!

The stanza that showed me the light:

I always loved the feel of sweat on my shirt
Stand back, son, and let a man work
Let a man work, is that so wrong
I woke up this morning shackled and drawn

I mean...

...if anyone ever screamed "let me work", it was James Gibson, who fought for years to get back. (Hmmm...be careful what you ask for?)

The next stanza applies to all of you who toil in the district between the rivers:

Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn
Pick up the rock, son, carry it on
What's a poor boy to do in a world gone wrong
Woke up this morning shackled and drawn

Talk about a district gone wrong...

A district damned and determined to prove that two wrongs do make a right, and if they don't succeed...try, try again and again and again! (The old "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.")

The stanzas just keep coming:

Freedom, son, is a dirty shirt
The sun on my face and my shovel in the dirt
A shovel in the dirt keeps the devil gone
I woke up this morning shackled and drawn

As you "toil in the soil", shoveling the BS that piles higher and deeper, you fervently hope and pray that he who shall remain nameless stays gone, gone, gone!

Nope, I'm not done:

Gambling man rolls the dice, working man pays the bill
It's still fat and easy up on banker's hill
Up on banker's hill the party's going strong
Down here below we're shackled and drawn

Every month the CSD Treasurer's Report tells the tale of a flush District despite its mantra to the contrary.

As you continue to work without a contract, the Cairo Board of Education and Financial Oversight panel count their pieces of silver. ($4 million at last count!)

These "bankers" laid off ten of your colleagues last year and can't give you a raise?

What is it, five retirements this year...top salaried employees? Yet the District can't give you a raise?

Cairo School District Number One promises in their advertisement that their next superintendent will make "not less than $100,000"...but they can't give you a raise?

It is this attitude that leads inevitably to the final stanza...

Postscript:

Speaking of WildBlue...