Paul's Heart

Life As A Dad, And A Survivor

Archive for the category “Education”

26 Feb 2013

What It Means To Have Support


Tonight I spent close to three hours with many people who want to support me in my quest to sit on our local school board.  It is kind of surreal because I do not know most of them on a personal level.  Many recall my election effort two years ago and are excited at the prospects this year.  There is a lot on the line, including taking on the current school board president, current vice president, another long term board member, and what is anticipated, the former board member who was handpicked by the board as a replacement for a board member who had resigned (yes, the one that they picked over myself and fellow running mate, Tina).

And there are tons of issues this time around, many continuing from two years ago, and several new issues.  There will be plenty of time to get into the issues, but for now, this blog is just about the fact that so many people believe that along with my three other running mates, we are the ones to make the difference for public education in our area.  They support us.  This is just one of many examples from my life, of when support has mattered the most to me, and made the difference.

And within our campaign, there is support.  Alex is making his third run, the last time was in 2011 with me, and he did better with results than in 2009.  He is facing the same candidates that he faced in 2009, but now he has three great running mates.  Like me, he is a family man, married with two daughters.  And he is super smart.  I have spent a couple afternoons recently with him, just casual visits.  Relaxing, interesting, and educational from a technology point of view.  I know I will have the support of those in Alex’s circle.

Tina was a new-comer to our last campaign, but she brought something special, pride.  She was “super mom”, sports mom, spirit mom.  If you were involved in sports, everyone knew her.  She is soft-spoken and passionate, but can totally relate to the parents and young graduates.  She is very likable so many come to her to give her leads of issues.  As we have shared car rides occasionally, casual conversations have led us to more vulnerable talks, giving us a more human feel for the campaign.

Murali (pronounce “murly”) is a newcomer to our slate, but not to our school district as he spent his entire education going through our system.  He is a very nice, well spoken young man.

So we stood in front of a room packed with supporters.  All interested in signing our petitions to run for the public office of school board director.  So many expressed  concerns for what they felt were issues that they believe were important, but also that we would hear them and listen to them.

This petition process will be done soon, and then it is time to put together a platform, narrowed down from more than a dozen issues that I feel need to be addressed, as well as the issues the other candidates have for the district.  But bottom line, it is the education of the children that has to be the top priority.

Posted in Bullying, Education, Family and Friends, Politics | Leave a comment
24 Feb 2013

Helping A Leopard Change Its Spots


I wrote a short while ago, about being a very picky eater.  At the time, the story was nothing more than just a bad habit that I had.  This is in spite of knowing so many people who have had to make lifestyle changes, or watching year after year of The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Fit Club.  Now, it is my time.  I do not have a choice.

I learned my bad dietary habit when I was young, like three years old young.  Prior to my parents divorce, I had been told that I would anything placed on my table.  But following that event, I then turned my nose up at just about everything.  I do remember from my earliest days, being strictly a meat and potatoes kind of kid.  It is not that I was into junk food either.  I just refused to eat vegetables.

In my teen years, my behavior only solidified,  but it was reinforced by situation.  Unfortunately, I found myself often fending for myself, and whatever my part-time after school job could afford, which basically was fast food.  And that behavior followed me into adulthood.  As I maintained a busy, on-the-road schedule, there was no time to sit down and eat, even think about what I was eating.

A battle with cancer, emergency life-saving open heart surgery, kidney stone, high cholesterol and blood pressure, by themselves would be reason enough to change my dietary direction.  But as I face yet more issues from late term side effects, these issues have a direct impact on the food I will eat for the rest of my life.  I have no choice at this point.

For the last several years, I have been experiencing a “swallowing” issue that results in a choking sensation when swallowing food.  Two years ago, it got to the point once it began to be too difficult to swallow even soft foods.  Desperate to get calories into me, instead of opting for nutritional drinks such as Boost or Ensure, I went for probably the worst caloric shot, Coke and melted Snicker Bars.  For at least two months, this is how I maintained my weight until the swallowing got worse and I adjusted to Cokes and milkshakes.  Then it happened, I could not even get them down without the choking sensation, even water was difficult.

An endoscope revealed some concerns, but nothing that was blatantly obvious.  It was recommended that I quit drinking soda, eat better, the works.  I am not sure what else was done while I was scoped, but my swallowing had been restored.  Late last year, it began to resurface.  More probing would reveal that I have now developed Barrett’s Esophagus and something called eosinophilis esophagitis.  In spite of being on PPI omeprazole, the acid content of my stomach was described by my doctors as “angry”.

So there are concerns with such a high acid content in the stomach, and the increased risks associated with having had radiation therapy, the biggest concern, esophageal cancer.  Barrett’s Esophagus can lead to esophageal cancer.  So now, everything is in my corner to have the best opportunity to at least attempt to prevent anything worse.  The doctors are hoping that the major change to my diet will correct and right things.

It may sound odd for a 40-ish year old man, to need to be told not only what to eat, but how.  but that is exactly what I will need.  I have to eliminate 95% of my diet, and substitute it with 100% of what I do not like to eat.  I cannot allow my weight to crash, or let malnourishment occur.  If I let this happen, as has happened on other occasions when I have pushed my body too far and too hard, I will crash.  In the past, I was able to do the quick boost of calories.  I appreciate the outpouring of suggestions to make the “horrible” food taste good to me.

Fortunately, my daughters have not picked up this habit.  They are both good eaters, and do what they can to get me to eat right, even resorting to the old “double dog dare”.  But for now, here is the current short list of things that will pass my tonsils (there is much more available, I just won’t eat it):

Bananas

Apples

Oranges

Watermelon

Pumpkin

Potatoes

Onion

Carrots

Sweet Potatoes

Lettuce

1-2% Milk

Egg Yolks

Chicken

Turkey

Tuna

Sea Salt

Cinnamon

Posted in Animals, Cancer, Education, Family and Friends, Food, Recreation, Side Effects, The Heart | Leave a comment
14 Feb 2013

Birth Of A New Campaign


One thing I take pride in, is that when I make a commitment to something, 99.9% of the time finish what I set out to do.  It does not matter what else I am going through, especially with my health, I do my best to never let that interfere.  Admittedly, it has to be something serious to lay me up in the hospital (like my heart surgery), otherwise you can count on me being there.

So, on my way home from the hospital yesterday, fellow candidates and the rest of my school board campaign members were meeting to discuss future events and decisions, as well as prepare for the first leg of Pennsylvania, filing petitions.

Three out of the four of us ran for school board locally in 2011.  We fell short by narrow margins (less than 200 votes out of 70,000 available votes which shows those who think their vote does not matter, guess again.  199 people decide to come out and make a difference I would be sitting on the school board by now.

I got to our meeting a little later as I knew would happen.  The first order of business is filing petitions.  In order to get on our state’s primary ballot in May, I need to get ten signatures from voters in my political party.  But since school board is non partisan, there is the ability to cross file in the other major party.  So my task is then to have someone from the other party take my petition around for ten signatures from that party.

There have been others in the past who have run against our current board members, but because of this cross filing process, and with enough candidates on both sides,  Without a full slate of candidates, any uncontested slot following the primary was an easy step through the primaries.  In May of 2011, the four other candidates with myself forced a general election with five candidates versus five candidates, incumbants versus challengers.

I will get into issues later, and there are plenty of them.  But one thing I will make perfectly clear.  My purpose for running for school board, including the prior election, is to protect my childrens’ education.  By protecting their education, others will hopefully also benefit.

So my goal beginning next Tuesday, is to have a minimum fifteen signatures from each party.  The reason is simple.  Even with a school board election, candidates are known to challenge the validity of signatures.  The reasons could be as simple as using a mailing address instead of physical address.  Accidently writing the wrong date with the signature is enough to get that signature as well as other signatures, nullified.  Using “ditto” marks as in living in the same municipality will scratch out the signature.

Typically this will happen in the bigger elections that require many more signatures.  An election that requires a thousand signatures or even two hundred fifty you would think would be convincing enough.  But with the exact number of signatures, having even one nullified, can end your campaign.

Our efforts in 2011 caught the incumbants’ attention.  It was historical to have two incumbants tossed from their seats on the school board.  We were all relative unknowns except for two who had run in a prior election and lost.  We whole heartedly believed that because we concentrated our efforts with each other, that strength carried through the general election.

This year, we hope to do the same thing.

The rest of our meeting, we reminisced on what we did in 2011, and what we will need to do in 2013.  There is no doubt that people have probably grown weary of elections after the huge effort of both candidates this past presidential election.  Contrary to scale, school board elections in Pennsylvania have just as important impact on households.

In the coming months, there will be campaign appearances, fundraisers, and just having people come up to us because they recognize us.  I consider this a priveledge even just to run for the school board.  There are many who could not wait for two years to pass, when the other half of the board would be up for re-election, and then find out if there would competition again.  And there will be.

That is what makes this process great.  That is what makes this country great.  Opportunity and service.

Posted in Cancer, Education, Family and Friends, Politics, Side Effects, The Heart | Leave a comment

Post Navigation

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →