Facing An Uphill Battle

OF THE SOME THREE THOUSAND three hundred (and spare change) essays published on this illustrious website over its seven year history, between fifty and a hundred of them have concerned themselves with my local small southern town senior center, where I malinger, two blocks from my house, among right wing religious zealots who hold forth righteously, brainwashing themselves into believing that evolution by natural selection is either a rumor, or the latest liberal conspiracy-hoax. Yes, its that bad, and if you've missed my unflattering essays on the subject, scroll back, way back, and catch up. The reason I tend to disparage my fellow senor center members is that for one, they seem to regard non Christians as inferior to themselves, and two, they harbor false notions, such as, evolution does not exist, and the Christian Bible is the word of God, which is sheer lunacy. The Director, a lady a couple of years older than I and a thoroughly delightful person, once asked me whether President Nixon ever got around to dropping a nuclear bomb on North Viet Nam. I swear to God, she actually asked me this. I replied that had he, she would have long since known about it. This seemed to comfort her, which was my intention. Well, at least I hope to god she doesn't think he should have, which I assume she does not. My current project is trying to convince her to not stalk the kitchen staff, seeing as how I am part of the kitchen staff. I advocate for no more verbal and written warnings, no more signing in and out, and no more minute by minute accountability as to one's whereabouts. I am largely immune to all this, because I am a volunteer, but my colleagues are reduced under tyranny, as Jefferson put it, and a revolution is in order, even if the paid staff does not know it. Teaching school for decades taught me that positive reinforcement works far better than punishment, a belief which got me fired more than once, and might yet again, even though I am but a volunteer. Well, screw it. I once worked at a middle school in which any good student's good academic performance and good behavior was rewarded by allowing the student to not come to school for a day or two, near the end of the school year, a day off. Bad behavior was rewarded by kicking the offender out of school for a day or two. See where I'm going with this? Note to dense readers: in the situation describe above, the reward was the same as the punishment. What's wrong with this picture? Yes, I waltzed into the principal's office and called her, in essence, an idiot, and no, I did not return for the next school year. Reward all good behavior and achievement, simply fail to reward bad behavior and performance, and cast out the evil devil of a concept called "punishment", is the idea, an idea which now applies at my local small town senior center, and the kitchen staff. But since the Director, until quite recently, thought for some reason that Nixon might have dropped a nuke on North Viet Nam behind her back, I am facing, to say the least, an uphill battle.