ACEMAC

Nobody talks about the parent who never once asked their kid if they had homework. Not once in a semester. Not once in the school year. The teacher emailed. The teacher called. The teacher sent the progress reports home. Nobody on the other end was paying attention. We talk about teacher accountability every single day, but we don't hold parents to the same standard.

Happy Memorial Day 🇺🇸

I’m pretty sure I was at that party & slept in the bed of a friend’s truck before driving home the next morning. The year was 1988.

NC Opportunity Scholarships present 4 significant barriers for low-income families: - Vouchers often don’t cover full tuition/fees - No transportation - Private schools limit admissions - Limited academic/special ed support #schoolchoice only works when access is real.

When I made this post, I truly believed it was a long shot. Living in Arkansas, we’re not always able to make the trip to Arlington National Cemetery every Memorial Day, and there’s always a little guilt that comes with that. But seeing complete strangers offer to visit Alan, leave flowers, take photos, and say his name when we can’t be there ourselves has honestly overwhelmed me in the best way possible. This comment section restored a little piece of my faith in humanity today. I’ve always been proud to be an American, but tonight I’m even prouder knowing there are still so many people who refuse to let our fallen be forgotten. 🇺🇸

Today’s the day we honor all those who didn’t come home. This is not 4th of July. It’s not a celebration - but rather a day which reminds us the true cost of freedom. The land of the free because of the brave. Wishing everyone a safe & meaningful Memorial Day. 🇺🇸 God Bless America.

“The plane went silent.” That’s what passengers aboard British Airways Flight 9 remembered most. Not screaming. Not alarms. Silence. On June 24, 1982, the Boeing 747 was flying over Java at 37,000 feet with 247 passengers onboard when Senior Engineer Barry Townley-Freeman noticed engine temperatures rising dangerously fast. Then passengers started calling flight attendants: “There’s something glowing outside the window.” Blue light flickered through the engines. White sparks danced across the wings. It looked beautiful. In the cockpit, Captain Eric Moody watched Engine 4 fail. Then Engine 2. Then 1. Then 3. Within minutes, all four engines were dead. A fully loaded 747 became a powerless glider descending toward the Indian Ocean. No thrust. Barely any radio communication. No idea what caused it. Passengers woke from sleep to something deeply unnatural: The absence of engine noise. At 37,000 feet, a jetliner should roar. Instead, there was only wind. Captain Moody got on the intercom and delivered one of aviation history’s most famous announcements: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control.” Some passengers thought it was a joke. The flight attendants’ faces said otherwise. What nobody onboard knew was that the plane had flown directly through a volcanic ash cloud from Mount Galunggung. The ash was made of microscopic glass particles. Inside the engines, the particles melted at extreme temperatures and coated the turbines like cement, suffocating all four engines one by one. At 15,000 feet, oxygen masks deployed. At 12,000 feet, the crew prepared for a night ditching into the ocean. Captain Moody knew the odds of surviving a water landing in a 747 were almost nonexistent. Then he tried restarting the engines one final time. Engine 4 sputtered. Caught. Then another. Then another. All four engines roared back to life. But the nightmare still wasn’t over. The volcanic ash had sandblasted the cockpit windshield so badly the pilots could barely see through it. Captain Moody had to land a damaged 747 at night using only a tiny clear section of the side window while his first officer called out altitude and distance manually. Against every odd, the aircraft landed safely in Jakarta. Every single person onboard survived. After the incident, volcanic ash became a globally monitored aviation hazard. And Captain Eric Moody’s calm announcement became legendary — still taught today as a masterclass in crisis leadership: Tell the truth. Stay calm. Give people dignity. Even when you’re falling out of the sky.

Remember the guy who wouldn't take the flag pole down on his Virginia property awhile back? You might remember the news story several months ago about a crotchety old man in Virginia who defied his local Homeowners Association and refused to take down the flag pole on his property along with the large American flag he flew on it. Now we learn who that old man was. On June 15, 1919, Van T. Barfoot was born in Edinburg, Texas . That probably didn't make news back then. But twenty five years later, on May 23, 1944, near Cyrano, Italy, That same Van T. Barfoot, who had in 1940 enlisted in the U.S. Army, set out alone to flank German machine gun positions from which gunfire was raining down on his fellow soldiers. His advance took him through a minefield but having done so, he proceeded to single-handedly take out three enemy machine gun positions, returning with 17 prisoners of war. And if that weren’t enough for a day's work, he later took on and destroyed three German tanks sent to retake the machine gun positions. That probably didn’t make much news either, given the scope of the war, but it did earn Van T. Barfoot, who retired as a Colonel after also serving In Korea and Vietnam , a well deserved Congressional Medal of Honor. What did make news was his Neighborhood Association's quibble with how the 90-year-old Veteran chose to fly the American flag outside his suburban Virginia home. Seems the HOA rules said it was OK to fly a flag on a house-mounted bracket, but, for decorum, items such as Barfoot's 21-foot flagpole were "unsuitable." Van Barfoot had been denied a permit for the pole, but erected it anyway and was facing Court action unless he agreed to take it down. Then the HOA story made national TV, and the Neighborhood Association rethought its position and agreed to indulge this aging hero who dwelt among them. "In the time I have left", he said to the Associated Press, "I plan to continue to fly the American flag without interference." As well he should. And if any of his neighbors had taken a notion to contest him further, they might have done well to read his Medal of Honor citation first. Seems it Indicates Mr. Van Barfoot wasn't particularly good at backing down. If you've read this post and don't share it, - Guess what -You need your butt kicked. I share this with you because I don't want MY butt kicked anymore and I'm tired of seeing those who hate our country yet march in our streets, tear down our statues, burn our stores and loot our businesses have a free hand to do whatever they want. WE ONLY LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE! AND, BECAUSE OF BRAVE OLD MEN LIKE VAN BARFOOT!

Today is our nations Memorial Day. Enjoy your day and take a moment to remember the true meaning of this day. A day to pay our respects to all those who have given their lives in our country's defense. God bless these brave heroes and their families.

A few weeks ago, I started posting one educational fix a day. Here is the list so far. You want to fix education? 🔹 Count the administrators in your district. Then count the teachers. Then ask who is in the room with your child. 🔹 Stop treating teachers like they're the problem. They're the ones who showed up every day, documented everything, and told you the truth all year. 🔹 Pay teachers more. 🔹 Close the Chromebook. Confiscate the phone. Hand them a pencil. 🔹 Fix class sizes. 🔹 Start with accountability. When nothing happens, students learn something. It is not the thing we want them to learn. 🔹 Make attendance mean something again. A child cannot learn in a building he doesn't enter. 🔹 Figure out how to keep the good teachers where they are. 🔹 Staff the building. 🔹 Stop pretending teachers are only working when you can see them. 🔹 Let teachers remove kids who make it impossible for everyone else to learn. 🔹 Restore consequences. 🔹 Stop buying curriculum from companies that repackage the same junk every seven years. Ask the teachers in the room what actually works for the students in front of them. We know what is broken. We know how to fix it. We just keep aiming at the wrong person.

@AMAZlNGNATURE Ken Allen - the Buddha Grandfather of all orangutans! 🙌🏻

Ken Allen, the orangutan from San Diego Zoo, escaped his enclosure 9 times in the 1980s. His apparent goals were visiting other animals, throwing rocks at a despised orangutan rival named Otis. He never acted aggressively towards anyone during his escapes.

@malliesouthern 🩷

So very proud of my Ducky! 🦆 I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you. Keep being you & NEVER let your beautiful light dim. Love you muchly! ❤️😘🫶🏻🤟🏻

"I grew up on the streets" The streets:

Classic!!

@Sadie_NC Yes! Thanks to Ms. Matthew’s Typing class in 1985 old habits die hard. 😂

Do you still do it? My hubby does. 😂😂

Great parenting advice!