David McElroy

There’s a building not far from my house that takes me back to December of 2004 each time I drive past. It’s not a good memory, but rather one that still gives me shivers eight and a half years later.

It’s the memory of a night I suddenly couldn’t remember what I was doing and freaked out as I tried to do my job.

We were close to finishing the first day of shooting for my short film, “We’re the Government — and You’re Not.” Even though I didn’t really know what I was doing, I was the writer and director, and I was sharing the producer duties. I honestly didn’t know until that day just how little I knew.

Even though the day had been a blur, things had generally gone well except for my car having a flat tire at the next-to-last shooting location of the day. (I rode around on the little “doughnut spare” all weekend because I didn’t have time to fix the tire.) I was waiting for one last prop to come in the mail. It was days late, but we thought it would be there. I ran to my house and it wasn’t there — and it was time to shoot the scene. I didn’t have a back-up plan.

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If you’re going to Washington, D.C., for the Fourth of July, I strongly suggest that you don’t take a gun. And I suggest even more strongly that you don’t follow Adam Kokesh on a “peaceful” armed march on the city.

We can agree about the outcomes we want, but still strongly disagree about how to get there. We can even disagree about whether there’s anything reasonable to be done which would bring about the desired outcome at the moment.

Kokesh calls himself a libertarian, but I’m not familiar with what all he believes. I just know of him as a flamboyant and loud activist. If that’s your thing, it’s your business. It’s just not my way, so I’m not especially interested in that sort of activism. And I definitely don’t have a death wish — or a desire to lead a bunch of people into being arrested in order to play the role of martyr or victim.

Kokesh had already been promoting the Fourth of July armed march, but he upped the stakes last week. After a recent arrest in Philadelphia — which appeared unjustified based on my cursory viewing of the video — Kokesh called for an “American Revolutionary Army to March on 50 State Capitols.” Here’s his full announcement, if you’d like to make sure I’m not taking him out of context.

If you’re following someone who suddenly calls on an “army” to march on every state capitol in the country and forcibly demand the immediate dissolution of the national government, you should seriously wonder about the person you’re following. Even if we agree on desired ends — and I suspect that I would generally agree with what Kokesh wants for society — you have to wonder about the judgement and mental stability of someone making that sort of plea and hoping for people to obey.

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A middle school principal in Massachusetts apparently thinks it’s bad to reward high achievers — because it might hurt the feelings of those who don’t do as well.

David Fabrizio is principal of Ipswich Middle School in Ipswich, Mass., and he canceled the school’s annual honors night this year. Here’s what he said in his explanation to parents.

“The Honors Night, which can be a great sense of pride for the recipients’ families, can also be devastating to a child who has worked extremely hard in a difficult class but who, despite growth, has not been able to maintain a high grade point average,” Fabrizio wrote in his letter to parents.

Fabrizio also cited fairness as a reason to cancel honors night. He said in his letter than academic success can partly be about the amount of support a student has at home — so honoring high achievers isn’t fair to those who don’t have the same support at home.

Thankfully, some parents were outraged and voiced their disapproval, at which time the principal demonstrated that he was not only politically correct, but was quite willing to talk out of both sides of his mouth. In a second letter to parents, Fabrizio said he plans to honor top-performing students at the annual end-of-the-year assembly, when honored students can be recognized in front of the whole student body.

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