Jim Lehrer, moderator of Wednesday's presidential debate, missed a golden opportunity. He could have asked these men all the weird, idiosyncratic questions he wished.
Teachers aren't suggesting they not be held accountable. What they're saying is that we acknowledge the realities of the classroom, that we not gloss over the real problems, formidable as they may be, and pretend that the flaws in our education system are the fault of the teachers.
He smugly asked if my scorn was reserved only for "very successful Americans" (his words) or if I were also willing to label "unpatriotic" those Mexicans who fled their home country to seek economic gain in the U.S.
Whenever I come across a baseball quote that makes me smile, I jot it down and file it away. I've been filing them away, off and on, for the last 25 or 30 years. Some of the quotes included here are fairly well known, others are obscure.
