Quote for the Day…

No matter how rich you become, how famous or how powerful, when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather. – Michael Prichard

Welcome to another exciting edition of Caught My Eye (CME)!

CME is the once-a-week column that is posted every Friday morning. This is when I look at some of the stories I did not have time to write about during the week.

Here are some of the things that “Caught My Eye” this week:

• GF Public Schools Board
• Mike Enzi
• Reading Assignments

GREAT FALLS PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD:

With over 500 viewers on Facebook, the special school board meeting held Thursday night did not disappoint. The anti-maskers were out in force to fight a mask mandate in the Great Falls public schools.

The pro-mask folks reportedly submitted a lot of comments electronically. That was a smart move since most of the ant-maskers showed up in person and did not wear masks.

It was democracy in action.

What the school board voted on was whether to adopt a policy or not that authorizes Superintendent Tom Moore to implement, adjust or rescind health protocols in schools dependent on local COVID-19 transmission rates. According to The Electric, the policy passed 6-1, with Trustee Mark Finnicum dissenting. The Electric reported that under the new policy, Moore could implement mask requirements in schools when local transmission rates are high or substantial.

The anti-maskers are angry.

The Great Falls Tribune reported that masks will be required for pre-K thru sixth-grade students and recommended for middle and high school students starting with the beginning of the school year next week (School starts August 25) as community spread has increased.

There were a lot of Facebook and YouTube doctors in the house. People spewed information from sources that were not credible.

The bottom line to all of this is if there’s a mask mandate in the Great Falls Public Schools, and parents don’t like it, they have the freedom to take their kids and send them elsewhere (private school, homeschool to another school).

Several health organizations recommend masks in schools. We need to listen to the experts and not some Facebook doctor.

Read the full story from The Electric HERE. Read the Tribune story HERE.

MIKE ENZI:

The quote, “Always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise, they won’t go to yours” has been attributed to baseball great Yogi Berra, but he did not say it. It is hard to determine who said it. (Source)

It was nice to see the story about how many U.S. Senators attended the funeral of former U.S. Senator, Mike Enzi. The Uinta County Herald reported that 20 U.S. Senators attended Friday’s funeral service which was held in the isolated county seat of Campbell Country in northeast Wyoming.

There were also some former senators and governors.

Read the full story from the Uinta County Herald by clicking HERE.

READING ASSIGNMENTS:

Here are a few stories that you should read…

Someone’s going to get hurt: Knudsen playing a high-stakes game of partisan politics

Man surrenders after claiming to have bomb near US Capitol

Was Biden handcuffed by Trump’s Taliban deal in Doha?

Pope Francis urges everyone to get COVID-19 vaccines for the good of all

## HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND ##