School will be out this month. All sorts of festivities and ceremonies are crowding the calendars of Allenites but it’s about over. Our graduates will be scattering all over the globe and some will not be seen anymore on our streets. However, we will miss ‘em--even some we don’t know so well. And we wish all of them the best as they go about establishing their lives, whether in the work force or in the halls of higher education. Some of my favorites would have to be the seniors who played sports. They are the ones we see and who represent the other students who keep a lower profile but I wish all a good future. I will especially miss one special student, my granddaughter, Meegan Costner. I suspect that several others here in Allen will also miss this young lady.

Seems no one pays much attention to world news anymore but they should. Things that affect the future of our young people often happen far away. Things that can lead to war can for sure affect our youngsters who are (as usual) the ones who have to deal with wars and the such. This week, the U S issued warnings to Iran. Iran has gathered it’s forces as if to close the Gulf of Hormuz. “Hormuz” you ask? You know that little narrow passage between the Persian Gulf and the outside world. The one where 1/3 of all the world’s crude oil must pass. Tehran has invested heavily in naval craft to do just this and it doesn’t take much to spook the Insurance companies that insure these super tankers that pass by Hormuz bumper to bumper. A small gunboat could sink a tanker in the neck of the harbor. But all it takes is a call from the aforementioned insurance company instructing the shipping companies to stay out. That’s it. Can’s sail without insurance.

President Trump instructed Secretary Bolton to send the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Group to protect this gulf. If this all plays out, I wonder who we should fire at fi rst, Iran, the shipping companies or at everybody? Either way, if the Horn of Hormuz is shut, oil prices will soar as will pump prices of gas. And it will be our kids and grandchildren who have to do the fi ghting. That’s when it gets real personal and real for parents and grandparents who will occupy the fi ghting fronts.

Then there is this: Does it seem to you that when we have a commercial air crash that we just keep on having them? We went a long time without “big” crashes but it seems that after the two Boeing 730 crashes, they just keep coming. A guy flew a perfectly good plane into the river at Jacksonville this past weekend. All 122 passengers got off OK. Not so at Sheremetyevo in Moscow when a Suchoi SSJ100 made a hard landing. The troubled Suchoi caught fire and went up like a trailer house at midnight. Only 42 of its load managed to get off. The hot and fast spreading fire killed over 70 who couldn’t make it to the exits. So, I wondered what was wrong with this other than being a poorly constructed and unsafe aircraft?

One old fat Russian got a lot of the blame. Not only was he big and immovable, but he demanded to get his luggage out of the overhead. He was on row 10. Every passenger on row 11 on back was burned to a crisp. The unhelpful passenger went straight to the ticket counter and demanded a cash refund which delayed him enough some of his disgruntled fellow passengers (survivors at least) were about to do him harm before he was thrown out of the Sheremetyevo Terminal.

So, if there is a moral to this it’s this: If you are seated on a crashed airplane, just get the heck off. Don’t worry about that bag in the overhead. And remember to go to church this Sunday. Churches do a good job of getting you “out” on time. Most of the time. Have a good week. And happy Mother’s Day.

Wayne Bullard DPh

waynebullard@sbcglobal.net