By Brian J. Karem

I'm trying to pinpoint what has me rattled in my cage and sounding like my grandfather when he used to gripe about how stupid everybody in the world was but him.

Reminds of a media owner I know, but that's a different story.

Should I now start wearing the "sansabelt" polyester pants that pull up just underneath my armpits and pull out my fake teeth and lisp at the world?

Maybe I'm not that far gone, after all I still have all of my own teeth, but my grandfather had a point that I believe is at the heart of my recent dyspepsia.

Stupidity. Most people are just stupid. Not you of course, after all you're reading this and that, as the comedian says, makes you one of the brighter eggs.

A few recent events, however, highlight the ability of most of us to sleepwalk through life with little thought until something smacks us in the face - not once, not twice and not even three times, but at least more than a dozen.

Yes, of course I'm talking about the ICC and a few other things.

Last week The Sentinel reported on a group of Shady Grove Woods homeowners who sponsored a "Wake Up, MoCo!" event to protest the building of the ICC.

"What really strikes me is that we were kept in the dark," one of the residents said.

Really? I guess they didn't take their own slogan very seriously because as much as I'd love to bash some amorphous government entity about the ICC, the silliest thing you could say about this loathsome road-to-nowhere is that anyone was kept in the dark about it.

We've had meeting after meeting - oh excuse me, charette after charette, about this money guzzling, useless project.

We've seen signs posted along most of the roads and areas to be affected giving telephone numbers to call and people to contact.

It's been planned for several decades. It has been born, died and reborn again. Its plans have been posted in public places and the Planning Board conducted several community meetings to get our input on where the road should go and what property will be affected when built.

In short, the only way you could be in the dark about the ICC is if your head is either buried in the sand or in some remote part of your own anatomy.

The other bit of anger I need to vent regards the recent story about drinking in a local middle school.

In attending some public events this week I heard several parents and even a few educators gripe about the problems of drinking in our local middle schools and how we have to become more vigilant in policing students.

Yeah. Sure.

There's nothing a school administrator can do to keep a child from mixing a vile concoction of spirits and fruit juices and bringing them to school.

However, and here's where you must read closely - the parents could do something about this.

Yes. Remember them? The people who have primary responsibility for their children are the ones who should be able to stop this mess - but in all honesty it isn't even that big of a problem.

Mixing a repugnant variety of liquor in a juice bottle isn't anything new - not if you're a child of the 60s or the 70s, so I don't know why we get on our high horse about it. It doesn't happen very often and Redland Middle School officials reacted promptly to the situation once it occurred.

Maybe the parents should've put a lock on their liquor cabinet the same as the parents who allowed guns to be stolen from their home in the Einstein area should've locked up their guns and unloaded them before a child stole them, took them to school to try and sell them and accidentally fired one into a wall.

The simple fact is that some parents want little or no responsibility. They want someone else to handle that problem.

Life doesn't work that way. If you think it does then you're going to end up with disastrous and nightmarish outcomes.

Yes. Once again I'm talking about the ICC - oh yeah and my grandfather's infamous sansabelt polyester pants.