Dear Editor,
It’s finally fall. As a person I can tell because it’s not blazing hot anymore and Culver’s is offering pumpkin ice cream. But as a senior at Dodgeville High School I can tell because homework exists again, fall sports are in full swing, and guess what else? We’re going to referendum. I know, I know. “Again? Didn’t we do this last year?” Yeah, we did. Well, we tried to. So why are we doing it again? Why can’t the school just get the message and stop asking for money?
Well, let me ask you this. Why does your cat ask for food at dinnertime? You just fed it at noon, didn’t you? And what’s more, you fed it at seven in the morning too! Outrageous, that it should come back a third time in the same day. And it’ll probably come back tomorrow too!
As annoying as it may be, your cat continues to ask for food because it NEEDS to keep eating. Believe it or not, eating food happens to be one of the four basic functions of life, along with drinking, sleeping, and saving up Culver’s Scoopie tokens to get yourself a pumpkin concrete mixer. Cats (like children, chickens, and every other animal I’m currently aware of), keep eating because they need to. If you refuse to give a cat dinner, it won’t stop the cat from coming back the next morning all the hungrier. No matter how many times you refuse, the cat or child or chicken or mongoose will keep asking for food.
So, basically, the school district is hungry.
It’s no different; they’re asking for money because they need it. Not ‘need’ it like I need my mom to pay for gas because I ever so mysteriously lost my credit card. They need it to keep functioning as a place for kids to learn, grow, and thrive. There’s no fancy expansions or pay raises for administrators here, this is purely to keep everything the same. Imagine I’m emphasizing that with dramatic hand gestures: the SAME. If they were trying to throw around money or raise your taxes for random expansions or just to inconvenience you, don’t you think they would’ve gotten the message by now?
The school is desperate. It’s gone three years without food, and as much as it wants to, it can’t run on Culver’s scoopie tokens alone. The school needs the help of its community. It needs a little boost, because after all of the years of education, love, and care it has given to our community’s children, isn’t that the least it deserves? Nothing crazy, mind you. Nothing extreme. Just enough to keep things the SAME (did you imagine my hands again?).
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably either supportive of me, annoyed at me, or hungry for some pumpkin ice cream. Whoever you are, please hear this: our school needs food, and you are holding a cheeseburger. Our children’s education has its tummy rumbling, and you have a family fry and cheese curds in your car. Our kids are craving cold pumpkin with caramel drizzle and …
Alright, enough with the food analogiesour kids need your help. And I say NEED because it’s true. Our kindergarteners learning about their families, our middle schoolers learning about themselves, our high schoolers learning about the world; they all need you. As a student, I need you. Because we can’t vote, but we’re so hungry. And we can’t stop being hungry unless we’re fed.
So please, vote yes for our referendum on November 3rd.
Felix Wieczorek, Senior at Dodgeville High School