Opinion

Rob Perez CherryRoad Columnist Everything is summer. Summer time.

Can you believe it is just about the half-way mark for summer? If your kids are anything like mine, the battle cries of, “We are bored!” and “What are we doing today?” have started to fill the time between waking up and finishing my first cup of coffee. I always like to hold out on some tricks up my sleeve for August. July is often filled with family visits, sleeping late and the standard quo ice cream, bike trips, pool days and backyard shenanigans. It’s busy and exciting and non-stop with late nights and jam-packed days. Enter August. The back-to-school ads start popping up, supply lists come home and the reading project from school that’s been hanging from the fridge finally gets looked at. Even with all of that, fear not, because there is still plenty of time to kick back and check some items off the “list o’fun”.

It’s the time of year in Arkansas public schools when ACT Aspire test results are released. These tests no more prove that a child or teacher is doing their job and learning is taking place, than quarterly grades determine a child’s success in life. Grading can be subjective, and some children are not adept at test taking.

On North Arm Bay of Lake Minnetonka, Rob sits on the edge of a dock. As the sun sets, Leila the Loon effortlessly floats up.

Actually, she had several. Mom, Mama, and, when my teenage-self was sure she was about to embarrass me, the familiar “Mother!”, with the accompanying eye roll so familiar to many parents.

We are entering a dangerous time in our society when people with knowledge and experience are largely ignored and people with no experience are revered. Suddenly it seems everyone in the world is an expert and anyone with an opinion feels they are an authority.

In hip hop culture, a grill is dental jewelry for inside your mouth so your teeth can sparkle with gold or diamonds. In a car, a grille covers an opening in the body of a vehicle to allow air flow. If someone is up in your grill, they are confrontational. If you’re getting grilled, someone’s asking you a lot of intense questions.

Golf is the simple, yet complex, game of gentlemen. It is a game of respect and sportsmanship; a civilized sport played with propriety.

Google and Facebook have enormous economic and political power in society – especially over the news industry. Many ask if they have played a role in the misinformation that erodes our free press and plagues our democracy.