I really can’t believe that this school start date debate, or StartDateGate Debate, is a real thing. I can’t wrap my mind around the reality that there’s an election planned.

At first I was excited. If this is what people care about, then all our other issues and problems must have been solved, fixed, positive outcomes achieved. There must not be any hungry, abused or broken people in the world. All of our power must be coming from cheap, clean and renewable sources. South Dakota must have the highest standard of living, be free from corruption, have the newest and best infrastructure and have fully funded public health and education systems. And every citizen must have access to those public systems regardless of surname, income or zip code.

We must have run out of real problems to solve, real issues to take on, real things to write snarky internet articles about. Between Kanye West and StartDateGate my Facebook feed hasn’t seen this level of civic minded outrage since – um - Kanye did something else.

Snide cynicism aside, my real question is why? Why do you care? Why do you care so much that you were spurred to engage voter time and taxpayer money to make people do what you want.

Who benefits from the change? Who really benefits? If you just have to get to Okoboji, Omaha or the outlets over the last weekend in August, go Nike and just do it. Don’t force your stuff on us.

I’ve gone on about this before:

Other questions I have: will all sports and extracurricular activities be forbidden from starting before Labor Day as well? That includes football practice. If not, then what’s the point of all this? You can’t take your sacred vacy if junior has to hit the gridiron.

I often see supporters say something to the effect of that this is the only place they’ve ever seen school start before Labor Day. Setting aside that I grew up in Nebraska and don’t recall ever starting after Labor Day, the places in the country that have a school year like that usually have school into June. Is that the plan here? Or will that get in the way of your early summer getaways.

In a world where people literately fight and die to go to school, maybe we should take our blessings and opportunities more seriously and focus our energies on issues that matter.

Keep up with Ben’s goofiness by bookmarking  Ben’s blog and connecting on Twitter.

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