Week in Review: Mindfulness
"It teaches them to become aware of their thoughts, feelings, body sensations and brings them back to the present moment."
Week in Review
County Commissioners, Tuesday, January 14
Becoming Mindful
Chris Firestone of LifeWays presented a proposal requesting $40,973 from the County to help create “calming corners, sensory rooms, or calming boxes” in 13 public schools around the county.
Firestone began by citing numerous statistics about substance use among the youth of Hillsdale County, suggesting that these “calming corners” are a key way of combatting such abuse.1 Kids and teenagers are allegedly less likely to do drugs if they use these “sensory rooms” to develop “mindfulness.” According to the proposal,
“Mindfulness is an evidence-based program that teaches individuals to come back to the present moment. It teaches them to become aware of their thoughts, feelings, body sensations and brings them back to the present moment. Mindfulness creates a perception shift in how individuals respond to thoughts, feelings and their surrounding environment. It helps them to change their view of themselves and the world around them.”
“Mindful can help people feel more in touch with their body as well as the physical environment around them. Being more aware of the body can help to foster better body posture, balance, and body-orientated self-care.”
If this sounds like clap-trap straight out of Eastern religious practices, that is because it is. The LGBT-promoting LifeWays is now attempting to foist Buddhist religious practices on the youth of Hillsdale County.
However, mindfulness is “evidence-based” which means it is unquestionable. The studies have been done! Mindfulness in practice:
Firestone: “When a kid is triggered, they might go down to the sensory room. There's mindfulness lights that teach them how to deep breathe and in patterns; there could be sensory balls, there's coloring books, there's a whole gamut of different things. We want to alter senses, calm down the nervous system.”
“When they walk into the room: ‘What are you feeling?’ and they use emojis to identify – ‘I feel scared; I feel anxious.’”
On the goal for the students: “This person over here is triggering me: there are some things that I learned with breathing and different things to calm myself.”
Commmissioner Wiley, stalwart defender of LifeWays: “$40,000 is not a huge number out of the amount of money that we've gotten from the opioid settlement. If we help one student to not become a drug addict or not end up in jail or not end up in the system, then that was a pretty good investment.”
Commissioner Ingles seemed incredulous as to these practices; Commissioner Benzing was initially hesitant as to where the money for staffing these “sensory rooms” would come from. He was reassured that they could be fully-staffed by behavioral specialists already employed at the schools.2
The proposal was approved, 4-1, with Ingles dissenting.
Disbanding the Planning Commission
The Commissioners once more discussed putting an end to the County’s Planning Commission, at Benzing’s behest.
Benzing on the County Planning Commission’s lifelessness: “We struggled to obtain a quorum to be able to conduct business. This body has made every effort to breathe life into and resuscitate the Planning Commission. We've offered to pay them per diem, a small financial incentive, to at least compensate for the time away from whatever they were doing.”
Commissioner Leininger accepting blame: “Maybe we haven't done our job of getting the right people appointed to serve on that Planning Commission.”
If the County has no PC, their “Master Plan” reportedly has to be sent to “Region 2,” the Planning Commission of Planning Commissions, with an associated fee or penalty.
Ingles argued against paying the fines that would potentially be foisted on the County by Region 2: “As far as Region 2 is concerned, the process by Statute says that it is submitted to Region 2 as a courtesy. The state of Michigan actually is the approval Agency for the PA116. The purpose of sending it to Region 2 is as a courtesy required by Statute not required by billing, and they can send a bill all they want – we're not going to pay.”
Wiley terrified of accepting the work that the Planning Commission hasn’t been doing: “We may not know until – if – we repeal this – what other workload does that put on us.”
Benzing’s closing argument: “We rarely have the opportunity to make government just a tiny bit smaller. This is a great opportunity that we can vote today to make government just a tiny bit smaller and make it maybe a tiny bit easier and reallocate the resources to other areas.”
The proposal failed, 2-3. Wiley, Leininger, Collins opposed.
Upcoming Events
City Council, Tuesday, January 21
Match on Main Grant
In order to stimulate downtown Development, the corrupt and incompetent Michigan Economic Development Corporation has “announced another round of Match on Main funding,” a program which redistributes tax from families to aspiring boutiques.
Mayoral Vacancy Election
See our prior coverage here and here.
Staff naturally recommends that “City Council discuss the subject and approve the City Clerk and City Attorney to prepare for an August mayoral election and possible November election if more than two candidates qualify for the August ballot.”
Airport Hangar Repair
The Airport hangar door repair request is coming back to Council.
External Links
“City council wastes money on superfluous projects such as the Municipal Airport which don’t benefit the average Hillsdale resident.” Przemyslaw Grzesiak.3
“By the way, the word is getting out to evangelical parents that Hillsdale is a Catholic conversion factory. It will be interesting to see how this affects college choice going forward.” Aaron Renn.4
“I do look forward to connecting with the incoming president.” Gretchen Whitmer.
“As I start the campaign, it is going to be a Michigan first campaign.” Aric Nesbitt.
“Walking through small messy Dollar General aisles, you feel cheap. Your local shop closed and there is no grocery store left. It’s a tragic theme of our time. We are left with a sea of junk that reminds everyone our local economies are collapsing slowly.” Michigan Enjoyer.5
“The American middle class has been proletarianized.” Auron MacIntyre.
“If the situation is not resolved in the near future, the possibility of yet another escalation in the Russo–Ukrainian war, perhaps even leading to the opening of a new front, will increase significantly.” Dominick Sansone.
“The Equal Rights Amendment is the 28th Amendment, and it is the law of the land.” Kamala Harris.
“I have gone on the pill, come off the pill, tried to get the coil (and failed, thanks to my heart rate dropping during the procedure), and had an implant that looked like a short piece of spaghetti poked into my arm, only to have it taken out again after spending months in a fug of sadness.” Barbara Speed.
“In the eyes of many of the New Right, taking Greenland isn’t just in America’s material and strategic interests; it’s also key to America’s spiritual wellbeing.” Politico.
The implication, of course, is that if you reject her proposal, you are voting for kids doing drugs.
Then what are they doing now, we might ask?
Mr. Grzesiak is perhaps unaware that, according to what one of our esteemed colleagues calls the Developmental Mind, average is over.
According to a certain Justin Redemer, this is tantamount to transing the Protestant youth.
James Dickson of The Michigan Enjoyer has conducted podcast interviews with the several candidates for Michigan GOP Chair: Scott Greenlee, State Sen. Runestad, Meshawn Maddock, and Joseph Cella.