Tag Archives: Department of Education

Random Thoughts to Take Your Mind off the Deeper Stuff

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  ARP 2, 2026

Deep thinking can give you a headache.

While peeling a bright red hard-boiled egg during Easter time, a random thought creeped in. Where did the tradition of the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs come from? I turned to the Internet and found more than I cared to know.

The Easter Bunny was first introduced by German immigrants to Pennsylvania in the early 18th Century. The origins actually dated back to an ancient pagan festival that celebrated the goddess of fertility. The bunny laid colored eggs for the children. The egg is a symbol of life, spring, rebirth, and renewal. During the Christian observance of Lent, a 40-day-long period of prayer, fasting and charity, eggs were not eaten, and after the observance, were and are now adorned with bright colors and decorations in celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

Easter to Christians is of course a sacred celebration of their spirituality and eternal life reminding the faithful that death is not the end of life, but a new beginning. It is this holiday that should serve as the renewal of our devotion to the teachings Christ preached during his time on earth, which serve as the essence of our human experience and the promise for everlasting life.

And now a return to the daily grind: Continue reading

Education on the Brink. Transparency Too.

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  MAR 17, 2025 

Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, who reigned during much of the period from 1940-1961, famously said that, “Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.”

There are other pithy Rayburnisms: “Drudgery, darkness, and muddy roads are not conducive to anything that is good.”

They are apropos today, while President Donald Trump and his liquidator, Elon Musk, dismantle or downsize Federal agencies. They are not using a magnifying glass to assess the damage. They are not using a surgical scalpel to operate, careful to not fix what is not broken. They have even abandoned the meat-axe approach. They’ve revved up the bulldozer, without defining or explaining what they are doing. Continue reading