Sleep continues to escape me as I look forward to another dismal season for the Detroit Lions while these Midnight Ponderings keep running through my head:

One of the endearing qualities of Oregon Mayor Mike Seferian is that he doesn’t seem to care what others think about him.

This makes him an unusual politician and a fearless Soothsayer. If you follow football, you know Seferian leads The Press’s celebrity prognosticators with a perfect 26-0 record. That perfection, however, may cost him a few votes in the next election as he twice has picked Clay to lose and at least one Clay football player has mistaken sagacity for a lack of support. (See Miles Carter’s letter to the editor).

Miles, a freshman with maybe a little help from a parent, writes, “Shame on Mr. Seferian for not backing players whose parents may have backed him in his bid for his current position against former Mayor Marge Brown. Please keep in mind, Mr. Seferian, we are future voters and may be given the opportunity to support you in electing you to another term as the Mayor of Oregon, Ohio.”

You have to admire Miles’ willingness, at such a young age, to put his opinion out in front of our readers. I’m sure it is one shared by other Oregonians. However, Miles, the job is called Soothsayer, not Rootsayer. Lighten up. Tape the prediction on the locker room wall and prove the mayor wrong. I’m sure he’d like nothing better than that.

By the way, Clay coach Mike Donnelly has a team goal of seven wins. That’s not being negative, that’s a healthy respect of your opponents. Such respect makes you prepare harder.

Responsible wealth
A group of American millionaires involved in the Responsible Wealth project is calling for an end to the Bush tax cuts, even though their taxes would increase. Mike Lapham, who inherited family wealth from a paper mill business in New York, is the director of the Responsible Wealth project for the organization United for a Fair Economy. He states on the organization’s website, “Members of Responsible Wealth recognize that their own prosperity and success would not be possible without the foundation of a strong public education system, an effective transportation network, a strong legal system and more.”

This organization is lobbying congress to let the tax cuts lapse in order to pare down the country’s crippling debt. It is also calling on congress to reinstate the estate tax President Bush suspended in 2010 for one year. More than 2,000 individuals who have paid or expect to pay the estate tax have signed on.

This is more than Responsible Wealth, this is Responsible Leadership.

For more, go to www.faireconomy.org

Body mistake index
It looks like school administrators at Eastwood, Northwood and Genoa will seek a waiver from participation in the body mass index screening requirements of a new Ohio health bill that goes into effect this month.

The law has some good provisions, but labeling elementary school kids overweight or obese isn’t one of them. The law requires school districts to screen students in kindergarten and in third, fifth and ninth grades. The superintendents interviewed by Press editor Larry Limpf object due to the cost of screening.  I object to labeling the young obese or overweight. Recent studies show obesity is linked to poverty because, in part, good nutrition costs more. These kids will have one more negative label to bear, one that would be more appropriately hung around the necks of the parents who feed them.

The bill does a good job of restricting the sale of high fat, high sugar foods in our schools and of requiring physical education programs but that’s as far as it should go.

According to the Center for Disease Control, 25 to 29 percent of Ohioans are obese. The problem is real, but having schools label kids who have little control over what they eat at home is not appropriate.

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