Apparently I Owe You an Update

A couple people have commented that I haven’t been posting much recently, and while I have been very busy, I don’t seem to be doing anything worth writing about! Hmmm…

A few random, possibly interesting things from recent weeks:
* Was very proud last weekend as my daughter gave a tribute speech about me at a parent appreciation luncheon. Nice to have it reaffirmed that I really AM the most important person in her life. :)
* Hosted local writer Syl Jones in my classroom last Friday – not nearly as controversial in person as he is on paper. Very nice guy.
* Still dating a Republican. Still having mixed feelings about that.
* Received an email from my ex-husband, congratulating me on my new job and asking what my daughter wants as a graduation gift. Only interesting because we haven’t spoken in a VERY long time. (And that he’ll probably get in trouble now because his new wife reads my blog & he’s not allowed to contact me. Too bad saying this is likely NOT the way to get her to quit reading it.)
* Had my hands & feet dipped in hot wax as part of the mani/pedi routine – am amused at how my hands look covered in wax – like a Star Trek creature. (Am easily amused, obviously.)
* Got an email from Al Franken’s son – didn’t open it yet.
* Told a whole bunch more people (who asked) that my kid is heading for U Penn in the fall. Starting to sink in that my kid is heading for U Penn in the fall.
* Planning her graduation parties. Yes, plural.
* Planning a friend’s retirement party and another friend’s grad-school graduation party. Not hosting any of the above parties at my house.
* Am finally making decent retirement plan contributions, as my new job offers a 4% match, where the old job just gave about $500 if you contributed the minimum. Am apparently too responsible not to do what it takes to get the full match, much as I’d rather spend the $$ now.
* Read that the creators of Facebook turned down a $1 billion buy-out offer. My kid is a Facebook devotee – have to wonder what’s next for that site.
* Continue trying to be everywhere at once. Having mild success.
* Not finding much time to ruminate on the state of Gen X in relation to the wider world...

Human Condition?

"Space ships and time machines are no escape from the human condition. Let Othello subject Desdemona to a lie-detector test; his jealousy will still blind him to the evidence. Let Oedipus triumph over gravity; he won't triumph over his fate."

- Arthur Koestler (1905-1983)

She's Right!

I don't make a habit of agreeing with Katherine Kersten (much as Mitch won't often agree w/ Syl Jones, but hey, that's OK) but this week she was right on.

Most of you know that I'm a big Efrem Smith fan, so her profile of his work with Sanctuary Covenant Church is all good as far as I'm concerned.

Of course, calling "family breakdown" a problem is NOT the same as saying women need to skeedaddle back to the kitchen - tread with caution here! - but it's still a righteous issue for many of our kids today.

Efrem points out that this is not just a poor kid issue - though my work on the north side in recent years tells me it IS an issue for them - but it's real for ALL of our MN kids. Efrem says that: "this void, this hole from having no moral compass or guidance at home, can only be filled spiritually." Before you recoil from the straight-out moralizing, think about it. I will say that, anecdotally, my students who have a strong faith absolutely do better in school than those who do not.

Why?

Efrem posits: "If you believe that you are beloved of God... you believe you're on earth for a purpose, and you can make it."

Truth.

Wisdom from Mark Twain

“A patriot supports his country all of the time, and his government when it deserves it.”
- Mark Twain

(Thanks Gary Trudeau!)

Did You Know about This???

We're building a wall in Baghdad to separate ethnic areas. Can you imagine that happening ANYWHERE in the U.S.???

I don't check the links on my site very often - much as I find each one of them interesting - but I happened to click on Baghdad Burning today and was shocked to find a new entry, just posted today, about the building of a wall in Baghdad. She likens it to Berlin and the ghettos of the holocaust:

The Great Wall of Segregation...

…Which is the wall the current Iraqi government is building (with the support and guidance of the Americans). It's a wall that is intended to separate and isolate what is now considered the largest 'Sunni' area in Baghdad- let no one say the Americans are not building anything. According to plans the Iraqi puppets and Americans cooked up, it will 'protect' A'adhamiya, a residential/mercantile area that the current Iraqi government and their death squads couldn't empty of Sunnis.

The wall, of course, will protect no one. I sometimes wonder if this is how the concentration camps began in Europe. The Nazi government probably said, "Oh look- we're just going to protect the Jews with this little wall here- it will be difficult for people to get into their special area to hurt them!" And yet, it will also be difficult to get out.

I was also shocked to read that they're leaving. Her family has finally decided to give up, pack up, and get out. This one little voice of reason in the midst of the war is going to leave the country, and who knows if/when she'll write again? That thought makes me really sad.

It's also sad that she points out how much we've screwed up her country:

I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.

The nasty juxtaposition of this with my prior entry is not lost on me. Prayers of thanksgiving for the luck of landing on this side of the planet are not enough!

We Have a Winner!!!

And the winner is... PENN!

My lovely daughter is off to college in a few months, and after a year-long process, has finally chosen the school. I am beyond proud that she has done so well for herself already - and the adventure has barely begun! Scoring a full ride to an Ivy League school is no small feat - but one she richly deserves.

Post from Columbia

OK, let's face it - Columbia rocks. This is going to be a tough call... If Columbia does eclipe Penn for her, it might just be the sunshine! :) This whole weekend has been beautiful weather. Perfect for running around Manhattan!

Many things here are right in line with Penn: the student body is just as mixed, (and it's a great mix! :) the campus is at least as beautiful, and of course both have a strong Humanities curriculum. They will also cover her insurance, so the financial aid packages are identical. So how to compare???

> It's the most diverse of all the Ivy League schools. Last year's freshman class for Columbia College was only 48% white.

> It's in Manhattan - with a subway stop right here.

> It accepted only 8.9% of its applicants this year - and states firmly that each accepted student deserves to be here. (They appreciate her!)

> The History department offers a course called "Gender and Empire" at the undergrad level.

> The food court offers Malaysian Artichoke Noodle Salad - which is really good and turns out to be noodles made form artichoke flour - who knew?!?!

Her comment about the students she's met so far: "they're all really interesting" - and she meant that as a huge compliment. That will probably be the kicker. I will find out in a few hours (as we head home) what her thoughts are, but I did get one clue: she started talking with another pre-freshman about sharing a dorm room... so I suspect she's leaning this way. We'll see!

Post from NYC

Three days is enough to remind me why I love this city - as a visitor.

I love the mix of people and the constant energy. I love the wide - wide - wide range of options for things to do! I love the juxtaposition of beautiful old architecture with brand new, creative designs. I love hearing different languages as I pass by people on the street & overhear snippets of conversation. I enjoy random things like finding a Whole Foods in the basement of the AOL TIme Warner building. Smoked salmon sushi and other ethnic "fusion" flavors.

Maybe it's the new job that is anchoring me at home, but I just don't feel the pull to LIVE out here that I have in the past. I think provincial things like, "not enough grass" as I walk down the sidewalk. I love the skyline, but not the temperature drop as I walk in the shadow of those same buildings. Central Park, which used to enthrall me, now seems no different than any of the Twin Cities' lakes or river parks.

However, if my kid moves out here, I sure won't mind visiting - the flights are comparatively cheap and always non-stop! :)

Post from Philly

Whoosh!

Through the rain, we have arrived at Penn for 3 days of festivities designed to convince accepted students to choose Penn. It's ironic - the kids spend months working on applications and praying to be accepted, then they are accepted - here and elsewhere - so the tables are turned and the schools are courting them! It's really a kick.

Even better: Penn added an extra preview day for the students of color, and seeing throngs of students of color in the room, talking with current students about Engineering, Pre-med, International Studies, etc... very nice for we who are from Minnesota, where students of color rarely fill a room! ;) Especially for my kid, who goes to a very white school, it was fun to see...

39

I'm not sure why I expected turning 39 to be interesting - maybe because I remember not liking 29 very much (whereas 30 didn't bother me at all!)

But the only interesting thing about turning 39 seems to be that I was born 3 days after Martin Luther King was killed, and he was 39 at the time. (Think about what he had accomplished in 39 years!)

However, to honor the day, here are some other things - totally random, but kinda interesting - about 39...

39 is:
- The sum of five consecutive primes (3 + 5 + 7 + 11 + 13) and the sum of the first three powers of 3 (31 + 32 + 33).
- The number of books in the Old Testament
- The code for international direct-dialed phone calls to Italy
- Japanese Internet chat slang for "thank you" when written with numbers
- The duration, in nanoseconds, of the nuclear reaction in the largest nuclear explosion ever performed
- the number of points Lebron James scored last Saturday in a Cleveland Cavaliers win over the Chicago Bulls

At age 39:
* Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong became the 1st person to set foot on the moon
* Charles Goodyear led the way to the effective use of rubber
* Jimmy Connors reached the U.S. Open semifinals
* Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated
* Thomas Edison had already invented the telegraph, lightbulb and phonograph

In history:
* 39 AD - Caligula ordered that a statue of himself be placed in the temple in Jerusalem. The governor of Syria, Publius Petronius, responsible for erecting the statue, faced mass demonstrations by Jews of the region and managed to delay construction of the statue until the death of Caligula two years later.
* 1039 – The Persian poet Unsuri was born
* 1639 - Connecticut's first constitution was adopted
* 1639 - Harvard University was named for clergyman John Harvard.
* 1739 – The bible was first published in Estonian
* 1839 - The University of Missouri was established, becoming the first public university west of the Mississippi River
* 1839 - The Slave rebellion of Amistad happened on July 1
* 1939 –Spanish Civil War ended (April 1) and World War II began in Europe 6 months later (September 1)
* 1939 - The Philadelphia Story, (one of my favorite movies,) debuted March 26 at the Shubert Theater in New York City.
* 1939 – Batman was created by Bob Kane

Sunday, April 7, 1968 - on this day 39 years ago:
- It was Palm Sunday
- It was a national day of mourning for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Motor racing world champion Jim Clark was killed in a car crash during a race.
- Janis Jopin played a concert with Big Brother, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop billed as a wake for Martin Luther King, Jr. at Generation in New York City
- President Johnson signed an executive order to send federal troops to quell riots in Baltimore. (Also check out the President's Daily Diary: April 7, 1968 – What a day!)

Other random facts about 39:
* Presidential Decision Directive 39 (PDD 39) is the US policy on Counterterrorism
* 39 Second Single is a blog about “dating stories so bad they must be true”
* The Roman numeral 39 is XXXIX
* Pier 39 is a big attraction in San Francisco’s Bay Area – it even has sea lions
* "The 39 Steps" is a Hitchcock movie in which the main character is handcuffed to the girl who double-crossed him
* Renee Zellweger is currently making a movie called "Case 39", due out in August ’07, in which she plays a social worker who fights to save a girl from her abusive parents
* Genesis 39 is the chapter in which Joseph, having been sold by his brothers into slavery, becomes very rich and successful


OK, now I feel better! :)

JibJab - 2006 in Review

OK, it's April already - so apparently I'm a little slow - but it's still funny.

Check out JibJab's latest!

Proud Mama

So it turns out that my lovely daughter was accepted to 7 of the 9 schools she applied to - including Columbia and Penn. Wahoo!!! But now she has to choose between them... (Yeah, nice problem to have! ;) She was accepted to Penn, Columbia, Macalester, George Washington (GW), American, Rollins and Whittier.

I have been bragging ridiculously!

Conveniently, both of the Ivies have offered to pay to fly her out to visit - but at certain times that are not congruent and thus involve her being away from school for several days. So we're trying to figure out how to fit trips to NYC and Philly between her play performances, debutante rehearsals (don't ask) and homework...

It's interesting, because I never went through any of this myself - I was dead-set on the U of MN and that's where I went. But I do remember how excited I was to arrive there, how much I loved the campus, dorm life, even classes... and I want all that for her! With the choices in front of her, there is no doubt that she'll get it.

Again, nice problem to have, I know. I'll shut up now.

Lit Quiz

Inspired by a guessing game on the Sheila Variations:

Here are the first lines of some of my favorite novels – try to match as many as you can! (And go read any that you haven't already! :)

THE NOVELS:
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood – Rebecca Wells
Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years – Sarah L Delaney and A Elizabeth Delaney
The House on Mango Street – Sandra Cisneros
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan
Much Ado About Nothing – William Shakespeare
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
Pride & Prejudice – Jane Austin
The Red Tent – Anita Diamant
The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
Sula – Toni Morrison
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water – Michael Dorris

FIRST LINES:
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

We didn’t always live on Mango Street.

I learn in this letter than Don Pedro of Aragon comes this night to Messina.

At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin.

I sit on the bed at a crooked angle, one foot on the floor, my hip against the tent of mom’s legs, my elbows on the hospital table.

Bessie and I have been together since time began, or so it seems.

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

We have been lost to each other for so long.

The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum.

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.

A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: “Allez vous-en!”

Sidda is a girl again in the hot heart of Louisiana, the bayou world of Catholic saints and voodoo queens.

“What you looking at me for? I didn’t come to stay…”

In that place, where they tore the nightshade and blackberry patches from their roots to make room for the Medallion City Golf Course, where there was once a neighborhood.

W.W.G.W.B.D?

And another - read it all & laugh out loud - from Wellington Grey:

What Would George W Bush Do?

Metaphor

Email story I received recently from a friend serving in Iraq:

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hanging on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived each day only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream... "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?"

"That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Of course, like many forwarded emails, this story came with a cheesy spell-it-out-in-case-you’re-stupid final paragraph, which I have deleted. All I can say is:

Perspective!

On Americans

More fun stuff from WellingtonGrey.net!

Of Angels, Monkeys, and Fat Men...

DNA Ancestry Project

When my daughter first suggested that she get her DNA tested to find out her real ancestry, I expected it to cost thousands of dollars. DNA testing just doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would be cheap!

It turns out the DNA Ancestry Project, run by Genebase, will send you a test kit to do either maternal or paternal lineage for only $118! So of course we ordered two. What's even better is that the test is a simple mouth swab - no needles, no blood. Just rub a little swab on the inside of your cheek for 15 seconds, send it off, and log in online to get results.

Check it out at Genebase

One bummer is that paternal lineage can only be tested on men - women don't have the Y chromosome needed - but my brother can test & his results will apply to me as well.

In addition to getting our own info, the website has a ton of cool info about migration patterns of early peoples and how we fit into the big picture of the global population! I've known since I was a kid that my ancestry is Swedish & English on dad's side, and mostly German with a little Welsh on my mom's - but I think it'll be interesting to see what else might be in the mix! And my daughter knows she's Somali, but nothing beyond that! Is there any Italian in there? Ethiopian? Who knows?

Glad I Studied!

A chicken-and-egg question:
Does one's GRE score lead to success or failure in life, or does one's life lead to success or failure on the test?

According to researchers at the U of M, an extensive study has shown that entrance exams are, in fact, the best predictor of future success - even better than prior student success.

Check it out on the U of MN website

According to the study, test scores are actually a better predictor of grad-school success than any other measure, including undergraduate performance. This is apparently true from law school to med school to PhD programs like mine. The U article doesn't speculate as to WHY this is true (and the full Science magazine article is only available online to subscribers) but I think it's interesting to ponder...

My GRE score was a mixed bag - very high verbal & writing, stinky math. (Ironically, just like my daughter's SAT!) So what does that tell you? I'll do well in life when I need to talk, but not when I need to calculate? Hmm...

I do suspect that there is something about being a good problem solver on tests that relates to being a good problem solver in life - and which would then lead to success in general. Beyond that...?

Other ideas?

Yet Another Definition of Gen X

From a book called "Retiring the Generation Gap" by Jennifer J Deal:

Silent Generation: born 1925-1945
Early Boomers: b 1946-1954
Late Boomers: b 1955-1963
Early Xers: b 1964-1976
Late Xers: b 1977-1986

My friend Mitch will be happy because he likes to think that he's not a Boomer even though most definitions put '64 in the Boomer range. ;)

This is the first time I've seen Boomers & Xers broken into separate "early" and "late" groups - not sure yet what differences there are between those groups - have to read the book!

Well Done, Maturi!

So the Gopher AD that we weren't so impressed with 6 months ago has redeemed himself, and then some! (No wonder he looks the most excited in the picture!)

First, the hiring of Tim Brewster as football coach to replace Glen Mason - a guy the staff will actually be able to stand working with - and now landing legend Tubby Smith from Kentucky to replace Dan Monson as basketball coach! Gopher fans have not had a great year this year (yes, the wresting team came out champions, but even hockey is not the gorilla is once was) so this is all very welcome news.

"Bong Hits 4 Jesus" - and Chris Stwart

I was amused to find myself on the side of Judge Samuel Alito in a case that is currently being heard by the supreme court. Wouldn't have expected that!

Check out the case: Bong HIts 4 Jesus

Apparently, back in '02 when the Olympic torch was coming through Juneau Alaska, kids were let out of school to watch. A kid held up a giant banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus", the principal grabbed it & suspended him, he sued, and the case has made its way through the courts over the years right up to the supremes.

Free speech vs. anti-drugs... what's a principal to do???

I laughed at Ruth Bader Ginsburg's comment that "It isn't clear that this is 'Smoke Pot.' " Really? What else does "bong hit" refer to in English?

But Alito, of all people, made a good point: "I find that a very, very disturbing argument because schools have and they can define their educational mission so broadly that they can suppress all sorts of political speech and speech expressing fundamental values of the students, under the banner of getting rid of speech that's inconsistent with educational missions."

Bottom line: it was settled by the Supreme Court in '69 that "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Political speech - pro-drug or otherwise - doesn't have to be allowed to disrupt learning, but if the kid is standing outside he's hardly disrupting classes, so it seems to me that taking the banner away is probably enough. Maybe assign him a detention or something, but a 10-day suspension? Good greif.

In an ironically related StarTribune article, new school board member Chris Stewart is promoting law-and-order in the schools, and he has my FULL support. I've watched the Mpls schools put up with WAY more disruptive behavior with consequences no where near a 10-day suspension, and I'm pretty tired of it.

And he had a great quote, when asked about the "disproportionate suspension of black male students". His response - and Stewart is black - was to assert that "the number of kids we suspend is proportionate to the kids who are committing suspendable offenses." Actually, there are a lot more offenses than suspensions, but his point is well taken! He calls for an "intracultural conversation in the African-American community" because, in addition to teaching their kids how to sit down & attempt to learn, families also need to consider that: "Schools don't make teens have babies, or stop black children from having books in their homes." (duh)

Thank you, Chris Stewart. It's about time someone stepped up to that issue in this town.

Question of the Day

from “I’m Not a Feminist, But…”:

If women get raped because they ask for it, why don’t they get equal pay, equal opportunities, and other things they ask for?

Philanthropy for Newspapers?

I haven’t been able to articulate why I’m not comfortable with the idea of real newspapers giving over to online news, but Fast Company makes the point that a very real problem in front of us is the online companies inability to fund serious investigative journalism – so we should beware the demise of “old media” before “new media” is ready & able to take over!

Fast Company proposes a solution: treat newspapers the way we treat other organizations that serve a public good: form a foundation to solicit donations to support it. Like the Met Opera in NY, the NYTimes could be supported the same way.

Interesting idea!

Gretzky on Hockey... and Life

“I go where the puck is going to be, not where it is.”
- Wayne Gretzky

Good advice in so many arenas.

Post from St Paul

(written Friday, posted Sunday - no internet access at the convention)

I am sitting in a huge hall at RiverCenter listening to candidate speeches at the state teachers union convention. Every officer position is up this year, with no incumbents running. Interesting year!

Speeches are short and are usually the most interesting part of the agenda, but I am still compelled to multi-task. I have a folder of student essays to score, a paper to finish for a grad class, and of course this post to write.

There are several candidates for state union leadership positions who are clearly Gen X. Of course, the older I get, the more logical that gets, but it’s still nice to see. :) Tom Dooher, the candidate we’re supporting for President, is Gen X. Mary Cathryn Ricker, the Gen X St Paul teachers union president I wrote about a couple months ago, gave a very polished speech. (You wouldn’t guess she’s younger than me!) Anne Lewerenz, from Minneapolis, is another dynamic Gen X leader running for Governing Board. There are well over 500 delegates here, so it’s a kick to see our generation – supposedly so disinclined toward institutional involvement - leading such a large group!

Speeches continue…
Worst line of the night: “I love issues.” (Good grief. As I tell my students: think first, then speak.)

Best line: “Don’t cry because it’s over… smile because it happened.”

3 down, 6 to go...

Waiting to see if your kid gets accepted to the college of her choice may not be an activity many Gen-X parents are engaged in this month, but I am!

My lovely daughter has been accepted to three of the nine colleges to which she applied - with three weeks left of waiting to hear from the other six! A big THANK YOU from mom to the schools that let her know before April 1 that they want her - it takes some of the pressure off...

I was happy to hear her tell a friend today that, given the choices in front of her so far - American, Whittier and Rollins - she would probably end up in DC. Yay! I am not excited about her going off to a city in which I know no one - it's hard enough not to be there myself! But if she lands in DC, she'll be in a place where I have friends & family - a nice security net. Still waiting to hear from Georgetown and GW, but American is a good start.

Of course she has NO interest in mom's alma matter - the U of MN - and she only applied to one school in Minnesota, so very slim chance that she ends up here. Hence my concern for where she DOES land. (So far, so good... just pray for patience for us as we wait for news. :)

Are Gen-X parents - with their long-held distruct of anything institutional - be pushing their kids to college the way our parents pushed us? I hope so! College attendance is at its highest rate ever in America - despite ridiculously rising tuition. Thankfully, more and more schools are following Harvard's lead with "need-blind" acceptance, meaning they will accept kids based on merit, and then provide whatever financial aide the kid needs.

I'm not sure I'm in total agreement with Bill Clinton's notion that ALL American kids should go to college, but to my mind, access is everything. That my kid CAN is what matters in the end.

Ellison Abroad, Rice Ascending

I was glad to read the other day that the State Department is working with Rep Keith Ellison to promote globally the fact that we now have a Muslim Congressman. Although Ellison's communications director apparently warned them that the Congressman & the Administration "don't agree on much," the State Department folks (Rice?) seem to have the sense to see beyond that.

Check out the article here

Heaven knows this administration has done so much to destroy America's image abroad, that if this is the best they can do for bridge-building, than I'm all for it.

In another, possibly related story, John Heilemann of New York mag puts forth the possibility that Condoleeza Rice is taking over from a deflated Dick Cheney as the pilot on US foreign policy - at least for the moment. He notes: "With the Middle East poised on a razor’s edge, it’s sobering to realize that the difference between bedlam and stability—between a shooting war with Iran and a diplomatic solution—may be determined by office politics. But, I suppose, it was ever thus." Although he notes that Cheney is far from down & out, Rice does seem to have the upper hand right now, at least on Iran. With any luck, that means diplomacy may yet win the day.

At least she doesn't buy Netanyahu's analogy of Iran to Germany in '38...

Wish I Was This Articulate

Here's another writer more articulate than I am on the subject of the achievement gap and issues with the schools... this time, my colleague & friend John Cook, writing in the StarTribune today:

His major point: "We have to admit that the achievement gap is not just an educational problem. Rather, it is a byproduct of America's socio-economic, cultural, family and racial crises."

He goes on to illustrate:

"If all kids could attend the school of their choice, there'd still be an achievement gap; pulling some students out of low-performing schools and placing them into so-called "good schools" never addresses the core reasons so many African-American students struggle in the first place. If all schools had unlimited financial resources, there'd still be an achievement gap due to America's unresolved issues of race and class. These factors contribute to poor academic performance, crime, generational poverty and societal prejudice that, in turn, perpetuate the achievement gap.

If all educators had access to world-class staff development and taught the most effective curricula, there'd still be an achievement gap; the breakdown of the black family has reaped economic, social and academic consequences that impede academic progress. If every black child began first grade prepared to learn, there'd still be an achievement gap because not all educators believe black students are capable of learning on par with their white counterparts. Surely, low societal and academic expectations harm student learning."

Thank you! This doesn't let us off the hook - it's still true that the government has ways of holding schools accountable, but not of holding families accountable - but it puts it all in perspective. Yes, we need to have the best curriculum & instruction, the best teachers, and we need to believe in each one of our kids.

Spring Lake Park's school district has a motto: "High Standards for All. High Achievement for All. No excuses." I think that's critical - pointing the finger at the societal and cultural factors that hold our kids back is NOT going to help us progress. But engaging with those factors WILL help us progress, and that's what I call on Dan Samuels and our other critics to do.

Thank You, David Brooks!

Finally, someone articulate explains the “schools can’t do it all” issue that I’ve been struggling with for the last couple of months – David Brooks’ column “A Critique of Pure Reason in Education” published in the NY Times 3/1 and the Strib today. (Unfortunately you have to be a NYT subscriber to read it online – or go buy today’s Strib.)

I’ve been frustrated with Don Samuels & a hundred other people blaming the schools for the poor achievement of kids who come to us with enormous deficits. At some point, the finger has to be pointed at the forces creating the deficits – which makes everyone squeamish because of the implication of bad parenting. Brooks takes a constructive tack and simply proposes that government must rethink its role and invest not just in better early-ed, but in more programs like Circle of Security and Nurse-Family Partnership which help new mothers do the things we know kids need from birth on.

Brooks notes that Martha Farah’s research at Penn has been pretty clear about come of the deficits that poverty brings:
* Students who do not feel emotionally safe tend not to develop good memories (good for
coping, bad for school)
* Students from less stimulation environments have much smaller vocabularies and worse language skills

Conversely, children from attentive, attuned parenting relationships do better in school an beyond. While this may be no surprise to anyone in education, it focuses our attention on the need to intervene before such problems take root.

And there are ways to do that, if we are willing to put the child’s right to good mental health before the family’s right to privacy. Hmm…

I suppose conservatives would say that what goes on in the household is none of government’s business, and in a way, they would be right.

But if we are committed to the education of all Americans – and, supposedly, we are – than we need to extend that commitment to acknowledge, as Brooks puts it:

“…Education is a cumulative process that begins at the dawn of life and builds early in life as children learn how to learn…”
and
“…we have to get over the definition of education as something that takes place in schools between the hours of 8 and 3, between the months of September and June, and between the ages of 5 and 18.”

Brooks challenges the current crop of presidential candidates to embrace the need to go beyond fixing schools to fixing the "powerful social trends" that put kids at a disadvantage.

Thank you!!!

Dissertation Blues

I didn't go back to grad school for the research... and now I'm at the point at which I have to DECIDE on a dissertation topic - which is harder (at least for me) than it sounds! There are lots of things I could pursue with interest, but nothing that has me jazzed yet. I've been waiting for the lightening bolt to strike and so far, no luck!

Possibilities:
* Alternative schools - Case study of alternative school movement (to/from reg schools)
* Resilience – as nurtured by specific high school programs or features – interview Wallin scholars for info on what worked for them
* Charter Schools in MN – what’s working?
* Demographic issues w/ student loss from MPS district – what are families’ experiences w/ system ?
* Participatory/distributed leadership – what does it mean? What do principals think about it? Management theory says "do it" – how do principals interpret that? What does site-based management and/or shared decision-making look like in MPS? St Paul?
* Role of culture - dissonance between school culture, home culture, neighborhood culture - extent to which the school can be a different culture & still be successful - extent to which home & neighborhood cultures have been tapped for instructional strategies - impact on the achievement gap
* Drop-out prevention/alternatives to social promotion & retention
* Principal Evaluation – What’s being done? What do people think about it?
* Teacher evaluation – what would people like? What is principal’s role?

My advisor has challenged me to have not just a topic but a research question nailed by June - much to consider!

Romeo Shops - with a Little Help from a Friend

This is so great! Websites designed for each gender to shop for the other, with the assumption that left to their own devices, they won't do as well... and created by Minneapolis-based Gen-Xer Michelle Courtright Bjork.

www.romeoshops.com - for guys looking to buy gifts for the girls
and
www.julietshops.com - vice versa

Actually, the Juliet Shops site is better - full of fun, creative things for guys that aren't readily available elswhere. The Romeo site had a lot of jewelry & more obvious stuff - but also some cool & creative ideas.

I don't think this kind of thing offends Gen X - we know we're equal, and are too busy to spend hours shopping - we appreciate the help. I loved the guy stuff on the Juliet site & had three things in my cart within 10 minutes. Outstanding.

The Bull$#!* Begins

Whatever happened to honest democracy - the idea that real debate about social issues was a good thing, and may the best candidate win?

In an effort to stop Hillary Clinton from winning the presidency, a team of Clinton-haters has a creative idea: make an anti-Hillary movie. Doesn't have to be accurate to hurt her at the polls...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/25/whill25.xml

Also this week, Taylor Marsh blogs for HuffPost about an anti-Clinton flyer she found on her car - purporting to be from Dems about why Hillary "can't win" and thus Dems should go for other candidates, but of course full of inaccuracies and having no attribution anywhere on the flyer. Marsh doesn't believe it came from Dems at all.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/taylor-marsh/hillary-hit-piece_b_42018.html

The conventional wisdom in DC is apparently not only that she CAN win, but that Republicans are already shaking in their boots. We shall see.

Oh, the Irony

I finally read the Mpls St Paul mag article about Mpls City Council Member Don Samuels that launched the whole "burn it down" controversy, and I'm mystified. http://www.mspmag.com/features/features/50761.asp

On just about every other topic, it seems the man gets it. He challenges the community to help itself, to help each other - and community leaders to walk their talk. I have been saying for the last couple weeks "I will share his outrage - when he points his finger at those who are abusing our children, and that's not the schools." Ironically, if the article is to be believed, he is mostly pointing fingers in the right direction.

Why, then, his ignorance about the schools?

Is it simply ignorance, taking inaccurate statistics to make assumptions that lead to politically convenient positions? School-bashing has been trendy since Bush took office, so go along & you don't look too liberal?

In fact, the article named support of public education a "white sacred cow" - which in this state it clearly is NOT. (At least not anymore - we're over 30 years past the Minnesota Miracle. See http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/18public.html) I wish the education of all American children was sacred to all Americans...

Samuels didn't give any reason in the article as to why he would dismiss the entire school system with: "Get rid of the damn thing! It hasn’t worked!” beyond the widely-quoted but still wrong statistic about black male graduation rates. I guess that is the mystifying part - what does he really believe about us?

Despite all the bad press, great things are still happening every day in all of the Minneapolis schools. Timothy J. O'Brien, an editorial letter-writer from Minneapolis made a great point in the Strib the other day in response to Samuels' call for vouchers:

SCHOOL CHOICE: Vouchers to the rescue
I've always been strongly against school vouchers. However, after reading Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels remarks, Nick Coleman's columns and Mitch Pearlstein's Feb. 21 Counterpoint, I now see vouchers as the only way for Minneapolis public schools, which my three adult children attended, to be saved.

However, I have some restrictions on how the vouchers will be dispensed. If you missed school five or more days in a semester, you get a voucher; if you acted out in class more than twice in a semester, you get a voucher; if you fail to do your homework on a timely basis, you get a voucher; if you were arrested for anything anytime, you get a voucher.

Now, after all of the just voucher recipients are warmly accepted into the schools of their choice, the remaining students -- the ones who attend every day, act appropriately, are prepared and law-abiding -- will excel as never before and the voucher system will be a huge success. I'm sure all of the charter and private schools will accept these new students with open arms.

That's the bottom line that folks don't mention when KIPP schools and other successful charters are touted as the magic bullet: they are full of kids whose parents had the good sense to send them there. Imagine if all the kids in the Minneapolis Public School had parents who were involved at the level that KIPP parents are...

Even so, the sins of the parents should not hold back their kids. I've always maintained that my daughter's elite private school has only two things that my public school needs: over $20,000 per kid, and the ability to kick out anyone they don't want. Give us those two things in the Minneapolis Public Schools and our results will match theirs in no time.

Want something to be outraged about, Mr. Samuels? How about the fact that no one with power in this state has any interest in that idea?

Watching and waiting...

Watching the '08 presidential race shape up has been interesting so far. Folks may not realize there are as many old white men in the race as there are, given the attention that Clinton & Obama are getting!

I would love to support Obama - just because he's young and enthusiastic! But he knows less about the workings of Washington (and world politics) than Bush Jr did, and relying on experienced but less accountable advisers is not my first choice after the last 6 years of disaster! And my bet is that at some point he will crash hard - if only because that's what the media does to celebrities in this day & age. He might be perfect, but at whatever point the media gets sick of him, a cousin's financial troubles could bring him down. (And remember - given what Minnesota went through with the Ellison/Lee/Fine campaign, we know there are a lot of folks who like to think they'd support a candidate of color, but won't when it comes down to it.)

Similarly, it is sociologically fascinating to watch how people react to Clinton's candidacy. I think it's revealing of people's views on society in general. Optimists love her; pessimists say she can't win. Progressives who embrace gender equality embrace her; folks who prefer tradition (of whatever they're comfortable with) prefer more traditional candidates.

I suspect a significant generational difference in support for her too, only not the "younger folks more progressive, older folks more traditional" dynamic we've come to expect. In this case, I think Boomer women will vote for Clinton hands-down, but Gen X women will be a little more cautious. Ironically, I think because our generation is more open to a female candidate, we are less inclined to vote for Hillary because she's female. (Gen Y? Not sure. We'll see!)

Food for thought...

Science & Faith Flowcharts

Outstanding!

http://www.wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/archive/2007-01-15%20--%20science%20vs%20faith.png

A New Frontier

New York Magazine begins its article with this on the cover:
"I am not interested in privacy. Online, I reveal everything - my break ups, by bank balance, my breakfast cereal, my body. My parents call it shameless. I call it freedom."

I think your reaction to that statement will tell you where you fall in the newest generational controversy - how much of one's life to reveal on the Internet.

As a 30-something professional, I am, of course, very careful what I share here and elsewhere. Although I like having a space through which to reach both friends and strangers, I am conscious that anyone - prospective employers, my ex-husband's new wife - can find it. Although my personal and professional selves are largely integrated (what you see is pretty much what you get!) I am still sensitive that my audience would be anyone.

And there are aspects of this new wave that are unimpressive - witness reality TV. As Lakshmi Chaudhry explains in the current issue of The Nation: "When it is more important to be seen than to be talented, it is hardly surprising that the less gifted among us are willing to fart our way into the spotlight."

However, when I imagine myself at 19 with the technology available today, I am sure that my very entertaining college life would have been chronicled extensively! I have huge photo albums (yes, we took pictures at parties!) and long journals from every period of my life. I can absolutely see the attraction young people have to things like MySpace, Flicker and Blogspot.

The article asks the question: what will be the results of all this? Will these young people grow up and regret putting themselves out there so raw? Or will they love having a chronicle of their lives? It also notes one important aspect culturally: we are losing much of our privacy in this country post-9/11 anyway - maybe it's better to adjust our attitudes & embrace living publicly than to fret over things we don't seem to be able to control anymore.

As they point out: "Every street in New York has a surveillance camera. Each time you swipe your debit card or use your MetroCard, that transaction is tracked. Your employer owns your emails. The NSA owns your phone calls. Your life is being lived in public whether you choose to acknowledge it or not."

Maybe the kids are on to something.

Read the article: http://nymag.com/news/features/27341/index.html?imw=Y

It's Like Anybody

I was both amused and annoyed at Randy Foye's comment in the paper today about why he was involved in a fight that led to him receiving a disorderly conduct citation from police. Yes, he's a professional athlete and maybe I should bow to stereotype and not expect any better from someone whose cousins have to pull off the road when they argue so they can get out & have a fist fight... but I still take issue with it.

When asked what in the world a Timberwolves starter was doing in such a situation, his response included: "...you have family members around you and they're arguing... my family, they didn't mean to do it. It's like anybody, your family gets into it and you try to be the peacekeeper..." (See the full quote & story at http://www.startribune.com/511/story/997479.html)

Sorry, my family doesn't "get into it" that way.

Randy Foye seems to share an idea that many of my students from poverty have, which is that dysfunctional behavior like that is normal. That when cousins argue, getting so angry that you want to hit each other is normal. That acting on it by getting out of the car to fight is normal. That being in a car together at 2:30 in the morning - probably not all sober - is normal.

Randy Foye didn't say it was an unusual incident in his experience. He didn't say he was surprised at what happened. He said "It's like anybody..."

Not me.

More Hot Air from Samuels Fans the Flames

Stark contract between the Strib's editorial yesterday on the firestorm unleashed by Don Samuel's cry to burn down North HS and the city council member's own column on the subject in the paper today:
Editorial: http://www.startribune.com/561/story/990843.html
Samuels: http://www.startribune.com/562/story/992944.html

What's most striking to me is that Samuels is still giving a one-note answer: fix the schools. Nothing about fixing the kids, families, neighborhoods, housing policies, health care policies, education funding or juvenile justice system, all of which are players in this drama as well.

Now Samuels wants to bring "outstanding educators" from around the nation to Minneapolis this spring to teach us what we apparently don't know. Give me a break. He doesn't seem to have a clue what we ARE doing already. Come spend some time in the schools, Mr. Samuels, then we'll talk. (Your kids may never darken our doorways, but as an elected official, you should.)

It's my opinion that there is nothing new under the sun. Educators know what works, and what doesn't. As one of my colleagues once quipped: "Want to solve all the problems in the schools? Staff at 3:1." Ha ha ha. (My school staffed this year at 38:1, if you're not an educator & didn't get it. That means average classes of 38 kids with one teacher.) We simply don't have the resources needed to work the miracles asked of us. The people of Minnesota need to choose to pay for the results they want.

At least the Strib's editorial staff had the sense to speak to the larger issues affecting schools: "Turning all of that around is a lot to ask of the public schools, especially in light of the funding cuts forced on education, police and social services, and the persistence of a destructive popular culture that celebrates failure, glorifies crime and disrespects academic achievement." BINGO.

The editorial goes on to point out: "Mayor R.T. Rybak has it right when he routinely lists the city's two most basic problems: 'Too many kids raising themselves, and too many kids having kids.'" DUH.

In the end, Samuels asks, rightly, "Why aren't more people pushed beyond the boundaries of politeness and rational discourse - shouldn't this make us all crazy?" Right question - wrong topic. Go back up a paragraph to the mayor's quote and direct your anger where it belongs. We in the schools are doing God's work and having great success. Not 100%? Come fight WITH us, not against us.

Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself

I just added English Al-Jazeera to my list of links. I did it because when I stumbled on it - from the Baghdad Burning site - I thought it was cool to see how other folks view the world. I was entertained that they had the Superbowl right on the front page of the site.

Then I thought - should I do that? What if the hunt for terrorists goes so far as to look for people with such connections?

Then I thought - LORD HAVE MERCY - this is America! Yes, we persecute our own with the best of them, but heaven forbid I should ever censor myself because I'm afraid of a witch-hunt. (I'll censor myself for professional or personal reasons, but hopefully never political!!!) And let me never be in the crowd that didn't speak up because it wasn't me they were coming for!

So I have added Al-Jazeera BECAUSE if this administration gets even crazier and starts coming for folks like me who do simple things like that, I'll be ready to stand on principle. My daughter is Muslim and I will look at Al-Jazeera is I darn well feel like it. You should go check it out just to say you did.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/55ABE840-AC30-41D2-BDC9-06BBE2A36665.htm#

Ranting

A colleague told me yesterday that a discussion in his 12th grade class about homelessness turned personal as students started to share their own stories: four different kids told stories of being homeless because parents were absent, or on drugs, or just didn't have any money... and most of the rest of the class knew someone in similar circumstances.

One boy said that he had a job last year through which he made the most money in his family - but after losing that job felt he "had" to go back to crime to survive... another girl said she'd rather be homeless than with her abusive family... a third student said he was "sort of" homeless since although he has no parents, his aunt helps him out...

And who gets blamed when these kids don't graduate on time???

I absolutely believe that those of us in the schools need to do EVERYTHING we can - and then some - to ensure that kids have access to the knowledge & skills they need to be successful. I also believe that when they come to us unmotivated, it IS our job to try to motive them.

But that's why we do as well as we do. To do better, our kids need resources - better medical care, stable housing, support for families... Schools have had counseling & social work budgets slashed to ribbons in the last 5 years - but if we can't provide these services, then who will?

In an ideal world, teachers would be paid to do things like call home - or even visit parents at home - that would help our kids. But I routinely spend about 10 hours a week unpaid just on curriculum and assessment - my own daughter needs some of my time too.

Yay, Tony Dungy!

The first black coach to win a Super Bowl is a former Gopher - pretty cool! :)

I know that some Gopher fans were hoping the Colts would lose much earlier in the playoff season this year so maybe Tony Dungy would consider taking over the U of MN football program from fired Coach Mason, but no luck. Our loss is Indiana's gain.

Fun Tony Dungy trivia: he is the first NFL head coach to defeat all 32 NFL teams.

See more Dungy trivia at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Dungy - I was amused to find that it had already been updated to include the Super Bowl win only an hour after the game was over!

Burn What???

I’m disgusted with Don Samuels for suggesting that we should burn down North HS because it’s not successful enough. Of course it's just a metaphor - but his point is NOT well taken here.
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/977085.html

That school is in the middle of the most dangerous neighborhood in the state – an oasis of calm where students feel safer than anywhere else – but Samuels, who represents that neighborhood on the city council, has the gall to suggest that it’s the school’s fault those kids aren’t doing BETTER academically. With a 70+% graduation rate, I say they’re doing DARN WELL given what few assets some of those kids come to school with!

The StarTribune provided some context last week - Minnesota ranks 8th in the nation in our rate of black homicide victims. http://www.startribune.com/467/story/968247.html

When will society stop expecting the schools to raise the children? I like to think of myself as a good liberal, but I have HAD IT with abused, violent, stressed and/or scarred children coming to school and (duh) doing poorly, then lawmakers blaming the teachers and/or the school system for their failure. It's not right.

Samuels is reported to be a voucher fan - what a surprise.

Molly Ivins RIP

Molly Ivins died of cancer on Wednesday and it’s taken me three days to sit down & finish writing about it. Such a huge loss, to journalism and to America. It takes time to digest.

Few people have both inspired and entertained me more. I love her work and I love her attitude. Expressing outrage with humor is a unique skill – one that I don’t possess – but one that I admire. I am not into celebrity-worship, but she is truly a hero to me.

The Strib yesterday had an example of typical Ivins, talking about the Texas legislators she often pilloried: “When I would denounce some sorry sumbitch, I would courageously prepare myself to be horsewhipped at the least. All the ever happened was, I’d see the sumbitch in the capitol the next day, he’d beam, spread his arms, and say, ‘Baby! Yew put mah name in yore paper!’”

I remember hearing her speak at some fancy dinner probably a decade ago, and loving every minute of it. She speaks truth on serious topics, but always with humor. I still have her autograph somewhere.

In her honor, I will try to write more often in 2007! Check out her most recent columns (click a choice under her picture):

http://www.creators.com/opinion/molly-ivins.html?columnsName=miv

She's In!

Although some people have said it would make more sense for Hillary Clinton to stay in the Senate and be powerful there for the next few decades (as opposed to be president for 8 years & then retire and do what?) I've had a feeling for quite a while that she was going to run, and today it's official.

I've been excited by the prospect of a Hillary Clinton candidacy for years - and I don't believe for a second that she "can't" win. As pollster Mark Penn said, "Of course she can."

I absolutely believe that the extent to which people support her is the extent to which they believe women are really equal to men. I will be very interested to see how this race shakes out generationally - will younger voters be more progressive, more willing to back a candidate with extensive experience, knowledge and skills, despite the fact that she's female? Or will the core of Hillary's support come from the generation that did the heavy lifting on women's rights in the 70's?

I don't think there will be a ton of people who will vote for her BECAUSE she's female, the way people will vote for Barak Obama because he's black. With Hillary, there is no "all other things being equal" comparison because no one else in the race comes close to her in terms of experience or expertise. It's not like there are 3 candidates who are all great, so then you pick the female just for progress.

Think about it - leaders around the globe know and respect her. No one else in the country - save Bill Clinton - could ascend to the presidency with as much global clout as she has right now, and we know that's something the presidency is desperately in need of. She is not one of the crowd in this race - there is Hillary, and then there is the crowd.

As she said in her announcement video: "I have a feeling it will be very interesting." No doubt! :)

Check it out: http://www.hillaryclinton.com

Untitled

Last week, driving a student home after a school event, I asked which street I should take from where we were, as in – which one is more direct & has fewer stop signs? He replied: “I don’t know, I don’t walk around here.”

Tonight, at another school event, I started to roll my eyes at one more student-written song about the tough street life, and had a realization… if I get sick of hearing poems, songs & stories about the “thug life” and such, how much more must my students be sick of living it?!?!?

The More Things Change...

I enjoyed an interesting conversation this weekend at the DFL inaugural ball with Mary Cathryn Ricker, the current 30-something president of the St Paul Federation of Teachers, and Liz Rose, the daughter of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers past president Bob Rose.

Listening to stories of the past and of the future, I was struck by the juxtaposition of old-school and contemporary politics. It sounds like Mary Cathryn relied primarily on the tried-but-true method of actually going out to schools & meeting with teachers to introduce herself and ask for their vote. Although she was up against two older, more experienced (male) opponents, she won just by getting her ideas and her self out there. I think it's great that such old-school politics worked to elect the younger candidate. (The more things change... the more they stay the same... :)

The pundits are saying that the 2008 presidential campaign will involve the Internet and other new ways of reaching voters more than ever before - it will be interesting to see what the results of that shift will be!

This Isn't China... Right?

"The connection was refused when attempting to contact www.unitedforpeace.org"

My browser is working fine - I can surf quickly to different sites - EXCEPT the one with info about the big peace march in Washington planned for later this month.

I'm no conspiracy theorist - but I think it's amusing that I am not able to access a government-protest site.

What's that about?

Head for DC - Jan 27

There is a peace march scheduled for Saturday, Jan 27 in Washington DC.

Not sure why winter is the best time to have a huge outdoor rally, but I'm not on the planning committee, so no one asked me! (ha ha) Of course DC isn't as cold as MN in January, so maybe it's not a concern.

I have to admit I'm torn. On the one hand, Id' love to go - just for the history-making aspect of it. It would be a cool experience for my 18-year-old daughter. But while other major marches have had influencing the president (or congress) as their goal - hence doing it in DC - this administration won't listen to Americans, and both houses of Congress are now under new leadership, so I don't see what's going to change in policy because of thousands of folks marching on the Mall.

And I'm not a cynic, I swear! :)

Bangkok, Berlin, Chile, Spain…

When I first started writing this blog, I loved to hit the “next blog” link at the top and surf randomly through the other blogs. Many are lame, but enough are interesting to make it worth the time…

I haven’t tried it in months, but I did today, and was surprised at how many of the blogs are in other languages! It feels like a change from just a year ago, and that’s intriguing to me. Several were in languages I didn’t even recognize, sad to say!

It makes the world feel a little smaller, in a good way.

University Upgrade

The StarTribune says today that it's "more than a football stadium" and I suppose they are right. The University of MN is not only building a new stadium - back on campus where it belongs - but this is part of building a better university for the next century.

http://www.startribune.com/561/story/918627.html

It's hard while paying $2,000 per class to swallow some of the spiffy new improvements to campus (and the millions that the fired football & basketball coaches just walked way with) but overall I do believe that excellence begets excellence, and attitude is everything! I appreciate that President Bruiniks has an optimistic vision for the U of MN's future and is making positive things happen.

I wonder where Gen X is in all this. Grad students are mostly commuters with careers and lives off-campus. How many 30- or 40-year-olds were at the last Gopher football game? I went to a Gopher hockey game last week & was impressed by how many 20-year-olds were there, but otherwise felt surrounded by older folks. If nothing else, we're paying a larger share of taxes every year - are we paying attention?

Holla Back!

Just discovered a fun new website - HollaBack NYC, created to post pictures of street harassers, since there isn't really much else that can be done. Gotta love this as a response to sexual harassment - their motto is "If you can't slap 'em, snap 'em!"

http://www.hollabacknyc.blogspot.com/

This site was created as a way to empower women who are victims of street harassment - a problem that is of course much harder to address that workplace harassment. Want to slap the harasser, but know that's not a good idea? Using a cell phone camera, take his picture, then send it to the site! The site is an amusing collection of pics and stories about the freaks out there & how women are coping with them.

A user from DC summed up the whole point of it nicely:
"Being called "beautiful" and "sexy" is a compliment when it comes from someone who means it and who you in return find such...not from some random man on the street with half of his teeth missing who's drunk!"

As one of the founders, Emily May, noted:
"When I didn't do anything [to respond to harassment] it didn't feel good, and when I yelled back, it didn't feel good, but now I have a response that genuinely feels good." (from an article in Ms. magazine - summer '06)

BRAVO for both creativity and positivity! :)

Update from Baghdad Burning

New post today from the Girl Blog from Iraq: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

She says:
"You know your country is in trouble when:
* The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI, but abovementioned branch cannot be run from your country.

* The only thing the US and Iran can agree about is the deteriorating state of your nation.

* For every 5 hours of no electricity, you get one hour of public electricity - and then the government announces it's going to cut back on providing that hour.

* People consider themselves lucky if they can actually identify the corpse of the relative that's been missing for two weeks."

Scary.

One thing we - who don't have a war within our own borders - tend not to think about so much is the culture of fear that takes over during war. She says, "There is no compensation for the dense, black cloud of fear that hangs over the head of every Iraqi." We have to admit there is no parallel in America. Our unsafe neighborhoods are heaven compared with most of Iraq. We have no clue...

Check out the website for her full post. The least we can do is pay attention.

If you can't trust Jimmy Stewart...

It gets better! Better than a murderous Santa or religious wing-nuts losing at Christmas (see below) we now have an old FBI memo calling the movie It's a Wonderful Life "communist propaganda" for it's pro-common-man, anti-consumerist message and its portrayal of the banker as a bad guy.

You can read the actual FBI memo (with names blotted out) and some entertaining commentary at: http://www.wisebread.com/fbi-considered-its-a-wonderful-life-communist-propaganda#memo1

Even more interesting, blogger Will Chen writes:
"Perhaps the FBI was (and still is) correct when it said It's a Wonderful Life did not reflect American values. If you don't believe me, try telling your loved ones tonight that they won't be getting a materialistic gift from you, because your love for them already makes them the 'richest man in town!'"

Think about that as you reflect on the "reason for the season"! :)