Charter Schools and Safety

One thing missed in the discussion of how to organize schools, how resources are distributed, and how students are admitted is that parents in large urban areas are often interested in safety, as much or more than test scores.

Charters seem to capitalize on safety as a critical element of the school environment through the self-selection of motivated parents seeking an escape from the before and after school violence that is far too common place, and left unaddressed by schools, since often the violence occurs off of school property, and is also unaddressed by the community, which has no real means to confront bullying, arguments, intimidation, theft, threats, punches, and fights that are an unfortunate part of the school landscape.

So, for some parents charter means safer. That’s a prerequisite for classroom order, student confidence, and the focus on achievement.

While it is not the school’s fault, many public schools are affected by being in a violent sphere, and student performance is affected.

The Ryan Soliloquy

The fun part of Paul Ryan’s soliloquy is his denial: conservative Republicans are masters at denying the elephant in the room–race, as it colors their thinking and breathing about the President, his office, those who wear hoodies, every social service program, and every gathered group of men and women whose minds and motives conservatives read from afar.

In fact, conservatives are so busy denying, they omit examples of black success!

The board chair at Microsoft is black; John W. Thompson. Kenneth Frazier (Merck), Kenneth Chenault (American Express), Roger Ferguson (TIAA-CREF), Don Thompson (McDonald’s) and Ursula Burns (Xerox) are CEOs and some are board chairs of their companies. Isn’t sugar better than vinegar–why not point to success?

The “fixation on race” has long been the Republicans; since the Southern Strategy of Richard Nixon, which appealed to whites to vote on racial terms, to the participation of well known supporters of white power in the recent CPAC convention, Add Michele Bachmann’s (and others!) claim of white guilt as the cause of Obama’s election, the constant litany of race hate on right wing talk radio. 

North Carolina officials admit that the purpose of new restrictions on voting are targeted at blacks who vote Democratic. 

Is this a winning strategy for a party that denies its long, documented history from the 1960s of explicit and coded racial appeals; denying its fixation on race yet using it at every turn to stir anger and fear?

A Russian Neanderthal

Vladimir Putin is an authentic throwback. He used a series of sham excuses and a phony plebiscite to install Russian hegemony over territory that a week ago belonged to Ukraine.

Putin has an astoundingly bold short game, and would play well with Somalian pirates, but obviously he has no long-term plan or goals. He is willing to consign his country permanently to pre-modern status. In his new form of passive military action, troops walk around and take selfies with citizens in the parks. But Russia is surrounded by a circular firing squad of its own making.

Western Europe depends on Russian gas and oil, especially for heating, and the pipelines come right through Ukraine. Ukraine should mine its pipelines—along the Russian border. At the first sign of troop movement, pipelines should be blown up, in calculated rotation, until the Russians back off. Even Putin will not advance empty-handed.

Ukraine should play Russia’s game by Russia’s rules; double down and keeping its pipelines out of enemy hands. If Russia seeks to petition the country, let them take control of a wasteland.

It’s time for the Mel Brooks effect. Ukraine should turn the gun to its own neck. A bold move against Russia’s energy-dependent exports would have teeth and benefits! 

Play Putin by his obsessions. Defeat him by his weaknesses. Since Putin wants to heat up the Cold War, a relic of yesteryear, let his economy grow even colder since he decided to make Crimea a hot spot.

The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea – Ukraine PM Says $37 Billion Went Missing Under Yanukovich

The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea – Ukraine PM Says $37 Billion Went Missing Under Yanukovich.

“I want to report to you – the state treasury has been robbed and is empty,” the acting Ukraine President said before the national assembly voted him in as head of a national unity government.

In addition to the missing $37 billion, Yatseniuk said as much as $70 billion had been sent out of the country during Yanukovich’s three-year rule, although he did not make clear how much of this capital flight was illegal.

(The average salary in Ukraine is $500 a month.)

Obama, the NCAAs, and National Security

So the country can go forward and rate their NCAA tourneys favorites (men’s and women’s) but the President can not? Life is so grave, threats so prominent, that the mere choice of teams, a tradition in this White House that recognizes our tradition of sports is enough to create angst about Presidential priorities?

Perhaps. But a sense of normalcy and balance, a reflection of broad interests is also a comforting assurance–and a positive signal–that the US is not fear mongering or demagoguing, despite Putin’s rants. Let Putin tilt at windmills. I agree with the President’s pick of Michigan State.

I disagree that the image of a puffed war footing will produce better outcomes in the Ukraine, or compel Putin to heel. Sometimes showing indifference really demonstrates a lack of fear and deflates the ego of a leader who wants to dominate headlines, as other processes go forward behind the scenes, in global capitols, without cameras to bring forces to bear that insure peace and stability in the face of aggression, and signal to the world that America’s values and its love of sport are not threatened or altered by a despot’s delusions–or his troops taking selfies with citizens in the park before his phony plebiscite.

I am confident America has time and space and place for both: a celebration of its values of freedom and an implementation of policies that protect that freedom, and that the President isn’t diminished by his capacity to share in both as a leader of the free world.

Congress Member John Lewis has a Heart Full of Spirit and Feet of Dancing Joy!

Nothing can bring me down,” Congress member John Lewis says at the end of his dance.