Daily Blues & Views

One of the more remarkable adaptations that the COVID pandemic has wrought concerns the media.  The fact that people can be interviewed from their homes via new technology has made many production schedules function as normal. We see the local news delivered from home by our recognizable home teams.  We see the classic news shows like Face the Nation and Meet the Press go on as usual.  In many instances, we are now familiar with virtual pane discussions.  We do it at home via Zoom, and they do it in the newsroom daily on CNN. I've been fascinated by the rooms from which people are now broadcasting.  Instead of the old, "thank you for inviting us into your homes," it's a two-way street and we are privy to go into the homes of our favorite news personalities.  One of my local weather guys often has his cat sitting on his desk with him.  Occasionally, social media goes viral with the interruption of a child or a domestic pet.  Most of the time, the...

Most teachers get the pull.  This is the time of year when we begin to think about next year and put a little energy into the upcoming new semester.  Most teachers enjoy this.  It can be as simple as going toma stationery store or office supply and looking at colorful folders or anything that's new. Not so this year.  This year begins with an IF.  If there will be school as we know it.  Chances are that's a resounding no. I count myself as one of the fortunate because I'm retired.  Yet, that pull to return never leaves and this year it's tempered with the question of what would I have done? I admit I've been thinking about how I would approach distance learning.  In my 40 years, I did a bit of it, as we all have.  What stands out for me most is that it depends on what subject is being taught.  For a Language Arts/Social Science teacher, it might not be such a big deal.  Sure, there will be fewer discussions and probably none on t...

We've moved into the dog days of summer.  In Portland that means that you can wash your car and have it last for a few weeks.  There is no rain in the immediate future, so we get to enjoy the shine for a bit. But nothing this year is predictable.  We have very little to look forward to.  Things have disappeared.  They have been canceled.  People are longing for that which they resisted last year.  This how it is.  When those of us who survive tell the younger generation all the "how it was" tales, what will we say? We will talk about the time we couldn't go to restaurants, but some restaurants came to us by delivery.  The great mask dilemma will no doubt be a big topic.  Even then there will be no adequate response to the reasoning some folks used to resist wearing a mask. The politicization of almost everything will surely find its way to the discussion.  In that category will come the mother of all denial in describing how s...

Even though the President of the United States has declared the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement  "a symbol of hate" and a threat to the country, the nation nevertheless is having a racial reckoning.  Look at the composition of the demonstrations in most American cities and it's apparent that many white folks get it.  They need no explanation.  Yet this begs the question of why so many people in the US don't really know their own history.  I'm of the opinion that the answer is right in front of us.  Just look in our history books. For years the conventional wisdom held that history was best taught from history books.  Those cumbersome texts we all carried around at some point were really worthless when it comes to accurate history.  I know I'm generalizing, but as one who taught the subject at one time collected and many texts as I could, the real history of this country was seldom found in those volumes. From the time I first walked into a classr...