Daily Blues & Views

Long about the last week of April I become obsessed with the upcoming Kentucky Derby.  It's my  Springtime dalliance, my rite of passage, my love of thoroughbred horses that offers a convenient escape.  I think, too about the week spent in Louisville some 33 years ago now.  I've carefully pressed the sights, sounds, smells, and satisfactions of that experience so that it will last a lifetime.  So far, so good. Yet this year feels different in so many ways.  Most likely it's the international tragedy complicated by the recent massive earthquake in Nepal and the current domestic hostility and unrest that centers around the constant battle many inner city residents have with their local police departments. The Baltimore Orioles actually played a game yesterday with an official attendance of Zero.  The media continues to tell only parts of the stories that comprise these complicated and nuanced situations, and lost is the ongoing poverty and deprivation ...

Last week I had the opportunity to talk to a friend from the middle school days of my life.  He found me through social media and, as it happens, we live in the same state about 3 hours apart.  It has only been about 50 years since we last spoke. Although we did not go to the same high school, we kept some of the same middle school friends.  He happened to go to a reunion that I did not and learned where I was, hence the contact.  What a conversation we had.  Though he went to Vietnam and I resisted that war, we found we had many similar interests and that our lives had overlapped a few times in the last few decades.  The version of the person I talked to the other day was a mature, thoughtful,  survivor who had overcome many of the challenges and obstacles that accompany PTSD and the resultant consequences.  How wonderful and encouraging this was.  Probably the reason we never talked about our middle school days,the girlfriends, the teacher...

Seems like every other day last week a new video surfaced of police either shooting or using too much force on a person.  Two cases in particular saw the cell phone video of a bystander and the aerial footage from a helicopter find the news shows and daily broadcasts.  In both cases, law enforcement seems blatantly at fault.  No need for body cameras to record a man flat on his face with his hands behind his back getting kicked and wrestled to the ground by as many as 7 officers.  Same goes for a traffic stop that ends in 8 shots fired in the back.  Disturbing on many levels.  What resonates for me is that we are just now getting footage of things that have, no doubt, been going on for decades...centuries? People who live near or beyond the other side of the tracks have known the reality of this video brutality all along.  I recall my supervisor, while a Vista Volunteer, assigning me to take a Latino man and his young son to a camping place near a ...

In the eight years that I haven't been in the classroom, I've watched and listened to all the dialogue about the encroachment of standardized testing.  In particular is something called the "Smarter Balanced" assessment tests that are being given in my community.  While the newspaper editorialists and many local politicos tout them as necessary and a significant, valid measure of what our students can and cannot do, those in the classroom are either silent and compliant, or condoning the virtues of non-compliance with these high stakes tests.  In fact, the head of the Portland Assn. of Teachers recently said:  Abuse,  can be "the result of cruel and unconscionable acts that impair a child's psychological, cognitive, emotional and or social well-being" such as from "habitual ridicule" or "scapegoating." She questioned whether low-income or non-English-speaking students would be subjected to harassment if their school fares poorly in te...

I read with interest this week of Starbuck's corporate attempt to initiate much needed conversations about race by having some of it's baristas write "Race Together" on cups of coffee sold.  While I applaud the intent of the idea, there is so much that is off base about this idea that it's hard to know just where to begin.  let me try by saying that these discussions must be lead and facilitated carefully because while well intended, they can easily do more harm than good.  I realize there are many baristas out there with advanced degrees, is the coffee line the best place to have these conversations?  Are most people "on the run" and ready to begin their day?  Would another time and place be better?  I'm still wondering because at least the intention to have a dialogue is there.  Is there also another intention?  Given the corporate attack on public education these days, I'm a bit skeptical of the motivation...with good reason.  Is the conv...

There is a standard of most classical music stations called "The Lark Ascending."  If you don't immediately recognize the title, you no doubt will recognize the melody.  It's a lovely piece with rising crescendos and falling denouements. The piece reminds me of a beautiful Irish woman I met many years ago who gave me a tape of her favorite music.  Remember when we all gave people a tape of "our" music?  Over the years I played the tape until the technology I currently access made that difficult and a few moves along the way allowed that tape to disappear by accident or design. Until recently, I'd hear "The Lark Ascending" either on the radio or while out and about because it is a stand-by of music stations.  It always brought a slight smile to my face remembering Molly and the music that defined her life.  Until recently.  The corporate powers that latched on to Peet's Coffee in my local shop have managed to conspire to play that piece...

This morning a hidden camera tape surfaced of a fraternity on the University of Oklahoma campus singing a blatantly racist song.  The verse included a reference to the N word and how their membership would never include the same. How sad that this comes on the 5th anniversary of the Cvil Rights march for voting rights in Selma.  It comes juxtaposed in the news with another young African-American man being shot to death by police. As saddening as this is, what seems even more troubling is that no major Republican figure went to Selma to represent the U.S. Congress at that major Civil Rights venue in this country's past.  Are we that alienated?  Apparently.  What is equally sad is that those frat boys and most of those politicos will never experience the power and empowerment that comes from taking your beliefs to the street.  The willingness to become visible and take a stand for what you know to be morally right is both a privilege and, I submit, an impor...