When the People Lose Faith in a Leader
Dear themailers:
I don't have to write anything today. Marc Fisher wrote it all in the
Washington Post last Thursday (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36256-2001May2.html).
In his column with the above title, he demonstrated that a fable can be
harder-hitting than an editorial and more accurate than a news article.
If you haven't already read it, do it right after you finish themail. In
the meantime, I'll just quote the concluding paragraph of that column:
“By this time, everything had changed. Beginning with the moment the
new leader had gone to the Supreme Authority to overturn the will of the
people, the city could no longer trust this leader, even as much as they
loved his words and his mind and his ideas. He had forsaken his own. He
knew not for whom he toiled.”
Tony Williams' supporters argue that over the next year he can pull
off a series of slight-of-hand tricks. He can, they say, fool the public
that the Council, not him, insulted the will of the people and insulted
the democratic process. He can delude us that DC General Hospital hasn't
been closed. He can deceive us that the inevitable failure of his
ill-conceived “health plan” will occur because the Council opposed
him, not because the plan itself was a political payoff to his
contributors, badly thought out, and doomed to failure. I think they're
wrong; I don't think we're that dumb.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Re: request for personal stories about the 68 riots. Has the student
tried Martin Luther King Library? It has a whole area devoted
exclusively to DC history. It's been so long that I had all but
forgotten what happened to me — but not to the City, because the
effects of the riots still persist. I lived across from the Marine
Barracks in SE during the riots and took pictures. However, my stuff is
in storage and I can't readily get at them. That day, the riots started
in the morning. I went to work as usual, but we were let out early. My
neighbors and I fled about dusk to her sister's house in NW, not knowing
if our apartment building would be there in the morning. It took four
hours to get there because the roads were all filled and there were a
lot of accidents.
My Siamese had recently had five kittens, and when we got to our
refuge I discovered that one kitten was missing (The mother did too —
cats can count, in case you wondered!) The kitten was too young for
solid food, so I had to go back. Next morning we listened to the news
and heard that many bus routes were discontinued that day. However, on
hearing that the 30 buses were running, I put the mother kitty and her
babies in a large basket and got on a 32 on Wisconsin Avenue. (None of
us had cars, and the driver who took us to NW was not willing to drive
back downtown. The radio and TV were advising against it, anyway.) I
rode past all the rubble, troops, boarded-up buildings, and signs urging
peace and calm. Some of the fires set the previous day were still
burning and there was smoke everywhere. The trip was slow.
When I got to the stop at 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, and got
off the bus, I was met by a young soldier who demanded to see what I had
in the basket. Upon hearing a male voice, my Siamese, who liked resonant
voices, stuck her head out and greeted him in her Siamese voice that
sounds like a rusty hinge. He jumped about a foot and probably would
have shot me if he had been issued any ammunition, which he had not
been! (I found that out later!) After admiring mother and children, he
advised me not to go down 8th Street. I told him that the kitten left
behind had had no food all night and that I had to go get it. So I was
passed through. He clearly never expected me to return to the bus stop,
if his expression was any indicator.
My building was still there, although the store at ground level had
been gutted — cleaned out to the walls — even fixtures, except for a
few things that were clearly too heavy to move. I lived over the store.
When I opened my front door, and started up the stairs, I heard the lost
kitten screaming at the top of his lungs. So did mother kitty, and
erupted from the basket and was up the stairs in two bounds, yelling at
me to hurry up and open the door. When I opened the door, the tiny
kitten was so hungry that he literally knocked his mother over onto her
side and started nursing at top speed to make up for a night and a
morning without food. I think that one could have heard him slurping all
the way to NW! My kittens were noisy eaters. He kept feeding and feeding
until he was absolutely stuffed. Except for a slight smoky smell, my
apartment was unharmed, and the phone was working, although it took me
several tries to get through to the people I stayed with because of
heavy calling and damage to phone company equipment in some parts of
town. Because of the number of soldiers present, I decided to stay and
not return to our NW refuge, because I was not interested in spending
another night on her basement floor! That was when I got my camera and
went out and took pictures. However, just before I left, I called my
hostess of the night before and told her to tell my neighbors that their
building was still intact.
When I hung up, the phone rang again. It was my parents; they had
been calling since the previous day (we didn't have answering machines
then) because the Boston TV stations were running stories that the city
of Washington was "in flames." When I didn't answer, they
panicked. I don't think any of us refugees ever thought that this story
would be carried on anything but local DC Metro Area stations!
###############
I am getting rid of my antique computer with its 5 1/4 floppy and
could have found a business to convert it to a 3 1/2 floppy. But I opted
to review and delete the old files, which were mostly letters about
problems in our Dupont Circle neighborhood sent to DC government
officials. Rarely was there any response and even more rarely was any
corrective action taken. Two observations from reviewing those old
letters are worth noting:
1) The daily sanitation violations along “Grease Alley” have
continued uncorrected for seven years! Most recently, in September 2000,
a multi-agency task force survey was conducted and followed up with —
a resounding absolutely nothing! Forgive me if I have no expectations
about a new multi-agency task force that is now being formed.
2) Five years ago this week, I wrote to the then Director of Parks
and Recreation Department about drinking, vandalism, and gang problems
at Stead Recreation Center. For the past five years and today, the same
problems continue.
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Report on Two Recent Meetings on Redistricting
Gene Solon, gsol@erols.com
Many people here consider themselves “Southwesters.” So, at a
community meeting at St. Matthew’s church on Monday evening, April
23rd, at which over 65 people were present, I asked a group of three
councilmembers whether our (“Near”) Southwest could remain intact
when redistricting takes place. Our Ward 2 councilmember Jack Evans
replied that pieces at the edges of our Southwest should be shaved off
and “go to different places.” But just a week later, at a meeting
convened by Mr. Evans at the Southwest library on Monday evening, April
30th, at which some 32 people were present, he urged people to testify
before the D.C. Council that our Southwest should remain intact — in
his own Ward 2.
At the library meeting, coaching to develop testimony themes was so
intense that, at one point, Southwest resident Mercedes Beene actually
proclaimed that our Southwest waterfront “had more in common” with
the noncontiguous Georgetown Northwest waterfront than with the
Anacostia River Southeast waterfront. This, only a few weeks after she
enthusiastically welcomed (on behalf of Mr. Evans, she claimed) people
attending a community development planning meeting sponsored by the D.C.
Office of Planning — a meeting for residents to help plan the
development of the contiguous Southeast-Southwest waterfront under Mayor
Williams’ Anacostia Waterfront Initiative!
I had learned of the library meeting from an E-mail message from
Andrew Litsky, our ANC 2D chairperson. His E-mail message contained the
following language, copied verbatim: “I was wearing a newly minted
Ambrose (Ward 6 Councilman) sticker),” but, “my preference is to
stay — complete — within Ward Two (Jack Evans).” Yes, both
phrases, close together, in the same E-mail message. So much for the way
the politics game is played in Southwest D.C.! We deserve better.
###############
DC's having a Control Board can't be blamed on Congress. We must not
forget Norton and Barry testifying before Congress in 1995, telling them
that this was what the city needed to cope with its financial crisis.
And DC isn't different from other cities in needing a Control Board to
help it find its way out of fiscal turmoil. But what cannot be excused
is the Mayor's use of the Control Board as a “Super Veto.” Two other
examples of this abuse were the School Board Charter Amendment and the
Tax Parity Act.
Denvir's assertion that this is a partisan issue is entirely false.
Might I remind him that the Council's two Republican members voted
consistent with the rest of the Council and furthermore that the DC
Republican Party wrote to the Republicans serving on the DC Oversight
Committee asking them to respect the Council's wishes. People in this
city need to learn that there is only one statement to be made to any
Congressmember, especially a Republican one: “Decisions are best left
to locally elected officials. If you don't want Congress micromanaging
your locally elected officials then don't micromanage ours.”
This should be the statement even if you don't personally agree with
a decision our locally elected officials make. But all too often people
send mixed messages by asking Congress to overturn a decision they don't
agree with while railing against them for overturning decisions they do
agree with. We can't have our cake and eat it too.
###############
The Biggest Cannon
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aol.com
War has been declared on Mayor Williams by the City Council. It is
clear that anything that the Mayor proposes to do for the next two years
will be opposed by the Council. And what a mistake the Council has made.
It was clear that the Mayor would prevail in the battle over D.C.
General. Instead of accepting that and negotiating a winning position
for the Council on several other issues, they took the politically
expedient, high profile, opposition road. When the Control Board term
expires in September the Council thinks they will then have the upper
hand. Fuggedaboutit Council. You are firing BB's compared to the Mayor's
155 mm cannon. The Mayor has the Congress, AND the majority of those who
vote in the District, behind him.
When the next elections roll in, the Mayor will be reelected and
those Council persons who are desperate for a repeal of the Term Limits
referendum, and who will fight the mayor on every issue, will find
themselves not needed on the Council by the voters when their terms
expire.
###############
District Day Dreaming One Mild Saturday in May
Mark David Richards, Dupont East, mark@bisconti.com
Spring breezes are here and I am glad to report that the mockingbirds
are back, hopping from branch to branch on those strong legs chirping
away, apparently mimicking other birds. People on busy 17th Street seem
to pass and not notice their wide vocal range. Webster's says
mockingbirds belong to one of several branches of the Mimidae bird
family, native to the Americas. I'm hoping they'll feast on those little
flies that enter windows and swarm. So what can anyone say about D.C.
General now? Died and gone to heaven? On Friday's D.C. Politics Hour,
Alice Rivlin described the D.C. General situation as a “really
peculiar issue.” Indeed. Remember Dr. Rivlin's good leadership with
the Report of the Commission on Budget and Financial Priorities in the
early 1990s? The Rivlin Report, in the chapter on Education, Health, and
Social Sciences, said that public health in the District was in crisis.
It recommended implementing cost saving initiatives at D.C. General and
St. Elizabeth's. Item 29 said D.C. needed to “improve the utilization
of hospital facilities through consolidation of facilities at D.C.
General Hospital.” It said D.C. General's biggest problem was being
old with high operation and maintenance costs, and offered three
solutions: (1) replace the core building, (2) purchase and remodel an
existing hospital, or (3) close D.C. General and distribute the patients
to area hospitals. The barrier to the third proposal, the Rivlin Report
said, would be that “private hospitals may not have the capacity to
assume the high volume of trauma patients or the willingness to care for
the criminal patients served by D.C. General.” As usual, the root
cause of this question related to D.C. taxpayers' lack of revenues in
the general fund. A downturn of the economy, and ouch! So, D.C. rid
itself of property maintenance costs on one building, a perpetual owner
headache. (Seems D.C.'s school system has similar problems with old
facilities.) I wonder whether D.C. taxpayers will have reduced or
increased its liabilities in the long-term — costs got shifted, but to
where? Whatever happened and why (I didn't receive the Mayor's
brochure), the decision-making approach did not exemplify the most basic
standards of representative democracy. Should anyone be surprised?
Privatizing a taxpayer-owned hospital without the consent of the
governed is nothing compared to accidentally giving the “go” to the
Peruvian military to decide whether to shoot down a private plane of
suspected lawbreakers over the Amazon. So, mistakes were made. As an MK
(missionary kid), the intersection of those two American “missions”
to Peru brings to mind an apprehensive feeling I had as a teen when
flying from school in Cote d'Ivoire to home in Mali via Burkina Faso,
and landing at public/military airports. We were never shot down.
Apparently the Baptist missionaries were only one incident added to 20
similar deaths in Peru. So, hey, back here in the shadow of Congress, it
may seem trivial to mention that multi-million dollar class-action
complaint charging the Capitol police with race and sex discrimination.
The Washington Afro-American (4-28) reported the case was brought
by the Capitol Black Police Association.
No, one could not ask for prettier weather in the District, this is
the time when the temperature is just about right for everybody. D.C.
residents: On a scale of zero to 10, zero meaning “no trust at all”
and 10 meaning “complete trust,” how much trust would you say you
have that the federal government will do the most to help the local
District of Columbia government and the permanent local community that
lives there? Why is that? The Honorable Joe Knollenberg is doing some
research to help in his Congressional capacity overseeing D.C., but that
is not one of his questions. His official title is Chairman, The
Honorable Chaka Fattah Ranking Minority Member of the Subcommittee on
the District of Columbia of the Committee on Appropriations of the House
of Representatives. He asked the Government Accounting Office (http://www.gao.gov)
to report on questions that resulted in the following: (1) March 16,
2001: Restructuring of the D.C. Department of Public Works' Division of
Transportation, (2) DC: National Museum of American Music (proposed for
the current Convention Center site once the new Convention Center is
ready, the status of the proposal, and the decision process of the
Convention Center Redevelopment Task Force, and something about a
$300,000 appropriation for needs and design study), and (3) DC:
Weaknesses in Financial Management System Implementation. The third
report is a little spanking for the Mayor and CFO, so expect to see
Congress (and local elites?) to establish a more efficient means to
accomplish unfinished tasks now that the Authority is set to expire:
unfavorable report card, extended parental control period. What other
reports could our friends in the neighboring federal Congressional
village produce to assist D.C.'s recovery? How about a report on the
market value cost to D.C. taxpayers for rendering services to the
federal government and actual amount paid by the federal government?
Does it cost the federal government more or less to locate an office
outside the District? The historic threat of physically “moving the
capital,” which mostly died with President Grant, mutated a bit into a
new threat to move federal agencies in the 1950s. Could Congress shift
work carried out by the D.C. municipal government inside of D.C. to
private organizations in other Districts? How about governance-can that
be privatized, too?! The Spring breezes are fine in D.C., and that's
probably why the mockingbirds are back..
###############
I want to congratulate Dorothy Brizill for her piece on the Martin
Luther King Library. She revealed that the Library has not improved
under the directorship of Molly Raphael. Even the most enthusiastic
early supporters of Ms. Raphael have concluded that she has failed to
turn around the Library system and have begun to despair that the system
will ever improve. Why? Up to two thirds of the personnel in the Library
system continue to be either untrained, uninspired and incompetent.
Despite the promise to the librarians in the branch libraries to
"empower" them, she has failed to give them the power to fire
their staff. I am sure Ms. Raphael and her staff will claim this is
untrue, but this is what all the librarians say.
###############
MLK, Jr., Library Repairs: Not a Good Thing?
Malcolm Wiseman, Petworth Library Friends, wiseman@us.net
In response to Dorothy Brizill's pecking at the ENTIRE library system
over her encounter with a repair closing at the main library: Unless one
is stuck in perpetual moaning and groaning, how can one complain about
MLK, Jr., closing for A/C repairs? How loud and vociferous will your cry
be come July after the A/C wasn't fixed in May?
I view my library (system) through the lens of Petworth Branch
Library, which is in great shape. Facility and services improvements
have been made over the past few years, and programs like the recently
opened Homework Help Plus Center promise and deliver value to our
community. I wouldn't deny the systemic problems that Ms. Brizill cites,
nor would I “pile on” DCPL for an effort we'll all be thankful for
this summer. Be cool!
###############
Criticism of the MLK Library is Right On!
Wendy Blair, wblair@npr.org
Re Dorothy Brizill's cogent critique of procurement, inefficiency and
bad service at the MLK Library, may I please add the comments of a
Library staffer, who writes: “Thank you so much for that accurate
piece of reporting about the conditions at MLK. I would like to add that
many of these conditions exist in the branches or have impact on the
branches. These problems are systemic rather than specific to MLK.
“I must say, though, our budget is in no way comparable to existing
library systems in other urban areas of the United States. We are
grossly underfunded. Ms. Brizill would have you believe we got this huge
increase, we did not. If you look at our funding, you can easily see
that we are not a priority of the Mayor or Congress. Our increase was
minimal and nowhere near what it should be. We are and for as long as I
can remember have been short staffed. We lack essential goods and
resources as well. I want you to be aware of the real picture, this city
has not invested in its libraries for decades.
“I do agree with the rest of Ms. Brizill's observations. We are,
for example, losing tons of talented librarians to other organizations
because we don't invest in our human resources to the degree that we
should. There are major delays in the receipt of books and materials.
There are certainly major procurement problems (this seems to be endemic
in all DC agencies, not just the library) and we are particularly
vulnerable because of our need for a rapid turn around time for
materials. In any event, I enjoyed the article, and am grateful to
Dorothy Brizill.”
###############
Getting Involved Would Help Parks and Rec
Aaliyah Richards, bigbone812@yahoo.com
I may be too late to weigh in on the Parks and Rec conversation. I
live in Ward 4 and have observed the significant improvements at our
parks and ballfields. My rec center is Takoma Park and the grass has
been cut at least three times this year. I drive by Upshur and Raymond
and the grass is well maintained. Fact is this is the best I've seen my
neighborhood parks in four years. Hats off to the new leadership team
over there. They've been responsive and have been more engaged in my
community than any prior administration.
The better park systems, NY, Chicago, Portland, Oregon, etc. ,have
strong volunteer involvement. Parks and rec would benefit from
strengthening this function. Get involved at your rec center, sign up to
be a park volunteer. I did. Government can't do it all
###############
BB License Plates, the Hint
Renee Schwager, renee508@yahoo.com
I just noticed my first BB license plate today. Did anyone else
notice that the BB plates have the DC web site URL on the bottom instead
of “Taxation Without Representation”? OK, I'm one of those people
who really keeps track of the license plate lettering/numbering system.
I am amused by it. I love looking for the next letter. DC reserved
“AP” license plates for Apportioned Vehicles. At first, when the
plates went from AO to AQ, I confess, I thought . . . oh my! DCMV is
showing us that they don't know the alphabet. But no, I was wrong, for I
was behind a trash truck months ago that had an AP plate. I know, I need
to get a life!
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BB Series License Plates, the Mystery Revealed
Shaun Snyder, shaunsnyder@erols.com
BB series license plates do exist. The reason you may not have seen
any, or have seen very few, is that the DMV doesn't want you to know
about them. The "taxation without representation" slogan
started with the AZ-xxxx series plates and has continued with BA-xxxx,
BC-xxxx and now BD-xxxx. For those DC residents who aren't interested in
registering their disgust with our undemocratic situation, they can get
a BB-xxxx series license plate. The "slogan" on that plate is
the District's web site — www.washingtondc.gov.
Of course you won't know about this option unless you absolutely reject
a standard issue plate and the DMV caves and tells you about it. Maybe
they could issue another plate with the slogan “I <heart> the
Control Board & Mayor Williams.”
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License Plates, The Final Solution
Bob Levine, rilevine@cpcug.org
This morning I found out someone had stolen my front license plate,
Is there some one who can tell me the proper procedure for reporting and
replacing it? This has not happened to me before.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Funders Panel at MLK Library
Patricia Pasqual, changedc@yahoo.com
The Washington Parent Education Collaborative is an association of
nonprofit organizations interested in expanding the availability and
quality of parent education in the District of Columbia is having its
monthly meeting on May 11, at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library (901 G Street, NW; Gallery Place Metro Station — Museum exit
or Metro Center station — 11th Street exit) The meeting will begin at
10:15 a.m. and will last about 2 hours. For detailed directions to the
MLK Library see www.dclibrary.org.
The meeting will feature a panel of funders interested in parent
education early childhood issues. The panel includes Irene Lee, Annie
Casey Foundation; Christine Robinson, Fannie Mae Foundation; Miriam
Liepold, Community Foundation of the National Capital Region. The
session is free and open to interested parties. No registration is
required. For more information about the Washington Parent Education
Collaborative call Marcia Sprinkle at 772-4343.
###############
In honor of Global Science and Technology Week, 6-12 May, 2001, the
National Academy of Science, the Science and Technology Adviser to the
Secretary of State, and the National Institutes of Health invite you to
a lecture by Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Human Genome
Research Institute. “The Human Genome: Surprises in the Thread Of
Life,” Monday, May 7, 1:00 p.m., National Academy of Sciences
Auditorium, 2100 C Street, NW. Dr. Collins will talk about what was
learned from sequencing the human genome, including new insights to our
relatedness to one another and our relatedness to other creatures on
earth. He will also discuss the relevance of genomics for the future of
medicine. He will reveal the “top ten surprises in the genome,” as
well as his predictions for science and science policy for the years
2010, 2020, and 2030. To RSVP, please call Wendy White at 334-2807 or
E-mail biso@nas.edu.
If you are unable to travel to the Academy, please join us by
listening to a live audio webcast and submitting questions to Dr.
Collins using an E-mail form. Both the webcast link and the form will be
available at the time of the event at http://national-academies.org.
The webcast requires RealPlayer software, available free at http://www.real.com/player
— use the “RealPlayer 8 Basic” link to download the software. For
a schedule and information about other Global Science and Technology
Week activities, please visit: http://www.ostp.gov/html/gstw.html.
###############
Every month, dozens of Washingtonians gather to listen to complete
strangers tell their personal tales on subjects ranging from dealing
with a husband who is obsessed with "dumpster diving" to
beekeeping. The event is called SpeakEasy and for the past two years
Washington Storytellers Theater has brought professional storytellers,
writers, raconteurs, and ordinary people to tell and listen to stories
at HR-57, The Center for the Preservation of Jazz and Blues.
This month's open-mike storytelling event takes place on May 8 at 8
p.m. on the theme “How Time Flies” with our special guest, the
beloved Albert Einstein (a.k.a. the beloved storyteller Mark Spiegel).
Also featured are astrologer Caroline W. Casey, comic actor Bob Gordon,
and theology student and performer Robyn Holley. HR-57 is located at
1610 14th Street, NW (near Q St.). Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Admission is
$5. Come early to sign up for the open-mike. There is a seven minute
limit.
###############
The Friends of Ft. Bayard Park is sponsoring its annual spring
spruce-up on Saturday, May 12, 9:00 a.m. to noon at Ft. Bayard Park,
River Road and Western Avenue, NW. Under the guidance of a National Park
Service ranger, FFBP will be conducting a spring cleaning of the park,
picking up debris, downed branches, etc. Come and join your neighbors to
help out. If you can, bring gloves, clippers, rakes, and wheelbarrows.
Some gloves and equipment will be available. For further information,
please contact Maria Alonso-Vazquez, 966-5633.
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
I would like to recommend Kirk Weaver (301-762-5496) as a window
washer.
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