Lists of Lists
Dear Listers:
Here's the first installment of other E-mail lists, discussion
forums, and bulletin boards. Please look over the first returns and let
us all know about lists that are missing. Keep the suggestions coming.
On Thursday, Mayor Williams appointed a committee, cynically named
the “Health Services Reform Commission,” to ratify his plan to close
DC General Hospital (http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/010607.htm).
The Commission members are named by the Mayor and serve at his pleasure,
and the great majority of them are his faithful and uncritical
supporters. At the ceremony announcing the Commission, the Mayor made
their mission clear to them. As the Washington Post reported:
“He predicted that the commission would demonstrate that the
allegations of DC General loyalists are untrue. 'All the horror stories
you've heard did not materialize,' he said. 'Greater Southeast and this
alliance will be there to help us.'” The logic is presented below in a
message from Jim Grant. Since nobody will ever be able to prove
absolutely that a patient who dies would have been saved by DC General
if it had been open, there can never be any conclusive evidence that the
closing of the hospital caused any harm. Is it possible for anybody —
perhaps an alliance of local organizations representing doctors, nurses,
and hospitals — to create a truly independent and critical commission
to issue believable reports on the results of the Mayor's health care
plan?
If you are under the illusion that you can accomplish anything by
testifying at a City Council hearing, think again. Thirty-two people
testified at the hearing that the Council held before it overturned the
voter initiative that overwhelmingly instituted term limits. Thirty out
of the thirty-two who testified opposed the Council's action. On WAMU's
DC Politics Hour last Friday, Councilmember Jack Evans spoke openly
about the contempt he had, and the majority of Councilmembers shared,
for the people who testified. Evans said, “We had, I think, thirty-two
witnesses. We've had more witnesses down there when we did issues of
much lesser significance. There was no public outcry. There was very
little interest. The people who came were the people who usually
come.” In Mr. Evans view, citizens' opinions are of little value, and
the more a citizen involves himself in city politics, the less valuable
his opinions become. Obviously, Jack only values opinions that are
expressed through campaign donations.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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In the private sector we think a lot about conflict of interests (COI).
Law firms do conflicts checks before taking on new clients or issues.
And commercial firms, such as my own, spend a lot of time writing,
promulgating, and enforcing COI policies. Databases are set up to track
relationships to ensure than a COI does not unintentionally occur.
Considering how the rest of us avoid COI, it is disturbing, but not
unexpected, that DC Council members who hold a position of public trust
completely ignore COI and act self-servingly. I'm talking, of course,
about the vote to repeal the voter initiative on term limits.
Councilmembers who voted to overturn the initiative voted for continued
job security for themselves. Regardless of the merits of the issue,
these people showed a total lack of integrity. Their actions certainly
violate the Code of Ethics that everyone in my company has to sign.
As a postscript, the Washington Post, in its article
“District Term Limits Tossed,” oddly refused to provide a list of
Council members who voted to overturn the voters' will, giving us
instead a list of those who voted against this measure. The result is
that my Councilmember, Kathy Patterson, apparently voted to repeal the
voters' intent, but escaped having her name in the paper. I guess Ms.
Patterson's ties to the media (and that of other Council members) served
her well.
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“Scared Straight” and Kid's DC Jail Tours
Victor Chudows, VCHUDOWS@MERIDIAN.org
From Marc Fisher's column in today's Post (6/7/01), other
media coverage, and conversations on this list, it is evident that the
strip-search of DC school kids on a jail tour has really hit a raw
nerve. The quality of the schools, school officials, their command of
the English language, quality of our jail officials, juvenile crime,
etc., are all in the mix. Yet what is surprising is that nobody has
looked into the purpose behind these jail visits. One school
psychologist Fisher mentions in his column seems to indicate that these
jail tours are arranged by “teachers who have run out of ideas.”
Well, this is a poor reason to send these kids on jail tours, because
recent research indicates that these “Scared Straight” programs,
meant to deter kids from crime by exposing them to the horror of prison,
do not work!
“Scared Straight” became all the rage in juvenile justice after
the release of a popular documentary depicting a visit to Rahway state
prison by a group of young troublemakers. The program the kids were
participating in sent kids to the prison, where they were screamed at by
inmates who depicted the horrors of prison life — stabbings, beatings,
rape, bad food, etc. By the end of the day, the kids were so shaken by
the experience they vowed never to end up like the inmates. Similar
programs were quickly replicated elsewhere, and their “success” was
touted. However, criminologists at Rutgers University conducted a study
of groups of kids who had participated in such programs, and compared
them to a control group that had not. Their findings: participation in
the program did not deter kids from criminal activity. The “Scared
Straight” program only had a minimal impact: it reinforced attitudes
of criminals as “losers” by those kids who were not likely to commit
crimes anyway. It had no impact on juveniles who were already in trouble
with the law or in a juvenile facility, the “target” of such
programs. The reason? Criminologists agree that deterrence is based far
more on the certainty of punishment than on its severity. Certainty
means that if you commit a crime, you will definitely go to prison.
However, as we all know, this is not the case in today's criminal
justice/police system, especially here in DC, where only one third of
murders are solved. “Scared Straight” programs focus on severity,
not certainty. If the participants are unconvinced that they will be
caught for a crime, the severity, even though real, is a rather remote
possibility. In addition, the hardened juvenile criminals, who had
already been inside institutions, were already familiar with and
accustomed to prison conditions. These findings were recently published
by the Rutgers profs in book form.
So, the best way to prevent future abuses during jail tours is to
simply end jail tours. The kids would be much better off if they just
stayed in school and went to computer class . . . uhh, as long as they
aren't served alcohol by their teachers (sadly, also in today's Washington
Post).
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An Open Letter to Dr. Paul Vance
Erich Martel, ehmartel@starpower.net
Dear Dr. Vance, Last January, when you learned of DCPS' grammatically
bungled Metro bus ad (“Go To Class — It a Blast!!!”), the Washington
Post reported, that you were, “infuriated by the error, calling it
'absolutely inexcusable.'” You said that “[i]t reinforces the
perception that we're less than competent.” The ads came down
immediately. The deficiencies in the DCPS Social Studies/History
standards are not a “perception,” but an “absolutely
inexcusable” reality, now approved by your Chief Academic Officer (CAO)
for translation into curricula and assessments aimed at the minds of all
students and their teachers. The tortured syntax and bungled grammar
only hint at the far more serious obstacles to learning they promote.
On three occasions since you became Superintendent, I provided you
with detailed reviews of the DCPS Social Studies/History Standards (3rd
draft, May 2000), including copies of correspondence going back to 1999,
detailing my unsuccessful efforts to convince the Social Studies Content
Specialist of their deficiencies at our August 30th meeting in your
office; in the January 24th proposed “Academic Program” I sent you;
prior to the February 27th Board of Education hearing on the standards;
and to Ms. Mary Gill, on March 13th, after you appointed her Chief
Academic Officer.
When we met, I explained that my criticisms and proposals were based
on more than a decade of experience with history standards and
curricula, including the National History Standards, the DCPS/DOE
History-Language Arts Standards project (1994-97), the development of
model national certification standards for social studies teachers,
reviewing state standards as a consultant, and over three decades as a
history teacher. Since learning is the single reason why schools exist,
I thought you would examine the standards, solicit the views of
teachers, and take action. My waning optimism was finally dashed, when I
read Ms. Gill's 5/4/01 Memorandum, inviting teachers to apply for summer
positions, “under the supervision of subject-area Content Specialists,
... [to] develop curriculum units and lessons that are aligned with the
standards . . . that will be available next fall.” I hope, through
this open letter, to show you why the social studies-history standards
you authorized Ms. Gill to approve should have caused you far greater
concern than that “absolutely inexcusable” bus ad.
The above is taken from the first page of a twelve-page letter.
Anyone wishing to read the entire letter, so you can see what nonsense
is being perpetrated in the name of PreK-12 “social studies
standards” can E-mail me at ehmartel@starpower.net.
Erich Martel, Dept. of Social Studies, Woodrow Wilson H.S., DCPS.
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Where the Cars Are Stacked
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
Another week has passed without the city's having purchased or leased
an impoundment lot for abandoned and junked cars. It's time for Chief of
Staff John Koskinen to issue another of his weekly statements, "By
the end of this week, for sure." On June 5, the DC auditor issued a
report (http://www.dcwatch.com/auditor/audit032.htm)
that showed serious deficiencies in the performance of the Abandoned and
Junk Vehicle Division (AJVD) of DPW over the past three years. Following
are a few quotes from that report:
“AJVD did not remove from public space a majority of abandoned and
junk vehicles within 7 to 10 days as stated in the Mayor's Fiscal year
1999 Performance Measures Scorecard. Overall, the analysis indicated
that abandoned and junk vehicles were towed from District streets an
average of 24 calendar days after a complaint was filed with AJVD. In a
significant number of cases, abandoned vehicles were not removed from
public space until at least 45 days after a complaint was received, and
in some cases over 100 days after a complaint.” “The Auditor's
analysis of data provided for the audit revealed the existence of
approximately 3,300 apparently unresolved abandoned and junk vehicle
complaints filed with AJVD during the audit period.” “The Auditor's
examination further revealed that AJVD's performance statistics
regarding the number of vehicles it removed from District streets were
artificially inflated by as much as 51% to 55%.” (AJVD counted a car
when it was towed from the streets, and counted it a second time if it
was towed from the Brentwood Impoundment Lot to the Blue Plains
Impoundment Lot.) “Through a comparison of relevant financial records
for auctions held during the audit period, the Auditor found auction
revenue variances averaging approximately $30,000 annually, or
approximately $90,000 during the three-year audit period. In reviewing
records for the ten-year period between fiscal years 1990 and 2000, the
Auditor determined that AJVD may have incurred cash shortages in excess
of $300,000.”
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Where the Truth Is Stacked
Jim Grant, dcvoyeur@aol.com
I enjoyed (LOL) the article by Cabcurtis (Where Some of the Bodies
Are Stacked). I was especially intrigued by the immense amount of
misleading information. I would like to know why it took 1 hour and 13
minutes to transport someone to Howard University hospital. Did they get
lost on the way to the scene? It takes me 15 minutes to drive from RFK
to Howard, that is 15 minutes from lousy service, quack doctors, and
incompetent staff to one of the best hospitals in the country. This is
stopping at red lights and avoiding a moving violation. The writer was
making some assumptions: the person was alive at the scene when the
paramedics arrived, the one hour and 15 minute delay was caused by a 3
mile drive, the patient would have survived the typical 12 hour wait at
DC General. OK so I exaggerated; only two hours in critical cases..
Another argument that was misleading was the body count in northeast
DC. This guy wants you to assume that the people would have survived if
DC General was still open. As far as I know the body count has always
been large there. If you really want to analyze the data then look at
the survival rate upon acceptance for patients when comparing the two
hospitals. The ex-DC General (ex-over paid under worked) employees are
trying to keep their jobs so they use the poor and suffering, “you
don't care” arguments to keep their jobs. Gee, Mouthoff did tears form
at the corners of your eyes? Damn the truth, I just want to feel PC, I
want to feel your suffering.
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The Columbia Heights mailing list is devoted to sharing information
about the Columbia Heights neighborhood. Subscribe: columbia_heights-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Group committed to providing a space and opportunity for the diverse
community in Columbia Heights to work together for a community
marketplace. Subscribe: CHCM-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
The District of Columbia Coalition for Housing Justice works to
address the recent city wide evictions of low-income housing. Subscribe:
DCHousing-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
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Mount Pleasant has a web-based forum, no need to join and opened to
everyone located at http://www.mtpleasantdc.org.
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Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant
Josh Gibson, jgibson@ledcdc.org
We have an approximately 500-member list here in Adams Morgan that I
co-moderate. It comes out roughly twice a week. To subscribe, send a
blank E-mail to adamsmorgan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Once subscribed, to post, write to adamsmorgan@yahoogroups.com.
Robert Frazier (rf@juno.com) runs
the Mount Pleasant list, which is far bigger and better than ours (but
we're trying!) [To subscribe, send an E-mail to rf@juno.com.]
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Some community sites that I know about in my neck of the woods. You
did not mention web sites but I included them too. To be added to the
E-news letter for PSA 511, write to David Thompson at dvd.lt@verizon.net.
The web page for PSA 511 is http://psa511.juniperdc.com.
The web page for the North Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association is http://www.nlpna.juniperdc.com.
Juniperdc donates space to several nonprofit Capitol Hill area community
groups.
The E-mail list for ANC 6A is anc6a@yahoogroups.com.
An E-mail group for those folks interested in H Street, NE, is hstreetdc@yahoogroups.com.
Also check out the discussion board on http://www.voiceofthehill.com
for current hot topics and occasionally hot discourse.
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COMMUNIT-E is run by Kathy Smith, and can be subscribed to by writing
to Ksmith1804@starpower.net.
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This is probably one e-mail group you already know of. cleveland-park-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
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Two list serves in my part of town. The Takoma one is extremely
active and will produce up to 20-25 messages on some days. The Shepherd
Park list, on the other hand, is almost comatose, which is rather
interesting given that the two communities sit side by side, though I
guess Takoma, DC, is more akin to the Republic of Takoma Park, MD, than
it is to its DC neighbors.
To subscribe, send a message to each. TakomaDCList-digest@studio405.com
and shepherdpark-subscribe@egroups.com.
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Here's a new group for Chevy Chase, DC: to subscribe to the Listserv,
send your full name, street address, and preferred E-mail address to darci_terrell@yahoo.com.
To post a message to the Listserv, mail to ChevyChaseCommunityListserv@yahoogroups.com.
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I just started a list for Brookland last week. It's on Yahoo!Groups.
Anyone who wants to join should go to groups.yahoo.com/group/brookland
and click “Join This Group.” If you are not already a Yahoo!Groups
member click on “Sign Up Now” to get a Yahoo ID and password..
Yahoo also has groups for Cleveland Park, Columbia Heights, Mount
Pleasant, Adams Morgan, H Street NE, and Bloomingdale, among others.
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None of these is a listserv, but they are regular announcement lists.
ANC 2F, anc2f@starpower.net
ANC 2B, vnm3@rcn.com
DC Gay and Lesbian Youth Pride, youthpride@youthpridedc.org
Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, rick.rosendall@glaa.org
Capital Area Log Cabin Republicans, mtferens@aol.com
DC Republican Committee, DCGOP@aol.com
Carol Schwartz, SCHWARTZC@dccouncil.washington.dc.us
David Catania, DCATANIA@dccouncil.washington.dc.us
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Footlights — DC's only modern drama discussion group — has its
own E-mail list, along with a monthly on-line newsletter. The newsletter
provides information about our events. But any subscriber to the list
can post to the list. Subscribers include several local theaters. These
theaters sometimes send special offers (including free or deeply
discounted tickets) to selected on-line lists. Subscribers can also use
the Footlights list to organize theater trips. To subscribe, send any
message, even blank, to join@footlightsdc.org.
After subscribing, send messages to the list to list@footlightsdc.org.
For more information, go to http://www.footlightsdc.org.
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Youth and Charity Mailing Lists
Susie Cambria, scambria@dckids.org
There is a mailing list for children and youth operated by Connect
for Kids (part of the Benton Foundation). It largely announces events,
opportunities for involvement, etc. Members of the list may post
information. To subscribe to this list, send a blank message to subscribe-dclink@connectforkids.org.
There is also the DC Metro list operated by Charity Channel.com.
According to Charity Channel.com, this discussion forum is “Online
communication among governments, nonprofits, community organizations,
foundations, and businesses in the DC Metropolitan area about
partnerships, resource development, and grants.” To subscribe, you
have to go to the site and follow the directions.
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Charter Schools
Francesca Dixon, FGDixon@aol.com
I'm interested in hearing from parents, students and community
members about their experiences with DC charter schools. If your child
attended a charter school this year, were you satisfied with the
educational program, the facilities, the quality of instruction, and the
administration? Will you be sending your child back to that school or
moving on to something different? Alternately, if a charter school
opened in your neighborhood, what impact, if any, has this had on your
community?
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Sign the Petition to Keep DC General Open
David Barrows, barrowsdavid@hotmail.com
Sign the on-line petition to members of Congress to keep DC General
Hospital open as a fully-funded, full service public hospital and
forward it to your friends, family, and colleagues. The petition closes
on June 19, so do it now!
http://www.petitiononline.com/Savedcgh/petition.html
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This is to advise that the June, 2001 on-line edition has been
uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com.
Included are the community news stories, crime reports, editorials
(including prior months' archived), restaurant reviews (prior months'
also archived), and the text from the ever-popular “Scenes from the
Past” feature. Also included are all current classified ads. The
complete issue (along with prior issues back to January 2001) also is
available in .pdf file format by direct access from our home page at no
charge by clicking the link provided. The next issue will publish on
July 13, and the website will be updated shortly thereafter.
To read the lead stories, simply click the link on the home page to
the following headlines: (1) “Tivoli Site Plan Close to Final
Approvals; Graham Acts to Ensure Construction Start” (2) “Police
Crack Murder Case, Sentencing Set for Next Month; Area Neighbors
Relieved” (3) “Mexican Cultural Institute in Adams Morgan Reaches
Out to Neighborhood Residents.”