Discourse
Dear Discoursers:
Tom Sneeringer, who identifies himself as a new reader of themail,
has some comments about themail below. I’d like to address them.
First, don’t stop being clever. There’s a noticeably higher level of
writing and of discourse in themail than in many other online discussion
outlets. You’re smarter, better informed, and more polite in your
disagreements than your counterparts elsewhere. Don’t stop that, and
don’t dumb yourselves down.
Second, however, Tom would like themail to focus exclusively on
government watchdog issues. That’s not really what we’re about here.
When it was founded as DCStory umpteen years ago, it was a neighborhood
newsletter, in which people shared news about store openings and
closings, restaurant tips, and so on. It was essentially an outlet for
people from all neighborhoods in the District to share among themselves
the kind of close-to-the-ground, very local, community news and events
that didn’t make it into the daily city newspapers, or even into
neighborhood weekly newspapers. That’s still a useful function, and I’d
like to see more submissions from people who say, “We had a problem
with PEPCO on our block,” or “There’s a water main leak at my
corner that has gone unfixed for weeks.” When we share information
like that, we often find out that our problem isn’t as small, local,
and individual as we thought, and that people in many neighborhoods
around the city have had the same experience.
Because of the growth of local community Yahoo groups and listservs,
a lot of that kind of neighborhood discussion now goes on within
specific community groups. And my obsession with writing about
government affairs in the introductions to issues of themail has
undoubtedly tended to steer discussion to broader, citywide issues. But
there’s still room here for general observations about living in
Washington, about what it’s like to be a resident of this city, about
the joys and the pains of getting through it all in this place.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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A General Comment from a New Reader
Tom Sneeringer, Ward 3, tmsneeringer@uss.com
The entries in these E-mails are way too long and too much attention
is given to flowery writing style and being clever. This is the web, I
know, with its unlimited space capacity, but we readers do not have
unlimited time capacity. I myself am looking for quick-hit useful
information that helps me be a better citizen. If this was being edited
for publication, most of it would hit the floor.
One other note — it doesn’t do anyone (other than the writer) to
use this precious space for extraneous issues — like the wallet and
the Park Police. I understand why the writer would be in a huff about
that and would want to vent, but that’s dinner conversation at best.
Or go ahead and use this for your personal stuff, just precede it with
the warning that it has nothing to do with keeping the DC government
under surveillance and holding it accountable, so I can jump to the next
item.
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Close, But No Cigar
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
I mailed my re-registration form to the Department of Motor Vehicles
on December 1 for my vehicle’s registration that would expire on
December 10. I cut it a bit too close, and the new registration arrived
on December 15. I was lucky to not get a ticket (challengeable now only
by mail). Looks like you have to get the renewal in at least two weeks
before the registration expires.
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GOP Effort to Collect over Three Thousand
Signatures
Paul D. Craney, press@dcgop.com
December 14 was the deadline for the Republican Presidential
candidates to submit their petitions in order to secure a spot on the
February 12, 2008, Republican Presidential Primary in DC. Each candidate
is required to submit approximately three hundred signatures of
registered Republicans from the District of Columbia.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Governor Mitt Romney, Senator John McCain, and
Congressman Ron Paul are each expected to submit over five hundred
signatures. Governor Mike Huckabee is expected to submit four hundred
fifty signatures. Additionally, incumbent Republican National Committee
members Betsy Werronen and Anthony Parker are expected to submit over
five hundred signatures in their reelection campaign. The DC Republican
Committee Slate will be placed on the Republican Primary Ballot with
over four hundred signatures collected as well
In a last minute scramble this week, the DC Democratic Party
successfully asked the DC city council to pass a law to allow Democratic
candidates to purchase ballot access instead of mobilizing a grassroots
effort to collect signatures. DC Republicans were hitting the streets
educating voters about the candidates, while the DC Democratic Party was
busy trying to circumvent the law.
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Mother Nature Foils Leaf Pickup
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
Due to the late arrival of cool weather this year, leaves are still
falling from trees in American University Park long after the end of the
scheduled leaf pickup on AU Park streets. It’s a real mess now with
the leaves raked in piles at the curb being matted down and soaking wet.
Even had one pickup on Massachusetts Avenue this year, avoiding moving
the early leaf droppings ’round the corner to 48th Street. Had to move
the latest batch though — another ten bags worth — since it is
unlikely that there will be another scoop up on Mass. Ave. Can only hope
that it doesn’t snow and the leaf pickup is renewed before the end of
the year.
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Which is More Likely: Losing the American
Dream, or the Public Trust?
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net
Brookings has recently published a study, funded by the Pew Family
Trust, purporting to demonstrate that the “American Dream” is shot
because only two thirds of US kids are making more money than their
parents (is the dream really that simple?). NARPAC reviews this costly
effort at http://www.narpac.org/PERENTS.HTM#ecmobstud
in its December web site update. None of the three scholarly reports
(Families, Men & Women, Black & White) mentions the word or
raises the topic of the educational attainment of either the parents or
their kids. Further, the "upward economic mobility"
methodology requires, by its quintile formulation, that for every kid
who goes up the ladder, one must come down. Work like this can give
analysis a bad name.
But the public trust in DC is far more likely to be lost by the
cavalier management attitude of the new Fenty administration. Officials
seem bent on alienating all the sectors of the active DC community
required to accomplish purposeful change. NARPAC frets about this in its
monthly editorial at http://www.narpac.org/EDIT.HTM#712
and gives one example from a talk by the self-proclaimed Chief Rectum of
the DCPS facilities modernization effort, summarized at www.narpac.org/CMR#lewtalk.
This combination of ignorance, arrogance, and extravagance among top
city officials can wreak much more havoc on the public trust than a
poorly written and easily misinterpreted analytical report.
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This is to advise that the December 2007 on-line edition has been
uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com. Included are
the lead stories, community news items and 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 (the accompanying images can be seen in the archived PDF
version).
The complete issue (along with prior issues back to January 2002)
also is available in PDF file format directly from our home page at no
charge simply by clicking the link in the Current and Back Issues
Archive. Here you will be able to view the entire issue as it appears in
print, including all photos and advertisements.
The next issue will publish on January 11 (the second Friday of the
month, as always). The complete PDF version will be posted by the
preceding night or early that Friday morning at the latest, following
which the text of the lead stories, community news, and selected
features will be uploaded shortly thereafter.
To read this month’s lead stories, simply click the link on the
home page to the following headlines: 1) “City’s Preservation Board
Orders Landmarking for Christian Science Church Near White House —
Decision Viewed by Many as Incompressible”; 2) “Outer Walls Brick
Rehab Underway on Dupont East’s Historic Cairo Building”; 3) “Over
50% of Libraries Closed Sundays Through January, Staffing Cited — InTowner’s
Area Spared.”
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DC Public Library Event, December 19
Kandace Foreman, kandace.foreman@dc.gov
Watha T. Daniel Book Club Meeting, Wednesday, December 19, 7 p.m.,
Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Interim Library.
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Second Annual Christmas Procession for
Bethlehem, December 22, 2007
Ann Loikow, aloikow@verizon.net
On Saturday, December 22, at 10 a.m., the Second Annual Christmas
Procession for Bethlehem begins with a worship service in the Bethlehem
Chapel of the Washington National Cathedral. This service will be
simulcast as joint service with an ecumenical congregation in Bethlehem,
West Bank. A procession led by Mary and Joseph, with donkey, will follow
the service at 10:30 a.m. on Woodley Road. Behind the wall that
separates neighbor from neighbor, patient from hospital, student from
school and farmer from the land, Palestinian Christians continue to bear
witness to their faith this Christmas, as they have done for over two
millennium. Join them in seeking hope for a better future. The service
and procession is sponsored by the Ad Hoc Committee for Bethlehem, the
Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace and Sharing
Jerusalem. For more information, go to http://www.wiamep.org.
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