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December 19, 2007

Hilda

Dear Masonites:

Hilda and Charlie Mason were mainstays of DC government and politics since the cradle days of home rule. They were never satisfied with home rule, which is why they were among the founders of the DC Statehood Party. Hilda and Charlie were more influential than they thought they were, because they were in the lead and other politicians followed them, but they were less influential than they hoped to be, because they were in a small, powerless party that was often reduced to protesting the actions of others.

What really made Hilda and Charlie Mason different, however, was that they were selfless. There was never any sense, any indication, that they were involved in DC politics to promote themselves, to enrich themselves, or to benefit a small circle of their friends. Whatever position Hilda took on a bill or an issue, whether you agreed with her or not, whether her politics coincided or conflicted with yours, you never questioned her motives or asked what hidden purpose she had or what secret interest she was serving. When Hilda took a position, it was because she believed that it was right, that it would benefit the District of Columbia and its citizens and residents.

She’ll be missed.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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DC Parents: Unite and Conquer
Miriam Moore, miriam@DCIndependents.org

The Monday evening, December 17, community meeting regarding the pre-k-to-eighth grade proposal for Stevens Elementary and Francis Junior High School revealed some rather frightening truths. First, the Fenty-Rhee-Reinoso takeover crew is even more unorganized when it comes to community meetings than the school board ever was. If they can’t figure out how to run a public meeting, how in the real world can they run a school system? Informational chaos was aggravated by pretentious scripted rhetoric that deflected important questions with empty answers. The takeover crew kept forgetting they were dealing with truly avid and aware parents, with no patience for nonsense and bureaucratic happy talk.

Second, and more important, many of Stevens’ parents feel that their "babies" will be unsafe in the same building as Francis children. I am the parent of a Francis child. While our tweens and teens are experiencing their share of growing pains, they are not in the habit of demoralizing or biting off the heads of smaller children. I don’t doubt this perception was fostered as a divide and conquer tactic by the takeover crew. Nevertheless, I fully and respectfully understand the concerns and frustrations of the Stevens parents. Since DCPS schools chancellor Michelle Rhee has not presented a clear and competent plan for its implementation, parents quite naturally are suspicious of their pre-kindergarten through eighth grade formula. When undertaken correctly and competently, the formula can provide a nurturing transition through the scary, confusing time of puberty for both parents and children. It must, however, be consistently given the proper logistical, programmatic and accountable resources to genuinely succeed.

Given recent reports of DCPS and DC government budget deficits, and the fact that all of the proposed school closings were revealed by a cowardly leak to the press, Francis and Stevens parents or teachers have no reason to believe that these resources will be provided. This proposal, therefore, simply appears to be nothing more than a setup for failure and the basis for a potential state sponsored land sale of taxpayer-owned public school property. What happened to the millions of taxpayer dollars school and DC government officials said was available for DCPS improvements during mayor Fenty’s campaign and early 2007? Is it possible that District citizens are on the verge of another large-scale corruption scandal of misappropriated money? Follow the money.

As a parent, I am a full supporter of the pre-k-to-eighth grade school model, and have publicly advocated on its behalf. As a political activist, I am an even firmer advocate for community control within this model -- as in citizen control of public schools. As such, I fully respect the desire of Stevens Elementary School parents to keep their school open. Equally, and justifiably, I fully believe that Francis JHS should remain open, and be given the necessary resources to continue to provide a safe and empowered learning environment for our undervalued middle grade children.

Nationally, the middle grade education community realizes that in the middle years, the window for preparing our children for adulthood is growing smaller. We know that an environment that includes adults that are mistrustful of them and view them as predators is detrimental to their development and could push them to the point of alienation and no return. The same will be true when our little learners in elementary school become middle school students.

They are all our babies. Our shared concern for their personal safety and academic well-being should be just as strong for all District of Columbia students. We must work together as a community of united parents and teachers to provide the best learning environments for the success of all our students. Failure is not an option. No doubt, many of our public officials continue to prove through their actions they have a different agenda.

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Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com

As readers of themail, you have known for months about the tensions between Linda Singer, who just resigned as Attorney General, and Peter Nickles, the mayor’s General Council and newly appointed interim Attorney General. The rest of the press never wrote about it until after the long-festering rivalry culminated in Singer’s resignation this week. Throughout the first year of the Fenty administration, Nickles had usurped the position and authority of the Attorney General; this week’s coup simply formalized his takeover. Nickles was the architect of Fenty’s E-mail deletion policy, the overseer of the District’s policy on special education and the court case on the busing of special education students, the enabler of the District’s policy not to respond to or to deny Freedom of Information requests, the designer of the policy to undermine the legal rights of DC government employees who are arbitrarily and capriciously fired; the supervisor of the unfavorable terms of DC’s underwriting the sale of Greater Southeast Community Hospital, and so on. Singer had been thrust to the side and ignored, because the Fenty administration could not tolerate an Attorney General’s office that had any independence and that wasn’t primarily dedicated to advancing the mayor’s policies and advocating the mayor’s position.

Nickles is unlikely to remain long as Attorney General, both because he has repudiated the pledge he made at his appointment as General Counsel to move into the District of Columbia and because the Attorney General’s office is largely a managerial and supervisory one, and Nickles has never managed anything of comparable size and scope. The Attorney General’s office has serious morale problems, made even worse by Singer’s wholesale firings and demotions last January through March of a number of senior managers who had just been recruited and promoted under Robert Spagnoletti. Nickles completely lacks the requisite people skills to encourage and motivate a demoralized staff.

Over the next three years of Fenty’s term, the District will face a number of controversial legal issues that will require skilled, independent legal counselors who will give their best advice to the mayor. It doesn’t have that team now, and there is little sign that Fenty wants to build such a team.

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An Eastern Market Tradition Is Being Threatened
Bill Griffiths, Market 5 Gallery, tangobuddha@gmail.com

Market 5 Gallery, led by Executive Director John Harrod, has managed Eastern Market’s North Hall area and much of the nonfood vending at the market for more than thirty-five years. But now Eastern Market Ventures, the realty management company that no one has ever accused of being too competent, has served Market 5 Gallery with an eviction notice to force an end to this great cultural asset by the end of this month (December 31, 2007). The eviction notice offers no reasons for Market 5’s termination, and no other tenants in the South or Middle Hall have received such notice. Starting with the empty shell of a building in 1973, John and a group of dedicated volunteers helped build the North Hall into what as been called a “Poor Man’s Kennedy Center,” reaching out to diverse groups in the community while launching careers such as singer Oscar Brown Jr., Clinton portraitist Simmie Knox, and Lion’s Gate film director Zeb Berman. Market 5 currently hosts one of the most famous Argentine tango venues in the world, featuring world-class dancers on a weekly basis. Even more important is Market 5’s creation of its Weekend Craft Festival, one of the most famous craft festivals in North America.

DC’s Office of Property Management’s previous realty management group in charge of Eastern Market, Bostonia, tried illegally to evict Market 5 Gallery and to usurp the Weekend Craft Festival seven years ago. Those efforts were resoundingly defeated by as many as six different judges at every juncture of the judicial process. Yet, a few short weeks ago, Eastern Market Ventures, Bostonia’s successor, started to strong-arm Market 5 Gallery vendors into writing out their rent checks to them and not to Market 5 — one of the very tactics that caused the City to lose their previous court case with Market 5 Gallery. We need your help. Write now to Mayor Adrian Fenty and to every member of the DC city council. Let your views be known. Let them know you want to keep stability, especially at a time when the wounds of the April 30th fire are so fresh. Sign our electronic petition at http://www.market5gallery.org.

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DC Voter Registration
Joan Eisenstodt, jeisen@aol.com

We moved in June and sent in the docs for address change. Nothing for two months. Wrote to the mayor’s office and got the new voter cards. Then, in the last month, have each received two more with the exact same info. A glitch, or is the office sending out duplicates and triplicates? No one there acknowledged why.

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Lighted Christmas Tree Brightens Eastern Market Neighborhood
Paul Michael Brown, pmb@his.com

The tiny triangular park north of Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, between 8th and 9th is not exactly a monument to landscape architecture, and the National. Park Service upkeep is charitably described as benign neglect. But recently the folks who run the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District planted a handsome evergreen tree that’s about twenty feet tall. Even better, they’ve gone to the trouble of installing lights, which are powered by a small generator. It’s not as grand as the trees on the Ellipse or on the Capitol grounds. But it still warms my heart when I walk home from the Metro after work. Bravo to the Capitol Hill BID!

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It’s Not All Bad
Evelyn Goodwin, agoodlady@verizon.net

I took the opportunity to watch “It’s Academic” on Channel 4 this past Saturday morning and Banneker SHS won the competition by a good margin! Congratulations team, parents, and teachers and students.

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Hilda Mason
Kevin Kiger, kkiger@dcvote.org

DC Vote joins the thousands of people who mourn the passing of the Honorable Hilda Mason. Mason, who dedicated her life to the civil rights movement, was a staunch supporter of congressional voting representation and statehood for the District of Columbia.

Her ceaseless support for progressive issues, including human and civil rights, socioeconomic opportunity, quality education, affordable and accessible housing, public transportation, and health care had enormous impact of the residents of the District. She served for three decades as a member of the DC Board of Education and on the DC city council.

Hilda Mason and her late husband Charles were recently recognized as DC Vote Champions of Democracy, and her grandson, Stefan Nicholas, serves on the Board of Directors of DC Vote. He and his family are in our prayers.

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General Comment from an Old Reader
Star Lawrence, jkellaw@aol.com

I am sorry our little klatch is too time-consuming for Tom Sneeringer, though I do welcome him to our merry bunch. Gary is right — this is a high level of discourse and the personal rants are the most entertaining part. To me, anyway. I mentioned Tassos bar a while back — and got some great E-mails. We are just nattering about the city, and I don’t even live here anymore and haven’t for almost a dozen years! Please, people, never boil it down to tips — take your time and get it all out! Feel better now?

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Re: a General Comment from a New Reader
Bob Levine, rilevine@cpcug.org

I’ll try to restrain my flowery writing style, and very few people have ever accused me of being clever. I wanted to post a note about my neighbor’s cute new puppy, but Mr. Sneeringer might object unless I could claim that we had to bribe an official to get the dog license.

Please continue to post, clever or not, about things local. New goods or services available, unfixed problems, or any simple pleasure that may have come to your attention are much more interesting than the antics of corrupt officials, and telling me that the district government does not work properly is like telling me that the sun rises in the east.

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Look Elsewhere
Liz Karch, wizzyliz at comcast dot net

As a longtime subscriber of themail, I feel I must respectfully address the posting by “New Reader Tom” and offer a helpful hint. Unsubscribe. There are plenty of blogs and news groups and bulletin boards and other online forums that may satisfy your needs. Sorry if themail doesn’t appeal to you.

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Commenting
Ron Linton, rmlch@rcn.com

Tom is a terrific guy I’ve know for years. He’ll adjust to the iconoclasm of themail and like me he won’t want it changed at all.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

DC Public Library Events, December 26-27
Kandace Foreman, kandace.foreman@dc.gov

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., quilt project. Children complete a quilt piece for their community that represents peace, friendship, or a dream, ages 9-14. Wednesday, December 26-Saturday, January 12, 2008, library hours; Southeast Neighborhood Library.

Southeast Library Fiction Book Club, Thursday, December 27, 7 p.m., Southeast Neighborhood Library.

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