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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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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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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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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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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