Anger
and Indignation
Dear Indignant Correspondents:
I’ll give credit when credit is due. The Washington Post can
still publish interesting and provocative articles, especially when it
gets those articles from writers outside the paper. Former Councilmember
Kathy Patterson proves that point on the Close to Home page today when
she calls for “Real Oversight by the DC Council,” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102343.html.
Patterson has some good suggestions for areas in which city council
oversight needs to be strengthened, and I particularly like her call for
“a hard-hitting oversight hearing on government ethics laws and
rules.”
What Patterson fails to call for is city council review and oversight
over its own actions. How soon is the council going to hold a hearing on
what the real, total public cost of building the baseball stadium has
been? My guess is never; councilmembers knew that their guarantee of a
cap on expenses was phony, and they’re not going to revisit it,
especially now that the same people who promoted the baseball giveaway
are preparing an even larger giveaway for a new football stadium at RFK
(which, by the way, they claimed was a completely unsuitable location
for a new sports stadium). How many years will it take for the council
to review its irresponsibility in surrendering total control over the
public school system to the mayor? My guess is never. In fact, my guess
is that the only oversight will come from the public, and that the
strongest candidate against Adrian Fenty in the next mayoral race will
be the person who runs a campaign against the failure of Fenty, Deputy
Mayor Reinoso, and Chancellor Rhee to produce any measurable improvement
in student performance. Also on the Close to Home page today, Mark Simon
recounts “What’s Missing in Rhee’s Restructuring,” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102340.html.
Simon notes what you won’t find on the Post’s editorial page,
and what city editors keep out of the stories filed by its education
reporters, “she hasn’t put forward a plan that addresses what
happens in the classrooms,” and that instead of promoting teacher
training and development programs, she is spending funds "to hire
consultants from Insight and other such organizations to help reach
judgments that can be used to justify turning over management of the
schools to outside organizations or charters."
The city council will also drag its feet on holding the kind of
oversight hearings over the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services
that Colbert King called for yesterday in “A Teen Released, Nine
People Shot. Why?” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102623.html.
When Banita Jacks was accused of the murder of her four children, the
mayor and the city council rushed to grab headlines by holding Child and
Family Services Agency employees responsible for her actions. When
Deidrick Johnson was arrested for the drive-by shooting of five
teenagers in one incident, and was named as a “person of interest”
in another drive-by shooting of four teenagers, the mayor and the
council were silent, and showed no interest in holding anyone at Youth
Rehabilitation Services responsible for Johnson. They allowed the agency
to scapegoat a couple of its lower-level employees who dealt with
Johnson in order to protect its policies and policy makers.
The city council won’t exercise oversight over its own members when
they act as representatives of special interests instead of protecting
the public, as in the proposed lease of the Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Library, the proposed single-source sale of the West End Library and
fire station, the sabotage of former Attorney General Linda Singer’s
proposed lawsuit against manufacturers of lead-based paint, and so on
and so on. The city council won’t exercise oversight over itself and
its own actions unless we exercise oversight over them.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Commission
of Fine Arts’ Letter on Armed Forces Retirement Home
Reyn Anderson, andereyn@hotmail.com
The Commission of Fine Arts has issued a letter expressing
significant concerns about the Armed Forces Retirement Home’s
development plans, rejecting its current proposals and requesting that
the AFRH come up with some better alternatives. You can read the full
letter at http://www.cfa.gov/meetings/2008/jan/20080117_04.html.
Some highlights (note in point three the stated preference for park
land in Zones B and C): 1) The Commission emphasized the singular
importance of the property and . . . objected to what they characterized
as a lack of a clear design concept in the master plan, commenting that
it does not satisfactorily enhance the extraordinary resources of the
site nor relate well to the surrounding urban context. 2) The Commission
members stated numerous concerns with the proposal for Zone A [noting
that it] does little to acknowledge the urban context, including a lack
of expression of the North Capitol Street axis in the proposed
development . . . and leaves the design intention for the new buildings
ambiguous with no clear concept . . . [likewise] that the outer edge
should be carefully designed to appropriately address the site’s
prominent frontage along North Capitol and Irving Streets, proposed to
be lined with exposed parking structures. 3) The Commission members were
dissatisfied with the proposed design for new development in Zones B and
C, questioning whether the relatively small amount of proposed
development would be worthwhile. . . . ..If possible, the Commission
encouraged the consideration of retaining these areas as park land with
public access. 4) The Commission requested a revised submission of the
master plan, including alternative designs for development in Zone A
that explore a more coherent approach to the site. . . .
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Veterans
in Squalor and Facing Homelessness
Faye Pinkney, faye515706@yahoo.com
We are homeless, disabled veterans (fifty-one of us), who reside on
Armed Forces Retirement Property, (Soldier’s Home, Washington, DC).
The building in which we live, Ignatia House, is being leased by a
nonprofit called USVETS. It is in deplorable condition. We are living
with bed bugs, roaches, mice, and other vermin. As we have very little
heat, we are walking around in coats. The elevator has been out of
commission for weeks. There are those of us who have heart conditions
and are not able to do stairs. We are dealing with darkened hallways, as
staff have not replaced burned out bulbs. Females are using the same
shower facility as males. We have been trying to get staff and
management to bring the building up to code for several months to no
avail. Management has informed us that the building will be closing on
February 28. What will we do? Where will we go? We are veterans, and
should not be treated with such disrespect. We need help.
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McCain
Wins DC Republican Straw Poll
Paul D. Craney, press@dcgop.com
At the DC Republican Committee’s annual Lincoln Douglass Day
Dinner, Senator John McCain won the DC Republican straw poll with 43.5
percent of the vote, in the largest gathering of registered Republicans
from the District of Columbia prior to the February 12 DC primary. Mitt
Romney came in second with 35.3 percent, Ron Paul in third with 8.1
percent, Rudy Giuliani in fourth with 6.4 percent, and Mike Huckabee in
sixth with 5.1 percent.
Each of the Republican presidential candidates collected over four
hundred signatures, totaling over three thousand signatures, from
District of Columbia registered Republicans. The DC Democrat Party opted
to have candidates pay a fee to be placed on the ballot.
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Chancellor
Rhee’s Questionable Agenda
Carolyn C. Steptoe, Ward 5, carolynsteptoe@aol.com
Why is Michelle Rhee about to address the American Enterprise
Institute (AEI)? Isn’t this the same neoconservative think tank that
produces the ideological justification for the Iraqi war and school
privatization? Worse, and disturbingly compelling, is that AEI is home
to AEI scholar Charles Murray. Charles Murray is the author of The
Bell Curve, the absurd book that concluded that blacks have inferior
intelligence and therefore need special treatment. AEI has also
presented studies on the necessity to privatize public education and
attacked public school teachers as underqualified and overpaid.
The question bears asking. Why is Michelle Rhee going to address this
neoconservative group, which is often perceived as a racist,
anti-worker, antiunion enterprise that lists the Vice President’s
wife, Lynne Cheney, as their education expert and Newt Gingrich as their
healthcare expert? Is Rhee’s mindset as relates to black and Latino
children in DCPS in sync with AEI’s neoconservative
elitist/supremacist doctrine, which spawned the likes of Charles Murray?
Is Rhee’s goal (and that of her financial backers) to summarily
exploit minority children? The New Teacher Project was created and
driven off the backs of urban black and Latino children. Is Rhee’s gut
rooted in contemptuous profiteering based on such neoconservative
ideology as spewed by AEI?
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DC’s
Home Schooling Policy Is Careless
Mai Abdul Rahman, maiabdulrahman@comcast.net
DC’s home schooling trend has been fueled by parents’ frustration
with the public school system, safety concerns for the well-being of
children, and religious reasons, often promoted by local churches that
object to what is being taught in public schools. Jane Gross of the New
York Times reported on January 12 that the District of Columbia has
“no regulations regarding home schooling, not even the requirement
that families notify the authorities that they are educating their
children at home,” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/us/12bodies.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=jane+gross&st=nyt&oref=slogin.
Defying logic, many home schooled children have full time working
parents, or working single parents with low education and an annual
income of $25,000 or less. As demonstrated by the Jacks family tragedy,
many urban home schooled minors live in households of abject poverty.
Poor DCPS oversight and the lack of educational standards have had
profound affects on DC’s home schooled children. Correcting DC’s
home school regulations will require serious adjustments to current DCPS’s
negligent home school requirements.
Other school jurisdictions have institutionalized specific
requirements to ascertain the proper education of home schooled children
by setting clear educational criteria aligned with the school district’s
educational standards, mandating annual tests, and evaluating home
schooled minors by certified teachers or psychologists. Many are also
requiring home school providers to have at least a high school
education. DC does not require the minimum of such obligations. Another
concern shared by educators and child advocates is the lack of
monitoring available to schools and other agencies of the home schooled
children. According to Prevent Child Abuse America, one in every five
children in the US is subjected to child abuse. Sadly, the actual number
of child abuse is much higher, given that most abuse occurs in closed
systems where families remain distant and isolated from other families
and social institutions out of view of the public. To protect children
from such possible abuses, states have legislated visitation of the home
schooled children in their residence and required supervisors or legal
custodians of the home schooled minors to be good citizens with no past
criminal offense.
Jane Gross blames our home school policy for the death of the Jacks
children. According to Gross, DC legislators and public officials have
yet to respond to the Jacks tragedy and develop legislation to address
the negligent DCPS home school policy, “Washington still has no formal
regulations, according to spokesmen for both the mayor and the public
school system.” The recent Jacks family tragedy and DCPS’s careless
home school policy have increased parents’ safety and anxiety
concerns. But the planned school closure of twenty-three neighborhood
schools may prompt more parents to choose home schooling as an
alternative. It should behoove our city officials to consider revising
DC’s home school provisions or, sadly they may choose to do nothing
and maintain their well-placed status touted by the Home School Legal
Defense Association as the city with “no specific statute dealing with
home schooling.”
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Black
Hole for Parking Tickets Continued
Jack McKay, jack.mckay@verizon.net
In the January 16 issue of themail I complained that my denial of a
bogus parking ticket had, after four months, yet to receive a response.
That posting caught the attention of David Vacca of Councilmember Graham’s
office, who asked if other residents had had similar experiences. Yes,
they had, and the councilmember asked Lucinda Babers, director of the
Department of Motor Vehicles, what was going on. She replied that,
“Currently, the wait time for mail adjudication is approximately six
months.” And so it is: one week shy of six months since I sent in my
denial, the DMV response finally appeared. The ticket was dismissed.
The DMV is “hiring additional hearing examiners to decrease that
wait.” What I wonder is, what led to this very long time to deal with
parking ticket denials? A loss of hearing examiners, or an avalanche of
denials?
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Comcast:
Opting Out
Gwen Southerland, gwensouth@aol.com
Thank you for the information on Opting Out [themail, January 31].
The timing for this information could not have been more perfect for me,
as I anticipate that I will have to seek outside help in a billing error
from Comcast. I agreed to a “special promotion” called Triple Play,
which included telephone, Internet, and high definition cable. The
monthly payment as quoted by the Comcast associate was $101.00 per
month. I thought I was getting a good deal, until I received my bill for
$343.41. Of course I contacted Comcast and paid them $100.00; they
assured me that my bill would be corrected to reflect the correct rate.
A few days ago, I received my bill and the error was not corrected. I
feel that Comcast may be doing a bait-and-switch with my services.
Needless to say, I am extremely perplexed and upset about this. I even
sent an E-mail to their corporate office and received a call back, but
still I’m stuck with a bill for $415.52. I would appreciate it if you
know to whom I should address this error.
[You can try to escalate your complaint within Comcast, but you can
often get faster service by getting help from the Office of Cable
Television, the DC government agency that regulates cable television
providers in DC. They have an online form for cable service complaints
at http://oct.dc.gov/services/complaints,
or you can call 671-0066. — Gary Imhoff]
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CLASSIFIEDS
— EVENTS
Far
Northeast Southeast Council Intergenerational Forum, February 5
Sylvia Brown, sylvbrown1@verizon.net
On Tuesday, February 5, at 6:30 p.m., in the MPD Sixth District
Headquarters, 100 42nd Street, NE, we will hold a meeting, “Discuss
Our Future: Intergeneration Forum.”
The Far NE SE Council is the umbrella organization for Ward 7’s
community groups, including ANC’s and neighborhood associations, to
discuss and collaborate on common issues. An often-discussed issue is
building the communication and relationship divide between new
transplants and longtime residents and between younger civic activists
and seasoned civic activists.
“Discuss Our Future: Intergeneration Forum” offers an opportunity
for people to speak about their experiences with relations between
long-term residents and newer transplants to the ward and bridge the
communication and relationship divides. For more information, contact
Edward Fisher, president, efisher@udc.edu
or 397-3323 or Alice Chandler, vice president, penpuhr@aol.com
or 399-8446.
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Ward
5 Democrats Election Watch Party, February 5
Hazel B. Thomas, thomashazelb@aol.com
Join the Ward 5 Democrats for a super Tuesday Mardi Gras and election
watch party on Tuesday, February 5, at Bobby’s Q Restaurant, 3301 12th
Street, NE (12th and Kearney Streets, NE), 8:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m Finger
foods and cocktails; $15.00 donation at the door. For additional
information, please contact Chairman Timothy Thomas at 390-2229 or timthomas2202@aol.com
or first vice-chair Angel Alston at 315-6057 or angel.alston@yahoo.com.
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Natwar
Gandhi at Ward Three Democrats, February 11
Thomas Smith, tmfsmith@starpower.net
The Ward Three Democratic Committee will sponsor a community meeting
featuring DC Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi. In addition to
updating the committee on the current status of DC’s finances, Dr.
Gandhi will respond to questions from the community. Monday, February
11, 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m., at Washington Hebrew Congregation, 3935 Macomb
Street, NW. For more information, contact Thomas M. Smith, Chair, Ward
Three Democratic Committee, 364-7130, tmfsmith@starpower.net.
The Ward Three Democratic Committee will also vote to endorse a
Democratic presidential candidate at the meeting.
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Wednesday, February 13, 7:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, second floor East lobby. Local author John
Umana, Ph.D., J.D., trial attorney and philosopher, will discuss his
book, Creation: Towards A Theory of All Things, concerning the
evolution debate between Darwinism and intelligent design. Are these
theories reconcilable to any degree? Is there or has there ever been
life on Mars or other worlds? If so, does life on earth share a common
ancestor with life elsewhere? Public contact 202-727-1251.
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Black
History Month Wreath Laying Ceremony, February 16
Keith A. Godwin, keith.godwin@dc.gov
The Greater Washington, DC, 9th and 10th (Horse) Calvary Association
will hold a Black History Month wreath laying ceremony, “A Tribute to
Forgotten African American Heroes,” on Saturday, February 16, at 9:15
a.m. (arrive thirty minutes early), at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
in Arlington National Cemetery.
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CLASSIFIEDS
— RECOMMENDATIONS
Looking
For A Property Manager
Norma Zane Chaplain, normazane@yahoo.com
If you know an experienced property manager for a three-unit building
at Dupont Circle, please contact Norma Zane Chaplain at normazane@yahoo.com.
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