Honest and Humble
Dear Honest Washingtonians:
I’ll finish a discussion that was started in the last issue of
themail. For the last several issues, Dorothy and I have been writing
about mistakes that local and federal officials were making in planning
for inaugural day. The major mistake was obvious: officials were making
security the predominant consideration, relying completely on security
officials, and ignoring the needs of the people who would attend
inaugural events. (For more on that, see Ron Linton’s message below.)
We predicted there would be serious crowd problems, and there were. Some
readers of themail said that raising these problems was being negative,
and that we should just enjoy the inauguration events and ignore the
problems. Some of this distaste for criticism comes from an
understandable reluctance to rain on a parade, from not wanting to
becloud a celebratory event. But some of it comes from a viewpoint that
I can’t share, that government officials should not be criticized or
doubted, that after we elect them we should support them, be satisfied
with their decisions and actions, and silence our doubts.
“The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled. .
. ,” wrote Cicero. Officialdom won’t temper and control its own
arrogance; others have to do it for them. That’s why people must
criticize government and its officials when they make mistakes — and
sometimes even when they don’t, just to keep them honest and humble.
Government officials like to pretend that they know best, and they know
what to do — that they’re better teachers than teachers are, better
businessmen than businessmen are, better developers than developers are.
Government officials think they know better than you and I do what we
should eat, drink, smoke, drive, and buy, which pets we should have and
how we should celebrate our holidays, and that they have a duty to
legislate on all these matters to make our decisions for us. The truth
is that they’re bad at making all of these decisions, and they’re
wrong to try to impose their preferences on us, but they will never
acknowledge it unless we call them on their mistakes, their
overreaching, and most of all on their arrogance. Local and federal
officials didn’t consult with residents of DC when making their plans,
and after they made their plans without citizen participation they didn’t
even communicate those plans to citizens very well.
Critics of officialdom can almost never make good things happen, but
sometimes if we criticize early, as soon as governmental mistakes and
overreaching become obvious, some rare times we can temper and control
them, and stop a bad thing from happening. In the case of inaugural
security, it was obvious that the citizens of DC could not stop the city
and federal governments from making the mistakes they were determined to
make. But at the least we have stopped them from claiming that nobody
could have foreseen the problems they caused.
For those still interested in following the problems caused by
planners who don’t take people into account when they make their
plans, don’t miss these articles: “Inaugural Woes Have Members
Ticked,” in Politico, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17787.html,
and “Inaugural Missteps and Miscalculations,” in today’s Post,
http://tinyurl.com/aqvgjz.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Eastern Market Branch Post Office
Bryce Suderow, streetstories@juno.com
[An open letter to Patricia Moore, Postmaster, US Post Office]
Customers of the Eastern Market Branch post office breathed a sigh of
relief after Christmas came and went; they anticipated that the
holiday's long lines would get shorter. They were disappointed. Day
after day the lines stretch to the door and a wait of fifteen, twenty,
or even thirty minutes is not uncommon. Frequently the clerks are so
busy they don’t have time to put the mail in the boxes that people
rent.
Why is this? Customers know why. The clerks know why. The problem is
that Eastern Market branch doesn't have enough workers. Typically there
are at most only one or two clerks on duty at the counter. I rent a post
office box. And since I live from paycheck to paycheck like many other
people a check from a client must get into my box on time, or else I pay
my bills late.
The branch needs more personnel. I hope you'll visit the branch,
examine the long lines and assign more clerks to Eastern Market Branch
post office.
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DC Statehood — Another Perspective
Ralph J. Chittams, Sr., minchittams@gmail.com
The District of Columbia does not require statehood for its citizens
to become fully enfranchised. You want citizens of the District of
Columbia to be treated fairly vis-a-vis all other similarly situated
citizens of the United States? Exempt us from Federal taxation. No
citizen of any other US territory or possession (Guam, American Samoa,
Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, or the United States Virgin
Islands) pays federal income taxes. Why should citizens of the District
of Columbia? You want to spur development in the District of Columbia?
Exempt DC residents from federal taxation. Without representation there
should be no taxation!
In addition, if the District of Columbia obtains statehood it will
place an undue financial hardship on the citizens of the District of
Columbia. Can you say increased local taxation? Also, who among you
doesn’t think there would be an outcry from local activists for a
state government if DC is granted statehood? I can hear them now. “We
need to be represented at the National Governors Association.” If DC
obtains statehood, the citizens of the District of Columbia will have to
pay the salaries, benefits, and perks of not just two senators and a
member of the United States congress, but also those of a governor and
members of our new state legislature (senate and house), and that of
their staffs as well. We all know the governor will have to be paid more
than the mayor. And the members of the state legislature will have to
earn more than members of the city council, with the state senators
earning more than the state house members. How much do you think that
will cost? Twenty-five million dollars, thirty million dollars? What
would the configuration of a DC state legislature look like: one senator
from each ward, with house members apportioned based upon the number of
citizens residing in each ward?
The last thing we need in the District of Columbia is another layer
of government sucking money out of the pockets of District citizens. The
argument for DC statehood (citizen enfranchisement) is nothing more than
a red herring. Proponents of DC statehood should at least be honest
about their motivation. The real aim is to guarantee more Democrats on
the Hill, which is not necessarily a bad thing. One question does
remain, however. Why in the world are DC Republicans (the lower taxes
and smaller government crowd) backing DC statehood?
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Your Technology Columnist — Bloglines
Overview
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
My day job is at a public library and I'm always amused when members
of the public ask me, "How do you know so much?" I answer them
with a slight smile, "Well, it's my job to know a lot." Truth
is, one of the ways I stay informed is by using a free blog reader
aggregator, Bloglines.com.
Here is a screencast, a narrated explanation, that gives an overview
of how I use Bloglines, http://tinyurl.com/affcoc
(eight minutes in duration, 30 MB in file size, QuickTime format) Your
usage of Bloglines would naturally be different from mine, but the
efficiencies in time you achieve by using Bloglines would be the same as
the efficiencies I've encountered. I created this screencast using a
Macintosh program named Screenflow. If you'd like to try your hand at
screencasting, check out CamStudio, the free screencasting program for
Windows. Forward thinking public libraries ought to be teaching
screencasting. Some probably already do.
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Verizon Center: Where Did the Money Go?
Dave Mallof, mallof@verizon.net
The reaction was very good to my piece last week in themail [January
21] questioning why the DC government refuses to release the use of $50
million in public tax money gifted to the Verizon Center in December
2007.
If you would like to help join in and file a simple Freedom of
Information Act request for the release of information regarding how the
public's tax money is being spent improving the privately owned Verizon
Center, please E-mail Dave Mallof at mallof@verizon.net.
He can send you a simple draft FOIA request letter for you to send as a
concerned individual to the DC government by E-mail or US Mail. Your
letter simply would request full release of the Verizon Center
"Approved Development Plan" required by DC Law 17-12, which by
law also was to be specifically approved by Mayor Fenty in 2007 before
the closing of the tax-and-rebate scheme. In addition, at the new year
it would be good to request an update of how much of the $50 million was
spent during calendar 2008, and for what capital improvement(s) to the
private property.
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Historic Buildings for the People
Katrina Lee, klee@katlover.com
All this talk about wood versus vinyl replacement windows warrants a
suggestion that people simply repair their old wooden windows, and put
any money saved into removable storms. That's right, I said "any
money saved." With our tax dollars subsidizing the transport of new
stuff made by almost-slave labor on the other side of the world, paying
local labor to repair old stuff often doesn't save money (only
resources). It's not easy for people to decide what to do, and nowhere
is this more true than in building repair/renovation. Throughout the
history of the free market, poor people have survived because they were
beneficiaries of their own skilled or semiskilled labor. Now, young
people grow up with only general corporate skills, and end up as wage
slaves with no choice but to pay the same retail price as the wealthy.
Schools that focus on the building trades partner with corporations
to train young folks in the use of modern materials and construction
methods. In other words, they learn how to assemble houses, not build,
let alone repair, them — in this case, not a general, but a specific
corporate skill. I don't know of any public school that teaches
traditional building skills. As a result, historic home ownership is
rapidly becoming a pastime of the rich. Drive through rural America and
you'll see mobile homes sprinkled across the landscape like toys dropped
by a careless giant. Even before the papers are signed, these
aluminum-and-paper boxes are worth just a fraction of their price tags.
To meet the mortgage-equivalent payments on these un-appreciable
dwellings, some of their inhabitants make long daily treks to
construction jobs, where they spend their days inside a factory
attaching sections of pre-wired, pre-finished walls to each other.
Unless we are prepared to be living in and surrounded by
"Toyota" houses that are as unrepairable and unrenewable as
modern cars, we need to find a way to teach the next generation what
international corporations (and aren't they all?) tell us are dying
trades. Poor people can come close to living a middle-class lifestyle
only when they know how to do for themselves and each other. Otherwise,
a large chunk of their labor's value gets diverted to corporate profits
and taxes. Ironically, some of those taxes help erect
"affordable" housing (considered worthwhile because it has
profit potential). The fact that we gauge the state of our economy by
tallying up the number of new homes started each month says everything.
Me, I'd rather be living in a modest but well-built shack. Now, am I
going to have to win Powerball, so DC can have a Peoples' School of the
Building Trades?
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Buses and Government, Both Idling
Diane Schulz, dihi.cobra@verizon.net
Concerning the citywide anti-idling law [themail, January 21], I was
told it was rescinded for the week of the inauguration. When I
complained to the mayor, I received this reply by E-mail from the
Executive Office of the Mayor: “Thank you for writing in regards to
your concern with tour buses idling. This E-mail is in response to your
E-mail sent to Carrie Kohns and Dan Tangherlini. I apologize for any
frustration caused by the decision made regarding bus idling during the
Inauguration. I appreciate your thoughts with this matter. Thank you for
writing and sharing your concern.”
The correspondence was unsigned. I think that shows what kind of
regard the mayor and his administration have for the citizens of the
city when their needs are compared to the wants of the federal
government and out-of-towners.
I live at the Waterfront at 6th and N Streets, SW. We also had buses
idling all day Wednesday during the March for Life. Any life in our
neighborhood would have been gassed to death.
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Learning from the Mouse
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
Several years ago, when the US Postal Service was losing both mail
and money at record rates, post office officials swallowed their pride
and brought in consultants from United Parcel Service and Federal
Express to advise them on their mail handling, strategic planning,
customer service, and business practices. That was a rare occasion, but
it should happen more often. Government, which by definition is
inefficient and not oriented to customer service, can always learn from
companies that know how to handle people efficiently and keep them
happy, and in a cost-efficient manner. The next time we have a major
event, like an inauguration, that will attract a large crowd, the
government shouldn’t try to handle it itself, led by agencies like the
Secret Service. It should go to a company that knows how to manage large
crowds of people, how to distribute tickets efficiently, how to keep
people happy and entertained in long lines and move those lines quickly,
and how to provide effective security unobtrusively, without
inconveniencing people.
Next time, subcontract the inauguration to Disney.
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During my involvement with the Metropolitan Police Department in
planning for crowd control and security management, the mind set of
security planners, including mine, was to view the requirements on the
basis of the needs of the controllers, not the crowd. The inaugural day
check point management suggests that hasn't changed. I think we were
lucky to have avoided serious injury at the check points, where the
funnel effect appeared not to have been considered. The natural tendency
of a crowd is to bunch up. The check points had fixed iron fencing and
the funnel pushed people against those fences, endangering them. The
entrance point was a swinging gate that allowed only one or two
individuals to edge through at a time. And even though there were
several metal detectors inside the gate, the flow because of the funnel
was uneven and the movement of people once inside the gate much slower
than it could have been. Had security planners considered the needs and
safety of the people, they could have arranged single-file entry lanes
separated by jersey barriers ranging back two to three hundred feet from
the entry point and turnstiles at the entry point. That would have kept
people from jamming each other and moved people at a steady flow through
the check points.
The point here is not to dwell on technical matters, but to reinforce
the need to include on the committees planning security and crowd
control individuals who will consider the safety and needs of the people
coming to events. That goes beyond having an ambulance or medical tent.
And rather than wait until a few months before an event to begin the
planning, there should be a standing committee of federal and local
police and security personnel with nongovernment citizen participants
included to review and plan future events.
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I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate Chief Cathy Lanier
and all of the men and women under her command for a superb job
protecting our public safety during the inaugural celebration. It
certainly is not easy to coordinate the safe passage of approximately
two million persons in and around our city during this historic event.
Chief Lanier assembled a first-rate team, including law enforcement
personnel from other jurisdictions, and we were safer because of this
tremendous undertaking.
I was very concerned about the effect of so many people converging on
our city at once, extended bar hours, and the impact of officers being
diverted from our neighborhoods. As I watched the day-long inaugural
festivities unfold without major incident I was pleased; public safety
was clearly the top priority for all of us, residents and visitors
alike.
Thank you, Chief Lanier, and all of the men and women under your
command for job well done!
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The crying shame on an otherwise fabulous day was the denial of entry
to the Mall to hundreds of people with tickets to the inauguration
viewing area. This is an irreparable loss, because this was a
once-in-a-lifetime experience, something that utterly beyond correction
or compensation. It's said that people without tickets got into the
area, leaving no space for those with tickets. Well, why wasn't there an
effort to remove people without tickets, to let people with tickets in?
Who decided that it was appropriate to deny access to people with
perfectly valid tickets? Who decided that there was no space for them? A
silver-ticketed person who was there reports that "once on the
mall, there was tons of room! Could have easily accommodated all the
people in the line."
It seems to me that, if the problem was a failure of the security
personnel to keep non-ticketholders out, then they should have accepted
responsibility for the situation, instead of punishing the poor souls
who came to see the inauguration, and saw only the interior of the Third
Street Tunnel.
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As the old aphorism goes, “You can’t prove a negative.” That
there were no incidents at the inauguration is not a reason to say that
the security wasn’t needed.
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In the weeks leading up to the inauguration I didn't hear of one
local person who intended to go downtown for the inauguration. I was
frankly horrified by this. Presumably most of us are Obama supporters,
and here we are living in DC, while so many others from out of town were
making long and arduous trips to be here. In the end, I caved in and had
a perfectly fine time watching it on TV with neighbors.
But my husband and our friend from New York did go downtown. After
our leisurely breakfast they walked to the Tenelytown Metro at about
10:00. The first red line train that went by was packed, but they got on
the one that came right after, and it was no more crowded than an
ordinary rush hour. They got off at Farragut North and walked to the
Lincoln Memorial and never encountered a security check point. They
stood in an enthusiastic and friendly, but not huge, crowd to watch the
swearing-in on a jumbo screen. There were plenty of portable toilets and
no lines. After watching the swearing-in they walked back to Dupont
Circle, had lunch at Kramer Books, then got on the Metro and actually
got seats. They were back in time to watch the parade with us on TV.
Personally, at my age I'm not up for even that much walking and standing
in the cold, and I'm not sorry to have been with my neighbors watching
it on TV, but all the dire predictions we heard turned out to be false
in the case of my husband and our friend. I'd be very interested to hear
about the experiences, good or bad, of anybody who did go downtown.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Shades of Black Book Club, January 27
George Williams, george.williams2@dc.gov
Tuesday, January 27, 3:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, New Popular Library, Room 110. Shades of
Black Book Club. Adults. Discuss Standing at the Scratch Line by
Guy Johnson. For more information, contact 727-1295.
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A Room with a View, January 28
Jazmine Zick, jzick@nbm.org
January 28, 6:30-9:00 p.m. A Room with a View, directed by James
Ivory (1985, R, 117 minutes, color), starring Helena Bonham Carter and
Daniel Day Lewis. Shown as part of the series Detour: The Landscape of
Travel on Film. In this three-week series inspired by the exhibition
Detour, Ann Hornaday, Washington Post film critic, and Deborah
Sorensen, curatorial associate at the Museum, introduce films featuring
unexpected and powerful encounters with the natural world. The series
continues on February 4 and 11. $5 Member; $5 Student; $10 Nonmember.
Prepaid registration required. Walk-in registration based on
availability. Members Special: $10 for all three films! At the National
Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red
Line. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org.
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DC Public Library Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Events, January 27-28
George Williams, george.williams2@dc.gov
Tuesday, January 27, 11:00 a.m., Washington Highlands Neighborhood
Library, 115 Atlantic Street, NW. Congressman Robert Smalls: The
Greatest Story Never Told. View a documentary about Robert Smalls, a
former slave who became a congressman. Meet and discuss the documentary
with filmmaker Adrena Ifill. All ages. Contact 645-5881.
Tuesday, January 27, 4:00 p.m., Washington Highlands Neighborhood
Library, 115 Atlantic Street, NW. Poems of Dr. King’s Footsteps. Read
and write poems on the events of Dr. King’s footsteps. Ages 6-12.
Contact 645-5881.
Tuesday, January 27, 6:00 p.m., Washington Highlands Neighborhood
Library, 115 Atlantic Street, NW. Black History Movie Night: Remembering
the Titans. See how a town torn apart by resentment, friction and
mistrust comes together in triumphant harmony. In 1971, football coach
Bill Yoast is demoted and replaced by Herman Boone. Find out how these
men overcame their differences and turned a group of hostile young men
into champions. 2 hours. (PG-13) Contact 645-5881.
Tuesday, January 27, 7:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Auditorium A-5. C.R. Gibbs winter lecture
series on African history and culture. Local historian Carter Ward
presents a lecture on the African presence in early Asia. Adults.
Contact 727-1211.
Wednesday, January 28, 11:00 a.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Washingtoniana Division, Room 307. The
Washington Urban League: Past, Present and Future. A discussion of the
role of the Washington Urban League in the civil rights movement,
education and social and economic empowerment of African Americans.
Contact 727-1213.
Wednesday, January 28, 10:30 a.m., Washington Highlands Neighborhood
Library, 115 Atlantic Street, NW. Dr. King Story Time. Enjoy stories,
films, and reading activities about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. Ages 1-5. Contact 645-5881.
Wednesday, January 28, 4:00 p.m., Washington Highlands Neighborhood
Library, 115 Atlantic Street, NW. Martin Luther King, Jr., film fest.
View films and share your experiences in following in the footsteps of
Dr. King. Ages 13-19. Contact 645-5881.
Wednesday, January 28, 7:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Great Hall. Concert in Tribute to Abraham
Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Orchestral musicians from around
the Washington, DC, Metropolitan area come together under the baton of
Maestro A. Scott Wood to perform inspiring American musical works in
honor of these two great men. All ages. Contact 727-1291.
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Introduction to Government Grant Research,
January 30
Patricia Pasqual, changedc@yahoo.com
The Foundation Center will host a free interactive training session
on Grants.gov. The session will be held on January 30, 2:00 p.m.-3:00
p.m., 1627 K Street, NW, Third Floor. The presenter will be Michael
Pellegrino, Outreach Director of Grants.gov, Department of Health and
Human Services. He will discuss and demonstrate the basics of how to
search and apply for federal government grants. For further information
and registration, go to: http://foundationcenter.org/washington/dc_calendar.html.
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Historical Society of Washington, DC, February
4
Ed Bruske, euclidarms@yahoo.com
Wednesday, February 4, 7:00 p.m., 801 K Street, NW, at Mt. Vernon
Square. Woodson Talks Series, Forging Pathways to Multiculturalism
and Interracial Understanding in the Twenty-First Century. The
Woodson Talks promise to engage the public in a series of “courageous
conversations” addressing the problem of “race” and methods of “racial
reconciliation” pursued historically in the United States and around
the world. The thoughts and ideas of Dr. Carter G. Woodson found in his
1933 seminal work The Mis-Education of the Negro and in Carter
G. Woodson’s Appeal, written in 1921, but published in 2008, will
serve as the foundation for this series of panels. The object of the
Woodson Talks is to reach out to all Americans and emphasize the
importance of blending various points of views to address the problem of
race in the United States. The series will commemorate several
significant historical anniversaries that will serve as a springboard
for making connections between historic events and the contemporary
racial environment in the US. Dr. Woodson’s perspectives on “culturally
responsive teaching” and “multicultural education” are the basis
for beginning dialogue on these significant anniversaries. The goal of
the “Woodson Talks” is to a attempt to answer some critical
questions: What must we do to achieve Dr. Woodson’s vision and Dr.
King’s Beloved Community?
To kick off the series, the panelists for Forging Pathways to
Multiculturalism and Interracial Understanding in the Twenty-First
Century are: John Whittington Franklin, Daryl Michael Scott, James
Loewen, Cynthia Vidaurri, Angela Rola, Gabrielle Tayac, and Eileen
Kugler. The public will have an opportunity to meet the panelists and
participate in an author’s book signing. (Cosponsors, the Association
for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc. (ASALH), the
Historical Society of Washington, DC, and the Kiamsha Youth Empowerment
Organization (a member of the Pen or Pencil: To Serve this Present Age
Mentoring Network).) Ages fourteen to adults. RSVP@historydc.org
or 383-1828. Free admission.
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DC Statehood — Now Is The Time!, February 5
David Bosserman, orilla@comcast.net
DC Statehood, an open discussion hosted by the DC Statehood Green
Party. Confirmed panelists include Senator Michael Brown; Senator Paul
Strauss; Councilmember Michael Brown; Ann Loikow, DC Statehood Yes We
Can Coalition; Sam Smith, Progressive Review; Anise Jenkins, Stand up
for Democracy; radio host Mark Plotkin. Thursday, February 5, 7:00 -9:00
p.m., UDC School of Law, 4200 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Building 39, Room
201, Van Ness Metro Station (Red Line).
Friends, family, and local businesses welcome; musical entertainment;
food and refreshments provided. For more information, go to http://dcstatehoodgreen.org/events/
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Public Art Master Plan Open House, February 10
Deirdre Ehlen, deirdre.ehlen@dc.gov
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is conducting a citywide
Public Art Master Plan. We invite you to an open house to participate
and share your thoughts on public art in your neighborhood, which will
be included in the overall DC Creates Public Art Program Vision in the
District of Columbia.
The open house will be held on Tuesday, February 10, 5:00 p.m. to
7:00 p.m., at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library 901 G Street, NW
(Metro: Gallery Place-Chinatown (Red/Green/Yellow lines) and Metro
Center (Red/Blue/Orange lines). To RSVP and for more information, call
724-5613 or E-mail Deirdre.Ehlen@dc.gov.
The DC Creates Public Art Program will preserve the cultural health,
reflect the diverse fabric, and promote creative innovation in
Washington, DC, by reinforcing urban places that become the heart of
every community.
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