Contributions
Dear Contributors:
Sorry for running on so long in the introduction to the last issue of
themail. I promise I won’t be so wordy in the future if you’ll pick
up the slack. Keep us all informed about what’s going on in your
neighborhoods and on your blocks, please, and don’t fall into my trap
and obsess about politics all the time. Just write anything about living
in Washington that will interest your neighbors throughout the city. Let
us hear from you.
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I usually don’t publish notices that aren’t sent directly to
themail, but the following notice about a book event, which was sent to
the H-Net Network on History of the District of Columbia, should
interest many people who receive themail. “Washington at Home
authors discuss DC migrations, a panel discussion and book signing, on
January 25, 6:30 p.m., at Busboys and Poets, 14th and V Street, NW. Join
Washington at Home: An Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in the
Nation’s Capital authors Jim Byers (Hillcrest/East Washington
Heights), Kia Chatmon (Deanwood), Alison K. Hoagland (downtown), and
Brian Kraft (Columbia Heights) as they describe their neighborhoods’
development and consider how people have moved into, out of, and around
DC. Consulting editor and Cultural Tourism DC historian Jane Freundel
Levey will moderate. Learn new facts about your neighborhood and explore
new neighborhoods as this group takes you through the streets, avenues,
and alleys of Washington, DC. For information, visit http://www.CulturalTourismDC.org.
Can’t come to this event? You can still order your copy of Washington
at Home at http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/store/catalog/product/book-washington-home-kathy-smith”
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The funeral service for William Lockridge will be held on Thursday,
January 20, at Temple of Praise Church, 700 Southern Avenue, SE. Viewing
at 10:00 a.m., memorial service at 11:00 a.m., homegoing service at
12:00 p.m. The repast will be at 3:00 p.m. at the Panorama Room, 1600
Morris Road, SE. Guest speakers will include Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton,
Mayor Vincent Gray, Councilmembers Kwame Brown and Marion Barry, and
State Board of Education President Ted Trabue. The eulogy will be given
by Pastor Michael Bell of Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal
Church. In lieu of flowers, the Lockridge family requests that
contributions be made to The William Lockridge Educational and
Scholarship Fund, PO Box 54012, Washington, DC 20032.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Enforcing Our Election Laws
Dorothy Brizill, Dorothy@dcwatch.com
On Friday, Tim Craig of the Washington Post informed me that
the DC Office of Campaign Finance had issued an order that day fining
the “Write-In Fenty Campaign” $18,500. As you may recall, after the
September primary the write-in campaign appropriated and used campaign
materials (posters, yard signs, literature, and stickers) that had been
purchased by the Fenty 2010 campaign committee. When they would not stop
using these materials after both Vincent Gray campaign workers and I
brought it to their attention that it was a violation of campaign law to
use them, I filed a complaint with the Office of Campaign Finance, which
then held a hearing and issued a cease and desist order to the “Write-In
Fenty” campaign just a few days prior to the general election. When
the campaign continued to use the materials on election day, and indeed
erected additional yard signs around voting precincts, I went to OCF and
reported some specific sites where this was going on. I continued to
report more sites during election day, and I also encouraged attorneys
with the Gray campaign to investigate and report sites to the OCF
themselves. The OCF dispatched its own employees around the city; they
photographed some sites and confiscated signs at others. (As far as I
know, this was the first incident in which OCF ordered its own employees
to conduct such an investigation themselves.)
To my recollection, $18,500 is the largest fine that the OCF has
imposed on a campaign or candidate in its thirty years of existence. The
Board of Elections has imposed higher fines — on the Anthony Williams
reelection campaign ($277,700) and on the slots gambling promoters
($100,000 and $622,800, the second of which was reduced in a settlement
to approximately $30,000).
The OCF cease and desist order is at http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/ocf101101.htm;
my complaint with OCF is at http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/ocf101022.htm;
the separate complaint by Gray campaign attorney Brian Lederer is at http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/ocf101022b.htm;
the OCF order is not yet posted on its site, and I haven’t received a
copy of it yet. Tim Craig’s article is at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dc/2011/01/young_fenty_write-in_supporter.html
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On Wednesday, January 19, the DC Board of Elections will hold its
monthly meeting at 10:30 a.m. in Room 280 North at 441 4th Street, NW.
The meeting agenda has not been posted on the Board’s web site;
however, the BOEE at that meeting will certify vacancies in the offices
of the Ward 4 and Ward 8 members of the State Board of Education and
schedule a special election to fill those vacancies (most likely on
April 26, the day already scheduled for the special election to fill
Kwame Brown’s at-large city council seat). Any concerns or issues
regarding the conduct of those elections may be raised by the public at
that meeting.
At 2:00 p.m. on January 19, Mary Cheh’s Committee on Government
Operations will hold a hearing in Room 412 of the Wilson Building, 1350
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, on “DC BOEE Readiness for 2011 Special
Election” and to consider a proposal (http://www.dcboee.org/popup.asp?url=/pdf_files/nr_673.pdf)
by the BOEE’s Executive Director to conduct the April 26 special
election at only two voting sites in each Ward and to conduct the
election over three days — April 23, 25, and 26.
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Silencing a Local Journalist: My Suspension by
WPFW
Peter Tucker, pete10506@yahoo.com
For the past two years, I have worked as a local journalist in the
District of Columbia to bring more time and attention to social
activists who routinely are ignored and silenced by the corporate media.
Most of my stories, reports, and long-form interviews have aired on WPFW
89.3 FM, Pacifica Radio (and are archived at TheFightBack.org). But now,
my work no longer appears on this important station. I want to offer a
brief summary of this situation in the hopes that it can be resolved.
Beginning in mid-April, my reporting became a nightly fixture on
Spectrum Today, WPFW’s evening news program hosted by WPFW News
Director Askia Muhammad. Over a six-month period, Mr. Muhammad aired
more than one hundred of my reports and introduced me as “journalist
Peter Tucker.” These interviews were cited in the Washington Post,
City Paper, and FAIR’s Extra!, among other outlets.
My reports exposed DC councilmembers’ second-six figure salaries
(Jack Evans, David Catania), as well as their possible conflicts of
interest (Jack Evans, Harry Thomas). I’ve covered former DC Schools
Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s “school reform.” But rather than only
interviewing her (which I did until she stormed away), I spoke with
parents, students, teachers, activists, and journalists, who have a very
different take. I also examined the Washington Post’s possible
conflict of interest when it comes to reporting on education issues due
to its ownership of the testing company Kaplan.
Additionally, I’ve reported on DC’s twin epidemics of HIV/AIDS
and poverty; the closing of homeless shelters and the children within
homeless shelters; the Black farmers’ struggle for justice, as well as
a farmers’ market in the Ward 8 food desert; antiwar activists and
antislavery activists; net neutrality, as well as the dangers of online
voting; the fight for youth space in Silver Spring and the fight against
a youth detention facility in Baltimore; public housing issues, as well
as private housing issues, not to mention WPFW’s housing issues;
former Mayor Adrian Fenty’s election maneuverings and then-mayoral
challenger Vincent Gray’s candidacy. Continued online at http://tinyurl.com/4p2w8z7
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Why We Can’t Wait
Eric Woods, ewbushdoctor@gmail.com
Since this is Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday holiday, let me
share a few reflections about the times we are living in that were
stimulated by his writings. In his 1964 book Why We Can’t Wait,
Dr. King writes: “In the past decade, still another technique had
begun to replace the old methods for thwarting the Negroes’ dreams and
aspirations. This is the method known as “tokenism.” The dictionary
interprets the word “token” in the following manner: ‘A symbol.
Indication, evidence . . . a piece of metal used in place of a coin. . .
.’ When the Supreme Court modified its decision on school
desegregation by approving the Pupil Placement Law, it permitted
tokenism to corrupt its intent. It meant that Negroes could be handed
the glitter of metal symbolizing the true coin, and authorizing a
short-term trip toward democracy. But he who sells you the token instead
of the coin always retains the power to revoke its worth, and to command
you to get off the bus before you have reached your destination.
Tokenism is a promise to pay. Democracy, in its finest sense, is
payment.”
I think about how the Fenty/Rhee regime handed out tokens to so many
parents that promised to close or consolidate public schools and replace
them with newly constructed ones. The value of that token was later
replaced by a commitment that the students would be stuck indefinitely
in their subpar, poor-performance-inducing learning environment with a
promise that a new school would be built one day. I am living through
the Hardy Middle School fiasco in which DCPS officials, especially
Rhee-protege Interim Chancellor Henderson, continue to toss out token
after token towards parents, teachers, and students in an attempt to fix
the operational dysfunction they created when they installed a group of
ill-equipped or poorly trained managers to run the school. Yet, to the
displeasure of Fenty and Rhee, the Hardy stakeholders refused to be
placated and joined the democratic movement that ousted Fenty and Rhee
from office. These parents, teachers, and students are now counting on
Mayor Gray to be the strong leader we need to take necessary action to
immediately restore the positive, stimulating learning environment at
Hardy and salvage this school year.
As both of these examples indicate, doling out tokens must end at
every level of the school system we have in the District if the DCPS
expects to continue to produce the well-spoken, smart students that
testified before Mayor Gray last year in the Council. As Dr. King
writes: “The tokenism Negroes condemn is recognizable because it is an
end in itself. Its purpose is not to begin a process, but instead to end
the process of protest and pressure. It is a hypocritical gesture, not a
constructive first step.” Affected District families can empathize
with this statement 48 years later.
In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. King writes: “I
had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too
optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have
realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep
groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer
have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong,
persistent and determined action.” After I read this, I substituted
the references to race with economic wealth for this city (white or
oppressor race equals high net worth, oppressed race equals low or
negative net worth) and reread the quote. The parallels to the fight
over Hardy became quite evident to me. I would have expected the high
net worth families to understand how critical it is for low or negative
net worth families to have at least one option for securing a quality
education for their children in the public schools. After all, their
high net worth gives them plenty of alternatives. Yet, they remain
predominantly on the sidelines (or tacitly supportive) as Hardy is being
destroyed by poor leadership seemingly with the intent to send the
students elsewhere. This is Hardy — one of DC’s top performing
schools, in one of the worst performing public school districts in the
nation — that happens to be the sole quality choice available to
hundreds of low or negative net worth students. Perhaps, I too was too
optimistic and expected too much. But I can’t wait. The fight
continues.
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The Directors of Planning and Zoning, in concert with DDoT, are
planning the cultural and social direction of the District of Columbia,
using the streetcar as a facilitator of their designs. What is on the
table is the plan to move the residents of DC out of their cars to
become pedestrians, walking to commercial centers envisioned for a city
being developed with less home ownership and more apartment/condo
living. These so-called planners can only proceed toward their goal when
they have eliminated curb space for parking in support of public
transportation, i.e., streetcars, subways, buses, bicycles, and
walking. They are now filling the residents of southeast with grandiose
plans of building right-of-ways for streetcars on residential streets
that never had streetcars traveling on them in the past, when streetcars
were king. What we as residents must be aware of is the effort to uproot
home owners to make way for these commercial centers, apartments, and
condos. Be mindful of the Supreme Court’s decision on eminent domain
when there isn’t any more space to construct these projects. In effect
these plans will involve the haves and have nots in a conflict that will
not benefit anyone except the developers. These planners are working to
give these developers the best of the neighborhoods by making the
residents move and make way for them.
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InTowner
January
Issue Now Online
P.L. Wolfe, intowner@intowner.com
This is to advise that the January 2011 issue PDF is available at http://www.intowner.com
and may be opened by clicking the front page graphic on the home page.
There will be found 100 percent of all content, including the popular
Scenes from the Past feature (this month titled “When Dupont West Was
the Center of Equestrian Pursuits”) — plus all photos and other
images.
This month’s lead stories include the following: 1) “Historic
Toutorsky Mansion Zoning Change Sought for Diplomatic Use”; 2) “ New
State-of-the-Art Library in Tenleytown to Open Late January”; 3) “Trio
Restaurant Misses One of its Giant Nutcrackers.” The Selected Street
Crimes feature, which is separately posted on the web site, will be
updated later on, at which time we will provide notification.
The next issue PDF will publish early in the morning of February 14
(the second Friday of the month, as usual). For more information, either
send an E-mail to newsroom@intowner.com
or call 234-1717.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Woman’s National Democratic Club Luncheon,
January 20
Tonya Butler-Truesdale, gotonyago@gmail.com
Toni Michelle Travis, Democratic Destiny and the District of
Columbia: Federal Politics and Public Policy, a luncheon at the
Woman’s National Democratic Club, 1526 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, at
11:30 a.m., Thursday, January 20. WNDC member, Associate Professor of
Government, author and political analyst Toni Michelle C. Travis, will
focus on the unique nature of DC’s executive branch. With her
perspective as a policy analyst and expert on local political history,
Toni will offer her assessment of the challenges facing DC’s
Mayor-elect. Vincent Gray will step in to a job with the title of mayor,
but his responsibilities will be that of a city chief, county executive
and even governor. The challenges are daunting. How will Gray fare? Her
latest book, Democratic Destiny and the District of Columbia,
which Toni edited and co-authored with the late Ronald Walters, assesses
District mayors from a historical perspective and analyzes public policy
issues that faced each new mayor. Members $25, nonmembers $30, lecture
only (no lunch) $10. Register at https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5880/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=21010
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National Building Museum Events, January 22
Tara Miller, tmiller@nbm.org
January 22, 10:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Girl Scout Day. Join the National
Building Museum for this activity day designed especially for Girl
Scouts. Girls will be able to explore ideas — like innovation and
designing for the future — that were also explored at the world’s
fairs featured in the exhibition Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s
Fairs of the 1930s. For a full description of activities, visit our web
site at http://go.nbm.org/scouts.
$15 per scout; adults free. Prepaid registration required. At the
National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square Metro
station. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org.
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