Mark Your Calendars
Dear Schedulers:
With the end of the summer break, the city council will resume its
committee of the whole and legislative sessions on September 18 with
Phil Mendelson fully in charge as chairman.
Former city council chairman Kwame Brown will have his sentencing
hearing on September 20. Thomas Gore, assistant treasurer of the Vince
Gray for Mayor campaign, will have a court status conference on
September 4. Howard Brooks, Gray campaign consultant, will face a
sentencing hearing on October 10. Jeanne Clarke Harris, another Gray
campaign consultant, will have a court status conference on October 24.
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The Washington Post ran an editorial on Sunday, “Another Sign
DC School Reform Works,” praising the Inspector General’s report that
cleared DC Public Schools in the scandal about the high number of
erasures on standardized tests changing students’ answers from wrong
ones to correct ones. Be sure to read the comments on the editorial,
especially from “Labor Lawyer,” who wrote, “It’s one thing — and a good
thing — for a newspaper’s editorial staff to refrain from interfering in
what its reporters write. It’s another thing — and a bad thing — for a
newspaper’s editorial staff to refrain from reading what its reporters
write!
“The WaPo’s veteran education reporters — Jay Mathews and, to a
lesser degree Bill Turque and Valerie Strauss — have authored numerous
articles and blog posts outlining in great detail the strong evidence
that widespread cheating occurred on the DCPS standardized tests as well
as the fatal deficiencies in the investigations (cover-ups?) of this
cheating.
“In today’s editorial, the WaPo editorial staff totally ignores this
strong evidence of cheating and of fatal deficiencies in the
investigations as described at length by its own veteran education
reporters,”
http://tinyurl.com/9gft6uw.
The editorial board goes further than ignoring its own reporters; it
seems to believe that the newspaper’s news coverage of the issue is
wrong and misinforming its readers. But it doesn’t confront its
disagreement with its three reporters, or even acknowledge that such a
disagreement exists. Since Mathews, Strauss, and Turque (until Turque
was recently reassigned away from the education beat) are all nationally
recognized experts on education policy, shouldn’t the editorial board
explain how they all could be so wrong?
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Book Review,
Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson
Phil Shapiro,
pshapiro@his.com
At my public library job in Takoma Park, Maryland, a homeschooling
youth, Abraham Joyner-Meyers, has been stopping by to chat with me for
the past few years. Now thirteen years old, Abe has been treating me as
an intellectual peer since he was eight. I’ve learned a lot from him
that I didn’t know before. At the age of thirteen, he has the
intellectual and emotional maturity of most college students.
So I recently got to wondering what his parents do for a living. When
I inquired, he told me his mom is a scholar who writes books. “What
books has she written?” I asked. “She co-authored a recent book about a
deaf African-American man in North Carolina who was falsely accused of
rape. He spent most of his life in an insane asylum.” “I need to read
that book,” I said. Here is my video book review that I posted to
Amazon.com,
http://tinyurl.com/cf6ydwq.
This book has a connection to the DC area, which I mention at the end of
the book review. This book is available from the DC Public Libraries and
the Prince Georges’ Memorial Libraries.
We are the sum total of the stories we tell and the stories we choose
to hear. As you already know, “The universe is made of stories, not
atoms,” Muriel Rukeyser.
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You may be on to something [“Omerta,” themail, August 22]. Assuming
that you are, how can District residents force the abolition of the
Code? How did the FBI succeed in doing so? There is no sense in starting
from scratch or in attempting to reinvent the wheel. Let learn what has
been successful in the past and employ those techniques. Otherwise, I
fear we are left with no option but to vote all the bums out, and that
is not a realistic option.
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Good Star for Corruption
Jenefer Ellingston,
jellygreen3@gmail.com
Sadly and reluctantly, I write to agree (90 percent) with your
characterization of the members of our city council described in your
article “Omerta” [themail, August 22]. Was it always so? When did we
fall from a clean playing field and slip into the weeds? Even if the
“dirty laundry” is washed out by resignations, what will prevent
contamination of a new set of councilmembers?
Starting from our Chief Executive (President) and working our way
down from the US Congress to the state governments, county governments,
and finally city mayors — corruption (graft/fraud etc.) is standard
practice . . . some are worse than others.
I used to believe that Chicago (Mayor Daley, etc.) got a gold star
for corruption. Now, it’s proportional to the size of the district
governed. Is there an alternative? Yes — the Green Party — the only
party that accepts no money from corporations.
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Some months ago I wrote to Phil Mendelson and all the other council
members to ask that they immediately initiate a law that prohibits
convicted or admitted felons from serving on the DC council. I believe
that it is untenable and that the general public should not be subjected
to law breakers becoming the law makers. We deserve better. I had only
one response from Mary Cheh, and her position was that even persons who
are convicted felons can still do good for the community. I agree that
this can happen. My position is that they should not be the law makers
when they had so little regard for the law themselves. I sometimes feel
like a voice in the wilderness. Why do Washingtonians let so many of
these issues pass them by without giving any thought to the
consequences? I am also angry (disgusted) that the councilmembers do not
even feel a need to answer a concern from a DC resident. They work for
us.
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When Civil War authors review books written by other Civil War
authors, a strange thing happens. They won’t write bad reviews, or at
least they pull their punches even if a book is a real stinker. Why? It
is because each one worries that if he writes a critical review of the
books written by “Author X” then that author might reciprocate. In other
words, fear keeps them dishonest.
Maybe something similar is tying the tongues of DC politicians.
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