Everything can be taken from a man but . . .
the last of the human freedoms–to choose
one’s attitude in any given set of circum-
stances, to choose one’s own way.
I wonder what kind of day Texas State Trooper Brian Encinio was having before he spotted Sandra Bland’s Hyundai and pulled her over for not signaling a lane change. Did he wake up angry that morning after an argument the night before? Did someone leave a note, or send a text that rattled his nerves? Or just “ghosted” him? Was this Encino’s first arrest of the day? Or was it a rough ride all the way up to this point? Is he being hounded by creditors for student loans? Is someone he cares about sick? It was after 3 PM July 10. What was the temperature in Houston (93 degrees) Did he eat a good breakfast and/or lunch that day? Does he hate cigarette smoke?
I stopped the video right after he opened the car door.
Filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez explores all the M’s in his documentary RUBEN SALAZAR: MAN IN THE MIDDLE. This is the first time I’ve heard the Ruben Salazar story — yes, I’m in the slow lane on Chicano history. Hispanic Heritage Month gives me a chance to excelerate. Where was the middle for Ruben Salazar? Middle of the battle for Chicano civil rights? Middle of the L.A. Times newsroom in the 1960s? How many of us have had those border crossing or cross-over lives (figuratively and literally speaking) only to have those borders cross over us? What really killed Ruben Salazar? Does his story resonate with a new generation?
Watch RUBEN SALAZAR: MAN IN THE MIDDLE and join me in a chat with Phillip Rodriguez and Julio Ricardo Varela (founder of Latino Rebels) on OVEE (Online Video Engagement Experience) Tuesday, October 7 at 7 PM (PT), 9 PM (CT), 10 PM (ET). Go to this link: bit.ly/ovee_RubenSalazarMIN.
Yesterday, in a 9-5 vote, the Texas Board of Education has replaced the “Slave Trade” with the “Atlantic Triangular trade” for its textbooks and social studies standards over the next ten years.
And the United States is no longer a “democracy” but a “constitutional republic.”
Thomas Jefferson has nothing over John Calvin, a French theologian from the 16th century. No more Jefferson in Paris. What happened to “freedom fries”? “In God We Trust” supersedes “We the People.”
Barack Obama will be the only president referenced by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama. William Jefferson Clinton will stay Bill, James Earl Carter will stay Jimmy, and Richard Millhouse Nixon will remain innocent. John F. Kennedy gets to keep his middle initial, but will Texas still claim him? Does anyone know George Washington’s middle name? Oh, the burdens of being a first.
CBS News reports (online): The board rejected an effort to add former San Antonio mayor and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros to a fourth-grade example of notable Texans and spent much time debating which Civil War battles and heroes from Texas should be added to a seventh-grade class.
To be honest, what Texas proposes resembles what school textbooks and curricula gave school children in the 1970s where there was more focus on the Civil War generals and battles than the slavery issue. How many students are fortunate to have siblings who frequent the library and bookstores and plop titles on the dining room table with information way beyond what you were getting in school. Or parents who were descended from free people of color whose story didn’t fit what was taught in the school textbook about slavory. As people have been saying “You may want your country back, but I want mine to go forward.”
Nothing is above critical analysis if analysis is involved or even critical thinking. Sure McCarthyism got out of control fingering Americans in a kangaroo court like spectacle. Some people who got burned were card carrying Communists, some were not. But why did it happen? What makes Communism a threat? In school we didn’t even know what Communism was. In fact, I don’t think we spent 1 paragraph on McCarthyism.
With the Texas School Board’s decision which will affect over 4 million students, will textbook publishers go for the sale or come up with a new business plan especially if other states aren’t buying in?
Texas is also considering accepting nuclear waste from over 30 states.
Just as the state board of education in Texas takes the final steps to remove the secular Thomas Jefferson from its history text books, the President has set his focus on bringing the next generation up to speed via education standards, where the previous generation apparently failed (were failed). Some of the country’s most important political and cultural debates are staged in the guise of improving public education.
Yes, the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the planet because public education has not been a priority for perhaps the last 40 years. Let’s start with state, city or even the nation’s fiscal budgets. True, some places have thrown money at the problem with little or no results. Schools need positive community reinforcement. I remember a time when the drunks and the addicts would tell kids to go to school, “Go to school and be somebody.” Over the past 30 years, resentment has replaced encouragement of academic achievement especially in communities where there are low performing schools. Schools sometimes have to step in to do social work for students and occasionally their parents/guardians. If parents can’t hold up their end, meeting academic goals becomes that much harder for the student and the teacher. The parent/teacher partnership is strained by demoralizing unemployment or multiple part-time gigs to make ends meet.
Public education also got burned by making teaching a pass-through gig or a profession for persons who couldn’t get jobs in the private sector. The revolving door mentality has to stop and teaching needs to be a serious profession again. Serious educators, I’m sure, feel like a deflated football being tossed and kicked across the field. With each new administration comes a new set of standards and requirements. A new pass/fail criteria. At what point will teachers be stakeholders in crafting the standards and requirements for their students to succeed since it is their profession that’s always on the line?
Something about “back to school” that feels like a new beginning even if you’ve so-called graduated from it all. Saturday, I joined a newly formed group called the Grassroots Education Project to assist Harriet Tubman Elementary get in shape for the first day of school – that’s today. Neither rain or stifling humidity could keep the volunteers away thanks to the persistence of Adam Barr from the DC for Obama team who organized this effort which will continue through the school year. Canvassing identified 14 additional neighborhood volunteers.
Tubman is located on 13th Street, NW at Irving here in Washington, DC. I used to pass it every morning on the way to the 9-5 job, so naturally I noticed the fresh coat of paint and new windows when I pulled up Saturday. Apparently, Tubman is designated for “modernization” by DC Public Schools. The classrooms have been fitted with LCD projectors, smart boards, and air conditioning!!! among other upgrades.
On Saturday Tubman was a show piece for DCPS officials. Local media got the grand tour by principal Harry Hughes. Chancellor Michelle Rhee showed up, but I missed her. Too busy adjusting new desks, papering the bulletin boards and stocking cabinets. How well I remember loving the smell of “new” during my school days. I have to say, I was a bit concerned about all the sawing going on two days before the doors officially open. But I’ve witnessed an extreme makeover of a public school in less than 18 hours. That was when the POTUS was making a visit to my high school. Magic elves have nothing on a President’s advance team.
Here are some pics of the day.
DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS – Ground Zero for Education Standards
Texas is the second largest purchaser of school textbooks and curricula which in making a market impact also translates to making an impact on textbook and curricula content in public k-12 schools throughout the country. Which is why it’s important to give some attention to the Texas Board of Education’s debate to remove certain “liberal” historic persons and events from high school text books in the state’s districts. Read the overview by Meteor Blades of Daily Kos here.
And there’s a hit list: Thurgood Marshall who was part of the team that litigated school desegregation before the U.S. Supreme Court, and was the first African American Supreme Court Justice; Cesar Chavez who led the freedom fight to secure labor rights for field workers; and Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the Puritan Colony for insisting on women’s rights and religious freedom. She helped establish a new colony that became the state of Rhode Island.
A six-member education death panel has been set up by the Texas Board of Education to advise teams of teachers, academics, and community representatives to rewrite the standards for social studies textbooks and curricula. [The non-partisan League of Women Voters should jump into this.] According to the Houston Chronicle, the suggestions for revision include search and replace (Thurgood Marshall for Newt Gingrich); and a “fair and balanced” charade – include both sides to “see what the differences are and be able to define those differences,” board member Ken Mercer R-San Antonio suggests. His reading lists includes Sean Hannity and fmr Arkansas Governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Even when Mercer is adding “liberals” to his “conservatives” list, it is persons from organizations or advocacy groups that are in direct conflict with his conservative counterparts. This is akin to having history written by publicists, and pundits on CNN and FOX News.
There will be a quiz.
THE ACID OF EVIL “The people who did this to me don’t want women to be educated. They want us to be stupid things.” photo credit: Lynsey Addario, NY Times Dexter Filkins is compelled to risk journalistic standards to help students at the Mirwais Mena School for Girls on the outskirts of Kandahar. The school was the target of an acid attack earlier this year. “A School Bus for Shamsia” was published on-line before appearing in a special issue of the New York Times [Sunday] Magazine devoted to “Saving the World’s Women.” A great issue!
“Knowledge is Power”…Auntie Mame ITVS has released its most recent Classroom curriculum on-line – WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT. Here’s the description:
Four documentaries explore stories of women’s empowerment and leadership around the world. Meet an indigenous Bolivian leader fighting for labor rights; a young Israeli Arab karate champion with feminist ideas; three Egyptian women working for fair elections and a Kenyan leader sparking a nationwide environmental movement.
Lesson plans and video modules encourage students to learn about international struggles and take an active role in addressing local concerns. Lessons are directed toward high school and college students.
Subject areas: Social Studies, Global Studies, Civics, Economics, Government, Political Science, Sociology, World History, Language Arts, Geography, Women’s Studies, Media Studies.
Update:Mayor Adrian Fenty and his wife Michelle were seen taking one of their sons to Lafayette Elementary School today. The 9-year-old Fenty twins, Andrew and Matthew, were enrolled in a private Montessori school that runs through 3rd grade. Marion Barry was the last DC Mayor to enroll his child in a DC public school. Mayors Washington, Pratt-Kelly, and Williams didn’t have school-age children at the time of their terms. Both Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Michelle Rhee have children enrolled in DC Public Schools. See more about DC’s first day of school here.
Yesterday, in a 
