You would think that Rahm Emanuel would think twice before messing with Karen Lewis, but he apparently hasn’t been, um…schooled. (sorry, bad pun I know)
She once again delivers a smackdown of the mayor by calling him on the divide-and-conquer politics.
Be sure to click on the links to Fred Klonsky’s blog, which also gives some insight to what is going on in Chicago. What goes on there, is most certainly going on around the country. Bless Karen Lewis.
Diane Ravitch has a post up on the “new” SAT. I haven’t seen the test, so I have to go by what Diane is describing. I do know that I when I first heard of the “new” SAT, I was sure there was some connection to the brainless Common Core. Yep.
It’s troubling that the writing section will be optional. Being able to write well-constructed sentences is an art. It should be a part of the test.
Diane quotes Superintendent Cohen, whom is critical of the “new” SAT:
Nowhere in our new, vaunted Common Core State Standards are teachers told to be concerned with nurturing young people’s imaginations or their original thoughts about the books they read, about the way nature works, about whether our government’s policies are good or bad, about whether the Pythagorean theorem could be used to help design a better bridge over the Hudson river, or whether “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Nor will the “new” and “fairer” SAT ask students to write about such matters.
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Absolutely. Spot on. It’s not enough to be able to repeat what another wrote–but to be able to interpret what they wrote and take it beyond that to expand the dialogue. Or to offer another point of view and facts or theory to back what you’re saying.
As I’m reading the article, I thought about when I took the SAT’s in high school. It was a gamble on my part, because I did not take the college-bound courses offered. That was the time that my Mom was pouring cheese soup over crackers for dinner sometimes….college seemed like an unreachable dream, so I took the easier courses offered. Personally, I don’t think those courses should have been an option–all the students who were capable should have been in the college courses. One really can’t know their potential until they are tested. And when you’re young and unsure of yourself, being tested means taking a risk–putting yourself out there for possible failure. Teenagers would rather die than face what they perceive as humiliation (when in fact it is a growing moment that should be supported, and not humiliated, as some like to do.) And when you’re poor, your options become even more limited because taking a risk could mean consequences for the family (if one risked going to college, and failed, that money spent on tuition is lost.)
I did pass the SAT’s, and was admitted to Indiana University but on a probationary status. I ended up not going because of being unsure of myself (probationary status to me meant “failure”) and interference by someone else. Being supported would have made all the difference at this point in time–maturity, too.
I’m telling this story because I had some rough years in middle school and high school. My grades reflected that. But they didn’t reflect my potential. As you know, I went on to college and graduated much later. It illustrates how badly misguided the Common Core and Race to the Bottom are–we are who we are at any point in time, but who we might grow to be is not measurable by any human tool.
The Canadian gov’t was vewy vewy skeered of those pesky indigenous whom honor their traditions and refuse to be completely assimilated. Good Grief. They act like these people have tanks, helicopters, drones, etc….like it’s a freaking war. Who…or What are they fighting against…?
And the quote that CSIS would not be involved if there wasn’t sufficient threat…who are they kidding?
My other posts:
Here we have a First Nations woman removed from a public meeting for…well, we don’t know because she wasn’t doing anything. Her mere presence, apparently, made her “guilty” of a crime.
Setback for First Nations protestors.
First Nations continue to stand up
Finally, this celebration on sacred Native American grounds that Mall of America was built on.
Fred Klonsky has this up on the ethnic cleansing of Chicago Public Schools. But I would go a step further and say not just ethnic, but prejudice against the poor in general. They have made it abundantly clear that they don’t believe the poor have any worth or value or potential.
He links to the Chicago Teachers Union website. This just says it all:
Schools slated for “turn around” include McNair, Dvorak and Gresham elementary schools. At McNair, 52 percent of the staff are African American; at Dvorak 70 percent of the teachers are African Americans; and at Gresham 65 percent of educators are African American. Black students are 97.1 percent of the student body and 98 percent of them are low-income.
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They also make note that most of the educators are in their 40s and 50s–a favorite target of the schools-for-fun-and-profit mob. Get rid of the higher paid older folk, and you can a) pay younger ones much, much less, and b) get more compliant employees who are desperate for a job and will subject kids to enforced abusive testing because without a union to help them protest, they’re SOL.
DN! has a piece up today on a documentary entitled “Dear White People…”
We need the conversation to begin, so I’m glad that they are taking it on…but as I viewed the excerpts, I started to get that feeling of dread. Because a young African American woman states that we (black folks) are all different and another clip one states that because she is the person of color in the room, suddenly she becomes the “voice” of the African American community. But it seems lost on the black community that perhaps whites feel the same way? We don’t all think alike and because one treats you badly or is prejudiced does not mean that we all agree with that person’s actions. Most white folks have good hearts but don’t realize some of the stuff that is said and done is hurtful (as the producer of the documentary states.)
During the interview with “Reggie” –he talks about his personal life and how he lived on an all-black floor in college. He said it helped to be with his “people’ after having people touch his hair and professors say “stuff” to him….my thought was: doesn’t he think some white people could understand that? Again, it is a block put up to sharing a common bond. White people whom have been bullied, put down, ostracized can all understand how being singled out feels. They may not understand how it is to be black, but they can understand pain.
And the tipping thing? Hello! Women are also stereotyped for being bad tippers. A long time ago, when I had a life, I sat in a restaurant and waited while the white waitresses were gossiping for twenty minutes until one finally came over to take my order. And it was cold when she brought it out. And yeah, I left a penny tip. Screw that.
In other instances, I would leave 15% tips when the going rate was 10%. Sometimes the service warranted that, but most times it was just okay, but I left the bigger tip because of the prejudice against women.
As far as his admission that black folk use their blackness as a tool sometimes to navigate the world…but it creates barriers. As I experienced in Ft. Wayne, an African American guy had created a serious problem for the entire building that could have meant injury or death for the residents. When one of the white fire fighters said something to him because he was yelling at them to shut the alarm off (they could not do that–it was a door alarm and they had the door open to let all the smoke out)** edited, he immediately blamed it on racism. He went on and on about it instead of taking a step back and realizing HE was the problem, not his skin color. And this is not a condemnation of the guy–he wasn’t a bad person, but had a screwed up view of the world.
It’s funny that this came up today, because when I was getting dressed this morning, I thought about seeing the Light in others.
Buddhists popped into my head –the Buddhists don’t believe in a God as one Supreme Being, but that God resides in each of us. Their greeting “Namaste” means that they recognize God within you and within themselves.
Even if one doesn’t believe in the Buddhist religion, if we could stop looking at each other’s skin color…or anything physical…and recognize the Light within the other, we could move past the prejudice. Our hearts involved in decision making instead of just our heads…
**edited for link to DN and further explanation above.
Some thoughts on Ukraine and finally, some insight…
How in the world does one collide with a barge? It’s not like they’re speed boats zipping past one…
…looks like another drunken captain.
The words George Bush I echo the oil man’s empty promises of safety…and clean up…as we have witnessed with every freaking oil spill since then–Kalamazoo and Arkansas and the Gulf are evidence of that. As one of the commenters said, the captain was made the scapegoat while the company escaped blame.
And Tricky Dicks’ comments? “The Alaskan pipeline is on the way…and the environment will be saved…” Priceless.
The proponents of XL pipeline are saying it’s going to create jobs…but as this video illustrates, how many jobs are lost (income lost) by the spills? How does one put a price tag on the oiled soil, water, and dead/impaired wildlife? Why are they even *considering* XL after all that has happened…?
**edited to add link to XL pipeline petition.
Global News has a post up on an SFU (? university isn’t named) professor that has linked autism with Chlordane and flame retardant PBDE-28.
Chlordane was in use in the U.S. until 1988. It has been linked to testicular cancer, lymphoma, and leukemia.
It has more widespread indications of affecting the health, however:
The non-cancer health effects of chlordane compounds, which include migraines, respiratory infections, diabetes, immune-system activation, anxiety, depression, blurry vision, confusion, intractable seizures as well as permanent neurological damage,[13] may affect more people than cancer. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has defined a concentration of chlordane compounds of 20 ng/M3 as the Minimal Risk Level (MRLs). ATSDR defines Minimal Risk Level as an estimate of daily human exposure to a dose of a chemical that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of adverse non-cancerous effects over a specific duration of exposure.[14]
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Good Grief, this stuff is uber toxic! The fact that seizures and migraines are symptoms lends more credibility to it affecting neurological function…as in autism. So…it’s not just mercury and heavy metals that can be linked to autism. And multiple exposures of both just spells disaster, imo.
You know what’s missing from the wikipedia link? The manufacturer(s). I found one of them here. Big surprise, eh? /snark
When does Monsanto start to pay back for all the misery they have caused the world? Anybody?
There’s a much better written article here. Gah,the more I read, the more alarmed I get, as if I wasn’t alarmed enough. It appears to be as persistent for remaining in the environment and not breaking down, just like DDT …
It is not known whether chlordane breaks down in most soils. If breakdown occurs, it is very slow. Chlordane is known to remain in some soils for over 20 years. Persistence is greater in heavy, clayey or organic soil than in sandy soil. Most chlordane is lost from soil by evaporation. Evaporation is more rapid from light, sandy soils than from heavy soils.
Half of the chlordane applied to the soil surface may evaporate in 2 or 3 days. Evaporation is much slower after chlordane penetrates into the soil. In water, some chlordane attaches strongly to sediment and particles in the water column and some is lost by evaporation. It is not known whether much breakdown of chlordane occurs in water or in sediment.
Chlordane breaks down in the atmosphere by reacting with light and with some chemicals in the atmosphere. However, it is sufficiently long lived that it may travel long distances and be deposited on land or in water far from its source.
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More:
Finally, some chlordane may be left over from the pre-ban days. Old containers of material thought to contain chlordane should be disposed of carefully and contact with the skin and breathing vapors should be avoided.
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Here’s what bothers me about this statement–what exactly does “dispose of” mean? How should it be disposed of?
It’s just shuffling it from one area to another. It’s not a solution. It just doesn’t magically disappear. It becomes a problem for the next hapless person who comes in contact with it, unaware of the danger. And that usually means poor people, who don’t know about their toxic environment and if they did, they don’t have the $$$ attention of politicians $$$ who can do something about removing it.
Truly, the only solution is not to allow these toxic substances into the environment to begin with.
First Nations and Greenpeace women stand together against pipeline expansion…
“We’re standing here together to link arms to build the wall of women to say no, we do not want that in our communities, we will not accept this in our communities, we want better,” said Nahanee. “Canada has a responsibility to protect their communities, we have the right to live in healthy environments— healthy environments to raise our children, to take care of our grandparents, to drink healthy water, to eat healthy food. It’s basic human rights.”
– Mandy Nahanee
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Who would have thought that we would actually have to protest keeping our water clean and healthy??
Good on the women standing together, protecting the Earth. She needs us.
Global News has obtained video of the Russian gate crashers at the Ukraine air base in Crimea. The report states they are not sure if they are Russian military or pro-Russia militia in Ukraine.
It’s hard to see the layout, but it does look rather open. I would think with the situation, there would have been more armored vehicles to prevent such an attack. It just looks like they “walked” up to the door and let themselves in.
The second question I thought was why have they not begun to pull back once Crimea voted to join Russia? Are there more people in Crimea wanting them to stay and we aren’t being told this by the lame media? Because if the gate crashers are pro-Russia militia…with obvious military capabilities…that are intimidating the peaceful ones of Crimea…then Houston, we have a problem.
I think I’ve found my answer here.
Eagle 
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