THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Because it’s interesting

Monday, June 30, 2008

Because it’s interesting

Our van needed to go to the shop for a few days in 2002 so we rented a car while it was gone. In the glove compartment of the rental car I discovered a three page handwritten letter. The words were neatly printed in blue ink on white lined notebook paper. Here it is, reproduced as written.

(Page one)

Missing my Bady

5-7-02

Say Baby,

By the time this letter reaches you It finds you In the best of health. As for my Self honey Im doing WeLL For now. WeLL baby I heard you were IN Jail and I call to see if you Got out yet dam baby Im not use to me comeing home and my Wife Is in Jail. Dam that’s a Fucked up Felling for th bothe OF US. I know you go back to court on May 16Th I will be out and at you’R Court Date Fell me. Dam honey I realy miss you so much. I miss hearing you’re voice. I hoPe they let you out on the 16Th Fell me. What they Get you for the same old warrant’s. Baby don’t take no Felony Probation. Ask you’re lawyer For some Court Probation and Credit For time Served Fell me. Baby I been real Scared when I come home Cause I don’t want to use Drugs It’s Got to be a better life out there. That’s why we need GOD In are life

Feel me

(Page two)

Love always

Well honey I’m not going to Start Preaching because I don’t have my Shit together So who am I to Speak (Feel me) Honey I just have to Get my Shit together First. (Feel me) I was thinking about going wright Into a Program. But baby I might be In denial Still. But aLL I can do Is ask God to give me Strength not to Pick up that Shit a Put It In my arm. Or Put that PiPe UP to my mouth. Because IF I do I will be Wright back In Jail. And baby to keep It real I am very tired oF comeing to Jail. Baby what Im Saying Is take time out and think about are future and are son We can’t live like this. Because Wer’e killing are Self. Baby We deserve better because we are blessed (Feel me) I’m going to stand Stall From Now on Say honey I will come to see you IF they don’t let you come home on the 16Th and Put some money on you’re books cause I know what’s It like not to have eany money

you dig

(Page three)

But check this here honey. I wish you a happy Mother Day even though we won’t be together (FeLL me) But we will be togethe in sPrit you dig. Have you talked to Mom’s or Alvin? I know you called richmond. I hope Mom’s Is doing cool health wise. Dam I hope we can have some kid’s together. Because I want you to have my kid’s. Baby I hope you Fill the same. OH by the time you recive this letter I should be geting out monday morning on May 13. Fell me. But I like I said I will be at court. You Dig. I hope everything comes out alwright (Fell me) Dam baby how I miss you so much. I can’t wait hold you and kiss and make mad love. (Feel me) OH Baby dont Get In to trouble while your’e In there. Stay Strong In the Struggle.

Love you’re Husband

D____ H____

I wonder how their children are doing.

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Inform yourself about the Gulen movement!

1. WATCH the Gulen Movement 101: Session One webinar presentation (1/22/2014)
2. READ the "Expose the Gulen Movement" report.
3. LISTEN to my interview with At The Chalk Face , slide marker to 32:00 min. (5/19/2013)
4. WATCH the 60 Minutes segment "U.S. charter schools tied to powerful Turkish imam" broadcast. (5/13/2012)
5. READ my response to the 60 Minutes piece.
6. READ my guest article about Gulen charter schools published by The Washington Post. (3/27/2012)
7. WATCH my interview talking about Gulen charter schools, or my presentation at LaborFest (segment between 49:18 min. & 1:07:36 min.)
8. READ my postings labeled "Gulen movement" HERE.

As one observer tweeted, "U.S. media have focused too much on the Islamic nature of the Gulen movement. Real concern is its shady dealings and improprieties."

Please be aware that Gulenists have created a large number of anonymously-operated damage control websites. They started to appear a few months after publication of Greg Toppo's article in USA Today (August 2010).

WE CAN DO IT!

Jim Hightower on populism:

"... what populism is at its essence is just a determined focus on helping people be able to get out of the iron grip of the corporate power that is overwhelming our economy, our environment, energy, the media, government."

Jim Hightower on plutocracy:

"Plutocracy and democracy don't mix."

More Jim Hightower HERE.
Read his Lowdown newsletter HERE.

Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low.

On Bill Gates' ed reform

Joel Shatzky's comment on Huffington Post:

The inferior "test-prep" agenda which bases the pedagogically fraudulent "data" standardized test scores serves as a way of diverting the concerns of working parents who hope that better test scores will lead to better job opportunities for their children. If they realized that they were being given a con job, they might consider other, more "active" forms of political and social protest than simply lobbying for more money for charter and public schools.

New wealth gap report

Research and Policy Brief from the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, Brandeis University, May 2010:

"New evidence reveals that the wealth gap between white and African-American families has more than quadrupled over the course of a generation."

You absolutely must click on this link to view the graph.

Now compare that graph to the one you'll see here.

Now read this entry.

And if you are a person who blames the schools, or believes they are responsible for fixing these problems, you can stop that type of thinking right now.

A Keeper

Posted on the Oakland Public School Parents listserv by a member:*

As a public health nurse, I am working with a generation of young parents who were drug-exposed, who are now having children who are drug-exposed, and it's a whole new ballgame. Many who were premature and will carry some deficits for life.

There are also many other families who have several generations of all kinds of abuse, not enough to eat, violence in and out of their homes, as well as chronic exposure to pollution and nutritional deficits. And there are regular people in the same neighborhoods who are just trying to live, but are poor and can't get ahead.

And there is major grief, and continuous LOSS. So many folks have lost so many folks, people around them dying, of one thing or another, every month almost. Young people (cousins, brothers, friends) dying from violent means, the elders dying too young of chronic disease and disparities in health care, among other things.

What we know about learning and development is that stressed nervous systems CANNOT learn, and that's what we have. Children with many major stressors. Abandonment, attachment disorders, fear, post traumatic stress, sadness, inability to trust or sleep. Many children. Many.

Resulting in: Lack of impulse control, lack of executive function, difficulty in expressing and controlling emotions, difficulty in sleeping, holding still, and paying attention, not to mention following directions and prioritizing tasks.

Our teachers will (perhaps already do) need more training, support, and smaller class sizes. They need major support and help with mental health issues. We really need some kind of expanded vocational track for those who can't perform even at the community college level.

We can't expect teachers to undo years and years of living. The availability of universal preschool would help. Sometimes a classroom is the first kindly, safe, structured, stimulating environment a child encounters.

Wise insights such as these are never uttered by people like Eli Broad, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, Joe Williams, or any others who are of this type of school reform ilk. And this is why I know for certain that they just don't "get it." Maybe they don’t want to, OR maybe they don’t care.

* Thank you, B.R.

What Children Need

From Playing to Learn by Susan Engel (New York Times, 2/1/2010):

"Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.

…Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on."

And to tag onto that, check out this video about the wood shop at one of Oakland's middle schools.

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Monday, June 30, 2008

Because it’s interesting

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