Whitcomb: R.I. Schools; Stop & Shop Alts; Portland’s Appeal; Ignoring Maintenance; Low Barr
Monday, April 22, 2019
Far from this foreign Easter damp and chilly
My soul steals to a pear-shaped plot of ground,
Where gleamed the lilac-tinted Easter lily
Soft-scented in the air for yards around.
Alone, without a hint of guardian leaf!
Just like a fragile bell of silver rime,
It burst the tomb for freedom sweet and brief
In the young pregnant year at Eastertime;
And many thought it was a sacred sign,
And some called it the resurrection flower;
And I, a pagan, worshiped at its shrine,
Yielding my heart unto its perfumed power.
“The Easter Flower,’’ by Claude McKay (1889-1948)
“The infirmities most besetting popular governments…are found in defective laws, which do mischief before they can be mended, and laws passed under transient impulses, of which time and reflection call for a change.’’
-- James Madison
Rigorous Accounting for Charter Schools
Tim Duffy, executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, is right to ask for rigorous accounting of the effectiveness of charter schools compared to regular public schools. (And, I’d add, we should frequently review how well charter schools are working in other states.) He made his comments to GoLocal in response to the arrival of a new state education commissioner, Angelica Infante-Green.
One of my own main concerns is that the new commissioner not get so tangled up in identity and group politics that she forgets what should be her main mission – improving schooling for everyone, from those who need special help because of socio-economic disadvantages and/or mental and physical problems to “gifted’’ students who may need their own kind of special attention so that they can achieve at their highest potential. The state’s social and economic success will lean heavily on whether this happens.
And for main models, the new commissioner, of course, needn’t go far. Massachusetts is believed to have the nation’s best public schools, in large part because of reforms started in the 1990’s. Does Rhode Island have the will to become much more like Massachusetts in academic quality, while taking into consideration that it’s a less wealthy state? The Ocean State can certainly do a lot better.
Not Quite Brain Dead
Scientists have restored some activity (but not consciousness) in the brains of pigs that had been slaughtered by pumping a blood substitute through the organs four hours after the pigs were killed. The experiment showed surprising resilience in the brain cells and raises lots of questions about the potential of this development for the treatment of people. For example, could it lead to new treatments for stroke and car-crash victims? And how might right-to-life issues get involved? How might this change the definition of death?
Christof Koch, president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, who didn't participate in the study, told the Associated Press:
"This sort of technology could help increase our knowledge to bring people back to the land of the living" after a catastrophic event that deprived the brain of oxygen for an hour or two.
He also raised the obvious idea that this could open an ethical minefield, such as, in the AP’s words, involving “the widely used definition of death as the irreversible loss of brain function because irreversibility ‘depends on the state of the technology; and as this study shows, this is constantly advancing.’’’
“And somebody might well try this with a human brain someday, he said. If future experiments restored the large-scale electrical activity, would that indicate consciousness? Would the brain ‘experience confusion, delusion, pain or agony?’ he asked. That would be unacceptable even in an animal brain,’’ he told the AP.
Our Lady of Delayed Maintenance
The fire in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris probably had something to do with the long-delayed and inadequate (only about $7 million was being spent) repair work that was underway when the blaze started. Someone in the work crew could have accidentally started it. Too much had been ignored for too long, as seen in the failure to remove flammable dust or to chemically treat the cathedral’s ancient oaken frame structure to make it less flammable.
Notre Dame seems to me a classic case of the sort of delayed maintenance we see in most public buildings. The tedious and needed year-by-year repairs are postponed. Spending money for maintenance is not nearly as glamorous as building something from scratch, and, as we see at so many colleges and universities, putting a donor’s name on it. Note that some very rich folks have offered to put up the equivalent of a total of $1 billion to repair the cathedral. Will they (and/or their companies) get their names on big bronze plaques at its main entrance?
Maintenance of Notre Dame might also have suffered from this: The French government owns the cathedral, which it rightly sees as a national treasure, but the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paris, which has an exclusive right in perpetuity to use the cathedral for religious purposes, is responsible for security, heating and cleaning, as well as for paying the employees. The French government doesn’t subsidize the maintenance and the diocese doesn’t have as much money these days as it did a few decades ago. Split responsibility for properties, especially something as grand, complicated and old as Notre Dame, can be problematic.
France is a very secular country and many, perhaps most, of the churches are nearly empty on Sundays nowadays, as I found when we lived there. But the French are well schooled in their country’s powerful role in Christendom and remain intensely proud of the glorious physical reminders of that past, though it’s not clear how much they’re willing to pay to preserve them. Like here.
Overly Dependent on Big Stores
How much – and for how long --will the strike at Dutch-owned Stop & Shop boost business at New England-based supermarket chains such as Shaw’s, Market Basket and Dave’s Marketplace? And how much at the few remaining small grocery stores?
Wouldn’t it be nice if we had more of the latter, places – better than 7-Elevens -- that you could nip into and buy small quantities of stuff? Yes, small grocery stores’ items are more expensive than those in the big supermarkets, with their efficiencies of scale, but faster and more pleasant. (Reminds me of Benny’s vs. Home Depot.) I think that New England towns and cities would be considerably more agreeable if we had more of those little grocery-and-other-stuff stores you see in New York City that we often called “Korean markets’’ when I lived there because so many were owned by Korean-American, or bodegas, with their Latin American focus. Very handy.
All this reminds me of the store called simply “Central Market,’’ in the small downtown of the village I lived I as a boy. The smells of ground coffee, (overripe?) fruit, fish, some of it perhaps just brought in from the nearby harbor, and other goods were rich, and the floor was covered with sawdust, which wouldn’t pass an OSHA inspection now. Eventually, a big A&P supermarket went up on the edge of town, closer to a new superhighway (that all too soon became a long parking lot in rush hours). The owners of Central Market couldn’t compete and so the store was eventually shut down. So now there was no grocery store we could walk or bike to. Another triumph for the car culture.
Barr Bathos, Continued
Trump protector Attorney General William Barr briefed the White House on details of the Mueller report before he provided anything to Congress or the general public. Did this vetting/redacting include Barr’s son-in-law Tyler McGaughey, a lawyer who, very conveniently, works in the White House’s counsel’s office? (Barr’s oldest daughter, Mary Daly, also works for the administration. ) Barr’s intention all along has been clearly to help Trump and his crew prepare defense and offense. Some of Barr’s words suggest that he believes that presidents are above the law, or least Republican ones are.
In any event, even with redactions, and the dubious idea that a sitting president can’t be indicted, the Mueller reports lays out a saga of the Trump tribe’s collusion (or whatever euphemism you want to call it) with the Russians to elect Trump and his fierce attempts to obstruct the investigation of same. The evidence makes it even clearer than it has been for months that he should be removed from office. So should Barr, for that matter.
Only the cowardice of congressional Republicans terrified of Trump’s base prevents his impeachment.
Barr, a longtime Beltway Bandit and GOP loyalist, has stained the reputation of the Justice Department by acting as Trump’s personal lawyer and promoter. Yet again, it seems that corruption is part of the job description for high-level Trump regime personnel.
Barr himself has had a few financial links to Russian interests as a private-sector lawyer. It’s quite something how many in the Trump circle have had such links. And so the most corrupt administration in U.S. history rolls on, as we move to Banana Republic status, relentlessly lowering the standards of behavior expected of our leaders.
Tax Returns Point to Conflicts of Interest
The main reason, of course, to make elected officials, especially federal ones, release their tax returns is to see how economic conflicts of interest may affect politicians’ votes and other public decisions. In the case of Trump, his decisions have virtually all served to further enrich himself, his family and the Trump Organization. And as the membership of Congress becomes increasingly part of the plutocracy, we wonder how much of their voting reflects attempts to further enrich themselves.
It’s past time to do what some other countries do and open up these tax returns.
Leave the Private Colleges Alone
The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education has enough to do monitoring the states’s public colleges and universities without implementing its plan to monitor the health of private institutions, too. The state would study private colleges’ financial health, warn them if state officials saw issues and notify students. But if not done very carefully, this could cause sudden, precipitous drops in the number of current students and applicants, forcing the colleges so identified to abruptly close, in self-fulfilling prophecies.
Not There Anymore
As I was driving up to Maine last Monday on a little business project, I thought of how much less I drive these days because so many of the people – relatives and friends – that I used to visit have gone to their reward. For instance, I used to drive up to Brunswick, Maine, a couple of times a year to see my godfather (and my father’s best friend) and his wife.
He was a former Boston PR executive -- propaganda minister for the old First National Stores supermarket chain -- who in later mid-life went to work for Bowdoin College. He and his wife first lived in a house on the water on a point south of Brunswick but eventually moved to a smaller place in town. Behind their little duplex was a cemetery. I asked him, when he was in his late ‘70s, if that bothered him. He said: “Not at all. Nice to have a short commute.’’
He was one of those World War II vets who rarely talked about the war or if they did, sometimes made light of it. His line was that he had spent much of the war enjoying the bars of Honolulu. In fact, this naval officer was on missions that dropped stuff to anti-Japanese forces in occupied Indonesia and the Philippines. Very dangerous.
As the list of living people I know shortens, conversations I had a half-century ago with some of the departed seem sharper than ever in my memory.
Shell Games
There’s much talk in Maine these days about increased oyster and other aquaculture along the Pine Tree State’s coast. The overfishing of wild species and the heavy consumer demand for seafood will boost this aquaculture even in the face of heavy opposition in some places, especially, as usual, from affluent summer people who don’t want to look at aquaculture operations in the water near their houses. They remind me of the foes of offshore wind farms. But the cultivation of shellfish and other creatures should be a growing boon for Maine, much of which (especially in its northern and interior regions) remains poor.
The Damariscotta River (actually an estuary of the Gulf of Maine) is the oyster-aquaculture capital of New England.
The Charms of Portland
Portland, by far Maine’s biggest city, is a curious blend of a working-waterfront town and spiffy, almost precious urban gentrification in a place rich with beautiful old brick and stone buildings. Lots of fancy restaurants, pricey shops and art galleries. And though it was very windy and cool last Tuesday when I met a couple of people for lunch in a restaurant in the old Portland Press Herald Building, now called the Press Hotel, the sidewalks were crowded and the atmosphere seemed almost exuberant. The hotel is well worth a visit to see its gallery, including its newspaper artifacts turned into art, such as the old manual typewriters mounted on a wall.
But then, there are lots of budding and working artists around, to no small degree because of the presence of the Maine College of Art and the Portland Museum of Art.
A lot of people would find Portland a fine place to spend a weekend, or even move to, if you could find a job.
Friendly
The highway toll takers in Maine and New Hampshire are so friendly that you might almost enjoy giving them money. And what a downer it is to move south from up there to the bland suburbia and aggressive drivers of much of Greater Boston.
Clouds of Plastic
Plastic pollution isn’t just a problem in the water. It breaks down into tiny particles in the air and gets blown around by the wind and absorbed by creatures, including us. The plastics can absorb chemicals and heavy metals along the way. And this stuff can last for hundreds of years.
To read more about plastic air pollution, please hit this link:
‘Targeted Employment Area’ Indeed!
Hudson Yards, the gigantic luxury residential/retail/office development on Manhattan’s West Side, is a classic case of a government program meant to help poor neighborhoods that’s helping to build stuff for rich people instead.
The $25 billion residential and office project, created by some of Gotham’s biggest movers and shakers, got at least $1.2 billion of its financing through a program called EB-5 that lets wealthy would-be immigrants get U.S. visas in return for investing in poor areas, such as parts of Harlem. The area where Hudson Yards has gone up was not poor. But the Feds lets the states define “targeted employment areas” (TEAs) in order to get this sort of investment. So New York State essentially gerrymandered together the Hudson Yards area and faraway Harlem low-income housing projects to meet the criteria. Genius!
Easter Memories
In my memory of childhood, Easter was either cold and raw or warm, even hot, depending, I suppose, on when it fell in a particular year. In my itchy gray suit, attending Easter services could be quite uncomfortable, and the hymns not as good as Christmas carols.
After church, my four siblings and I would be taken home to a big Easter dinner, with lamb or ham. (Eating both of these fellow mammals now seems to me barbaric. And pigs (ham) are smart.) Then, after the interminable (to a child) meal, the younger kids would look for hidden candy Easter eggs, usually outside on the rocky, scrubby hill we lived on, setting up the rest of the day for sugar highs and then crashes. Or did we look for them before church?
While we paid a little attention to Holy Week events leading up to Easter, except for being given palm fronds in the Palm Sunday service – leaves that we whipped each other with after the service – and being made aware of what happened on Good Friday, we sailed through the week paying far less attention to something vague called “religion’’ than we displayed in the week leading up to Christmas, with its promise of parties and presents. The theological centrality of Holy Week to true believers was beyond us, whatever our Sunday school coloring books, some of which had Jesus looking like a Norwegian. Perhaps Easter’s greatest pleasure was that it signified that summer wasn’t that far away.
Medford in Mandalay
“It is simply not possible (as romantics think) to lose yourself in an exotic place. More likely you will experience intense nostalgia, a harking back to an earlier stage of your life. This does not happen to the exclusion of the exotic present, however; in fact, what makes the whole experience thrilling is the juxtaposition of present and past – Medford dreamed in Mandalay.’’
--- Novelist, travel writer and Medford, Mass., native Paul Theroux, in his book fresh air fiend: Travel Writings.
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