Fiesta Latina

For the past two years we've visited with some of Stephanie's students and their parents and a few of her colleagues at New Albany's Fiesta Latina, held on a Saturday near September 16, Mexican Independence Day. It's a good way for Stephanie to connect with her students and their families - and for the families to share some Latin American culture with Stephanie and her colleagues - in a fun atmosphere outside of class and school. The festival takes places in the parking lot of the St. Mary's church, where Southern IN's Spanish-speaking masses are held. This past spring we reported on the first communion celebration with many of Stephanie's students, also at St. Mary's. Leading the mass there was Father Tom, the Anglo priest who we quip only half seriously is the one who got Stephanie her job. This year we were slated to go with our Guatemalan American friends Carlos, Nora, and Ana. But a pall was cast over the event because Vincent (faced with the reality that his failing grades would prevent us from hosting a Danish exchange student, his former host, Tim) - who has only been to this once - ran away from home some five hours before we were to leave. We picked up the Lara family late - and Nora was still leading a women's group and I felt bad because Ana said her friends were going to a parallel Louisville celebration, outside of Okolona's St. Rita's Catholic Church). But off we went. When we got there, we had not only missed the procession and mass (which were new this year), but also the organized dancing, which we usually catch and which sometimes involves some of Stephanie's students. Pictured above - at our arrival - is M.C. Father Tom. Stephanie soon saw 5th-grader Benji, whom Stephanie has taught since 2nd grade at Mt. Tabor. Benji helped us out throughout the evening and hooked Stephanie up with his cute 2-month-old baby sister, Esmeralda, whom Stephanie got to hold (pictured below and far below).

Although we missed the dancing, I got to take a picture of the dancers (below) posing for other photographers. None of the dancers this year were Stephanie's students, but two were previous year students (now moving on to middle school).

When we arrived, several of Stephanie's colleagues were already there, including Stephanie's principal, Susie, and her husband, New Albany City Council Member Jeff (with whom I talked about the mayor vetoing his smoking ban ordinance), and a 4th grade teacher, Missy, (and her son, Alex) who has taught summer school English as a new language classes with Stephanie (all pictured below).

Susie also talked with some of the students (Perla pictured below). Many of the students were excited to see teachers and administrators from school and to show off their culture and food. They were especially excited to see the teachers actually trying the food. "Do you like it?" was asked often.

In the glasses behind Susie is Carlos (below), our Spanish-language Bible study teacher and student pastor at our church.

In front of Carlos and between Stephanie and Susie (below) is Karen, another of Stephanie's previous students. Stephanie has been teaching long enough that she didn't even recognize some of her previous students until she saw their face.

With his back to us is the guidance counselor at Stephanie's school, Jim (below). The family of one of Stephanie's favorite students, Maria, is selling food - sort of informal economy-like - just like in the streets in Guatemala or Mexico. That's Maria in orange, now a 5th grader, whom Stephanie thought might graduate from ENL - like four of Stephanie's students did over the summer based on their scores on an ENL test Stephanie administered this spring.

There's Maria and her mother (below). I bought grilled corn from them. Maria's family has also made food for previous years' Spring Festival at Fairmont.

Here's Carlos' daughter, Ana (an 11th grader at a Louisville high school and - like her brother - an avid soccer player), and his wife, Nora. Their son, Carlos David, is a sophomore at Warren Wilson College. They came to the U.S. 2 1/2 years ago. Carlos guest-pastored at our church before working for the national Presbyterian Church world mission program for a year. He's now a student at the Presbyterian seminary in Louisville. He was a pastor in Guatemala and a leader in the Guatemala Presbyterian church before they came to Louisville. He has helped us get back in touch by phone with our friends in the Lago Izabal area.

As it got dark, the organizers got out some pinatas and kids tried their hand knocking out the candy - in the street between the church and the parking lot (the street was blocked off).

A DJ played Latin dance music and some people danced. Nora, Carlos, and Ana were patient (after they got to sit down) as Stephanie caught up with her former colleague, Anabel (aide/translator for her for two years) and her fiance (also pictured in "World Fest" - though Stephanie didn't get to talk with them then). Anabel will graduate from Indiana University Southeast in December and the two will get married in Southern Mexico in January. Stephanie - who may get a chance to go back to Guatemala next month - was invited!

Vincent did not call us while we were gone. Although I had not entirely discouraged his departure, we left the door unlocked and the light on while we were gone. He was not home when we got back and - after an anxious night - he was still not there in the morning.

-- Perry

Open House

Tuesday night three weeks ago was the annual Brown Parent Teacher Student Association open house, an open house in many ways like schools across the country (including Stephanie's school). Pictured above is a mural in the entrance to Vincent's school. The Brown Bears are his school's mascot. The evening started with a PTSA meeting, which I had helped just a tiny bit to organize. The cavernous auditorium dwarfed the several dozen people there (a typical crowd for this event). Second-year Principal Tim Healy spoke first, using the sound system the PTSA had purchased, while PTSA President Clare looked on.

Clare, an artist and a parent (like most involved in the PTSA) of two Brown children, spoke at the meeting. Brown is a downtown, K-12, public magnet school. It is selective, but not based on purely academic criteria. It is kind of alternative school - at the high school level, partly to the more highly selective college prep magnet schools, Manual and Male (misnomers). Brown has its name (the J. Graham Brown School), because it first met in the Brown Hotel, one of the main businesses of Brown, a Louisville tycoon of the 1930s and 1940s, whose hotel (now several blocks away), still graces Louisville's south downtown. Brown now shares half of the old building of Ahrens trade school (now adult education), about five blocks from my office closer to the waterfront.

As the short PTSA meeting finished up, we reversed our usual sequence and went up to talk informally with Vincent's teachers. More formal parent-teacher-student confernces are to follow in a week. I didn't get a picture of a teacher we saw early on, Vincent's journalism teacher, Neysa. Vincent wound up in this class somewhat by accident, but the writing practice should be good for him (since he wants to be a writer). He's writing reviews of newspaper pieces and is supposed to be doing two things I did during two years of high school journalism class: writing articles and selling ads. Brown, which only has 200 high school students, has not had a regular student newspaper for several years, and I'll wait and see if they raise enough interest and motivate students enough to produce one next month, as Neysa hopes.

Vincent spent a few weeks working with the debate club last year, and the debate coach is Juanita, also a math teacher. Vincent has a study hall with Juanita and pre-calculus. Vincent has struggled with math in recent years. In pre-calculus, they are first doing standardized test review of pre-algebra and algebra, which Vincent needs. At home he is taking first-semester geometry on-line, for ACT review (he already took and did OK grade wise in the class). Vincent did not do great on the arithmetic and geometry sections of the SAT, you might recall.

Vincent has never had Neysa or Juanita as teachers (somewhat unusual in this small school). Juanita was the first of Vincent's teachers to e-mail me to tell me that he was failing her class this first six weeks, and she's e-mailed me several times since. She is very easy to talk with (at least for parents) (though we miss Vincent's teacher last year Pam, who also did ACT preparation with me the week between school and the Denmark trip).

Stephanie, Vincent, and I talked with Juanita for a while.

Next was Alice, a social studies teacher. Vincent took World Civilization with her last year. He failed the second semester - something we just learned last week, since, among other things, we haven't received any report cards from Brown since this past January. Vincent now has two classes with Alice - Advanced Placement Psychology and Sociology (?!), which he could get college credit for if he had a better grade point average (and did more work). Like me, Alice's daughter is an applied sociologist (and has come in to talk with the class). A couple of weeks of ago I discovered that Vincent is officially enrolled in Senior Seminar (which involves less work), which may be required, and not in Sociology - something he needs to figure out. Over the summer Brown HS programs went to block scheduling, where the kids take four classes one day and four different classes the next day. One of the reasons was to mimick Manual and have kids take more classes (which then also requires them to do more work outside of class, since they spend less time in class assuming the amount of work in each class stays the same). So Vincent is taking three college-level (AP) classes and four other classes, plus a study hall, plus has a senior project (which takes place partly in AP Senior English). Vincent has done the block scheduling before (at Manatee School for the Arts), but these classes are harder and Vincent seems particularly disorganized this year and particularly enthusiastic about charting his own way and visiting with friends (remember - he changed schools five times in five years before arriving at Brown for four whole years (we hope).

Alice and I have clashed subsequently since she seems disinclined to offer the parents regular updates, as I have requested. It turns out she posts her grades weekly in the classroom, but Vincent ostensibly loses his student number, which is apparently why he was not aware that he was failing World History last year (unless he was aware and hid this from us because he knew it would jeopardize his Denmark trip).

Two of Vincent's teachers have - one way or another - reminded me that Vincent must pass that second-semester World History class (he'll take it again on-line) and pass AP Senior English (with the senior project part of it also) - and get his senior project approved - and that's it. In fact, he doesn't need any of the other credits to graduate. However, his GPA so far - I suspect - will put him back on academic probation - which he was on fall semester sophomore year. Already, this year (plus spring semester grades - when he spent lots of time on the 10-Minute Plays, which he won't be allowed to do again if his grades don't improve) he's probably doomed any chance he had of getting into any private colleges we might persaude him to apply to, into the Honors College of the school he says he wants to go to (Western Kentucky), or academic scholarships anywhere. Also, if his GPA sinks low enough, I think this could imperil his general Western admission. The least selective KY public university he's looked at - Morehead State - lets students substitute GPA and ACT scores, and he already has a good enough ACT score to get in. However, given his current study habits and given that he's nixed any possibility for financial aid (we won't get any need-based aid - except perhaps for loans, which none of us want more of) - I fear Vincent may come back after one semester at Western or Morehead - either us having run out of money and/or him having flunked out. Then it will be Jefferson Community and Technical College (which he attended as a 15-year-old post-8th grader) (or possibly Indiana University Southeast - if he can still get in) and/or work for him.

Vincent's French teacher had e-mailed me soon before the Open House to tell me that Vincent was also failing her class, having not turned in much of any work from the first three weeks of class. Early on Vincent had tried to persuade us that there was little schoolwork during the first few weeks of class, which apparently was not the case. It is true that Vincent had usually had no problems with French (and his French teacher below - Margaret - a U.S. native and parent of a recent Brown grad looking for full-time work teaching at Brown - we were afraid there was going to be no French 3 class - who nevertheless has lived in France - raved about Vincent) and he had said in the past there was no homework. But reading French books (she showed us used books she had gotten - she has no budget for buying books - just textbooks) and learning future tense and conditional mood is apparently more challenging - plus there being some work that Vincent apparently wasn't doing.

One of Vincent's favorite teachers going back to 9th grade was Becky, who has taught him French and English. Like Carrie (the English teacher who sponsored all three of Vincent's at-school extracurricular activities last year - KY United National Assembly, Danish exchange, and 10-Minute plays - who Vincent misses but doesn't have - his schedule didn't work out to take Theater with her), Becky seems to have a special bond with Vincent, even though he can get on her nerves. It helps that English is his favorite subject. Nevertheless, Becky had a baby a year or so ago (George is pictured further below) and she's more circumspect and I believe watches her time more closely. Especially since Vincent isn't in Senior Seminar, Becky is also the main teacher keeping an eye on his senior project - a somewhat amorphous and changing complex of community service, research project, and extravaganza - along with Carrie and Karen, one of the local librarians. Vincent's project has evolved somewhat, but he seems to want to explore what reading means to kids, continue volunteering at the St. Matthews library, work with others to produce a multi-high school literary magazine, and collect books to give to the library.

Becky's father is a Presbyterian minister who I'm acquainted with, and at a play two summers ago with our friend Sarah, also a Presbyterian minister, we uncovered all of these connections when Becky's father, who knows Sarah, saw Sarah, and Vincent saw Becky (one of his favorite teachers), and we noticed the two (unbeknownst to us, father and daughter) sitting with each other. It's a small world.

Another teacher who's been a big fan of Vincent is Mary, who taught him Biology in 9th grade. She wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for Vincent when he was one of Brown's applicants for the KY Governor's Scholar program, a summer program for finished 11th graders. She sang his praises for his work in science, but also in writing and learning foreign languages, and his personality, particularly his sense of humor. Since then, however, Vincent nearly failed a science class she co-taught. And Mary was the third teacher who e-mailed me recently that Vincent is failing her class (and she is less inclined than Juanita or Margaret to consider taking late work - Vincent had a 40% in her work at one point this month): not turning in homework and flunking tests/quizzes. The class is Advanced Placement Environmental Science. Vincent backed into the class, but Mary lent us the book ("Fast Food Nation") that students in the class were supposed to read over the summer for Vincent to read the first two days of class (he still flunked the quiz). Mary also knows that Vincent is smart but sometimes unfocused and particularly challenged by the combination of senioritis and block scheduling/taking too many classes (he's now not sure he made the right move to try to take a real class instead of Senior Seminar - which would also be with Neysa - that's what he's officially in instead of Sociology).

The buzzer went on half an hour earlier than I had expected, back when we were still with Becky. So we rushed through that and our discussion with Mary (augmented as it was with e-mail messages). Then we went down for what is usually our second stop of the night: the silent auction library fund-raiser in the gym. In past years I was once slated to help with the cake walk - a little fund-raiser with the little kids. Two years ago Stephanie also bid on some photographs taken by a teacher - and ended up asking the teacher to take another picture - so we had a set of three downtown/Waterfront Louisville pictures (including one of Peace Seeker - the commissioned picture - the winged horse in front of the Presbyterian Center - that were up on our dining room wall for a year and a half - for birthday presents for me. We did run into Tina (pictured below), the special education teacher/photographer - but we didn't bid on any of her photographs. I remember Tina from the freshman retreat, which I tried to help chaperone. Two - now one - special ed students are in Vincent's class (of approximately 50). Tina also advised Vincent on the construction of the wood car that Vincent built last year (with only limited success) for the physics part of his Integrated Science class (but he did well enough to just pass the class).

Towards the end of the evening/auction, I went over to look at Tina's pictures and she told me a wild story about how she's started to volunteer at a Southern IN exotic animal refuge - Wildlife in Need - and has helped take care of a bear cub who they found when he was young enough that he'll probably never be able to go back in the wild (because he won't know what to do as a bear and won't fear people). Tina goes over to the refuge on weekends and she's even brought Yogi Mato the bear home for the weekend. Below is Tina with a picture of the bear on her I Phone. Also, click here to see a video of the bear at the refuge ("One Bear's Truth"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iL29Kyrq0w

Click here to see a video of the bear's weekend at home with Tina ("Lazy Saturday"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKKYt7FLrgk

We've just seen these now but we're going to subscribe to Tina's YogiMato videos. Hope things work out OK for him/them/the refuge. (This all seemed especially apropos given the whole Brown Bear and "Brown is green" motifs.)

At the Silent Auction we ran into our friends who hosted a Dane who was one of "our" Dane last fall's best friends (Nathan and Vincent both went to Denmark this summer; Natalie goes to middle school at Brown; Libby is a teacher at a local elementary school; John is cousin's with one of our neighbors). Pictured below are Libby and Natalie with Lauri, a former Brown teacher/administrator. She's still a Brown parent and she functioned kind of like a guidance counselor. But when she got certified as a counselor this past spring, she said she wanted to work with middle school kids, not high school kids (which includes lots of college prep paperwork) - and so she didn't seek Brown's open HS guidance counselor position. She's still a Brown parent. She taught Vincent's super duper study hall sophomore year - which helped him get off of academic probation - and also sat on the admissions committee that phone-interviewed Vincent when he applied to Brown from the Manatee School for the Arts in Palmetto, outside of Bradenton. She was also the person who gave the Brown School tour when I was a parent of a prospective student, long before the interview.

Below is Libby in the foregound and John talking with Stephanie in the background.

Stephanie only successfully bid on a bowl. She bid pretty high on a science set - with an eye towards materials for projects for her students. At $75, another parent out-bid her. But she talked with him afterwards and exchanged phone numbers and he may give her any projects his family doesn't use.

As we left, the mother of one of Vincent's friends, Aaron, (Susan - a lawyer - on the left) volunteered to serve as PTSA secretary, as Claire and another officer looked on.

It was a fun night, but the beginning of a difficult couple of weeks (if not difficult 8 1/2 months), as the academic problems that were coming to light did not improve and yielded some unpleasant conflicts with Vincent.

-- Perry

Chronic malady

A couple of years ago I came down with a deathly attack of athlete's foot - only the second time in my life that it's been half of this bad - that eventually forced me to go shoeless at work and made it so I could barely walk (even when I had to walk the dog in the morning). That time I went to the doctor way too late, had to to go the dermatologist, and found the athlete's foot spreading. It turns out that athlete's foot comes from this fungus - that are essentially plants growing in your skin - plants that spread by spores spreading the seeds - kind of like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." In that sense - once you've got it - kind of like scabies - it's very hard to get rid of - because the spores can spread anywhere your feet or other infected parts of your body come near. Instead of airing out your feet, you need to wear socks always (and change them often) to keep the spores from spreading - including in bed. Stephanie had come down with some athlete's foot late last month but started applying my old medicine. I lost my mind for a few days and did nothing and even forgot entirely about my old training regime. But then I called the doctor and got the over-the-counter lotion he suggested plus spray for the inside of my shoes and started wearing and changing socks, etc. I also then went to the doctor and got strong oral medication (but last time I got this it was already too late - my athlete's foot almost overwhelmed the oral medication) - although I lost it over the busy week that followed. Gradually, the athlete's foot has receded and - as Stephanie found my oral medication over the weekend - I'm back to taking that, which will hopefully eliminate the whole thing. I don't think it's an accident that both times I've gotten this - I've been particularly busy and run down - as it seems to develop when my general health isn't great either. Let's hope it's gone soon. In the mean time, another chronic problem which is tough to eliminate - fleas on Frisco and likely eggs everywhere - has cropped up again.

-- Perry

Obama foreign policy event

Monday night earlier this month I went to an Obama-Biden campaign foreign policy event, across the Ohio River in a battleground state (Indiana), at a school that Stephanie and Vincent visited as a possible school for him (and where two of my co-workers go to school). In fact, on the way from the parking lot to the library 3rd floor, I bought Vincent a T-shirt - he's now got one from every school he's visited - and looked around the campus, cafeteria, and library. The event started late but involved an Indiana Obama supporter (former Northern IN Congressman Tim Roemer (from South Bend) and a foreign policy expert by virtue of serving on the 9/11 Commission and one of Obama's chief foreign policy experts, Susan Rice, now with the Brookings Institute.

Congressman Roemer (above) gave more of a passionate case for electing Obama (whom he had apparently endorsed early on). He talked about the activities of the passengers on that flight over PA - who decided at great risk to make a change when things clearly weren't going right - as a model for what we should do now - make change when things clearly aren't going right (by electing Senator Obama president). Roemer was a good speaker.

Dr. Rice (pictured above and below) was a little more analytical, covering various foreign policy areas (this was before the big stock market meltdown and massive bailout proposal) and also making the case - as Roemer had - that - while Senator McCain has some foreign policy experience - he hasn't had good foreign policy judgment. When I asked Dr. Rice a question - essentially for our support for potential NATO members on Russia's Western border - similar question to one Governor Palin was asked - she pointed out my lack of knowledge and continued a relatively tough line - a la Senator McCain, instead of Patrick Buchanan - countries like Georgia and Ukraine should be able to join NATO if they want to (apparently never mind how nervous - perhaps understandably - this makes Russia).

Some of the most interesting moments from the event - sponsored by the College Democrats and moderated by an IUS prof - barely covered by the media - local FOX news and the Southern IN paper - involved the audience. Several people reflected on the campaign in general. A couple of Hilary Clinton supporters (one pictured below) reflected on why they have now gotten behind Senator Obama.

A couple of others (including the U of L professor pictured below) were very tough on President Bush and Senator McCain and said that they'd like to hear Senator Obama get back to calling a spade a spade and run a tough campaign against the monstrous government that the Bush Administration has helped create, that a McCain-Palin administration will only feed (sorry - my paraphrasal doesn't do the statements justice).

-- Perry

Garden party

My manager Jack and his wife, Patti, who’s the administrator at our church, has most o us from work out to their condo in east Louisville (the first Saturday in September - the day after the Linda Mercadante talk). Jack actually grew up in Louisville and after going to grad school and teaching out of state he came back with Patti to work at the Presbyterian Center. (He and I were until recently two of three former sociology professors who worked in out unit – all men.) Jack and Patti lived in a suburban house probably two miles from our current house when they first moved (back – for Jack) to Louisville. But after a while they went small and in to a condo in an area which at that point was far out east – but is now considered a mid-range suburb. They have no children – just cats – but Jack also has a green thumb (he’s got a bunch of plants in his office.) Not only do they have a little patio and fenced in area around their condo, but Jack has also cultivated trees, shrubs, herbs, and all kind of plants in an arc between their quadriplex condo – which is on the end – and the road and a drainage ditch near their condo. He said initially the old condo board used to hassle them for everything he was doing – even though it was beautifying the condo complex area and filling in a buffer between the condo complex and the road and ditch. Now, the management company that took over has quit bothering him, and let him do his thing. It’s quite amazing everything he’s planted and gotten to thrive out there. For our long 10 days in Guatemala Jack came over to water our plants and check on our turtles, feed them, and change their water. I hoped he’d do this once or twice but, sure enough, he did just about every other do (which I should have expected). We talked about trying to get him to come out to our back yard and help us ID which plants were weeds (he knows an awful lot about plants). But that never worked out. Our predecessor at our house also had a green thumb – and many of the plants she cultivated still grow there. But by late summer weeds have also sprouted in the garden and various other places in the back yard – so much so that we can’t always tell which is which. If we had time and knowledge we wouldn’t necessarily cut back all of the weeds. But we’d trim everything down and probably go after some of the weeds. Didn’t see a lot of weeds in Jack and Patti’s current “yard,” however. (Pictured below are Jack, Stephanie, our new colleague Hilary, and Reg, husband of our other manager, Deborah.)

-- Perry

Another 7%

Mom had another CAT scan Friday. Each time she has been going to her chemotherapy treatments at the Zeigmeister Center she has been experiencing blood clots in her port. They giver her a shot that will supposedly break up the clot (clot buster as the nurses call it) but she also has to put her head between her legs (making the port go below her heart), take a walk (to get the blood flowing), and other activities that extend the time she is at the chemotherapy center. So on her long days of treatment this makes it even longer and more tiring. It also is worrying. What if all this stuff doesn't work? Why is it clotting? What next?I talked to Mom on Tuesday, her chemotherapy day and the day she was to get the results from her CAT scan. Of course she was tired since this was also her long day for chemotherapy. I don't usually talk to her on those days (I don't do my daily call on the way home from work.) so that she can sleep/rest. This day was different. Yes, she was tired but she had good news. Her tumor has been reduced by another 7 %. Which means that if I'm doing the math right (remember I went into English for a reason), and if it is 7 % from the original tumor and not 7 % from the last CAT scan, the tumor has been reduced by 32% since she started chemotherapy. The CAT scan of her chest showed that there was a blockage. That means that there really has been a clot that has formed around where her chemotherapy port is located. I don't know if they have a plan for attack for this, but it didn't seem to be that unusual, or maybe I should say the doctor didn't seem that surprised. We'll just have to ask more questions to find out if there is anything they can do. But we are as Mom says "1/3 of the way to where she wants to be."

-- Stephanie

Interesting couple

A talk by out-of-town scholar that our manager at work brought connected me with an interesting couple Friday. The Friday morning speaker – who attracted – for me – surprise 30 people was Linda Mercadante. Professor Mercadante is a Jewish woman turned Catholic turned Presbyterian minister who teaches at a Methodist seminary in one of my old research site and the home of many of our family members, Central Ohio (at Methodist Theological School, off of 23 just south of Delaware,Ohio).

Following a research design not totally different from what I’ve done before, Professor Mercadante has been interviewing people who say they’re “spiritual not religious” – first, in Boulder, Colorado, and now in Central Ohio. It was easier landing these folks – often people who are into New Age/New Religious Movements – a la some of Serge and Penny’s interests – and to find out what conceptions they have of “mainstream” religious communities – authoritarian, hypocritical, always asking for money.

(Professor Mercadante has started giving talks in churches, and she seems to have some ideas about what churches might do to reach out to these folks. One thing she tries to do with these students is teach them and encourage them to take theological study very seriously. She says some students convince themselves that they’ll greatly extend their theological study once they become pastors. She figures this is unrealistic – if they haven’t made theological study a strong discipline while in seminary, they’ll never pick it up while in pastoral ministry – they’ll never have time. And she says these “spiritual not religious” folks can tell when pastors are theologically shallow. Many of these folks are quite smart, and they can spot what they think is lazy thinking from a mile away. For more on Professor Mercadante's research, see http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/apr/27/more-describe-selves-as-spiritual-not-religious/ )

Just as interesting was Professor Mercadante’s spouse, who came with her for almost 20 hours in Louisville. Joseph Mas. He’s a lawyer – who works primarily with undocumented Spanish-speaking immigrants in Columbus and Franklin County and is a leader in Central Ohio’s growing Latino community. (I see also ran – apparently unsuccessfully – for Franklin County municipal court judge against my former GOP state representative in Victorian Village, Amy Salerno.)

Mr. Mas was very interesting. We spoke about growing up as minorities in 1960s North Florida – his family left Cuba two years after the revolution – right before I was born – and he attended Pensacola Senior High School – and also about my research about South Florida and its immigrant communities. We also spoke about immigrant rights and immigrant reform. A conference he put together with Central Ohio religious leaders on immigration reform was to run this week. He spoke very passionately about immigration reform as the civil rights issue of the 2000s – and optimistically, with the possibility of a President Obama and a filibuster-proof Democratic majority (of at least 60 senators maybe counting independents Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman) passing path-to-citizenship immigration reform. (It’ll never happen – immigration reform might, but a Democratic majority of 58 or 60 after the 2008 election? No way – not with Senator Obama’s lead in the polls as tiny as it is now and him dragging down Democratic U.S. Senate candidates in states like KY.)

He also spoke about his law practice. In Columbus, as in Tallahassee, the sheriff is in change of the jail. Jailers under Democratic Sheriff Karnes have begun faxing the information to federal immigration authorities when they believe inmates there are undocumented immigrants. In this way the federal authorities intercept inmates for possible deportation as they are released. But Mr. Mas has worked out a way to make Columbus more of a “sanctuary city” (an official sanctuary city is one like San Francisco in which the city has told law enforcement officers NOT to cooperate with federal immigration authorities at all) by working with local judges, who sometimes arrange to have undocumented immigrants released on Sundays, when the immigration authorities aren’t working (and so they get those faxes too late, when the inmates are already released).

I also talked a little about my own research – which once again made my itchy to do something with it – including my sampling and recruiting strategy. I had demographic quotas (trying to reach people of different age groups, political ideologies, ethnic backgrounds, women and men, Democratic and Republican, and so on). Then I used 6-10 local non-abortion conflict contacts of mine – friends and family members, my hairdresser, my bartender, my physical therapist, and so on – to reach people to fill those quotas. I interviewed lots of abortion activists in Central Ohio and the Albany area – and community leaders. But the strategy I outlined above was what I used to find non-elite, non-activists (“regular people”) with whom to do interviews, about their lives and their perspectives on abortion and abortion policy. Professor Mercadante has used some snowball sampling (which I often did – friends of initial interviewees) – but also more explicit self-selection than I did – put a notice up on a listserv and see who responds.

I confessed to Mr. Mas that even though I interviewed 30 regular people in Central Ohio – and probably more than 200 total people there – I interviewed no Latinos. This was partly in the late 1990s, when the Latino population in Columbus was growing and sizable but still probably at least half what it is now. I took Mr. Mas’ card partly because if I ever do research in Central Ohio again, I would never want to get away without finding out more about the Latino population – plus my interests have focused somewhat more explicitly about immigration and racial and ethnic relations.

I didn’t get to ask Mr. Mas about his leadership in the Court-Appointed Special Advocates organization against which we butted heads in Columbus (see “Blast from the . . . “ (including the comment)). But I was interested to find that – from his studies at Capital University law School (he was an undergraduate at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida), he knew not only one of my informants (Ohio Supreme Court Justice Stratton) but also one of our lawyer, Roger Warner. Small world.

I wished both Mercadante and Mas best with their work. Hopefully I’ll cross paths with these two interesting people again.

-- Perry

Code words?

Some of the writers who commented over the weekend about last week’s Republican National Convention have identified GOP attacks on “community organizing” as coded racism (as community organizing may be associated in some people’s minds with inner-city (read: African American) neighborhoods. (Actually two of the founders of community organizing were white: Jane Addams, who helped found some of the first settlement houses that brought Anglo middle-class volunteers together with folks in immigrant, working-class neighborhoods, and Saul Alinsky (pictured above), the anti-Communist, but anti-corporate 1930s (and after) radical who pushed disadvantaged communities to leverage their people power, if necessary, to win concessions from major institutions through (if necessary) the power of disruption (think Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Americans have long distrusted candidates who seemed to grow up being groomed and aspiring to gain the presidency (for example, Vice President Gore or Senator Kerry), of people who seem ambitious. President (W.) Bush – someone who apparently spent his early adulthood doing drugs, avoiding service in Vietnam, carousing, and bankrupting his father’s businesses – would be the opposite.

Various Wednesday night Republican National Convention speakers painted a picture of Senator Obama as an ambitious young man who went into community organizing in Chicago as a vehicle for a political career, ingratiating himself with Chicago Democratic Party bosses and business elites and eventually enriching himself – via projects around disadvantaged, working-classcommunities – community organizing and Project VOTE – building contacts and a resume. In this narrative, Senator Obama is a kind of poverty pimp (who makes money out of supposed combating poverty) who became rich and influential and – possibly – too big for his britches – an uppity black man in a kind of subtle influence rather than in an in-your-face (Jesse Jackson?) sort of way.

Governor Palin’s encircling of small-town America and small-town values – especially given the demographic composition of Republican National Convention goers – may set up a dichotomy between Anglo, rural and exurban, heterosexual professional-managerial-class and lower-middle-class families vs. African, immigrant (and even gay?) working-class people. In spite of last month’s glowing presentation of the Obama family, Obama – with his GQ look – may present a mix of metrosexual – perhaps even with the “Obama girl” video, there may be a hint of the Obama – as in the anti-Harold Ford ad that highlighted him going to Playboy bunny party – as a would-be sexual conqueror of Anglo women.

I’ve already written about Obama as seeming odd and threateningi not only because of his African American, immigrant, and apparently Muslim or Middle Eastern heritage – but also because of his multiracial and multicultural background.

But this view of small town American vs. urban, “cosmopolitian” bicoastal – which goes back to bitter-gate and I’ve never been proud of America until now – gate – may invoke not only a new “culture war” but may also connect – despite the ostensibly post-racial character not only of contemporary America but also of Senator Obama’s campaign and appeal – with our very old racial divide.

-- Perry

Tell No One

Stephanie and I caught a French movie - "Tell No One" - starring Fracois Cluzet - which it turns out Vincent could have watched most of. A complex thriller that starts out with a childhood sweetheart couple in love and a murder and draws heavily from movies such as "Gone Baby Gone" and "The Departed" and includes some continental European chase scenes - a la "Ronin" and the Bourne movies - that we love - plus cops and robbers both after the protagnist - that caught our fancy. For the second time in a row that we've seen a French movie (the other one being "The Valet"), the movie has featured British nearly turned French actress Kristin Scott Thomas (once from "The English Patient") (below with Cluzet).

-- Perry

Regime change, chants, and confessions

On National Public Radio, I heard this afternoon that Senator McCain was a big supporter of “regime change” in Iraq back in the 1990s. At that point he saw a U.S. invasion as too hard to generate support for. Days after 9/11, much sooner than the Bush Administration and their allies did publicly, McCain called for an invasion of Iraq as a response to 9/11. His argument was apparently more sophisticated than what we eventually heard from Vice President Cheney and the Bush Administration. What McCain apparently argued was that – given that Al-Qaida had started to push around the United States (through the World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings) – we needed to show the world and adversaries actual and potential that we couldn’t be pushed around – so why not go after an old adversary, the Hussein regime in Iraq – whether or not this regime had anything to do with 9/11. Within a couple of months, McCain was addressing soldiers stationed near the Middle East, telling them he’d see them in Baghdad.

Ultimately, when the Bush Administration took up the cause, they had to submerge this argument and dress it up with false claims about Iraq’s responsibility for 9/11 (something that Vice President Cheney still repeats today) and about Weapons of Mass Destruction – because they feared neither Americans nor potential allies would buy the argument that we just had to strike out at someone to prove our mettle.

One of the scariest parts of Wednesday night (when - at its high point - with Governor Palin - the Republicans had almost as big a TV audience as Senator Obama did last Thursday night - 37 million) was not so much the dripping sarcasm of Governor Romney and Mayor Giuliani (both of whom I dislike, though Romney was a solid moderate Republican governor), as well as that of Governor Huckabee and Governor Palin (who at least mixed it with some good humor – and, in Huckabee’s case – actually mixed with a recognition of the historical moment of the Obama candidacy, partly as a culmination of the civil rights movement - towards Senator Obama and the Democrats) – including, at its most irritating moments – making fun of community organizing (and the jeers this inspired) – as if only politicians and government (and for-profit businesses) can make a difference in people’s lives (They stopped short of making fun of religious congregations and religious leaders.) This scary part was the times that Republicans there broke into spontaneous chants – two in particular – “USA! USA! USA! USA!” – I remember it most after discussion of Muslim extremism – as if we were cheering on a more bloodthirsty version of our home team against infidels – and the even more scary “Drill, baby, drill!” – supposedly about oil, but seemingly more generally about the environment and broader. Whether Alaska’s moose or polar bears, listeners could almost imagine the chant morphing into “Kill, baby, kill!” and uniting with the “U.S.A.!” chant about Muslims, polar bears, or whoever.

I thought the most effective part of the otherwise somewhat awkward Thursday night speeches by Cindy McCain and Senator John McCain were two moments during John McCain’s speech: when he conceded something I’ve heard no Republican say on the convention floor this week: the Republicans (who after all have been in charge of the White House for the past eight yeas and of Capitol Hill for 14 of the past 16 years) (and Democrats) lost the public trust by blowing up the budget and deficit and putting power over principle (on torture). Also: when he talked about something he never used to talk about publicly but which others at the convention have talked about ad nauseam – but not as effectively as he did: particularly – even more than others – talking about how as a pilot he was self-centered and then how as a POW he depended on others and became more enamored with service to others and our country. (He also confessed – vaguely – about giving in to torture at one point (when he participated in some North Vietnamese anti-U.S. propaganda films). ) After so many St. Paul speakers talked as if the only way to serve the country was through military service, McCain belatedly gave a pitch for service – through military service, teaching, elected office, caring for others (and perhaps - dare I say it - community organizing?). Here – and when he talked about leading a government of Republicans, Democrats, and independents and ideas from all also – he sounded perilously like Senator Obama last Thursday night and his many speeches. Like Obama (though not as much), McCain did a little detail on economic policies, etc. McCain tried – but I don’t think he was as successful at it as the Clintons and even Obama (especially with the addition of the actual regular people speakers last Thursday night) – of incorporating the stories of regular people individuals in his narratives.

-- Perry

Whipping boy

Part of me thinks the Republicans actually planned to pick a fight with the media – in this case, over Senator McCain’s selection of Governor Palin. It’s hard to see how the media has asked impolite questions or made intemperate comments, because the line between the media and politicians is almost non-existent – between bloggers, Fox News commentators, and so on. Still, after Senator McCain had made experience a central part of his campaign (see “Central narratives”), it seemed only fair for the media to ask more questions about the selection of this first-term governor of a small state (no matter how much of a good speaker she may be and how much her and her family’s life stories may resonate with some voters).

Nevertheless, the Republicans have quickly been able to persuade a lot of people that the media adores Senator Obama and is too hard on Senator McCain and especially Governor Palin. This might sound like whining except for the fact that the Republicans are mainly taking up the causes for their two injured ladies, Governor Palin (who nevertheless compared herself with a pit bull dog) and daughter Bridget. Palin and the McCain-Palin surrogates have been able to link the response of some to her candidacy with alleged Obama-Kerry elitism with bitter-gate and not proud of my country until now-gate. They’ve also tapped into concern about sexism in the media and culture (even though many of these folks would have practiced the same forms of sexism had Senator Clinton been the Democratic candidate). It’s interesting that – whatever you may say about Governor Palin – the Republican effort may have sensitized folks more about latent and not so latent sexism.

Still, the Republicans scared the media into towing the line at the start of the Iraq war, to the detriment of our discussions about the war. Now, they’re bullying the media – already on the run because of newspaper and major network news financial difficulties – except perhaps for the moderate Cable News Network – which has made a lot of money off of the prolonged 2008 presidential contest (and scored very high ratings last week for the Democratic National Convention). It’s interesting that the McCain campaign chose a CNN woman reporter with which to tangle. Watching the videotape may remind viewers that this exchange wasn’t just the McCain campaign defending a woman (Palin) against the sexist media, but a man (McCain campaign spokesperson Tucker Bounds) trying to bully a woman (Campbell Brown) (pictured above).

To watch this exchange, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxMCp1vydEI

Immediately after this exchange, Senator McCain canceled a scheduled appearance on CNN, warning them that – especially if McCain-Palin wins – CNN might expect limited White House access, unless the network “behaves better.” And they seem to have done more than consolidate Republican support and enthusiasm about the tickets (by railing against the “liberal media” and coming to the defense of Governor Palin, their damsel in distress). Some overnight polling suggests that many independents (and even some Democrats) believe the media is pro-Obama, anti-Palin, and sexist. No doubt SOME of this is true. And Obama – who handcuffed himself and his aides I order not to seem impolite and not to remind people about the experience gap between himself and McCain – may have been relying some on reporters to ask probing questions.

But the bottom line is that reporters such as Campbell Brown have mainly just been doing their jobs, asking important questions of public figures (including questions not only about Palin’s experience but also her conduct in office, her views about issues such as environmental and educational policies), instead of mindlessly taking everything these figures say as gospel. I believe public interest has driven most of the coverage of Palin’s family. Palin has certainly showcased her family – witness last night – and – when more people earlier this week Googled Brenda Palin and (finace’s name) than any other phrases – even if all the major networks and newspapers don’t mention the story – others will. Palin has profited – as much as suffered – from attention to her family – just as she has apparently in turn profited by complaining about all of the coverage.

The selection of Palin, Palin’s speech, and the counterattack against the alleged media bias against Palin helped unite the Republican Party in St. Paul and repair the enthusiasm gap – in which the Democrats had been much more

P.S. Ironically, some of the most bitter denunciations of the media this campaign season came not from the Republicans but from President Bill Clinton, who I heard complain about pro-Obama media bias and hostility (and sexism) against Hillary Clinton. As with the 3 a.m. phone call TV ad, some things come around. Ironically also, McCain until recently was a media darling. His “Straight Talk Express” campaign gave reporters unprecedented and almost unlimited access to the candidate while campaigning. But the Rove-Bush aides that took over McCain’s campaign in recent months want him to stay on message and – just as Obama campaign chiefs have shielded Obama somewhat from constant media scrutiny – and now McCain and his aides have apparently soured on the media. It remains to be seen if the media really has any power in this regard – if the media will cower before Republican and public pressure and quit asking any tough questions – or ask them only of the Democrats.

-- Perry

Inspired to activism

As I sit and watch the Republican National Convention and listen to the high nasally whine issuing from a modern bee-hived Anti-choice, gun totting momma who thinks being on the PTA is qualifications for vice-presidency, I feel a semi-truck tire slowly inflating inside my head and spinning trying to grind its way through my temples. The weight of the tire presses on my neck and puts pressure in my shoulders and my jaws clench.

Being part of the PTO only shows some qualifications, that a parent is involved, not necessarily qualified to lead. All I have to do is think of our own PTO at our school. "Meth Mom" comes to school quite often and stays involved, even if she isn't allowed to chaperone field trips. "Cat Lady" comes every morning to the morning assembly where we say the pledge of allegiance, have a moment of silence, and listen to the announcements before going on to class. The reek of alcohol usually only comes off of "Cat Lady" just before or just after the weekends. Wednesdays seem to be good for a no alcohol smell, since the stench from the weekend has been washed off and the new bender hasn't started yet, since the paycheck doesn't come til Friday. Rumor has it our own PTO president didn't pass the police background check and isn't allowed in the school until the children are gone. Yeah, PTO isn't necessarily where someone really hones their leadership skills.

I had been a Hillary girl, but had wavered since I had met and learned about Obama back when I was teaching at Western Illinois University for a summer. Obama was just a name and a hand shaker in a crowd where I knew I would be returning to Florida to try to out Katherine Harris as my representative. The more I heard Hillary the more I liked what I heard, but Obama I knew would win the national nomination. I didn't really think voting for Hillary would hurt. I could show my support but know in the end I would vote for Obama and the Democratic Party. I also thought that McCain I could live with; he couldn't possibly be as bad as W.

That was before McCain named his vice-presidential pick. Palin and her ANTI-choice complete me scares me. As a teenage mother I know how much support/money/energy I received from others to make it to where I am now. If I wouldn't have had parents who were willing to give up weekends and evenings to baby-sit, I wouldn't have been able to work to afford Vincent. If I didn't have a dad and even Tommy's family to baby-sit while I was taking classes I never would have been able to start, let alone finish, college. I had more money, support, and schooling than most single, seventeen year-olds. Vincent was MY choice because I had the ability. The government didn't say that he was my only choice when I got pregnant. I watch Bristol with empathy and nod, yes, her mom as governor or vice-president could probably help out financially, but what about the legal decisions Palin will try to force down the people of America's throats. What about those women who didn't have a choice about pregnancy? schooling? What about those women raped? What about medical emergencies? What about the right to keep the government from controlling my body?

I go to school every day and pray to God (yes, Democrats do believe) that my children's parents don't have guns, especially "Meth Mom", "Cat Lady", and "Library Dad". "Library Dad" actually did have a gun and pistol whipped his wife during a weekend bender and threatened to kidnap their daughter. We had a school lock-down for a week and police stationed at the front doors during the morning assembly and afternoon dismissal. I can think of better use of police hours than to keep someone who shouldn't have been able to get a gun (legally, I might add) in the first place. I read about the teachers in Texas who lobbied and received the right to take guns to school with them and I shudder. Do those teachers know the danger they are putting themselves in? Guns aren't the answer. Take it from a girl whose grandfather went moose hunting in Canada before Alaska was a state and whose father owns the very hunting rifles used to shoot those Canadian moose. Those guns will never be in my house.

The high buzzing whine last night jibed the media for raising questions about her qualifications and decisions, but then toots her own horn for saying she didn't take the bridge to nowhere. Several of those agencies she jibed did some research. I was able to actually listen to her as governor or mayor on the radio, I'm not sure which, talk to the people of Ketchikan telling them how she supported the bridge. The Ketchikan people would be able to use the airport (200,000 people use per year) without taking a ferry. She may have said "thanks, but no thanks" but she still took the $23 million for Alaska.

I feel a knot in my stomach grow as I think about what four years of the McCain-Palin tyranny may produce for the schools. Wasn't No Child Left Behind (Every Child Left Behind) enough? Teaching creationism in schools, Ms. Palin? I'm all for religious freedom, but when a cat hides its head in a corner thinking it can't be seen, it still is seen. Creationism just is a fallacy. Abstinence? Did it work teaching it in your own family, Ms. Palin? Global warming, not man made? Did the polar bears you didn't put on the endangered species list cause it? I won't even talk about the war. . . "God's task"?

My head throbs, knots in my stomach grow, my shoulders stiffen until I realized...hey! I was OK with McCain winning before all this came out. I would have voted for Obama and let the cards fall as they may. Now, I don't think that can happen. I've been inspired. Perry and I will be volunteering for the southern Indiana Obama campaign (Hillary territory in the primary but projected Republican...not if I can help it). If a Democrat needs a ride to the polls, I'll take the day off from teaching (McCain may want to help me find another job because of that) to drive them there.

I'm not even going to touch vindictive-gate. Having had to go through a nasty custody battle myself (Bristol beware...custody battles can be a result of teenage pregnancies), I can understand the frustration of the court system, but you still can't use your influence to make it go differently. I know, I used to dream of being an IRS auditor. I would have loved to audit some of those people who most irritated me.

Few people have made me feel like retching like Palin has. It is a short list...W. (of course), Lisa Robechek (see "Blast from the..." who has a striking similarity with Palin), Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Rosie, Tommy, and - since I was young - Columb0 and the "Rockford Files."

McCain I might have a beer with, maybe even buy him the beer. Palin I'm afraid I might spit in her beer before I gave it to her.

- - Stephanie