LAST CALL

Sam Smith

One of the things you learn early as a writer is that the hardest parts of a story are the beginning and the end. The beginning of my story as a Washington journalist was over 50 years ago; the middle has encompassed all or part of one quarter of America's presidencies, and the end will come sometime this year.

I will continue to edit the national edition of the Progressive Review, which has more readers than ever but my wife Kathy and I are moving to Maine where we have deep ties, for me going back more than six decades.

I am leaving my birthplace, a town I have loved but also a place in which I have felt increasingly an exile as local values, culture and community faded - not because they lacked merit but because they did not produce enough power or profit for someone.

It has become a city where the police chief erects apartheid style roadblocks, where the deputy mayor hides a community library in a high rise like it was just another Starbucks, and where the government is spends over $600 million on a baseball stadium but can't keep its recreation centers open all weekend.

It is a city of magnificent views and dismal viewpoints, wonderful communities and dubious egos, natural spaces and artificial words. It is a city that too often can't tell the difference between intelligence and wisdom and, as Russell Baker once noted, the difference between being serious and being somber.

It is also a city in which all politics becomes office politics, and where imagination and free thought are restricted to thirty minutes on weekdays and violators will be towed.

Still, Washington has always been an unsortable amalgam of decadence and decency, undeserved profit and unrequited purpose, subterranean conspiracies and high ideals. Walt Whitman found himself "amid all this huge mess of traitors, loafers, hospitals, axe-grinders, & incompetencies & officials that goes by the name of Washington." Even earlier, Captain Frederick Marry noted, "Here are assembled from every state in the union, what ought to be the collected talent, intelligence, and high principles of a free and enlightened nation. Of talent and intelligence there is a very fair supply, but principle is not so much in demand; and in everything, and everywhere, by the demand the supply is regulated."

One of the things that affects the city's crosscurrents of felicity and felony is what is happening elsewhere in the nation. As a weak colony filled with professional migrants, DC is a beta edition of both the good and the bad. Just as Washington was once deep into the civil rights and peace movements, today it accurately reflects national values sown in the Reagan-Clinton-Bush era that have caused the disintegration of the republic's economy, its global status and its constitution.

You can feel it wandering around downtown, where every last centimeter of the zoning envelope is filled with the dull high rises of a second robber baron era. You see it in the endless piling on of new civil and criminal offenses in place of decent and effective policies. You find it in the official subservience and subsidy to those who already have more than their fair share. You observe it in a school system that values rigid tests and rules but not thoughtful questions and creative ideas.

You see it in the failure to lift a hand to help those unable to play DC's harsh games. And you see it in the increasing division between free and locked down Washington, the former being those parts where you can still cross a threshold without having to prove you are not a terrorist.

Which is not to say you can not find many good things hidden beneath the hubris, behind the ubiquitous fear in the world's most guarded place and under the false renaissance of a city that has spent billions on convention centers, stadiums, arenas, but which can't even provide as many jobs for local residents as it did 20 years ago.

You just have to look harder.

You'll find it still in the neighborhoods like the one I shall miss most: Capitol Hill.

You'll find it in the little oases of commercial sense and service like Frager's hardware store, Distad's auto repair shop and all the other small businesses that get mainly bills and regulations from the city government while the favors go to the big guys.

You'll find it over lunch at places like Jimmy T's, Ben's Chili Bowl and La Tomate.

You'll find it in the files of the Washingtoniana collection at the DC Library, on a trail sign or in an exhibit at the Historical Society of Washington.

You'll find it at the FDR Memorial late on a spring evening or in a quiet spot in some hidden corner high in Rock Creek Park.

You'll find it in a black community that has bravely maintained its values in the face of repression, indifference and socio-economic cleansing. I first did as a young man going to the Howard Theater and as a 20-something member of SNCC, and later in so many ways and places as I was welcomed by, and learned from, those who used the power of decency and friendliness as bridges across cultures and to overcome pain.

You'll find it among the activists of the DC Statehood Green Party who for nearly four decades have risen to the challenge presented by its first leader, Julius Hobson: "What do you want: a Disneyland for the rich or a state for free people?" Youll fine it in their refusal to be silent in a city so colonial, corrupt and contented.

You'll find it among the teachers resisting the dismantling and corporatization of public education.

You'll find it in the artists and musicians who take us away from bitterness and contentions and into better places, those still holding on in a city determined not to even leave them with a pad cheap enough to rent.

You'll find it among those who seek to preserve not only open space and fine buildings, but great communities and wonderful institutions.

You'll find it among those trying to help fill monstrous gaps in government services by working at a food bank or shelter, counseling former prisoners, providing free legal service, or teaching children what the school system can't or won't.

You'll find it in a small band of journalists who haven't deserted the real city in favor of grander stories and sources.

You'll find it among the neighborhood commissions who still sometimes get those downtown to pay attention to things they would rather ignore.

And you'll find it in the shared memory of those who give the city life instead of draining it, add to the local saga rather than diminishing it, and are there for us when so many others aren't.

One place you won't find it much longer, though, is at my place. Sometime this year I'll be off to write the rest of my story someplace else. Thanks for all the good times, the encouragement, the inspiration, the example and the dreams.

Just remember, despite what others would have you believe, a vote in the House leaves you no better off than Algeria when it also was a colony; Washington never was a sleepy southern town and it never was a swamp; there is a J Street (albeit hidden in Northeast and spelled Jay), and most of the people who do serious wrong in this fair city come from somewhere else. We try to teach them different but they never seem to get it.

Thanks for the fun and, as Adam Clayton Powell Jr used to say, "Keep the faith, baby."

PS: Some random anecdotes from the past 50 years can be found here.

SENATE APPROVES TOY VOTE FOR CAPITAL COLONY

Sam Smith

With magnificent irony, the US Senate has pacified the local capital establishment by approving a token vote for DC in the House - carefully balanced by a new and certain GOP vote in Utah. In doing so, however, the Senate included a clear statement that the capital is still a colony by also approving a major change in gun laws to be forced upon the city.

For over a century local and national politicians have used the prospect of a vote in the House to lessen the pressure for, in the early days, home rule and, later on, for statehood. In 1888, conservative newspaperman Theodore Noyes of the Washington Star launched a campaign for congressional representation while strongly opposing real democracy. Noyes wrote, "National representation for the capital community is not in the slightest degree inconsistent with control of the capital by the nation through Congress."

Noyes' view has been confirmed by the Democratic Senate, which made clear with its gun law amendment that a vote in the House doesn't alter the city's true colonial status at all. Instead, the city will continue to be run by what a political scientist in 1899 called a "representative aristocracy."

The energy and constituency for true democracy and self government have withered in the capital as a younger generation - trained in so many ways to accept symbolism as reality - has come into power. Personal status has submerged common goals and personal rights have become less important in a society that has been diligently voiding these rights over the past three decades. In DC, as elsewhere in this country, fewer and fewer even understand what freedom and democracy are about.

DC FRIDAY

Gary Imhoff, DC Watch - [Jim Graham's anti-loitering bill] criminalizes even a couple's taking a stroll in their neighborhood, as long as their neighborhood is designated as a hot-spot and a police officer accuses them of having a criminal purpose for being on the street. Of course, supporters of the bill would say that we can rely on the good intentions and good judgment of police officers to use the law only against bad people. But the point of having written guarantees of our rights is that we shouldn't have to rely on hope that police officers will have good intentions and display good judgment.

Washington Business Journal - The Washington Post Co. income dropped 77 percent during the fourth quarter, largely as a result of a hefty impairment charge related to an underperforming business.. . . As with many papers struggling with falling print ad sales across the U.S., the Post's print advertising revenue declined 17 percent in 2008 to $410.4 million. Daily circulation declined 2.6 percent last year to 633,100. The paper's major money generator in 2008 was its Kaplan education unit, which accounted for 52 percent of revenue during the year, and was up 15 percent.

DC Examiner D.C.'s chief financial officer warned city leaders that budget deficits could reach $1 billion in three years because of the worldwide recession. Natwar Gandhi said credit, stock and real estate woes are contributing to a "deep, long and lasting recession" on a national and local level. He retracted previous statements that Washington was immune to the economic downfall. . . He said revenues from taxes and other sources will fall about $400 million short of earlier projections in fiscal year 2009, $800 million short in 2010, $967 million short in 2011 and $1.1 billion short in 2012. Real estate tax collections are down and will continue to decline through 2012, Gandhi warned. Property owners have filed 4,300 appeals of their 2009 assessments; this accounts for about a $100 million decline.

Dorothy Brizill, DC Watch - [At the] District's Board of Elections and Ethics, the term of Dr. Lenora Cole expired in July of last year. District law states that Dr. Cole would continue to serve on the Board until her replacement was confirmed by the council and sworn in by the mayor. On February 5, Mayor Fenty nominated his jogging pal, Omar Nour, to replace Cole. To date, Councilmember Mary Cheh, whose Government Operations Committee oversees BOEE, has not yet scheduled a confirmation hearing for Nour or publicly asked the mayor to withdraw his nomination. Against this backdrop, Dr. Cole today submitted her letter of resignation, effectively immediately. . . As a result of Dr. Cole's resignation, the BOEE is now down to two members. Should the mayor decide to dig in his heels in support of his unqualified nominee, council consideration of Nour could be long and protracted.

WTOP - The clanging of streetcars hasn't been heard in the District in nearly two generations, but WTOP has learned the city's department of transportation is ready to get streetcars rolling once again. "You will see an announcement in the next few weeks," D.C. Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein tells WTOP. . . Streetcars last ran in the city in 1962, with several lines heading into and out of Maryland and a few running through Virginia as well.

Gary Imhoff, DC Watch - Peter Tucker opposes the use of Gardasil, a vaccine against cervical cancer that he believes is dangerous, experimental, and untested for use in young girls. Councilmember David Catania is a champion of Gardasil, and sponsored legislation that requires sixth grade girls to be vaccinated with it. Tucker wants to testify about Gardasil at an oversight hearing for the Department of Health that Catania will hold. Tucker signed up as a witness at Catania's hearing and was placed on the witness list. He was then told that he would not be allowed to testify under any circumstances, and that he would not be given any reason for being barred. Here is the relevant rule of the city council, Rule No. 504(b): "If a committee, in the publication of notice of a public hearing, sets a deadline before which a member of the public must contact the committee to be permitted to be a witness at the public hearing, then at the time that the public hearing is held, each member of the public who complied with the committee's requirements shall be given an opportunity to testify." Catania is not just insulting Tucker, and by extension all citizens, by commanding that someone who disagrees with his policy preferences not be allowed to testify before his committee; he is also flouting a rule of the city council.

DC Examiner - A northwest Washington home regarded as the epicenter of the city's gay rights movement has been designated a D.C. Historic Landmark. The home belongs to 83-year-old Franklin E. Kameny, considered the "father of gay activism" by the Historic Preservation Review Board. . . In 1961, Kameny argued to the U.S. Supreme Court that a federal policy calling homosexuals a security risk was "no less odious than discrimination based upon religious or racial grounds." It was the first civil rights claim in a U.S. court based on sexual orientation.

STUDENTS WHO SLIP FROM KIPP

Elizabeth Davis - Since August, I have received eight students in my classroom from KIPP Academy. . . My first instinct upon receiving these students, was that they were unruly, low achievers. . . kicked out of KIPP because their behavior was intolerable, unbearable. I was careful not to allow my preconceived notions about "charter school reject" cloud or inform my judgment about their academic abilities or expected behavior. I was right in doing so. As it turns out, each of these students were good students. Some were great students. But I would have missed the opportunity to discover their talents, their academic abilities and multiple learning styles if I had not cultivated a learning environment that welcomed diverse learning styles and modalities.

Judging from conversations with these students (as well as my own students) I've realized that a teaching/learning environment that only values one way of behaving, learning and socializing could very easily morph into one of social engineering. Is social engineering healthy for creative, imaginative, self-directed learners? I would say no. Judging from my 30 years of teaching experience, I've observed that the world class artists, scientists, engineers, mathematicians, writers, think-tankers, etc, are cultivated in classrooms that afford them the space to think critically, imagine, question social injustice, talk back to their teachers and interrogate the world, not classrooms that require them to sit in a corner for challenging their masters or walk in a single file on the right side of the hallway to confirm their obedience; or chant positive affirmations that will guarantee them success. This process is archaic It's been done already. with slaves, native Americans, just to name a few.

The irony is that individuals who create, fund, promote these types of schools, mostly for children who have been left in the margins of society, would never enroll their own children in them. I wonder why? I wonder how many have done so?

MAJOR BRITISH STUDY FINDS TEST BASED TEACHING IMPOVERISHES STUDENTS

Guardian, UK - Children's lives are being impoverished by the government's insistence that schools focus on literacy and numeracy at the expense of creative teaching, the biggest review of the primary school curriculum in 40 years finds today. . .

The Cambridge University review of the primary curriculum found. . . children are leaving school lacking knowledge about the arts and humanities having spent too many years "tied to a desk" learning times tables.

"Our argument is that their education, and to some degree their lives, are impoverished if they have received an education that is so fundamentally deficient," he said.

The report says schools should be freed of SATs . . . to allow them to make more decisions about what and how they teach. . .

Independent of the government and funded through charitable donations, the review is based on three years of academic research, 29 research papers and dozens of public meetings around the country. It marks 40 years since the last wholesale review of primary education and presents a blueprint for a curriculum that would give teachers control of 30% of their time to teach what they want. . .

The review finds:

- Children are losing out on a broad, balanced and rich curriculum with art, music, drama, history and geography the biggest casualties.

- The curriculum, and crucially English and maths, have been "politicized".

- The focus on literacy and numeracy in the run-up to national tests has "squeezed out" other areas of learning.

- The Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which sets the curriculum, have been excessively prescriptive, "micro-managing" schools.

The review accuses the government of attempting to control what happens in every classroom in England, leading to an excessive focus on literacy and numeracy in an "overt politicization" of children's lives. Despite this too many children still leave primary school having failed to master the 3Rs. . .

Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the proposals "have depth, credibility and, above all, respond to the realities of the primary classroom".

DC WEDNESDAY

Jim Graham, who has never met a legal restriction he didn't like, has renewed his demand for an anti-loitering law that would turn parts of DC into no Constitution zones. Reports Channel 4: "In a move that is sure to cause yet another constitutional battle in the District, D.C. Council member Jim Graham is proposing anti-loitering legislation that would allow police to disperse two or more people gathered in areas known for illegal activity.The police chief would use statistics about arrests for drug, gang, theft and violent crimes to create "hot spot loitering zones." Violators could face a $300 fine. In the past, civil rights activists have questioned whether similar legislation would infringe on residents' right to assemble. The new bill would give the mayor authority to create rules to protect "persons who are engaged in assembly protected by the Constitution."

ABC News - A single father is suing the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority for $200 million, claiming lead-contaminated tap water poisoned his twin sons as infants, causing them ongoing health problems. The water utility between 2001 and 2004 hid elevated levels of lead from customers and federal authorities, plaintiff John Parkhurst of Capitol Hill claims in the lawsuit, which seeks class-action status. WASA failed to take steps to remedy the situation, omitted language from public education campaigns that would have warned people about the problem and continued to encourage residents to drink the water, according to the lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court. The complaint comes on the heels of a study that determined hundreds of D.C. children might be at risk of irreversible IQ loss, developmental delays and behavioral problems linked to the lead levels.

USA Service - Heavy use has damaged the Mall's turf, sidewalks, and furnishings, creating chronic maintenance problems for the National Park Service, its official caretaker. A $200 million renovation of the National Mall was removed from President Obama's stimulus package. Interested groups are invited to coordinate efforts for fortifying the open spaces of the mall. Plans include a day or week of service this summer.

DC SATURDAY

Washington Post - About 1,000 people filled an auditorium at the University of the District of Columbia to vent their anger at a proposal that would nearly double tuition at the city's only public college. UDC students, who come from all over the world as well as D.C. neighborhoods, told trustees repeatedly that UDC is the place where people go when they need an education and can't afford any other school. UDC student leader William Kellibrew IV received a thunderous standing ovation at the meeting of a trustees committee when he demanded that President Allen Sessoms resign, and students later began signing a petition. The committee met to discuss Sessoms's recommendation to raise tuition for D.C. residents from about $3,800 to $7,000 a year for four-year students. At a student rally before the meeting, Kellibrew said: "If you're going to double the tuition, how about doubling our facilities? If you're going to double our tuition, how about upgrading books in our library?"

Channel 4 - The District coughed up $48 million on logistics and security while hosting the inauguration festivities, according to the Washington Business Journal. It has received a check for $15 million from the Feds to cover some of the costs, but still faces a $33 million shortfall. The hope is the federal government will pick up the tab for the rest.

Channel 4 - High-volume local energy utilities, including Pepco and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co, have admitted to receiving an unusually high number of customer complaints about rates this winter. Lawmakers have heard the same thing, and they're looking into it.. . . The problem in large part stems from the deregulation of the Maryland electricity markets in 1999. This lovely piece of legislation made utility companies buy power from generation companies in the open market. These suppliers aren't bound by caps and often sell at prices well above the cost of production. The utilities then pass these costs to you, the proud homeowner. Imagine.
And this winter, customers find themselves paying for power purchased in 2007 and 2008, before the energy bubble burst, as utilities pay off those debts. Do not bother calling your utility company to complain about this. They will just tell you to turn your thermostat down from a boiling 62 degrees.

Artomatic will be offering over five weeks of art, music, theatre, workshops and more this year in Washington, DC's Capitol Riverfront neighborhood from May 29 - July 5. Artomatic will be held at 55 M Street, S.E. - atop the Navy Yard Metro - celebrating it's tenth anniversary in a newly built 275,000 square foot LEED Silver Class A building. Registration for Artomatic 2009 will begin in March, and is open to all artists - including painters, photographers, sculptors, graphic designers, musicians, poets, actors and dancers. Artomatic is an unjuried event, so all artists are welcome. Artomatic 2008 attracted a record-breaking 52,500 visitors and 1,540 participating artists.

Washington Business Journal - Dozens of developers have taken a look at the District’s 11 vacant schools and see them as good opportunities, but the bad economy is stopping some from bidding on the properties. Neil Albert, the city’s deputy mayor for economic development, began soliciting bids for the closed schools in December. Bids were originally due Feb. 27, but Albert has extended the deadline to March 27. . . Ellen McCarthy, director of planning and land use for law firm Arent Fox LLP and a former D.C. planning director, said developers tell her they are interested in bidding, “but many are choosing to sit this one out due to the current market uncertainties.”

STUDENTS BEAT MILITARY: WEAPONS TRAINING IN SAN DIEGO SCHOOLS ENDS

Education Not Arms - San Diego Unified, located in the middle of one of the largest military complexes in the world, took the uncharacteristic step of banning rifle training conducted under the military's high school JROTC program. Eleven schools with rifle ranges were affected in the nation's eighth largest urban district. . .

It wasn't until four hours into the board meeting, at 9:00 PM, that the agenda item came up for discussion. The vote was preceded by testimony from about 15 pro- and con- speakers in front of a crowd that was largely in favor of terminating the weapons training program. One school board member said that in all of his many years on the board, this was the most impressive student effort he had ever seen. Even two board members who opposed the resolution expressed their admiration for the students' involvement. When the decision was made, the resolution, which immediately banned all marksmanship training in the district, passed by a vote of 3-2. The crowd then spilled out of the auditorium to hold a loud and joyous celebration.

One of their main concerns was the way schools were tracking students into military training (via JROTC) while denying them adequate class alternatives, especially ones needed to qualify for college. Students from African American and Latino families were being disproportionately affected.

To address the problem, the coalition adopted three initial goals--convince the school district to:

-stop placing students into military science (JROTC) classes without their informed consent.

-stop telling parents and students that the class will help them qualify for college, when it won't.

-ban weapons training and JROTC gun ranges in San Diego schools.

All three goals have now been achieved, the first two by a superintendent' s directive, the third by school board action. Throughout the over one-year long campaign, high school students have played a central role in educating and mobilizing their peers, with support from a variety of community and college groups.