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[November 21st, 2007]
BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOLS
As a school parent in Beaverton, I appreciate the history lesson about Portland schools and the insight into the players, constituencies, and complexities [“School Colors,” Nov. 14]. From a community viewpoint, it is undeniable that we all want our kids to go to a school with kids from our own neighborhood...and for this school to be in our own backyard. Even if the plan of giving people the choice to move around and seek better schools in other areas “worked”—that is, resulted in more balanced social-economic representation in Portland schools—the approach would still not address the real underlying issue: How do we improve the quality of neighborhood schools outright so kids can walk to school in their own neighborhood, accompanied by friends from their own neighborhood?
Portland is a culturally vibrant city but has no vision and leadership when it comes to education. It’s ironic how a city that touts itself as being so progressive is so incapable of making progress on what must be the most essential issue of livability...local school quality.
I love Portland, and its fate affects Beaverton and the state as a whole. We must get this issue of school quality right at the K-12 level as well as at the university level. We need world-class education for our kids because they are the future of this state. If any business leaders are listening, please think about how you can help Portland and Oregon at large can solve this fundamental issue.
“BeavertonParentConcernedAboutPortland”
gauss.publicpress.org
Via wweek.com
SAINT CABBIE
Regarding the Nov. 14 Night Cabbie: Anyone who doesn’t tip cabbies heavily during the holiday season, the one time of the year we’re encouraged to be generous, is missing a chance. I’ve been riding cabs for 40 years and have never had a bad ride, not once. Cabbies have stopped my ride in the middle of a bridge after midnight, got out and walked across traffic to talk a jumper out of leaping into the water, and then apologized for the delay and the shared ride with a weeping woman. Said I didn’t have to pay. Cabbies have saved me from being mugged in NYC. Cabbies are stone angels, and you can prove this the next time you need to go somewhere but instead you’re standing stranded on a corner in darkest Portland, wishing you were home, safe, warm, and dry. Pray for a cab, and sure enough, one soon appears. Miraculously, your ass is ferried.
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Five bucks is a reasonable tip in the month of December. If you’ve been drinking and are too impaired to drive, consider giving more. And for goddess’ sake, send some money to the Radio Cab Foundation; they’re collecting money to buy turkey dinners for people just like you, only much poorer.
Night cabbies, bless ’em. When you need one….
Jeff Taylor
Via wweek.com
MORE THAN WORDS
I am one of the interpreters who came to the states recently [“Lost in Translation,” Nov. 7]. When I came I felt I lost, because I did not know what to do in this country. Frankly, I regretted coming here, but when I read this article I realized that there is somebody who cares for interpreters who served the U.S. army to achieve the mission in Iraq. All I want to say is thank you, we appreciate your kindness, God bless you.
“Louie”
Via wweek.com
No Child Left Behind, Why would schools no t take the money, unless you want to escape the penalties and stigma of being a failing school. Funny how they took it until it was time to put up or shut up. Do students have to take math and science or is it elective like showers and P.E. Must make their parents proud to have stinky, obese, stupid children.
Our next generation of losers. Well, they can always join the military and become career soldiers or die first.
Goodness me... Seattle can have him. As an artist who spent 15 of the last 17 years living in Seattle - I heard the same drum-beat Mr. Gunther pounded over and over during his city council run: we need to be a "world class city". These days that expression fills me with dread. In Seattle being world class meant knocking down any historical building that stood in the way of progress; or handing out sweetheart deals (at the expense of the community) to any multi-national that promised to install a few hundred toilets in town. Now Seattle's filled with an army of self-serving yuppies sipping $30 martinis and texting into their iPhones about how "relevant" and "world class" they are. (These same yuppies can be counted on to vote down any education or public transit measure that comes to ballot). News-flash to Mr. Gunther: the 18-year-olds steer the conversation in Seattle too - because they're rich doesn't mean that they've grown up. They've just figured out what part of their city's soul to cash in to become world-class.
Forgive my naivety... but Portland, on first blush, looks like one of the few cities in the country that forces corporations to do right by the community in which they hope to do business. If that drives away the Boeings, big pharmas and Microsofts of the world I would sooner attribute that to the character of those corporations than to the immaturity of the city.
So Mr. Gunther, try this: tell your new Seattle friends that you sold your car, got rid of your television, get around only by bike and mass transit, and only eat food you grow yourself. They'll look at you like you're a Martian. That's the real flavor of that world class city; unable to tolerate the thought of giving up their Escalades and American Idol. I'll take Portland, I fit in. Sounds like you'll fit in up in Seattle just fine too.