Yesterday, the Vermont Advisory Committee to the US Civil Rights Commission issued a progress report on racial harassment in the state's public schools. They held a press conference in Montpelier, the state capital.
While I don't live in Vermont, I've always wondered what it would've been like growing up there. (I was born there.)
A couple weekends ago, I visited the annual Apple Festival in Springfield, Vt. and noticed a few non-whites.
As reported in the Burlington Free Press, advisory committee's chair, Eric Sakai said, "...racial harassment in Vermont schools continues today."
Meanwhile, one of the committee members disagreed with the report's conclusion. Charles Johnson (safe school coordinator for the Vt. Dept of Education, who visits many schools across the state) said, "I don't sense there is pervasive racial harassment in Vermont schools."
State legislature Representative Virginia Duffy (R-Rutland) attended the press conference and agreed with this view, "I don't believe our public schools are a hotbed of racism."
She called the report divisive, "...particularly a section that defined racism in terms of acts and beliefs that 'the dominant white race has used to subordinate other races in America.' Duffy said, 'That is frankly outrageous.'"
I don't have time, right now, to go further into the debate at the press conference. Maybe later...
In the meantime, I feel motivated to check out the art exhibit at UMBC,
"White: Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art."
And before I forget, here's the URL to get to the report:
http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/pubsndx.htm
(The report is first on the list.)
Maglev = Magnetic Levitation
The Baltimore Sun ran an article the other day about the maglev in Shanghai. I also received, on the same day, a newsletter from the Maryland Transit Administration on the Baltimore-Washington Maglev project. There was brief mention of the Shanghai project, saying that it would start full service in early 2004.
The newspaper article was useful, in that the reporter gave their impressions of riding the magnet powered and elevated train. What it didn't give were enough comparative dollar figures between maglev and wheeled hi-speed train projects. It did mention the fares for Baltimore-Washington runs -- MARC is $7; maglev would be about $26.
The newsletter explained that the MARC fare is subsidized by the state (gov't), whereas the suggested maglev fare is not. (The newsletter said that it would take an act of the General Assembly to authorize state support for the maglev project.)
It may be true that maglev might be cost effective over the long run, compared to a wheeled alternative. The problem is the tremendous up-front cost. That's probably why it has been rejected for several proposed lines (e.g., Australia, Korea, Germany) in recent years.
I think maglev is an exciting idea, but could it be the land transportation equivalent of the Concorde supersonic airliner? (Which just went out of business, last week.)
[Note: I've visited maglev public relations exhibits in the German cities of Essen and Munich. I'd hoped to ride it at the Transrapid test track in northern Germany, but it was out of operation for maintenance or replacement at the time I was planning to travel nearby. (It's been a very popular tourist attraction.) I guess if I want to give it a try, I'd have to fly to Shanghai. (Which I expect to do, eventually.)]
re: frequency correction
WPFW, the DC community radio station owned by Pacifica, is at 89.3 FM on the dial.
...and while on the topic of DC radio, let me mention a Sunday public affairs program on Clear Channel stations 101.1 FM and 99.5 FM (I forget the call letters.)
It's called "Asian American Dialogue". It's a segment of an hour-long "DC Weekly" program. AAD focuses on API community issues. It airs every fourth Sunday at the following times and frequencies:
6 a.m. 99.5 FM
7 a.m. 101.1 FM
7 p.m. 1560 AM
9 p.m. 960 AM
Recent articles in Washington Post about the DC NPR news/talk station, WAMU 88.5 FM are interesting in light of the turmoil in recent years at DC's WPFW (89.5 FM) and other Pacifica stations (NY, Berkeley, LA, and Houston).
It boils down to this -- when new management decides to become more "corporate" (I use that term loosely) and tries to appeal to a more upscale (i.e., richer) audience (and advertisers/underwiters) and make organizational and schedule changes to focus, streamline, and dictate policy, they will encounter resistance.
Not all change is for the better. On the other hand, keeping the status quo may ignore a shifting environment.
Public and community radio has a different relationship to listeners and volunteers, than commercial broadcasting.
I'll leave it at that, for the time being, because such a discussion would require many hours of thought and discussion. [It really touches on the area of organizational development (OD), which I've not read up on in many years.]
from the WRN file:
Saturday, September 20 and Sunday, September 21 2003: Radio Netherlands
This week on Amsterdam Forum: The US's "war on drugs"; not only is it being waged in the jungles of South America but also right here in Europe, and the Netherlands is in the frontline. According to US law enforcers, eighty percent of the party drug Ecstasy used in America comes from the Netherlands. The chairman of the US senate committee in charge of tackling drugs - Mark Souder - has called the Netherlands "the Colombia for synthetic drugs" and has threatened to call for economic sanctions unless the Dutch authorities do more to tackle the problem. US detectives are already actively involved in tracking down suspects and the number of Dutch citizens extradited to America has risen sharply. Many Dutch lawyers and politicians are now expressing concerns that rights afforded under Dutch law may be bypassed as pressure for results from the US grows. Is the US right to say it may call for sanctions unless the Dutch do more? And how far should a country be able to go if it thinks another is soft on drugs?
=- =- =- =- =-
If we wanted to boycott things Dutch, where would we look? Hmmm, one thing that comes to mind is Giant foods, the regional supermarket leader. As you may know, it's owned by Royal Ahold of the Netherlands.
I always wanted to do something about the crazy names they've come up with for the Giant brand soft drinks, since Ahold bought the company.
I've been visiting the Upper Valley this holiday weekend... That's what they call this part of the Connecticut River Valley that joins Vermont and New Hampshire.
Anyhow, I found an old covered bridge, called the Baltimore bridge. It's on display outside of Springfield, Vt. It was moved to sit next to the Eureka schoolhouse (oldest one-room schoolhouse in the state).
Meanwhile, readers of the Baltimore Sun newspaper might recall mention of an area called Baltimore, Vt. about a year or two ago. It's not really on the map, but it's like an informal collection of dwellings (hamlet? village?) near the town of Springfield.
Was listening to a radio news program from Germany last night (Its in the English language). A report from Austria about the reaction to Arnie's win. (They call him "Arnie" or the "Styrian Oak".) The report contained part of a song with someone pretending to speak English like Arnold. Guess even they think he talks funny.
Meanwhile, of course, everyone, there, is very proud and excited. All the politicians have been sending Arnold congratulatory messages, including the nativist/reactionary/anti-immigrant Jurg (Jorg?) Haider.
All hail Der Fuehrer von Kalifornia!
(You remember that Hitler was originally from Austria. I wonder if Arnold has the same gift for oratory that Hitler did, that is if Schwarzenneger were to speak in German.)
re: recall
Don't know the exit polling results, but what can be said that hasn't already. I hope the other 100+ candidates have gotten their 15 minutes of attention.
I'm just glad that I don't live in Calif. no more.
Too many things to vote for, out there. Many statewide propositions on a normal ballot. And then if you live in a city like SF, there're many local propositions. Makes voting a real chore.
(Hmmm. Wonder how the punch card voting machines have held up, out there.)
re: La primary
The campaign of Bobby Jindal, Indian American whiz kid, has been on my mind. If he were elected governor, could he turn around the unfortunate state of Louisiana? And how is he regarded by young South Asian Americans? Do they see him as a role model or as an oddity? (He musta been fairly in tune with his heritage if he was able to rake in lotsa contributions from Indo Americans across the country. I'm guessing it could be close a cool mil.)
According to analysis in one of the Louisiana papers (perhaps the Times-Picayune), it would be trickier for him to appeal to Repub. moderates, than for his Democratic opponent to pick up support from those Democratic voters that went for her party rivals. (Jindal ran as a Catholic conservative.)
It'd be interesting to compare his campaign with that of several-time gubernatorial candidate, Harry Lee, the Chinese American sheriff of Jefferson Parish. (I think I once interviewed Lee for my radio show. I should try to find the tape.)
The other night, I was listening to a replay of an Arnold Scharzeneger (sp?) rally on C-span radio. Listening to his heavy accent made me desire the real thing, so I played one of my German language tapes and turned off the radio.
Why didn't I do that with Dr. Kissinger? I think I shall do just that the next time I hear his voice.
Listening to German accents is so inspiring! :-)
Is this Arnold's "secret" weapon, the overlooked advantage to his likely victory (if one believes the polls) in the recall election?
Arnold's accent brings out the inner German in all of us.
California needs a Fuehrer to lead them out of the economic morass they're in.
If staunchly Democratic bastions like Maryland and Massachusetts could elect Republican governors in the last election cycle, why couldn't California do the same?