The Perfect Cancer Patient with medical sociologist Gayle Sulik and Marc Parenteau at Narritve.ly. CLICK HERE FOR AN Extra Scene, not published in the original!
“What’s Burning?” forthcoming with Marc Parenteau in Project Censored 2020(Seven Stories Press)
A view from 30 miles downwind of the 2018 Nor Cal wildfire
… didn’t happen. But reading the hyperbolic post-Vergara cheering from Michelle Rhee and others, one would think he did, with vigor.
Here is my reply to San Jose Mercury News editorial “Vergara decision quantifies the harm done by inadequate teachers”the home paper of Silicon Valley billionaire David Welsh who financed the case. I posted mine in their comments, and invite you to engage in dialogue as well.
“We are likely to find that the problems of housing and education, instead of preceding the elimination of poverty, will themselves be affected if poverty is first abolished.” – Martin Luther King. Jr.
Despite the excellent, heart-rendering spin, the Vergaga suit is not civil rights. It’s not Brown v. the Board of Education.
Can one imagine Martin Luther King, Jr. walking arm in arm with billionaires against middle-class teachers rights?
Talk about theatre of the absurd.
King would be marching against the great inequality in CA, which is #1 in poverty and has the most billionaires. Nowhere is this inequality greater than in Welch’s own backyard of the Bay Area (and Silicon Valley in particular).
Poverty is the real civil rights injustice visited on children – not due process for teachers.
For over 30 years, Project Censored has worked tirelessly to provide an organic alternative to the high-sugar, low-content, industrial-grade processed and packaged Junk Food “news” which the corporate media serves up for mass consumption, and mass distraction.
Project Censored is a critical part of the independent media news chain, ensuring we all have access to the real, substantial news needed to make informed decisions in our democracy.
Indeed, Project Censored provided fertile soil to cultivate my approach to education journalism. I’ve had the honor to write for their annual books from Seven Stories Press in 2011, 2012, and 2013, on their companion blog Daily Censored, and to speak on Project Censored Radio, a weekly show on Bay Area’s KPFA.
Every autumn we celebrate the work of independent journalism with the publication of our book. Even while we look back at the past year’s most censored news, we are hard at work on next year’s volume! Our current Fall Fund Drive is now underway and will continue for 12 days only. During that time, we will send an e-mail reminder every couple days, but only for the duration of the drive. We need to raise $15,000 to begin our work on Censored 2015 and to continue to expand our program of hands-on training in media literacy and critical thinking at college and university campuses across the country. We also continue to seek funding to hire a part-time administrative assistant. And, we have a generous $1,000 match to kick things off! Please choose one of the several support levels on the right hand side of this message. Each level offers different premiums of Project Censored’s latest work. You can choose to become a monthly subscriber or you can simply be a one-time donor. We appreciate all the help we get! Looking ahead, we expect to be even more productive over the next few months, but we need your financial support to do our best work
I had the honor of having lunch with Diane on her book tour for REIGN OF ERROR near her hotel in downtown SF. While lunching, we randomly met up with author David Sirota (http://www.davidsirota.com/) to talk education politics, along with the ever articulate and insightful Anthony Cody (http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/).
As if to (leather) cap off a fully San Francisco-esque day, a steady stream of fully-chapped, mustachioed gentlemen flowed by, bound to the annual Folsom Street Fair, an annual celebration of BDSM culture.
It was a fully uncensored experience.
Leather aside, this is the second time I’ve had the good fortune to meet with Diane, and both times, I’ve been struck by her absolute devotion to providing all children the education only our most privileged children receive. Unlike the corporate reformers, who clad themselves in the pleather trappings of social justice and equity, Diane is truly committed to the institution of public education, for the enrichment not of corporations, but of democracy, and humanity.
She is a hero for those of us who still believe in the promise of public education.
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