Month: April 2020

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican/ April 2020

Two new sources provide guidance for researching and decoding education jargon.

At the beginning of the year, Teacher College Press published Diane Ravitch’s and Nancy Bailey’s EdSpeak and Doubletalk; A Glossary to Decipher Hypocrisy and Save Public Schooling.

Near February’s completion, Garn Press published Mercedes Schneider’s new book, A Practical Guide To Digital Research: Getting the Facts and Rejecting the Lies , in which Schneider explains the investigative tools and techniques she uses plus provides examples from her own work.

By Kelly Davis, Jeff McDonald / San Diego Union-Tribune / April 12, 2020

Michael McKay had been struggling with homelessness and alcoholism when he was arrested last month on a probation violation and booked into San Diego County jail.

Before the 55-year-old diabetic was laid off five years ago and slipped into a downward spiral, McKay was a dedicated father and mechanical engineer. Now an inmate at the George F. Bailey Detention Facility, the county’s largest jail, he and other detainees may be sitting ducks for the coronavirus, said his wife, Diana McKay.

So far five jail employees and three inmates have tested positive for the virus, the Sheriff’s Department said Thursday.

Monday morning, April 13, nurses and other medical staff staged a work action to protest the layoffs of nurses by Palomar Medical Center.

At least 83 registered nurses and 63 health care workers were given temporary layoffs by the Palomar Health management. This seems like such an outrageous act by Palomar in the middle of this public health crisis.

The action was sponsored by Palomar Health registered nurses and health care workers and members of California Nurses Association and Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union. The protest was at Palomar Medical Center in Poway, at 15615 Pomerado Road.

The protesting medical workers also spoke of the lack of PPE and other protections for frontline health care workers.

by Ernie McCray

My acupuncturist, a lovely person and practitioner, just brought into the world a little girl. I emailed her:

“Oh, Julia,
what a beautiful
baby Olivia is.
Like her mom,
the woman
with needles
that heal,
the woman with
such a soft heart
(better to mother with),
the woman who plays Miles
for me
as I relax
head down
to the music
and the treatment
that soothes me
and eases
my mind.
Enjoy this bundle of joy.|

Originally posted July 11, 2019

by Bob Edwards

Imagine you are a resident of inland San Diego in the Summer of 1926. Seeking relief from the 90 degree heat, you and some friends pile into a buddy’s Model A Ford and head down to Ocean Beach to spend the weekend at a cottage another friend has rented at the Camp Holiday Auto Court, adjacent to the Silver Spray apartments.

The cute white cottages on the cliffs are a bit small for your group but you’re spending most of the time on the beach anyway, so it really doesn’t matter. The rental cost, $10 a month, is a little steep, but what the heck, it’s a vacation. Each morning you head down to Benbough’s Ocean Beach Bath House and rent a scratchy, saggy, woolen “bathing costume” for 10 cents and spend your day swimming in the ocean or in the saltwater pool next to the Silver Spray.

By Jim Miller

For the last several months, a coalition of labor, community, and environmental groups have been meeting to help forge an alliance in support of a local version of the Green New Deal.

In the midst of this process, we have all been hit with the COVID-19 crisis, and, as we watched the disaster capitalists seeking to turn this dire moment into an opportunity to profit, we were moved to suggest a better way forward.

It is clear to many of us doing this work that the lack of preparedness by the federal government, the science denial, the inadequate response to the health and economic needs of everyday Americans, and the deep inequities that this crisis exposed foreshadow what will be an even more catastrophic failure if we are unable to marshal the will and resources necessary to address the coming climate crisis. We must do much better.

This article was originally posted on the OB Rag on October 3, 2012

by Jill Richardson/ La Vida Locavore

With my big front yard swale project out of the way, I’m getting started on the backyard. The backyard intimidates me. It’s huge, full of bermudagrass, and parts of it are covered in chips of paint from the construction that’s gone on here over the past year or so. I’ve been having conversations in bad Spanglish with Jorge the painter about why we don’t want paint in our soil.

Reaching for poetry and other art forms are what some humans are doing in these days of the pandemic. Here’s a collection of poems written by the “Gypsy Poets”, a group of women who have expressed their thoughts for the times. The poems were sent to the OB Rag by Karen Kenyon, who organized the group. She told us:

I am attaching poems written about this unusual time here on earth — describing fear and hope and
reflection. Our members consist of one woman from England and Ireland, another who is a retired
school counselor, a convention planner, and an employee of The Athenaeum…..

Here are the poems (sent to us in pdf):

Certain members of the San Diego City Council are coming under criticism for actions they took on Tuesday, April 7.

While the public was not attending the Council meeting due to coronavirus restrictions, a council majority passed a resolution about Measure “C” – the Convention Center expansion measure on March’s Primary ballot that did not pass because it did not reach the required two-thirds endorsement by San Diego voters.

The resolution passed by the Council majority on Tuesday came after they removed specific language in the original proposed resolution that stated Measure “C” had been defeated. Here’s the language that was removed:

“Measure C did not receive the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the qualified voters voting on the measure and is hereby declared to have been defeated.”

by Ernie McCray

Wow, what a trip this coronavirus thing has been. I mean one moment you’re going about your day, maybe checking out a movie or two, dining with friends, getting a round of golf in…

Then the next day you’re living under a mandate where you’re to cover your mouth and stay in your house and if you do go out into the streets don’t come near to anybody.

It’s like you’re in a dark tunnel wondering if you’ll ever see the light of day again.

There’s something déjà vu about it for me as I’ve had feelings like I’m feeling now before. Nothing, of course, on the level of dealing with a pandemic disease, but an experience, never-the-less, of having my life changed, seemingly out of the blue. In a moment in time when my life was hunky-dory fine.