Jackie Kennedy, wife of President John F. Kennedy, redesigned the White House Rose Garden. Jackie also redecorates the White House. She was an icon of taste and style.
Melania Trump decided to renovate the Rose Garden. Her efforts have been received with dismay.
What was once a splash of color is now monochromatic white. Some may like this cold aesthetic. Many don’t.
In Florida, state officials ordered schools across the state to open fully without regard to safety or local officials. The Florida Education Association sued, and a judge blocked them reopening.
A Florida judge Monday granted a temporary injunction against the state’s order requiring school districts to reopen schools during the novel coronavirus pandemic, saying in a harshly worded decision that parts of it were unconstitutional. Circuit Court Judge Charles Dodson, in a 16-page decision, granted the request in a lawsuit filed by the Florida Education Association to block the order issued by state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran compelling schools to reopen five days a week for families who wanted that option.
The state also required districts to offer virtual learning. School districts can now proceed to follow through on starting the 2020-2021 school year as they want, according to the teachers union.
The Florida Education Department said it could not immediately comment on the decision.
The White House, where President Trump has been pushing districts to reopen schools and threatened to withhold federal funds if they didn’t — though he doesn’t have the power to do that unilaterally — said it would not comment on state matters.
Dodson said in his decision that the state did not take many important health considerations into consideration when it issued the order. “It fails to mention consideration of community transmission rates, varying ages of students, or proper precautions,” he wrote. “What has been clearly established is there is no easy decision and opening schools will most likely increase covid-19 cases in Florida.”
The judge ruled that the plaintiffs had established that the order was being “applied arbitrarily across Florida.” He sided with the plaintiffs, granting a preliminary injunction against the order and striking down parts of it as unconstitutional.
The administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is an ally of the president’s, has for months been pushing districts to reopen. On July 6, Corcoran issued an issue requiring that school districts reopen school buildings, though it gave a few districts in south Florida, which had extremely high coronavirus rates, permission to start the 2020-2021 school year remotely.
Other districts that wanted to start remotely were not given approval, including Hillsborough County, which was threatened by the DeSantis administration with the loss of nearly $200 million if it carried out its plan to open remotely.
The lawsuit said that Corcoran’s order was unconstitutional because it threatened the safety of schools by conditioning funding on reopening school buildings by the end of August, regardless of the dangers posed by the pandemic.
The lawsuit also said the order was “arbitrary” and “capricious” on its face and application. The state responded, saying the order was a reasonable exercise of emergency powers by the DeSantis administration that balanced the constitutional rights of students to a public education against the risk of harm during the pandemic.
It also said that states had submitted reopening plans that included the opening of school campuses, and that showed the districts wanted to proceed that way. Dodson didn’t accept that reasoning, saying that districts had no choice but to open buildings because of the order.
This article in Reuters reports that a young man says he had an affair for several years with the wife of Jerry Falwell, Jr., president-on-leave of Liberty University, which was founded by his famous father. He told Reuters that Falwell often watched as he had relations with Falwell’s wife.
Ah, the hypocrisy of those who claim to be morally superior. The strict honor code of Liberty University forbids the relationship that is alleged: “Sexual relations outside of a biblically ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman are not permissible at Liberty University,” the code reads.
The article credits Falwell Jr. for persuading evangelicals to embrace the twice-divorced, licentious Donald Trump.
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
Karma.
Alex Thompson of Politico wrote a fascinating article about the tensions between Obama and Biden.
During his eight years as Vice-President, Biden was loyal to Obama. Biden thought he was the inevitable successor to Obama. But Obama preferred Hillary to Joe. Hillary and Barack were both Ivy League, both cerebral, both cut from the same cloth.
Biden is an old school politician. He’s not Ivy League. He counts on personal relationships and works with anyone to get things done. He looks for the good in people and connects on a human level.
As the story explains, Obama did not encourage Biden to run. As Biden’s star faded, key members of his staff left him and joined Hillary’s team.
Biden was not an academic star, like Obama and Hillary. He was a solid C student.
His candidacy was not favored by the Democratic establishment. He rose from political ostracism by grit, based on old-fashioned values like empathy, kindness, friendship, and personal warmth. He is not a nerd. He is not a technocrat. He is a good man.
Today is the day when the Republican Party convenes to renominate Donald Trump as President of the United States. Trump has so thoroughly conquered the Grand Old Party that some call it “the Trump Party.” No member dare challenges his decisions, statements or policies, for fear that a humiliating tweet will end his or her career. A once-proud party that trumpeted its devotion to principles like free trade, personal responsibility, and respect for the rule of law now meets to show their obeisance to a man who rejects its foundational principles.
Our contributor Robert Shepherd has written an opening oration for the chair of the convention. It is short, witty, and to the point. It is a fitting tribute to the man who says he needs four more years of chaos to make America great again.
This post in McSweeney’s was inspired by the news that the gun-toting couple from Missouri who threatened BLM protestors have been invited to speak at the Republican Convention.
Here is the first day:
Monday, August 24
9:00 pm
The Creatures From Beyond the Mist scream the national anthem.
9:05 pm
Morgon, Devourer of Children, discusses his proposal to drastically decrease education spending.
9:20 pm
Marjorie Taylor Greene, QAnon congressional candidate, explains why COVID-19 can’t be transmitted through the air because there is no such thing as “air.”
9:40 pm
Scott Baio triggers libs from his hot tub.
10:20 pm
Silicon Valley CEO Peter Thiel shares a PowerPoint about how minimum-wage workers can balance their budgets by scavenging for edible weeds and building traps to catch small rodents.
10:40 pm
Keynote speech: Axulythor, Sorcerer of Darkness, on the importance of restricting women’s access to reproductive healthcare.
Dr. Michael Hynes is the Superintendent of the Port Washington School District in New York and a friend of Sir Ken Robinson.
The Legacy and Impact of Sir Ken Robinson
The world lost an inspiring and incredible human-being on August 21, 2020. Sir Ken Robinson, the gifted author and educator, and one of the world’s leading thinkers made an incredible impact on everyone he met. You may know him from his famous TED Talk entitled “Do Schools Kill Creativity”. It happened to be the most viewed TED Talk of all-time. To think people cared to watch an 18-minute discussion about school and creativity more than 66 million times shows us what an amazing orator he was. More important, it highlights his ability to connect with people who cared about what he had to say.
Most people know him from his multiple TED Talks. Not many knew that he led an incredibly multifaceted career before he hit TED stardom. Sir Ken was Director of the Arts in Schools Project, an initiative to develop arts education throughout England and Wales. He also chaired Artswork, the UK’s national youth arts development agency. Sir Ken was also professor emeritus of education at the University of Warwick. In 2003, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his services to the arts. I’m just scratching the surface of his esteemed career but this gentleman was also Senior Advisor for Education & Creativity at the Getty Museum. His contributions to the field of education and the world are vast.
I could go on and on about his legacy and his ideas concerning creativity. He deeply cared about the education system our children and teachers are “trapped” in because he felt it needed to be transformed. His quotes are legendary. Here are a few of my favorites:
1. “The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn’t need to be reformed — it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.”
2. “Creativity is as important as literacy”
3. “Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement. And it’s the one thing that I believe we are systematically jeopardizing in the way we educate our children and ourselves.”
I was blessed and fortunate to work with Sir Ken a few years ago and stay connected ever since. This past April I had the pleasure and honor of spending time with him for his new podcast series related to teaching from home. Sir Ken is like that old friend you don’t see for a while; and then when you do meet up again, it’s like you saw them yesterday. He made you feel like your work and ideas mattered. Sir Ken had the uncanny ability to use his humor to draw people in and then use his superpower of connecting with you to seal the deal.
I saw that someone penned, “Sir Ken’s loss offers everyone in the field of education an opportunity to honor him by reflecting and acting on his wisdom.” As Pasi Shalberg, another icon in the field of education wrote me earlier today, “His words would have been heeded now more than ever. We must carry his message forward, Mike.” I couldn’t agree more. We all must carry his message forward every single day.
In one of his last TED Talks, Sir Ken discusses how life is your talents discovered. He concluded his talk by saying, “Nothing is more influential as a life well lived.” I can’t think of another human-being that I know of who has lived a life more well lived than my dear friend. The world lost a great man but his ideas will live on.
Favorite video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MSgCut1Ils when he speaks to the Dali Lama.
Politico writes this morning that there is no “Republican” national convention, no focus on the party. All eyes on Trump. He will break tradition by speaking all four nights.
Traditionally, the party’s presidential nominee only speaks one night. But this GOP convention will be more like Trump placing the crown on his own head than it being bestowed by the party.
Jack Hassard writes that 75% of Americans can vote by mail.
Although your vote will be counted if it is postmarked by 7:00 pm on November 3, I urge you to vote earlier or, if possible, vote in person. I intend to vote in person, no matter how long the lines. Trump will try to drag out the counting of the votes, in order to throw doubt on the outcome and discredit the election. Unless there is an overwhelming vote against him, he will lick himself in his office or in the White House bunker and refuse to leave. Vote him out by overwhelming numbers. Show up at the voting place if you can. If you must vote by mail, cast your vote as early as possible.
Hassard writes:
Most of us living in the United States can vote by mail. There will be no need to stand in line for hours. There will be no fear of COVID-19 because you can receive your ballot by mail, and then drive to a drop off location. A friend can do the same for you. If you want to use the USPS, then make sure that your ballot is time stamped before 7:00 P.M. on November 3, 2020.
However, one of the underlying fears, beyond the coronavirus, is voter suppression. In Georgia, where I have lived for more than 50 years, voter suppression in the last Georgia election (2018) likely led to Stacey Abrams losing to Brian Kemp. Kemp, who was Georgia’s secretary of state, was accused of conflict of interest by overseeing an election in which he was a candidate. There were accusations that Brian Kemp, as secretary of state made if very difficult for some people to vote, including blacks, poor people, and students. According to an article in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, precinct closures around Georgia made it very difficult for a lot of people to vote. The journal article estimated that between 55 and 85,000 voters were affected. Stacey Abrams lost the election by 55,000 votes.
Even today, some counties in Georgia have either moved or closed polling stations. This makes it very difficult for people to vote, especially if people simply can’t take hours off of work to cast a vote. In some cases, people who had only to travel a mile or so to vote, now have to travel more than 10 miles. Because of this, Black voters were 20% more likely to miss elections because of long distances.
Voting by Mail is Essential Business
In the upcoming election, it is imperative that we as the citizenry pay attention, and learn as much as we can about the voting options open to us.
Voting by mail will overrule those officials who have a vested interest in making it difficult to vote. But, it doesn’t have to be that way, and it is possibly very easy for us to fight back against the “suppressionists.”
Arthur Goldstein, a veteran New York City high school teacher, warns that New York City public schoools cannot open unless they are safe for students and staff. He wrote an open letter to staff at his school. The signs and portents of a strike by the city’s United Federation of Teachers are looming in the background.
He writes, in part,
Every time I read someone advocating opening buildings, they have a proviso. They say of course, if it doesn’t work out, we’ll go back to remote learning. In fact there are a lot of places where it didn’t work out, and they did just that. There’s Israel, South Korea, multiple schools in the south and southwest, and universities that saw immediate rises in infection levels, while starting below Mayor de Blasio’s much ballyhooed 3% positive level (so much for that). Chapel Hill closed in one week.
There’s a real cost to these openings, and that cost is the health of those who attend. I know some of you who’ve been very sick. I know some of you who’ve lost family members. I’ve had family members sick, and I lost a friend.
The whole country is looking to us as the only major city that can possibly open school buildings. UFT has looked at this, and decided that if we are to open, the only way to do it is safely. We’ve therefore consulted with medical experts, some of whom you can see at Mulgrew’s press conference, and concluded the only way to deal with the virus was to actively test for it and trace it.
We don’t want a single educator or student to get sick. We don’t want any students or employees bringing COVID home to their families. The UFT demands for testing were created in consultation with medical experts. They are beyond reasonable; they are visionary. We’ve looked at the failures and determined ways to preclude them. Our testing demands are based on science. The mayor’s opposition is based on hiding his head in the sand and hoping for the best.
Here is a checklist of what UFT will be looking at as we visit every building in the city. UFT also demands a Covid Building Response Team to create protocols for how students will move when entering and leaving school, and also to map out responses to issues that may occur. Finally, to ensure safety, we demand that everyone entering the school building be tested for the virus. We demand random testing to ensure we stay safe.
UFT will not allow its members or the students we serve to be veritable canaries in a coal mine. Dr. Fauci can talk about how we’re part of a great experiment, but we refuse to be guinea pigs. We refuse to make guinea pigs of our families, our students, or their families. If Mayor de Blasio refuses to make schools safe, we will refuse to work.
Diane Ravitch's blog 