n-judah love song

friday fun

I'm always interested in this question, so I'm cross-posting: what was the first album you ever bought? 

I'd like to think I picked this up because I was precociously hip and cool, but really, I just liked the album cover. It was in the "cut-out" bin, where the store put all the stuff that wasn't moving, and everything was less than $5. A lifetime of loving Bjork began. I also ended up working at the same store for my very first job, the long-lost Kemp Mill Music.

Save John Swett

Here's the lowdown - there are thousands less kids in the San Francisco public school system than there used to be. Lucky rich kids go to private schools instead. (I'm a product of public schools, and look at me! I'm successful, I have a....blog!) SFUSD has proposed the closure of 9 schools. Trick is, public schools are often already strapped for ways to engage their kids - send them over a turf line to a new school, and you're encouraging truancy, dropouts, and lots and lots of trouble.

It's a simple case of robbing Peter to pay Paul - you close these schools, you up the costs of JD centers and police, not to mention the moral cost of telling these kids "we just don't think you need this school."

Why John Swett in particular? Well, my friend Andrea works there, for one, but this situation in particular seems avoidable, and within our grasp to change.  In an interesting twist of bureau-crazy, the Board of Supes just approved $660,000 in funds for Swett - but the school board doesn't have to accept it. They decide tonight.

Think the world is nuts and want to affect change? You have to start in your own backyard. Take a quick moment to email our mayor and let him know what you think, or go to the rally tonight at 6 at 555 Franklin Street, and pass the word on that we'll remember this come next election.

links for 2006-04-24

• An Inconvenient Truth - Trailer
  watch this NOW or we are no longer of the same species.
  (tags: globalwarming movies politics)