Civics class
Your “Cheap Shots ’04” issue [December 28] gave the Tempest in a Teapot Award to the parents
of Charlottesville schoolchildren
for objecting to the actions of Superintendent Scottie Griffin and the School Board. You particularly questioned the “overheated” tone, and the premature nature of the objections.
I enjoy a little year-end humor, but as a parent of four city school kids I have to tell you that what is going on is no laughing matter. I would encourage you to follow up this “cheap shot” with a more serious journalistic investigation of the situation. Indeed, your readers, especially school parents, might want to conduct their own investigation. I’ll even suggest a few people to interview and some questions.
Ask any city school teacher—one who knows you well enough to speak frankly in a private, off-the-record conversation—if they are being fairly or unfairly blamed by the new administration for their students’ test scores. Ask
any one of the leaders of our award-winning arts organizations—orchestra, chorus, band or art class—if they feel good about the prospects for their organization under the new administration. Ask a principal or an administrator at one of our schools if it’s true that they are considering leaving the city school system because of the hostile work environment. And ask them if they’re comfortable with the way money is being spent and budget priorities established for their schools. Ask someone who works at the school district office about the staff morale there. Or ask someone who volunteers in the schools, such as a “book buddy” or classroom volunteer, what their observations are.
In other words, don’t take my word for it, or the “hyperbolic” opinions of other parents. Do a little investigating of your own, and you can find out for yourself if this is all just a tempest in a teapot, or something considerably more serious.
Paul Wagner
Charlottesville
MLK is O.K.
I thought you might be interested in some background to your comment about the newly christened Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center [“Cheap Shots ’04”]. A new MLK memorial has more significance for our community than first appears. The arrival of MLK at Cabell Hall may have sparked the first public race controversy on UVA campus in 1963. Members of the college faculty and students argued both sides of the question, i.e. whether or not he should be allowed to speak. MLK supporters prevailed, of course, and the speech galvanized some of the more open-minded UVA faculty to fight racism over the long term, a long, hard battle since UVA has suffered more serious charges of elitism-racism than other “public Ivys.”
There hadn’t been as much outcry over the first admission of a black student to the college because it was done practically sub rosa, with the administration deciding to avoid controversy altogether if possible. The MLK debate was a critical first engagement in a long war against the University as a “bastion of privilege.” Nevertheless, at later pro-civil rights protests, UVA students used to stage their demos in full gentlemanly regalia of coat and tie!
A UVA professor’s wife offered this story of MLK’s speech wistfully, proudly—much the way my generation talks about the peace marches of the early ’70s. The MLK debate didn’t rock the world, but it created a timely question—in this instance, will he speak or won’t he?—around which energetic commitment emerged. Some were further inspired to drive from the sweet, sleepy backwater of Charlottesville of the ’60s to join in the March on Washington.
I know there are a million MLK memorials, but perhaps it’s for the same reason that there are a million memorials to TJ—they had original and far-reaching minds. We don’t get many of these people anymore. Sure wish we did.
Susanna Nicholson
Charlottesville
Yum rum chugger
Re: “‘Nog heaven” [Acquired Tastes, December 21], a more healthful and economical drink is the “secret” formula from Cottage Club at Princeton for milk punch:
5 gallons of milk
16 pints of whiskey
2 scoops of sugar
Ice cream and rum to taste
It is rumored that this could be produced in smaller quantities, if any use can be found for such reduced increments.
William W. Stevenson
Charlottesville
Lynch pin
In response to your December 9 news in review item “Gay basher gets time” [7 Days, December 14], Dr. Sanjiv Bhatia was here in San Francisco for a business meeting last October. We had several breakfasts and dinners together during his visit. My partner of 15 years joined us. Dr. Bhatia was extremely understanding of my lifestyle. My partner and I had a real nice time and visit with him.
The man I know is not a gay basher. It appears that the gay community in Charlottesville is making him into a whipping boy to stir up sympathies. It is unfortunate that we gays talk about tolerance yet feel no compunction in engaging in a lynching of another individual, especially one of foreign origin who himself has surely endured discrimination because of his ethnic background. If our community is to engage in a constructive dialogue with the other side we need to stop this kind of mindless lynching and destroying reputations of people that are actually sympathetic of our cause as Dr.Bhatia is.
Rich Brambier
San Francisco, California
Dollars and sense
I, too, like Claire Colette Coppin, read the article “Living the Poverty Diet” by Mitch Van Yahres [The Week, November 23]. Being an EBT recipient myself, I was impressed that Delegate Van Yahres is so concerned by issues that affect his constituents. The whole point to the article was that it is very difficult to make $71 last an entire month. Apparently, Coppin missed the point [Mailbag, December 7]. Because C’Ville Market doesn’t accept EBT cards, Van Yahres would never have thought to shop there.
Christine Jenkins
Charlottesville