I Concur

The News Journal editorial writers have weighed-in on the Indian River School Board prayer issue in an editorial today: Indian River insists on expounding Christian faith in public forums

It can be legitimately argued that a Christian prayer before a board meeting of exclusively Christian members is a personal right. But those members represent a cross-section of taxpayers and parents, not all of whom are Christians. How can the board honestly represent those constituents and publicly preach their own religion in tax-supported schools?

And We Wondered Why the Indian River School District Has Money Problems

From today's News Journal: Indian River refuses deal on prayer.

The story is about a proposed settlement of a lawsuit brought by a parent in the District who felt unwelcome, as a Jew, based on the pervasive Christian-ness of the District and its tendency to start almost everything with aggressively Christian prayer.

The Board had a chance to settle out of court and put the case behind them. They didn't.

The subtitle of this story (Hymn-singing crowd praises Jesus after board's decision) gives me a notion that the District is probably going to lose this one in court.

I hope the plaintiffs take the win and pass on any punitive monetary award. I wouldn't mind seeing the Board settle down on the religion thing. I'd rather that they not have to face figuring where to save a huge chunk of money to pay off damages.

I'm Torn

I'm torn between agreeing with an editorial in the February 24, 2006 Cape Gazette and deploring a ... deplorable factual error in that editorial.

The editorial, What Would Jesus Do?, speaks to the issue of the Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches deciding to not allow non-Christian congregations to be part of the Association. The editorial writers note that it is the case that the group is an association of "churches" and that that does indeed suggest limiting itself to Christian denominations.

At the same time, the editorial suggests that a more inclusive association, including all faiths, might be more useful. I have to agree. I was applauding the editorial all the way through to its end, but I had to take exception to the final thought in the final line.

The community is fortunate to have an association that knits us together beyond the segregation of Sunday morning. However, many would like an outreach effort that is all inclusive so we can move closer to that ideal expressed by the founders in the Pledge of Allegiance: "“One nation under God."

I agree with the sentiment. I don't want to argue about the "under God" thing. What bothers me is the sloppy assertion that Pledge was an expression of the founders and that they included "under God."

The founders were the folks in the late 1700's who led the Revolution, crafted the Declaration oindependencece, and drafted the US Constitution.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892, by socialist author and Baptist minister Francis Bellamy. It was officially recognized by the Congress in 1942. The phrase "under God" wasn't added until 1954.

Again, I don't disagree with the sentiment of the editorial. And I don't want to argue about God in the Pledge. What bugs me is the inaccuracy and sloppiness of the end of this editorial.

I love the Cape Gazette. It does a great job of covering the area in which we live. But editorial standards are slipping. Good journalism is accurate and timely and well-written.

It should at least be grammatically correct. Lately, we've seen more and more grammatical errors. It should at least be factually correct. In this case, it is not.

Side Note: Here's a link to the editorial page itself. I'd have linked to this from the title of the editorial, but links to the Gazette web site don't persist. Next Tuesday, a different editorial will be at that link.

Here's a Cool Idea: PARK(ing)

One of the great frustrations of urban life, especially in the fast-urbanizing areas of recent growth (such as we have around parts of Delaware), is the lack of parks. We have open space, but it tends to be farm fields which are nice to look at, but not places where one can sit and enjoy nature. Lewes has wonderful parks, but Lewes is an old place, a real town.

For the newer urbanized areas, here's a cool idea. A web site called PARK(ing) offers the idea of erecting a temporary pocket park in a parking space.

We identified a site in an area of downtown San Francisco that is underserved by public outdoor space and is in an ideal, sunny location between the hours of noon and 2 p.m. There we installed a small, temporary public park that provided nature, seating, and shade.

Our goal was to transform a parking spot into a PARK(ing) space, thereby temporarily expanding the public realm and improving the quality of urban human habitat, at least until the meter ran out.

I like this idea.

Hooray!

We got a letter today letting us know that Colleen's name came up in the lottery used by Sussex Technical High School to select in-coming ninth-grade students for next year. She's in.

Colleen really wanted to get into Tech. Most of her friends are planning to attend there, and she'd like to continue with them.

Karen and I are quite pleased as well. Despite starting life as a Technical Vocational School, Sussex Tech has become one of the better academic high schools in our area.

Part of the reason for this, I think, is that the technical school districts are county-wide. There's one in all three of Delaware's Counties. And the school is well-funded. The tech districts collect school taxes from the whole of the county and (if I understand this correctly) can change their tax rate without referenda.

Sussex Tech's reputation, and the occasional problems of the other high schools in the County, has meant that in recent years there's been a strong demand for places at the school. That has led to the institution of a lottery system. Younger siblings of current students get a free pass.

At least three of Colleen's best friends got that free pass, so we were worried about her not getting in via the lottery. But she did. Yay.

Good For You, Dr. Hattier

Dr. Donald Hattier, a member of the Indian River School Board, has a letter in the Delaware WAVE today. He's responding to recent concerns (ours among them) about budget-cutting in the district and the effect it might have on the Southern Delaware School of the Arts (SDSA).

In his letter (Clearing things up about SDSA), Dr. Hattier responds to several letters in the February 8 edition of the WAVE. Interestingly, he responds equally to a letter from a supporter of SDSA and (though not explicitly) to the letter from a new Board member who I think has stirred up much of the fuss.

Dr. Hattier explains that the Board is looking for places to save money across the District, not just from SDSA.

The intent was never to cut the school or eliminate it. I do not believe that the board as a whole ever considered that, notwithstanding comments made by a board member. I do not consider SDSA dessert, nor do I think that represents the thoughts of most of our board. The intent was in fairness to look at everything, period.

Fair enough. We can respect that and work with it.

Update: Karen pointed out to me that Dr. Hattier is not the head of the Board, but only another member. I must have been fooled by his willingness to lead. I have updated this post as of 6:00 p.m., 2/23/06.

"He was clearly exploited by somebody," she said. "We just don't know who."

There's an update in today's Washington Post column The Reliable Source about my nephew Nick. (Registration probably required, and you'll have to scroll down a bit.)

Nick was written up in the December 1 Reliable Source column after his brother and several other sharp-eyed movie-goers spotted him in the movie version of the musical "Rent."

He'd been filmed while playing his melodica on the street in New York City. The camera-folk claimed to be making a student film and gave him only a few bucks for his trouble.

They may have been only making a student film, but the footage found its way into "Rent" and the story made its way into the Washington Post.

That led to some results:

Several outraged actors who read our story contacted the Screen Actors Guild, which called the film's producers at Sony Pictures. "They were terrific," said Jane Love , assistant executive director for SAG's Washington area branch. Though it was unclear whether Church was entitled to compensation, Sony settled the matter immediately. A check to him for $122, the day rate for a bit player, is in the mail, she said.

I have to wonder where they'll send the check; Nick is intentionally living a nomadic life right now.

In Fifty Years, This May Require a Footnote of Its Own

I've just finished reading the latest Flashman installment from George Macdonald Fraser. The 12th in the series, Flashman on the March is a story of the Victorian British expedition (invasion?) into Abyssinia (now Ethiopia).

The Flashman books feature an almost unbelievably amoral rogue named Harry Flashman, a minor character that Fraser liberated from the 19th Century novel Tom Brown's School Days. Fraser places Flashman, Zelig- or Gump-like, into a variety of major historical events of the Victorian age. He's a coward, but through luck and bluster always manages to emerge a hero. The books are great fun, and I recommend this latest as well.

My eye was caught by the end of the Explanatory Note, which included an interesting echo of today's history.

This section is part of the conceit that Fraser is simply editor of the recently discovered Flashman Papers. Fraser, a British writer, sets up the historic context of the story -- an apparently insane Abyssinian monarch has taken the British envoy hostage and is massacring his people. The British send in a limited force to free the hostages and depose the tyrant. Not to stay, not to create a new democracy. A limited mission.

All of which [Flashman] records with his customary shameless honesty, and it may be that along with the light he casts on a unique chapter of imperial history, he invites a comparison with a later and less glorious day.

For Flashman's story is about a British army sent out in a good and honest cause by a government who knew what honor meant. It was not sent without initial follies and hesitations, in high places, or until every hope of a peaceful issue was gone. It went with the doubt that it was right. It served no politician's vanity or interest. It went without messianic rhetoric. There were no false excuses, no deceits, no cover-ups or lies, just a decent resolve to do a government's first duty: to protect its people, whatever the cost. To quote Flashman again, those were the days.

To steal a phrase from characters in another set of favorite books (the Aubrey/Maturin series), he can't say clearer than that.

Filed in:

• book
• flashman

Oh, For Heaven's Sake

Many of us in the world of geospatial technologies have been waiting for the new offering from ESRI, the top GIS software company. They have been working on an answer to Google Earth - expected to be an update to their freeware GIS viewer.

This past week, folks involved in beta testing for ESRI were asked to see if they can access the URL "www.arcgisexplorer.com." The test request specifically asked for reports from people who are blocked from seeing that URL. Seemed odd.

James Fee, who writes the blog Spatially Adjusted, has found out why the test was needed: to see whether our IT systems are too hung up on the "sex" in the www.arcgiSEXplorer.com.

I guess that could be a problem.

A New Photo Project

I've wandered into a new photo project: Exploring the small roads east of Route 1/Route 113.

I've started taking short side trips down the roads that lead off of my commute route between Lewes and Dover and over to the Delaware Bay or the marshes along the Bay.

There are some great things to see.