Comment Archives: stories: News & Opinion
Re: “Feedback 5/29”
“Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?”
― Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
Re: “War, policy, and Obama”
This would have been a great speech, had Obama made it in 2009 as part of fulfilling his campaign promises, or rather his implied campaign promises. Four years later however it's stale, trite, disingenuous and way too late.
Re: “War, policy, and Obama”
@Reggie: We are neither going home nor declaring victory, although at least this President has decimated al Qaeda. He's also made us more hated in Pakistan than India, an ominous situation with a country that is producing nuclear weapons by the dozens. It is time, though, to wind this war - whatever you want to call it - down. It's also time to wind down the war on drugs, now, after how many hundreds of billions of dollars? And with what results? but is now in 115 countries. 115 countries! That's the definition of insane.
This "war on terrorism" lexicon is nuts, too: Are we really at war with, for example, Shining Path? The military wing of the Irish Republican Army? Does anyone recall Franklin D. Roosevelt declaring war on carrier-based airplanes on December 8, 1941?
Re: “Richards' campaign off to a slow start”
Richards has been doing an exceptional job by most accounts and is viewed quite favorably. He is the incumbent and has the party leadership's backing. He's extremely qualified and in my thinking he could easily be the mayor of any city in the country. I just don't see Warren as being a real factor in the upcoming election. Rochester has plenty experience with bad mayors to avoid moving from a known-good mayor to be working towards a questionable alternative.
Re: “War, policy, and Obama”
Oh, so that's how you end the war on terrorism: declare victory and go home.
Re: “Confirmed: Spider-Man crew member beaten, robbed while in Rochester”
Breaking: City of Rochester and downtown merchants beaten, robbed by Spiderman movie
Re: “Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need”
You hit the nail on the head, Louse!
Re: “What if we're investing in the wrong education?”
The "we" has to include black families themselves. What many liberals are unwilling to confront is that there are lots of people having children who aren't raising them - mothers and fathers. Poverty is part of the equation, but it's not necessarily the explanation for it.
"We" seem willing to assign blame to teachers, racism, capitalism, etc., but the bottom line is that "we" can only help people who help themselves. That means people who are struggling need to exercise self-control - not having children you can't or aren't willing to support. It means taking responsibility for parenting the children you bear, including taking an active role your kids' education and their well-being.
It's important to help people who are struggling. But "we" need to provide a safety net - not a safety hammock. When "we" assume responsibility for providing everyone with food, housing, education, health care, and child care, we'll get the same result every time. "We" may have good intentions, but ultimately we're enabling shiftlessness and accepting blame for outcomes that are not our responsibility.
Re: “Richards' campaign off to a slow start”
Lovely Warren is exactly what the City of Rochester needs!
Re: “Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need”
I live in the area this article talks about. The parents of the children mentioned here are all out working two to three sup-par paying Mcjobs. Blaming the parents for "not taking responsibility" is an invalid argument. We are in an economic race to the bottom. Employment figures go up and so do the number of people on food stamps. That tells you that old jobs are being replaced by even worse jobs. So don't count on things getting better anytime soon.
Here's what the kids want. This is what they told the GRCC and Baptist ministers several years ago. The kids want safe spaces for respite open 24/7 so they don't have to be involved in chaotic situations outside of school and home. Disorganization at home often means absent parents out working all those sub-par jobs to keep the family going--a pressure imposed by society. Jobs pay less and what is left of the social safety net is under attack. Things will not get better and the young people will keep becoming vulnerable to gang activity. Don't blame the kids and their families. Look further.
These people, my neighbors, are under tremendous social and economic pressure. It's a powder keg. I found Shepard and Warren's responses shallow. But the reporting of the conversations may have ignored anything substantive either of these officials said.
Re: “Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need”
Unfortunately we're all responsible to one degree or another for the sorry state of Rochester. The suburbs provide too much of a buffer for whites to get it and the wealthy and well-educated in Brighton, Pittsford, Mendon, Rush, Webster and the East side of the city who are largely the power brokers in this community are too insular and self-interested to really care. Without the crippling concentration of crime, poverty, illiteracy in their communities, etc. to motivate people in Greece or Chili or Pittsford to action, the problem is largely going to stay the same. Likewise the citizens of Rochester are often too passive and/or submissive to the status quo, or thwarted by previously-mentioned elites who wish to maintain a certain community appearance. Rochester was called the Image Centre in the '50s and '60s. Unfortunately it is still the Image Center, for the Smugtown crowd.
Re: “Richards' campaign off to a slow start”
how about MOmentum?
Re: “Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need”
I'm sorry, but this article is too, too cute for words.
Sheppard trots out the fact that, several years after the rest of the country, the RPD has finally gotten around to monitoring social media to combat violence, and it’s hailed as an example of how he came “prepared” to this event with immediate responses to public concerns.
And likewise Ms. Warren’s concern for education seems more tardy than “immediate” given that she’s had over three years as city council president to focus her attention on the city school situation (and to convince her colleagues on the council that this area should be their first priority). But for some reason the subject never seems to have come up (nowhere in her biography and personal "mission statement” on the city council’s web site does she give the condition of Rochester’s schools even a passing mention) until she decided to run for mayor. Then it became the centerpiece of her campaign.
Isn’t it about time for City Newspaper to get back to reporting the news and stop acting as shills and press agents for their political pals?
Re: “Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need”
This story is heartbreaking because it is so real and the situation is truly dire. I am grateful to both Chief Sheppard and Lovely Warren for confronting these issues head on. And there is much for us all to do. Yes, parents need to be involved. Yes, everyone in the community needs to be involved, as well the police, the City schools, and community leaders. But I am concerned that no one is ever asking Maggie Brooks what her responsibility is for these children. These kids are the children of Monroe County, not just the city. In fact Brooks basically blames these kids and their families for Monroe County's high taxes. That is not at all constructive. Until we hold Brooks accountable for her pure neglect of these kids, we will never have a community-wide appreciation for the need for us to act collectively. We are all, especially the media, letting her off the hook for no good reason.
Re: “Richards' campaign off to a slow start”
Who cares about either Lovely Warren or Tom Richards? Like I said a couple months ago, Democrats have had 40 years of control in this city. Has it improved? I'm looking elsewhere, and as of now, that's Alex White.
Re: “What if we're investing in the wrong education?”
And yet somehow, the beleaguered RCSD faculty is supposed to overcome this gap or we lose our jobs.
Lots and lots of hard-working educators spend hours and hours preparing, teaching and assessing. Yet we're told we're just not good enough.
I know this article isn't meant to tell us to stop or that our efforts are pointless. The point (which many have been arguing for a long time) is that the current reform efforts are aimed in the wrong direction. Over 95% of the people who teach in the district are fine, and are doing the best with the hand we've been dealt. Reforms must be targeted at the people who need the help - children and parents.
If we spent 1/3 of what we spend on Special Ed in early childhood care and educating parents, we would need less than the 2/3 remaining in the budget. (Not a study result, just some darn fine logical thinking.)
Why does the district spend so much? To try to play catch-up. If I were a race car driver and I started a 500 mile race when my competitors already had 150 miles done, I'd need to be spending way more on my car to even consider being competitive. If I could somehow start at the same time as all the others, I would not need to spend quite so much on my car. It's a clunky analogy, but it works.
Re: “Confirmed: Spider-Man crew member beaten, robbed while in Rochester”
So much for the pipe dream of Hollywood-on-the-Genesee.
Re: “Richards' campaign off to a slow start”
"Lovely Warren, City Council president and Richards’ likely opponent in a September primary, is active on Twitter at #lovelyformayor, and Facebook. "
So what? Anyone who thinks that social media is going to play a significant role in this local campaign is probably one of those who can't walk into a restaurant without slapping their I-Phone down on the table and playing with it throughout the meal. Or who can't drive without texting. Or who's missed the significance of the fact that the root word of "Twitter" is "twit".
Warren may have the MOjo (whatever the hell that means in the real world), but Richards has the MOney. Let's see which is the MOre important come Primary Day.
Re: “Tiresome antics at the County Legislature”
Does anyone actually need the County Lej?
Re: “Rochester school board candidates see only the tip of the iceberg”
With all due respect to City Newspaper reporter Tim Louis Macaluso, his news report only adds to confusion, surrounding specific types of things that must be done in order to produce widespread change and improvement within the Rochester City School District, and make the District a solidly viable and healthy institution. Rather than viewing, and describing issues raised by me and my colleagues during a recent candidates forum (such as "helping students with skills training to become firefighters, police officers, plumbers, and electricians," i.e., authentic alternative education programs; "better health services for students"; "stopping [the criminal practice of systematic] social promotion"; significantly reducing "high salaries for Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s growing cabinet"; ensuring that additional "support for students [is] being directed down to the classroom level"; making sure that "more resources [are] devoted to early childhood development"; and producing "more parent engagement and cultural awareness training") --- as representing the types of things that must be addressed in order to effectively halt "a declining student population," and the wild proliferation of (in some cases) semi-private-like charter schools, which he maintains will "fill their seats with city students" --- Mr. Macaluso made the critically important mistake of setting up a false dichotomy. That is, because none of us mentioned "declining student population," which he refers to as "the iceberg that’s sending a chill through the administration," apparently he falsely assumed that we are so "perennial" that we are not aware of "the iceberg." He is even more off-base via his simplistic, and unrealistic declaration that "whomever voters put into office better have a plan to navigate around it." It's like the guy doesn't really get it. There is no magic. We did articulate the "plan" via the issues raised above, which must necessarily be effectively addressed in order for the Rochester City School District to compete with charter schools --- the latter of which (in many cases) will prove to be no more effective than traditional schools, particularly as it relates to serving our most challenging students (well), which is why most charter schools routinely engage in "creaming" --- while lying about so-called random lotteries. Charter schools do not represent a panacea for the very old, deep-seated, urban education crisis. In fact, in many cases the corporate and wealthy forces that are behind them, are nothing more or less than sophisticated poverty-pimps.