Defending Democracy, One Vote at a Time

Once again I have applied to be a pollworker in the upcoming primary election in June. I meant to do it a couple of years ago, and **pffffftt** blew out my back instead. So I'm going to be very careful in the run-up to the primary, but I'm kinda jazzed. I am a big fan of voting, and the facilitation thereof.

If You're a California Voter

Please take a moment to contact your state senator and urge him/her to support SB 1451, which would require the California Board of Education to refuse to purchase textbooks that follow Texas's weird regressive "history" requirements. Because of Texas's purchasing power, publishers have, for years, allowed Texas to set the standard for textbooks, and those standards have been getting more and more regressive and farther and farther from truth (particularly where history is concerned).

Write, call, email, what have you.

And $2000 for His Lack of Remorse

Lest we start believing that our own country is the only one with cultural tolerance issues: in Canada, a seven year old boy was told by his lunch monitor that his habit of eating with fork and spoon was "disgusting," and sent to eat in the corner. Since this is (apparently) a behavior common to people of his background (he's Filipino) his mother met with the lunch monitor to explain, and perhaps ask for a touch of cultural sensitivity. No joy there. So the mother contacted the school principal. He refused to meet with her and suggested that the boy learn to eat like other Canadians. Okay, then. When the boy's mother showed up at the school to talk to someone she was sent a letter by the school board, telling her not to come back.

However, Quebec's Human Rights Tribunal has ruled that the initial incident and subsequent behavior constitute discrimination based on the boy's ethnicity, and ordered the school board and principals in the case to pay $17,000 (not least because the kid was taunted and rejected by classmates after the initial incident). The school board, lunch monitor, and the principal were each fined $5000--and the principal was dinged another two grand for his "lack of remorse."

I dunno. Whole story makes me want to kick the lunch monitor, principal, and the school board. The boy's mother is doubtless a better person than I am.

Progress, a Little

Part Two of the Book is drafted and in the can. 74,000 words (with about 20,000 need-to-be-knitted-together words for Part Three yet to be dealt with, and 5-10,000 new words to write). I can see the end of the tunnel. About eighty miles out--but there's light.