The Advocate has recently published several letters to the editor on public education. I have to say as an educator, I’m disappointed with the prevailing tone and content of those letters opposing change.
I am sorry to say that other side of the coin was omitted in your March 14 cover story, “A Real Class Act.” First, the ultimate responsible party is the “tortfeasor” or third party insurance which you stated but left out the details.
Glenn Stewart should be a beginning, not an end
I sincerely applaud your even-keeled public response to Glenn Stewart’s heinous behavior [“Enough,” Feb. 29, 2012], but I question your interpretation of the “greater good” in this situation. Your article suggests that the greater good is to retard the escalation of Stewart’s grievances. I respectfully disagree. The greater good in this circumstance is to channel the attention drawn to Stewart’s outrage towards vocal women in this community and direct it toward opportunities to fight the other battles, on a shared spectrum of misogyny, that women in our community face every day. Stewart may be exceptional in his sheer mania, his public beating of one assertive woman and his outlandish attempts publicly to shame another, but violence toward women and efforts to silence, humiliate and discredit them are hardly unusual. Rush Limbaugh recently proved that point. Too often, we excuse the behavior of men like these as exceptions, as radical. But the statistics speak for themselves. Here in Acadiana, Faith House responds to roughly 2,500 crisis and counseling calls annually; globally, at least one in three women will experience abuse in her lifetime. Rather than saying “enough,” I urge you to make Stewart’s actions the starting point of a very public, active discussion of misogyny and violence towards women in this community.
-Sara Ritchey, Lafayette
Harson must see this through
Dr. Glenn Stewart should be appropriately punished by the law and not allowed to plea bargain to a “no consequence” result for his behavior. His year-long campaign of violence indicates this was not a one-time incident but a pattern of abusive behavior. He is guilty of second degree battery and should not be allowed to walk on a misdemeanor. This community should raise a strong voice to the district attorney calling for no plea bargain to a reduced offense. Any plea bargain would be a toleration of this behavior. Mike Harson, please don’t go there.
-Margaret Ritchey, Lafayette
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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