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richardmurray

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Status Updates posted by richardmurray

  1. A Night with Dr. Charles Johnson and Steven Barnes

    Video + Transcript

     

  2. Ahsoka Tano the badass jedi superheroine we need
    My Reply
    Well... Disney-StarWars has made female strong characters in most of their recent work: star wars episode 7/8/9- ray who finally ends the emperors reign and stars a new era absent the sith or jedi; rogue one- the daughter of the death star engineer, absent any force, who sacrifices all and guides others to make important choices and sacrificial choices to do one good while very powerful deed;Mandalorian show- Boka Tan changes from a defeated isolated leader to a better communal leader, even getting guidance by a man plus older woman, still with great fighting skill, who succeeds in fufilling her goal of uniting her people; Book of Boba- fennec shand <I do enjoy her> survives being betrayed by a younger man and becomes the trusted second in command, while visibly more dangerous than her boss, an older m, to an independent underworld empire; Ashoka Tano- has Ashoka who: admits she was/is wrong, survive failure, is extremely skilled plus lethal, trusts others to help to a collective goal, and moves in a very non offensive way, and chooses to continue training a child, no one, not even a very experienced purely logical machine, thinks has a chance of finishing her education. And is accompanied by a green skinned female general who always seems level headed but never follows orders blindly and is very sharp minded. A female padwan with the least amount of obvious impressiveness, a sign of how self loathing moth gideon was, who is full of love, who finally accepts her mandalorian roots. With female strong villains in a grey haired witch who is strong and in charge, but not flashy, while a young female warrior dedicated to a master but with a honest cruel streak. So the writers at the Star WArs section of disney have been working on female strong characters from the Stars wars films for a while, and they seem to be getting better with age. And the quality of male characters to the writers credit don't seem to be getting worse but are staying with them. I think the problem with the hans solo movie or the obi wan kinobi show was the male leads. 

    https://aliciamccalla.com/blogs/blog/ahsoka-tano-the-badass-jedi-superheroine-we-need

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  3.  

     

    Eddie Mueller makes cocktails and talks Film Noir side Karie Bible of Hollywood Kitchen , come join a table at the Noir Bar < https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/eddie-muller-s-noir-bar >  

    3:40 
    sidestreets and backalleys was the earliest name of the Film Noir festival
    5:55 
    Talking of In A Lonely Place < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Lonely_Place >
    9:45 
    Kid Noir: Kitty Feral and the Case of the Marshmallow Monkey  and its easter eggs for adults < https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/kid-noir-kitty-feral-and-the-case-of-the-marshmallow-monkey >
    10:23
    Showcasing Kid Noir
    12:05 
    An explanation of Film Noir to children is in the back page of Kid Noir
    14:35
    September 19th is when Kid Noir comes out
    15:53
    Modern Access to films, including Black and White films, will help get the bug
    20:35
    Cocktail-> Mildred Pierce
    originally created by a mixologist named Abigail
    29:50
    Cocktail->Zeena
    based on the Joan Blondell cocktail in honor of the thespian, created in havana in the 1930s- originally with gin; named for Blondell's character in the film Nightmare Alley < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_Alley_(1947_film)
    37:00 Cocktail-> The Horses Neck
    38:19 the secret to peeling lemon
    41:27 cocktail kingdom < https://cocktailkingdom.com/ >
    42:40 lemons vs limes in drinks
    43:31 lady of shanghai reading not to be,but one day
    45:00 closing fun

    URL
    https://filmnoirfoundation.tumblr.com/post/727917835098161152/fnf-prez-joins-karie-bible-on-hollywood-kitchen-to

     

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  4. Week 4 of the workshop with Betts on Tumblr

     


    Ma'am 
    based on Girl from Jamaica Kincaid
    https://richardmurrayhumblr.tumblr.com/post/728165222399000576/narrative-writing-workshop-with-betts-week4
     
    The First Mass Of The Perihelion At Saint Lamma
    https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/art/Title-The-First-Mass-Of-The-Perihelion-At-Saint-La-981961141

     

    Training Ground
    https://rmfantasysetpieces1.tumblr.com/post/728165870205009920/training-ground

     

    Complete writing workshop with Betts posts
    https://richardmurrayhumblr.tumblr.com/tagged/tumblr writing workshop with betts

     

    Companion Deviantart folder
    https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/gallery/88882719/tumblr-writing-workshop-with-bettsfic

     

    The soccer blog workshop posts- for it I didn't do all the weeks
    https://rmfantasysetpieces1.tumblr.com/tagged/tumblr writing workshop with betts

     

     

    After discussion side a fellow artist. I made a father to son , son to father reflection of girl from Jamaica Kincaid

    Title: Boy

    Get up and dig a new latrine hole; Get up and clean the tide off the boat; Get up and get the thrush from the field; Get up and clean the hotel's lawn; Get up and search for crabs; Get up gather and remove the hotel's trash; Get up and clean the hotel floor; always work with your head down; always go where Mr. White tells you to; never steal Mr. White's sugar; use your shirt to wrap the cane if no more cloth; when carrying fish don't trip up or no one will want you to carry their fish again; It is best to sweep the hotel at night when the customers are sleep; Is it true you fought in Sunday school?; don't sing songs on the road, people will not hire you; on Sundays act like a good man and be quiet and not the bums you learned those songs from; Don't fight in Sunday school; you musn't speak to those village girls, not even to give directions; don't eat in the street- people will think you are a bum; but I only fight the teacher on Sundays and always after class;  this is how to make a reel; this is how to make a hook for the reel; this is how to fish so you will not be a bum singing all over the place; this is how to you repair the roof of my house; this is how you repair the wall of my house; this is how you throw a net; this is how you reel in a net; this is how you clean out a net; remember never smile when you accept a delivery; remember never smile when you complete a delivery; remember never to smile when you confirm a delivery; never sing at any time during a delivery or people will think your a bum; don't sing with that voice or people may think your a girl; don't hang around in groups - a good worker never has time for partying; don't touch people's cars, you might dirty them; don't throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; you have to start fishing in the morning; you have to keep fishing in the afternoon; you have to stay fishing at night; if you don't feel good , keep fishing; only sleep with dem village girls at midnight; never trust dem village girls , never say their kid is yours; if the kid is yours , teach it what  i taught you; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doens't fall on you; always spend your money cause you can't save it anywhere; always squeeze bread to make sure it's fresh; but what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of man who the baker won't let near the bread? 

     

    Title: Sir

    Why do mornings stink? why are mornings salty? Why do mornings cut my feet? Why do mornings make me cough? Why do mornings make me tired? Why do mornings never have breakfast? Why do mornings make my skin bleach? Can I look up at a white cloud? Is Mr. White your father? Why can't Mr. White cut his own sugar? Why didn't you tell me the cane can cut my skin? Why didn't you ever help me carry fish? Why couldn't you ever help me sweep the hotel? Papa never helped you to. Why you hit me whenever I was happy. Why does nobody smile at church? Why do we live in homes like the village people? why does no one have anything to eat ? My father loved me like I love you, the best love is the love you don't know.  why didn't you go out to sea with me? why didn't you fish with me? Why didn't you ever smile when you caught fish, or show off fish? Why do you always grunt to Mama? Why don't you ever smile to Mama? Why didn't you throw a net with me? Why didn't you reel a net with me? Why didn't you clean out a net with me? Why can't I want to do what I do? Why can't I like what I do? Why can't I love what I do? Why can't I tell people I am happy? Why do people think I am a girl if I am happy? Why don't you have any friends? Why can't I have a morning off? Why can't I have an afternoon off? Why can't I have an evening off? Why do you not sleep at home at night? Why do you never trust what mama say? Why is all your money spent on rum? Why did you never let me squeeze bread around you? I  don't need your help. So after telling me what do to all the time, you never cared what I did?


     

    URL 

    https://richardmurrayhumblr.tumblr.com/post/728754332023029760/boy-and-sir

  5. The only government that has global reach is the usa. so what is afria's role in the usa'a scheme. 

    The USA, like all empires before it and after, fears every other government.

    All the governments in Africa have a high level of impotence, but it isn't from a one size fits all narrative. The reality is, from a solely African lens, modernity, circa 2023,  is merely a continuation of the european imperial age. The only difference is the usa is in the place of western europe. 

    As a region Africa joins LAtin America, joins Southern ASia, as regions where the USA doesn't have any militaristic rivals< usa/china > or satraps< germany/japan>. Merely a collection of weak governments whose allegiance is always wanted by the usa but whose impotency or dysfunction makes them unable to be rivals or satraps. 

    Now things do change, that must be said. But  I can't see the future, to say when/how/why.

     

    Original question

    #Africa, a continent of 54 countries and a population of about one billion people,  accounts for just 3% of global GDP and global trade. How important is #Africa in the #global scheme of things? Discuss…
    https://twitter.com/osasuo/status/1700500796813529458
     

     

     

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  6. The Mystery Behind ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ Cover Art Is Solved

    Sleuths have wondered for years who made a striking cover for Madeleine L’Engle’s novel. A podcast host and a blog writer who contacted hundreds of people figured it out.

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    By Amanda Holpuch

    Sept. 6, 2023

    For certain corners of the internet, a 1976 paperback edition of Madeleine L’Engle’s novel “A Wrinkle in Time” has been the source of an enduring mystery: Who was the artist behind its spooky, glowing-green cover art?

    After a few hours of research, the podcast host Amory Sivertson thought she had found the answer. She had emailed a gallery to ask if an artist it represented had made the cover and a worker said yes.

    She was wrong: A day later, the gallery worker apologized for the miscommunication. It would be two months, hundreds of emails and a number of awkward cold calls before she actually found the correct name.

    The mystery cover art shows a strapping centaur with delicate wings flying above a menacing green face with bright red eyes. Craggy mountains and fluffy dark clouds surround the haunting figures. The website Book Riot called the art “nightmare fuel.” The artist’s name isn’t mentioned anywhere in the book.

     

    Ms. Sivertson thought that finding the artist’s name and giving the person credit were important for a work that is “on people’s bookshelves and in their hearts and in their memories.”

    “This is one of the pieces that outlives him,” Ms. Sivertson said of the cover. “It’s just — you have to know. We have to find out who is behind it.”

    The mystery reached Ms. Sivertson because she is the co-host and senior producer of the podcast “Endless Thread,” which sometimes delves into mysteries. On the show — produced by Boston’s NPR station WBUR — Ms. Sivertson and her co-host, Ben Brock Johnson, find explanations for quandaries such as Geedis, a warthog-like character that dazzled the internet, and a pile of plates dumped in the woods in Pennsylvania.

    For the book art mystery, the podcast picked up where S. Elizabeth, who writes the blog Unquiet Things, had left off.

    Ms. Elizabeth said she had first developed an “idle curiosity” about the artist behind the “Wrinkle in Time” cover art in 2019. In 2021 and 2022, her curiosity increased as she worked on her latest book, “The Art of Fantasy,” a compendium that comes out on Thursday.

     

    In May, she described her search for the artist in a blog post, hoping it would generate new leads. She said that she had contacted people online who were connected to the novel, the fantasy art world and Ms. L’Engle. Ms. Elizabeth reached out to Ms. L’Engle’s granddaughter on the social media platform X to ask if she knew who created the cover, but the account responded with a shrug emoji.

    Ms. Elizabeth posted about the search on Reddit, and a commenter there said the mystery would be a good fit for “Endless Thread,” so Ms. Elizabeth shared her request for help on the podcast’s subreddit.

    Ms. Elizabeth didn’t have an especially deep connection to the book. When she first started looking for the cover artist, her primary memory of the novel was that the plot involved a liverwurst sandwich — “I’m a foodie,” she said — but she cares deeply about artists getting their due.

    The search for an answer resonated online with many, who sent Ms. Elizabeth guesses about the artist’s identity and tips for her search.

    “I think realizing that the artist was not so easily found — that just lit a fire under a lot of folks, because this book was so formative to so many people,” Ms. Elizabeth said.

     

    People had guesses (spoiler: Some were correct https://twitter.com/wallacepolsom/status/1663664852764618752?s=20 ), but Ms. Sivertson’s hundreds of calls ultimately led to an answer. “I really was sustained by people who would write back and say, ‘I have a few ideas, let me make a few calls,’” she said.

    Ms. Sivertson said these calls were “an industry coming back together,” with people who worked in publishing and illustration in the 1970s speaking with each other for the first time in decades.

    In late June, she was given the correct name: Richard Bober. Mr. Bober died last year https://www.wow-art.com/richard-bober, but Ms. Sivertson was able to speak with his relatives in early July, and she said they found proof that he had made the cover art.

    Ms. Elizabeth said that she wanted to burst into tears when the mystery was solved because even though Ms. Sivertson was tenacious, finding the answer had seemed like a long shot.

    Ms. Elizabeth had actually seen a work by Mr. Bober before, “Lady Vampire,” which she said depicts a vampire girl who looks “like a snotty, mean girl,” with a dog looking at her adoringly. “At the time I thought, ‘This artist is so cool,’” Ms. Elizabeth recalled.

     

    This cover art mystery appears to be solved, but Ms. Elizabeth has a long list of queries she would still like answers to, including who made a cover for the next book in Ms. L’Engle’s series: “A Wind in the Door.” Each year on social media, Ms. Elizabeth also posts a photo of a topless woman in an enormous headdress taken during what appears to be the 1920s, hoping someone will know who it is.

    “Everyone has tons of guesses,” she said. “And some people are like, ‘Definitively, yes, this is that person.’ But show me the proof of it.”

     

    URL

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/books/wrinkle-in-time-book-cover-artist.html

  7. Partnering with Black Women Photographers to Amplify Black Creatives

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    Photo: © Edwina Hay (Flickr: eatsdirt < https://www.flickr.com/photos/eatsdirt/>)

    We’re excited to officially announce our second grant in partnership with the Black Women Photographers community! <<  https://blackwomenphotographers.com/ >>With this grant we hope to help a photographer from both the Black Women Photographers and Flickr communities to further hone their photography skills.

     

    The grant includes funds of $2,500 to be used by the recipient towards furthering their photography practice. It also includes a two-year Flickr Pro membership, as well as  a one-year SmugMug Pro membership. Ten additional recipients will each receive a one-year Flickr Pro membership and one-year SmugMug Pro membership. 

    In order to be eligible for the grant you must:

    Be a member of the Black Women Photographers community << https://blackwomenphotographers.com/join-the-community  >>

    Submit a photo aligned with the theme of “Light in Motion” to the Black Women Photographers group on Flickr <<  https://www.flickr.com/groups/blackwomenphotographers/ >>>(Explain how to be a member of the group < < https://www.flickrhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404069536532-Add-or-remove-photos-in-Flickr-groups > >)

    Explain why the photo you chose stands out to you 

     

    Be an active member on Flickr (completing the step above fulfills this requirement!)

    Applications will close on October 6th, 2023. Please apply << https://blackwomenphotographers.com/smugmug-flickr  >> and spread the word before the deadline!

    This grant is open to Black women and non-binary photographers who are members – new and old –  of Black Women Photographers and Flickr. The grant recipient will be selected by  BWP founder Polly Irungu<<https://www.pollyirungu.com/>>, veteran BWP and Flickr member Edwina Hay.  Flickr Community’s MacKenzie Joslin < https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenziej/  

    SmugMug’s Senior Global Brand Manager & Head of Ambassador Relations Alastair Jolly https://www.flickr.com/photos/alastairjolly/

     and This Week in Photo’s Frederick Van Johnson. https://thisweekinphoto.com/author/frederick/

     

    We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

     

    Join the community

     

    Over the last two years, we’ve had the opportunity to work directly with Polly Irungu, founder of Black Women Photographers, as well as get to know members of the BWP community and learn more about their work. The collective’s mission is to help get Black women photographers hired and supports its members by promoting their work in an active database distributed to photo editors and art buyers. The collective also offers education and support for its members through regular programing like webinars, workshops, and portfolio reviews.

     

    If you’re a Black woman photographer looking to connect with a larger community, you can learn more and apply to be part of Black Women Photographers. And if you’re new to Flickr, we’re here to help you get started! Check out our Flickr FAQ series and say hello in the Black Women Photographers group.

    Note: The photo included in this blog post and in communications about this grant was taken by Edwina Hay, a music photographer and member of the grant panel. You can see more of her work on Flickr.

    en

     

     

    URL

    https://blog.flickr.net/en/2023/09/06/partnering-with-black-women-photographers-to-amplify-black-creatives/

     

  8. Writeup as I listened

    12:10 
    Secrets to writing great horror

    12:12
    He wrote the Kundalini equation < https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/the-kundalini-equation-1 >

    originally wrote to have a best seller and increase his career. A white guy was put on a peers cover. The firms back in the day to the original publication was not willing to look at their own responsibility. 
    True, the white audience in modernity is used to 

    17:36 
    STeven sees the potential to do something unique to him. He will rewrite a former novel and turn it into something it should had been, and he will collaborate with Tananarive in the script form. He wants to use Tananarive practical historical smoothing.

    18:46 
    People suggest Tananarive Due is one of the greatest horror writers alive. 

    20:10 
    what makes a great horror story?

    22:06
    What is the greatest extent, what is the most extreme moment?
    There is a point where it is too much or that is not enough. A symphony of different emotions to feel the experience. Using vision boards matters.  You can feel your way before you write it. 

    23:50 
    Now that a cardboard treatment, and now a written treatment and ask what is the experience of this movie be.
    What is the difference between action or horror movies?
    In action movies, people are getting hurt in a sequence, like in horror. 
    For Tananarive, the difference is the depth of characters.
    For example, a horror movie about a bunch of college students on a ski trip. She can relate to college students through friends who like skiing.
    Then a mercenary on a mission is on a ski lift. She can't relate to a mercenary or being on a ski lift. 

    26:31 
    Horror needs a relatable character who is experiencing fear, a haunted house is not enough. You need a customer who has never been in that haunted house and something goes wrong. A couple for example trying to work out their stuff and it makes the external side internal.

    27:41 
    Tananarive has a template. 
    If she has to write a horror story and has three weeks.
    ->What scares you?
    She uses survivor horror as that is scary to her and she has been camping, rafting. 
    ->How do you make the story yours? 
    So more than bears, it becomes about a cult. Stephen King was a teacher growing up
    ->Believe in the characters
    Suffered a trauma, and committed a transgression is common among writers of horror. Grief is common , the one horror no one overcomes. 

    31:29 
    All horror is about surviving what you are in.
    Imagine Get Out if Chris wasn't in grief over the lost of his mother.
    Steven makes a point, deer antlers were used as a symbol to defend himself, which is like the deer he hit in the beginning of the film.

    32:37 
    Tananarive, she weaponized his Grief, and by the end, he has weaponized his own grief. To make it his strength and overcome. 

    34:09 
    Tananative You can make "Get Out" a drama. Is Chris in love with the secret psycho white woman? 
    Peele discussed Guess who is coming to dinner in the early screenplay version of "Get Out" 
    < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpGmCLcqgAw >
    < https://www.shadowandact.com/what-is-black-horror-the-sunken-place-professor-tananarive-due-explains

    36:27
    Peele started with social anxiety. It wasn't about phenotypical frictions, merely the frictions of the stranger among a group of friends and amplify it. 
    Turn it up to 11. 
    Tananarive isn't into human horror. She is triggered by Human horror and make it a journey. It is a journey of self revelation. 

    37:39
    Liam Neeson, eyes in the grey.
    She loves that film, for not about the wolf winning but standing up. Even though many call the end a downer. The film is about who the character becomes. 

    38:44 
    Tananarive considers gaslighting her least favorite horror. PArents or spouses gaslighting children or spouses in her opinion is poor storytelling. Is it going to kill your character to cut on a flashlight in the dark room? She feels it is overdone. She calls it an artificial conceit. She loves Miles in the good house. Miles doesn't believe but stands by the female character. 
    < https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-good-house-2

     

    40:47
    You want psychological realism, nothing breaks more than when people act away from common responses. If you do not pick up a weapon going to a dark place you are an idiot.

    41:36
    STeven Barnes, asks is that why meetings are the best part in horror to Tananarive. 
    Tananarive loves the meeting in horror.  

    42:40 
    Steven talks of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, people of normal intelligence with no idea what is about to happen. In alien, normal people of normal intelligence. Whereas in prometheus, they were scientist and should had known better. 

    43:57
    Steven, Difference between action in horror, something killing you in the dark is horror, in the light as a tiger is action. 
    Horror is unknown, playing on the minds ways to whatever the truth is in the darkness. Action is more strategic, allows for knowable assessment. 
     
    45:20 
    Tananarive, the feeling of fear is different in action. 
    Steven, it will be interesting to take a liam neeson skill set taken man into a situation where he finds himself in a situation beyond his comprehension that he realizes. 

    46:42
    Tananarive, war time horror is like that. ala Predator. 

    47:25 
    Steven, talks of Prey, the predator underestimates the human female lead. 

    48:25 
    Elegance usually takes years. Steven says, the best pieces of horror were not primordial, they evolved. 

    49:33 
    Tananarive, Think about the antagonists too. Make sure their is logic to Zombies. What is different in the way you write zombies?
    < https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/devil-s-wake


    Put your own unique spin. For example, the reason for haunting of ghost matters. 
    The interaction between characters side antagonist matters. 
    Steven, your god of the universe in your story
    Alot of readers like the antagonist more than anybody else in the story, make it pop ,and don't repeat things. 

    52:55 
    September 23rd 5-8 on the east coast , 
    3 hour workshop. It is 197 dollars. If you can't afford it. You can email us and ask for a lower price.
    how to format screenplay, all the hacks. 
    www. hollywoodloophole.com
    < https://store.payloadz.com/details/2686637-other-files-arts-and-crafts-10-secrets-of-hollywood-writers-live-zoom-workshop.html


    They want engaged people. 

     

     

  9. Is public school as we know it ending?
    Private school vouchers lost a lot of battles, but they may have won the war.

    By Rachel M. Cohen@rmc031rachel.cohen@voxmedia.com  Sep 5, 2023, 7:00am EDT

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    A fourth grade class at Garfield Elementary School in Long Beach, California, on the first day of school on August 30, 2023. Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images

    As the new school year kicks off, education advocates are bracing for continued attacks on America’s public schools. Yet despite the ongoing culture wars schools have faced in recent years, pollsters find that parents still generally like their kids’ schools, and most of the political opposition has come from those without kids in the public school system.

    Cara Fitzpatrick, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and editor at Chalkbeat, is the author of The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America, a book coming out next week that traces the history of the fight to define what “public education” means and who gets to decide. She lays out in clarifying detail the patient strategy conservatives embraced to expand their vision for schooling in America, establishing small school choice programs and then using those experiments to push the boundaries of state and federal law.

    Senior policy reporter Rachel Cohen talked with Fitzpatrick about the trajectory of school vouchers as an idea and the future of public schooling in the US. Their conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

    Rachel Cohen
    Your book does a very good job of showing how the boundaries between church and state have eroded over the last few decades, and why the legal arguments for private school vouchers have gotten stronger as a result. I think many readers will be surprised to learn all of this, so emphatically have we been taught that there’s a separation between religion and public institutions.

    Cara Fitzpatrick
    When I started doing the research, I thought there was going to be this very clear line between church and state, but the legal history was murkier, which is why then we’ve seen this progression of cases more recently leaning more toward the religious liberty side of things. One of the questions I often get asked is, “Well, how can you give money to a religious school?” And it’s like, “Here’s 40, 50, 70 years of case law that kind of explains it.” But if you’re not following all those cases, most people find that to be pretty confusing.

    Rachel Cohen
    Yeah, there’s always been a small legal window, and over time conservatives have cleaved that open wider. But we had basically been taught in schools that it was a firm, unchanging boundary.

    Cara Fitzpatrick
    And there have been justices on the Supreme Court who have spoken to the fact that it’s just this tricky area of law, and has been tricky for a long time. And then watching where the Court has gone recently with the Establishment Clause has been kind of wild, actually, because it’s pretty far from where they were when some of these early school voucher cases were litigated. I think it’s gone even farther than school choice advocates thought it would.

    Rachel Cohen
    Where would you say things are today?

    Cara Fitzpatrick
    I think it’s pretty clear that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has been ruling in favor of religious liberty — not just in school choice cases but in a variety of cases — and I think the window is open for it to go even further than it has. I mean, I’m really interested in where it’s going to go with the religious charter school issue that’s coming out of Oklahoma. I don’t want to predict how that will go, but I think it seems like there’s definitely some room to believe that the conservative majority might eventually sign off on that.

    Rachel Cohen
    Private school vouchers have been picking up steam lately, making political gains in recent years. What were some of the most surprising things you learned about the history of school vouchers, and what, if anything, about that history feels important to understanding the programs we’re seeing today?

    Cara Fitzpatrick
    One of the things that was interesting for me to grapple with was that in the 1950s and ’60s, segregationists in the South essentially used the idea of school vouchers to thwart Brown v. Board of Education. But then in the 1990s and 2000s, school choice advocates argued this was a civil rights issue. So I’ve been trying to sort out and make connections between those two eras.

    One of the main figures in the book is Polly Williams, who was a Black state representative in Wisconsin who very much viewed vouchers as a tool of empowerment for low-income kids, and particularly low-income kids of color. Her involvement in that issue was really fascinating and kind of linked those two periods in a way. Williams had fears that vouchers would become sort of what they’ve become today: subsidies for everyone, regardless of income.

    I think one of the things I really wanted to do with the book was not take a hard and fast position on school choice or on school vouchers, but give someone who might come across a headline about universal school vouchers a way to understand how we got here.

    Rachel Cohen
    The title of your book is The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America. I hear you on not wanting to take a clear position on vouchers or choice, but I think conservatives may argue it’s simply a new era of public school, not the death of it. I wanted to invite you to talk more about your title.

    Cara Fitzpatrick
    I think the title and subtitle will please no one. But for me, I think it raises that question, right? Does this spell the end for the public school system? That’s something that I had to grapple with throughout because, even just a few years ago, it was very much a talking point from school choice advocates that choice can help drive improvements to traditional public schools. But then in the last couple of years we’ve seen some pretty aggressive attacks on public education by Republicans and the rhetoric has definitely become more extreme, referring to schools as “government indoctrination camps” and things like that. A few prominent conservative school choice advocates have pretty openly said we should really use these school culture wars to push the movement forward.

    Rachel Cohen
    Based on your research, do you see any sort of path for the more liberal, progressive vision of public education to mount a comeback? Is there any sort of competing strategy in the courts or politics?

    Cara Fitzpatrick
    It’s hard to predict. The book is landing — just coincidentally — at this moment in time when school choice is dominating the news cycle and “parental rights” are all over the place. But even just a few years ago, I remember in 2017 a couple people saying to me, “Well, aren’t school vouchers dead?”

    Education can really change in a short period of time. It does feel to me like Milton Friedman’s side of the debate on the free-market vision for vouchers has really eclipsed what Polly Williams and some of the more progressive voices were about. But I think some of this may depend on how the new choice programs actually play out, including whether people take states up on these universal voucher programs.

    Rachel Cohen
    Is the lesson here to just stick with a political goal for 50 or 60 years and then eventually you might win?

    Cara Fitzpatrick
    Maybe! It is really fascinating: On vouchers, conservatives have played the long game and it seems to have worked out pretty well for them.

    Rachel Cohen
    There’s often this debate over whether charters or vouchers or tax credit scholarships result in better academic outcomes for students, either through competition or simply by injecting the power of “privateness” into the equation. Did your book lead you to any conclusions or clarity on those questions?

    Cara Fitzpatrick
    I think there’s a pretty solid amount of research at this point — not about universal vouchers, since that’s still kind of new and uncharted territory — but on some of these voucher programs that have existed for a long time. And what researchers have found is that the programs haven’t lived up to the promise of what the early advocates wanted or assumed would happen. I think there was this belief that private schools were just sort of inherently better than public schools, so if you just got more kids in private then all those kids would do better. A lot of the major research studies have shown either the same results for test scores between public and private, or actually a decline in private. And then there’s been a little bit of research on some other life outcomes that have been positive, like showing kids in some of these voucher programs are more likely to graduate.

    There are a lot of studies out there, some far less rigorous than others, and I think wading through all that can be a little intimidating. What I believe and I wanted the book to show is that this debate in America is really more about values than about outcomes.

    Rachel Cohen
    We’re in a moment when the conservative legal movement is at its strongest on school choice and teacher unions are in a very weakened position. Can you talk about the role you saw unions play in accelerating or slowing down these policies? How much do you think it matters today that unions are in a less powerful position?

    Cara Fitzpatrick
    Unions were typically opponents of school choice programs, but I didn’t get into the role of specific union leaders in the book with the exception of [former American Federation of Teachers president] Albert Shanker, since he was sort of outside the mold of what a lot of union leaders were saying. But I didn’t see unions’ opposition making a huge difference for the most part. Mostly they become convenient scapegoats in the partisan conversations.

    With teacher unions, what’s interesting is that a lot of their fears about where the programs would go seem to have come true. Unions warned from the start that this was not in fact going to be just a little experiment, that these programs are not going to be just limited to disadvantaged students, and now we are seeing these universal programs pass.

    Unions have played pivotal roles in different places and in moments of time in blocking or slowing school choice, but ultimately I don’t think that they were necessarily going to stop all of this. They stopped some of it. A lot of voucher proposals failed. It’s just that enough of them passed to have this toehold over time.

    URL
    https://www.vox.com/policy/23847728/public-school-vouchers-choice-cara-fitzpatrick-book

     

    My Replies in plain to sections of the article above in bold

    "Your book does a very good job of showing how the boundaries between church and state have eroded over the last few decades"
    One of the problems with the USA in its entirety is the myth of seperation of church and state. It is a false reality, that is advertised as true because the usa doesn't have one religion's potentate running things, but the collective of religions in the usa all are very dominant in their communities as influencers. Again, the jewish community in NYC has schools of failing children, look at my list of relevant posts below.

    "One of the things that was interesting for me to grapple with was that in the 1950s and ’60s, segregationists in the South essentially used the idea of school vouchers to thwart Brown v. Board of Education. "
    The tragedy of this point is, Black people of a certain age new this. But the problem in modernity is the modern immigrant community, even if black. They don't know this history, haven't asked, and in many countries outside the USA , the voucher to a school is a status symbol. This goes back to the problem I always have with people concerning immigration in general. Immigrants have to embrace the culture they are coming into. But the USA has this very dysfunctional idea , coming from white europeans that killed native americans, that the immigrants culture is the good and it makes the native better. When it is more functional for the native to be upheld and the immigrant molded into it. NYC is a prime example of this where immigrants culture was used and is of use to undermine people already in the usa. 

    "But then in the 1990s and 2000s, school choice advocates argued this was a civil rights issue. So I’ve been trying to sort out and make connections between those two eras."
    The black community , specifically the Descended of Enslaved tribe, has a huge role here. What people don't comprehend is that many Black DOSers supported vouchers back in the day as a way to get black kids into schools. They knew whites wouldn't allow merit for thier schools cause the whole point of white schools is to be for white children, so all their plans is to keep the schools and their funding to white children, so the idea was instead of attacking vouchers, put the weight on black children with the whole merit, twice as hard BS speech, and the rest is history.
    Black DOSers should had opposed brown vs board of education. Focus on making black schools better financed, not pushing black children into white schools.

    "One of the main figures in the book is Polly Williams, who was a Black state representative in Wisconsin who very much viewed vouchers as a tool of empowerment for low-income kids, and particularly low-income kids of color. Her involvement in that issue was really fascinating and kind of linked those two periods in a way. Williams had fears that vouchers would become sort of what they’ve become today: subsidies for everyone, regardless of income."
    And the black community in places like Wisconsin , a mostly white state < 81.9% white is the average> has always been in denial about effective phenotypical legislation. Integration simply has many failures on the largest scale. Integration has worked for individuals but failed for groups but the Black DOS communities leaderhsip in majority in the usa went for it , so, bad strategy.

    "Does this spell the end for the public school system? "
    As in Nippon or France, Public School, meaning barely financed schools for poor kids will never go away, the largess of poor children will always exist and will need a school system for those unable to afford or fortunate. 

    "But then in the last couple of years we’ve seen some pretty aggressive attacks on public education by Republicans"
    The historical truth is Black Southern Republican Elected officials were the ones who pushed public school as an institution. Their idea was to merge the communities through the children but while reconstruction failed and Jim Crow was born, public schools in the south were turned into a two tier system so instead of one school for all children : indigenous, black, white together, it became tiered on various racial grounds. And that would not had been a problem if all three schools systems were financed equally, but they weren't.

    " And what researchers have found is that the programs haven’t lived up to the promise of what the early advocates wanted or assumed would happen."
    LINK: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/more-findings-about-school-vouchers-and-test-scores-and-they-are-still-negative/


    What saddens me is years ago in early obama era,  on smiley and west an advocate of charter schools admitted this and I said this. the fact that all these new schools systems haven't generated different results exposes how many people concerning this issue, native | black | white,  are liars or have some negative agenda which clearly is unconcerned with better education. And notice I said all three groups, not merely one. I have been fortunate enough to see offline using my own eyes many black people support charters and vouchers with a clear dysfunction when it comes to better education.

    "What I believe and I wanted the book to show is that this debate in America is really more about values than about outcomes."
    I want to rephrase , this is not about results but about outcomes , cause based on results, the entire voucher + charter school movement has been shown to be a hoax, like a lot of things in the USA. The truth is, black individuals supported and support vouchers to get their kids access to opportunity, not to improve their educational quality. To be blunt, this is why so many college students put themselves in debt to go to ivy leagues, calculus doesn't change at the steps of MIT , but MIT has access to far far far more research, development, design, financing opportunities, that smalltown community college.

    "With teacher unions, what’s interesting is that a lot of their fears about where the programs would go seem to have come true. Unions warned from the start that this was not in fact going to be just a little experiment, that these programs are not going to be just limited to disadvantaged students, and now we are seeing these universal programs pass."
    Exactly, unionized teachers have been a scapegoat to all sides in the usa for a long time. THis happens because you will always find parents who want their children to be a hybrid of historical figures and when that doesn't happen, the teachers failed, not the child is human and this bolds most true for black dos parents who set the tone for parents not white european en large. Again, black parents treat education as power, as a path to betterment and that philosophy is very dysfunctional in a fiscal capitalistic community, the usa, based on wealth from genocide + slavery. But black dos parents in the usa pushed this as part of their nonviolent BS strategy and the results is here.

     

    Relevant Post

    The role of the public library is analagous to the role of the public school
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=1651&type=status

     

    A schools story among other things
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=1757&type=status

     

    The role of education in the USA in three parts
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=1793&type=status

     

    Education can never satisfy all so a system for all in a intramultiracial human community  has problems
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=1818&type=status

     

    The idea that the descended of the enslaved plus the latter freely immigrated like them can work to dual betterment side the descended of the enslaving plus the latter freely immigrated like them is a lie- and has failed in education
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=1929&type=status

     

    Jewish Schools allowance for failure in NYC
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2064&type=status

     

    Three Kings in the Black DOS Statian community- each had a role in education
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2199&type=status
    and an amendment
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2140&type=status

     

    Cost of Living and the need of Public School
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2319&type=status

     

    College Admissions
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2397&type=status

     

    The Intruder Film
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2422&type=status
     

     

  10. demise - written rell walk, drawn Shawn -00Alleyne,colors Tommy Shelton 001.jpg

    Title: Demise
    Artist: shawn alleyne <<lines>> < Pyroglyphics Studio > OR < https://www.deviantart.com/pyroglyphics1 >    ; Rell Walk <written> ; ;Tommy Shelton <colors>  
    Prior post
    https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2400&type=status
    Shawn Alleyne post
    https://aalbc.com/tc/search/?q=shawn&quick=1&type=core_statuses_status&updated_after=any&sortby=newest

     

    demise - written rell walk, drawn Shawn -00Alleyne,colors Tommy Shelton 002.jpg

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