I recently served on a jury in a civil trial in Los Angeles County. It was the first time I’ve actually gone through the whole process and been selected for a jury, and it was certainly interesting and “good for me” to go through it. It was also frustrating, however, because I couldn’t help but [...]
Archive for March, 2009
This is justice?
Posted in General on March 30, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Countering discrimination through education
Posted in Education, General, Race/ethnicity, tagged Education, ethnicity, race on March 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
LA Times reporter Corina Knoll provides a touching tale in her article, “Thanking her for opening my eyes,” of how important teachers can be in shaping how we view others and the world. She explains how Iowa schoolteacher Jane Elliot helped her third grade class understand the dynamics and consequences of racism in the wake [...]
“The Soloist” on 60 Minutes
Posted in General, Homelessness, Los Angeles, tagged Homelessness, Nathaniel Ayers, Steve Lopez, The Soloist on March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In case you need any more encouragement to read “The Soloist” by Steve Lopez, check out the piece Morley Safer did on 60 Minutes this week on the relationship between Mr. Lopez and Mr. Ayers . It’s a nice piece, but trust me, read the book for a more complete story.
Review of “The Soloist” by Steve Lopez
Posted in Health, Homelessness, Los Angeles, tagged Homelessness, mental health, Nathaniel Ayers, Skid Row, Steve Lopez, The Soloist on March 19, 2009 | 10 Comments »
We have a general rule of thumb in our household that before seeing a movie, we try to read the book on which it is based. (By the way, this has proved to be a great motivator for our son to plow through the Harry Potter books). You may have recently seen the trailer for [...]
Health, Wealth and History
Posted in General, Health, tagged Health, history of medicine on March 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
One of the most poignant moments in the most recent presidential campaign came during the second debate in discussing health care. The town hall format debate was full of the usual equivocating and double-speak of presidential debates and the campaign in general, and both candidates offered vague, stump-speech responses to an audience member’s question about [...]
Progress in Addressing Homelessness in Los Angeles?
Posted in Homelessness, Los Angeles, tagged Homelessness, Los Angeles on March 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Los Angeles” is often thought of as synonymous with “dysfunctional” when it comes to addressing homelessness. In a post for the Funders Together: Homelessness Ends Here Blog I highlight the quiet, but significant, systemic changes being made toward ending homelessness in Los Angeles County. We still have a long way to go, but it is [...]
Homeless children: a national disgrace
Posted in Affordable Housing, Education, Health, Homelessness, Poverty, tagged deep poverty, Education, food security, Health, homeless children, Homelessness, Poverty on March 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The National Center on Family Homelessness NCFH today released a report outlining the extent of homelessness among children in the U.S. In America’s Youngest Outcasts: State Report Card on Child Homelessness, NCFH researchers found: More than 1.5 million children are homeless annually in the United States—one in every 50 American children. 42 percent of homeless [...]
The Great Disruption
Posted in Economy, General, tagged Economy, stimulus package, Thomas Friedman on March 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As economic indicators continue to worsen, people from all walks of life are personally feeling the effects of the recession. Unemployment continues to rise as layoffs spread and businesses fail. Public resources continue to be thrown at corporations deemed too-intertwined with our financial system to collapse. Retirement accounts shrink as the stock market plunges. Demand [...]
We all should care about the state of public education
Posted in Data, Education, Race/ethnicity, tagged Economy, Education, Employment on March 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Good public education has long been a staple of American democracy and social mobility; but that promise is increasingly threatened. Nowhere is this more evident than in the state where I live, California. The Golden State’s educational system from kindergarten to the university was affordable and excellent for decades; but today we have a system [...]
“The worst social disaster in America”
Posted in Homelessness, Los Angeles, Poverty, tagged Homelessness, Poverty, Skid Row on March 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A couple years ago, I was contacted by an Italian filmmaker shooting a documentary about slums and poverty in various parts of the globe, and she wanted to talk about poverty in Los Angeles. I happened to be free the next morning, so I obliged and so she came over to my office with her [...]
