January 12, 2022

"I’m well aware of the stereotypes of white parents choosing the private-school option when the going gets tough at public schools."

"I told myself that prioritizing being a 'good leftist' at the expense of my son’s well-being wasn’t good parenting, but as a red-diaper baby myself, the white guilt dies hard... Sending my kid to private school was accompanied by a lot of angst....  The pandemic, and the school-reopening debate in particular, has thrown me into an ideological mid-life crisis, questioning all my prior political assumptions. I’m still attempting to hold onto the progressive label while calling out the policies I see as antithetical to it, but the longer fellow progressives support new school closures and other policies that restrict kids’ lives in order to allay the anxieties of adults, and have been shown to cause far more harm than benefit, the more alienated I feel."

From "How School Closures Made Me Question My Progressive Politics/I’ve never felt more alienated from the liberal Democratic circles I usually call home" by Rebecca Bodenheimer (Politico).

98 comments:

Ice Nine said...

She'll vote straight-ticket Democrat in November.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

A PhD in ethnomusicology from UC Berkeley? I'm all ears.

gilbar said...

poor little red-diaper baby! the world is SO MEAN!!
If only Stalin knew!

mccullough said...

Red-diaper baby takes red pill

Earnest Prole said...

Ideology: In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice.

Truthavenger said...

Nothing exemplifies a pernicious and evil ideology than willing to sacrifice your children to that ideology. Leftists continue to support corrupt, incompetent public schools at the expense of generations of kids.

Charlie said...

A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged.

Clyde said...

No such thing as a “good leftist.”

wendybar said...

My neighbors, who work in the Public School system that they themselves went to, are sending their kids to a Catholic School in town so they get a BETTER education. They know what is being taught, and how and decided their kids deserve better. Everybody's kids deserve better than Government schooling, which divides everybody by class and color now.

Dude1394 said...

My suggestion is the same as always, read some Thomas Sowell.

John Borell said...

Sometimes I feel bad for the mental anguish those on the left go through.

We sent our son to private school without one moment of angst (decision was pre-COVID).

exhelodrvr1 said...

Fuck the left. For decades this is what they have voted for.

Achilles said...

This Person said...

A PhD in ethnomusicology from UC Berkeley? I'm all ears.

Noice.

MadisonMan said...

A progressive faced with the reality in their own life. When we decided private/public for our kids long ago, the decision was pretty easy, as Madison schools then were really good. Now? I'm really not so sure.

Aggie said...

It takes some longer than others, but most people do eventually reach adulthood.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I don’t understand the angst. She’s torn between doing what’s best for her children and what exactly? Doing what’s most progressive? For the teachers unions? Not getting it. She sounds foolish and immature.

John Borell said...

"Even then, I feared what fellow parents might think of me. I’m well aware of the stereotypes of white parents choosing the private-school option when the going gets tough at public schools."

Being of the right, I might be biased, but I really do not think people of the right judge one another like those of the left do. I can't imagine having to worry what fellow parents might think of what decisions we make regarding our children.

Fuck them. Seriously, those people are not your friends and not worthy of your angst. Fuck them.

If people judge you for doing what's correct for your kids, they are worthless fucks.

hiawatha biscayne said...

"when the going gets tough at public schools." hmmm. what does that mean?

Achilles said...

Ice Nine said...

She'll vote straight-ticket Democrat in November.

This person doesn't really exist. Nothing about this story on it's face is real.

This is a rear guard action and it shows you what the real polling shows.

The democrats are losing all parents who give two shits about their kids. They are trying to reinforce tribal allegiance and give these parents a bridge to stay in the party and rationalizations for destroying their kids lives.

You have to look through the story and see the fabric of society behind it.

You know what parents are seeing happen to their kids and this is enough to trump even tribal affiliations.

They had massive fraud and 7 counties full of Washington DC bureaucrats in Virginia and still lost because of angry laptop class parents.

Yancey Ward said...

That she is torn tells me she isn't much of a parent.

gspencer said...

It's like the lefty who supports open Muslim immigration in the face of all the ill of Islam because he/she doesn't want to be seen as islamophobic. Even as his/her throat is being cut.

Achilles said...

MadisonMan said...

A progressive faced with the reality in their own life. When we decided private/public for our kids long ago, the decision was pretty easy, as Madison schools then were really good. Now? I'm really not so sure.

This article was written before they found the person's name to put on it.

Dude1394 said...

Poor thing. This is ALL YOU. ALL YOU and your democrat friends. Although I applaud someone "stirring", because it is obvious that one every other issue, she will go right back to the same stance as her friends are on this, I find it very difficult to must one iota of give a durn.

Tom said...

All people are conservative regarding the shit they value most.

chuck said...

This reminds me of the great sifting that followed 9/11. Different events, but the reexamination of political loyalties is similar.

Conrad said...

Imagine having so much of your ego tied up in being a "good" ideologue that, when the welfare of your own children is at stake, you have trouble deciding which of them -- your political identity or your own children -- takes priority. What a sad individual.

This does seem to be a MUCH more common phenomenon among the left than the right. Remember all those articles we've seen advising "good leftists" to cut ties with conservative family members, boycott family gatherings, etc.?

Menahem Globus said...


We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
What might save us, me and you
Is if the Progressives love their children too

Big Mike said...

That Bodenheimer can readily afford private school tells me that she is one of those limousine liberals I’ve despised so much. Their bank balance insulates them from the consequences of the policies they support. My sympathy for her and her kids is very limited.

dreams said...

Liberals are so revealing and so unaware.

R C Belaire said...

The red pill often tastes bitter. But in the long run it's the better choice.

AlbertAnonymous said...

Just stay in the public schools and the D party. We don’t need you.

You’ll never learn.

Achilles said...

You all know that this article was targeted at you all as well right?

Letting an enemy think they are "winning" is a high level tactic.

Achilles said...

dreams said...

Liberals are so revealing and so unaware.

Not just Liberals.

Jersey Fled said...

If I remember correctly, almost half of teachers in inner city school systems send their own children to private schools.

Original Mike said...

"questioning all my prior political assumptions. I’m still attempting to hold onto the progressive label while calling out the policies I see as antithetical to it,"

Come to the dark side…we have cookies.

John henry said...

Did she go to private school herself?

A lot of red diaper babies didn't.

I can understand a parent wondering if public or private is best for the child. She already seems to have made that determination. Does not seem to be a question of money.

Why would any rational person choose anything other than what they think is best for the kid?

John LGBTQBNY Henry

Jake said...

If you're worried about whether doing what's best for your child compromises your political beliefs, you're a shitty parent.

Mark said...

Rather than guilt for getting out of the state-run schools, how about some legitimate guilt for supporting racist policies that consign persons of color to the criminally failing public schools???

How about supporting equal opportunity in education??

I'm Not Sure said...

"Why would any rational person choose anything other than what they think is best for the kid?"

Progressive... rational? C'mon, man!

JK Brown said...

Makes you wonder. Will Good Liberals finally come to terms with their groups conflict with classical liberalism?

Being provoked to think is a good way to wake up from being 'Woke'

"It doesn't matter how smart you are unless you stop and think" - Thomas Sowell

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I don’t understand the angst. She’s torn between doing what’s best for her children and what exactly? Doing what’s most progressive? For the teachers unions? Not getting it. She sounds foolish and immature.

Following the herd. You'd be surprised how many people do that while blissfully thinking they don't.

Skeptical Voter said...

I read her article. I was surprised to find that she thought the Oakland California school district was okay. It's a walking educational disaster--as is the Berkeley school district just to the north. My late sister in law taught at Berkeley High School--it was a plum assignment when she graduated from UC Berkeley in 1965; my late sister taught at Alameda High School for her entire career. Public education in the Bay Area is a mess.

My wife and I were big believers in public education in our Southern California suburb when our children went through school from the mid 70s through the mid 80s. These days I believe that putting a child in the local public schools constitutes child abuse.

PM said...

"They just miss their babysitters..." said by a teacher at a SF School Board meeting.

Original Mike said...

"Why would any rational person choose anything other than what they think is best for the kid?"

To be a progressive you can't be rational. Not meant as snark. If I had the motivation I could list a lot of ridiculous stuff they believe. Though I suspect many don't really believe the ridiculous things; it's just that they feel guilty not believing and put up a progressive public face. The real question is 'why do they feel guilty?" Is it from listening to lefty media and social media?

Original Mike said...

(cont.) I mean, look at this person. She feels guilty doing the right thing for her child. Is that rational?

Ficta said...

@Menahem Globus: That's the best thing I'll see online today.

Ceciliahere said...

This article infuriates me. People like this woman Bodenheimer have caused this problem with their “good leftist” nonsense. She is one of the people responsible for the public schools being in the situation they are due to her misguided views. She was in favor of all the progressive action until it impacted her poor little baby boy. Live what you preach, lady. After you help fuck up the public school system, you now decided that it’s time to pull your precious kid out. Now, she feels alienated because it affected HER kid. So, she pulled him out of public school and put him in a private school. But, what about all the kids left in the public school system that her “red diaper” philosophy helped create. Kids whose parents cannot afford private school are stuck with the shitty schools and there is no way out for them. Those kids are left behind. It was ”cool” for her to be woke until it wasn’t. Because she is partly responsible for helping the public schools become what they are, she should atone and start calling out the teachers’ union, the politicians, et al who have contributed to the mess. She should stand up for her new POV and advocate for change in public schools. But, she won’t she just needed some material to write an article on a subject that is timely. What a POS!

tim maguire said...

We all know Conquest's observation that everyone is conservative about what they know best. I prefer a slightly different formulation: everyone is conservative in their own life.

CWJ said...

Whether you're left, right, or whatever should follow from the accumulated Life decisions you've made. Subordinating your life decisions to an ideology, independent of your personal circumstances, strikes me as crazy. But I suppose that goes a long way to explain why those who move away from deep blue states bring their political ideology with them in spite of having fled the effects of same.

OTOH, I can't rule out that Achilles comments above might be correct.

Michael said...

Being "a good leftist" comes at the expense of a lot more than your son's well-being. Public safety for one. A healthy economy for another. National and border security. One could go on.

Reality is conservative. Your eyes are half-way open; now just generalize from the school mess to all the other Progressive failures.

Ceciliahere said...

This article infuriates me. People like this woman Bodenheimer have caused this problem with their “good leftist” nonsense. She is one of the people responsible for the public schools being in the situation they are due to her misguided views. She was in favor of all the progressive action until it impacted her poor little baby boy. Live what you preach, lady. After you help fuck up the public school system, you now decided that it’s time to pull your precious kid out. Now, she feels alienated because it affected HER kid. So, she pulled him out of public school and put him in a private school. But, what about all the kids left in the public school system that her “red diaper” philosophy helped create. Kids whose parents cannot afford private school are stuck with the shitty schools and there is no way out for them. Those kids are left behind. It was ”cool” for her to be woke until it wasn’t. Because she is partly responsible for helping the public schools become what they are, she should atone and start calling out the teachers’ union, the politicians, et al who have contributed to the mess. She should stand up for her new POV and advocate for change in public schools. But, she won’t she just needed some material to write an article on a subject that is timely. What a POS!

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

It's not just the public school's terrible response to the pandemic. If the news is a guide, public schools appear to be the new battle ground for the culture wars. (See Matt Taibbi's terrific reporting from Loudoun Virginia)

Is hard enough to raise kids today without having to worry about schools trying to convert them into political activists.

Caping the nightmarish trifecta, public school shootings continue. Nobody knows when the next time bomb is going to go off. Though I did hear today discussions about schools monitoring student's devices and how racist it seemed. (NPR)

You got to be out of your mind to send your kids to public schools today.

Narr said...

Most of our most liberal friends send their kids to private, sometimes RC, schools, but those weren't really options for us.

Our son was born in 1986, and my wife and I jumped through many hoops to get him enrolled in the public schools Optional Program. At least that's what they called it for a while, but regardless of nomenclature it was pretty clearly a way to put kids on different tracks early.

He did well in the enriched curriculum, and went to the better schools--his high school is highly ranked (for a public school in the Southland) but by 11th grade he and the system had grown tired of one another.

He did more extra-curricular stuff than I did (it would be impossible to do less) and like me he always did well on the IQ and IQ proxy tests.

My wife had gone to RC schools 1-12, and had no enthusiasm for that system, leaving aside expense. Her family didn't have any money, so she went on scholarships, but she also had to work harder than makes much sense when you consider the result, and my boy is more like me in that regard.

The public schools have certainly not improved since he graduated in '04. Our younger neighbors with school-age kids generally send them elsewhere, whatever their politics might be and I don't pry.

Narr said...

HLM wrote something to the effect that normal American kids have a healthy disrespect for the kind of person (did he say man?) who chooses to teach school.

That's a great attitude.

I just found out that Jim Goad is on Twitter!

Drago said...

Achilles: "You all know that this article was targeted at you all as well right?

Letting an enemy think they are "winning" is a high level tactic."

What Achilles is referring to is when a faction believes they are winning, usually all members of that faction will become emboldened and make themselves public and many sympathizing fence-sitters will do the same, thus making it easy for the opponents to identify all of their future targets....and this article was published right at the very time the DOJ has announced a new domestic "anti-terrorism" group.

So, there's that.

Achilles said...

"questioning all my prior political assumptions. I’m still attempting to hold onto the progressive label while calling out the policies I see as antithetical to it,"

"Why would any rational person choose anything other than what they think is best for the kid?"

Original Mike said...

To be a progressive you can't be rational. Not meant as snark. If I had the motivation I could list a lot of ridiculous stuff they believe. Though I suspect many don't really believe the ridiculous things; it's just that they feel guilty not believing and put up a progressive public face. The real question is 'why do they feel guilty?" Is it from listening to lefty media and social media?


I feel like rending my garments.

CWJ said...

Whether you're left, right, or whatever should follow from the accumulated Life decisions you've made. Subordinating your life decisions to an ideology, independent of your personal circumstances, strikes me as crazy. But I suppose that goes a long way to explain why those who move away from deep blue states bring their political ideology with them in spite of having fled the effects of same.

OTOH, I can't rule out that Achilles comments above might be correct.


It is a start.

This article had one goal.

It was to reinforce the tribal nature of our body politic.

The people that own the Politico need us divided.

Giving conservatives a chance to call progs stupid and reinforce their tribal allegiance was just as important as using a high status prog woman to keep other prog women in the tribe.

Conquest's law is accurate. But it's application passes over the river.

I would bet the "author" of this article has a set of traits without seeing her picture.

Tall. Lean. Dressed with markers of authority and wealth.

Do they find grey hair authoritative in women? Probably not for this article. It only works on people like me.

Joe Smith said...

'"I’m well aware of the stereotypes of white parents choosing the private-school option when the going gets tough at public schools."'

Make that 'wealthy parents.' The Obamas didn't send their girls to the crappy DC public schools.

There isn't a single, sane black parent who sends their kid to public school unless they live in a wealthy, white area with good public schools.

Achilles said...

Damnit this thread is predictable.

I rend my garments and gnash my teeth.

RonF said...

"I’m well aware of the stereotypes of white parents choosing the private-school option when the going gets tough at public schools."

Define "when the going gets tough". If your child isn't getting a good education then you need to make a change. If the change is that you get more involved with your child and with his/her school then fine. But if that engagement is getting nowhere, or if there's violence or rampant drug trade or other factors that mean that a quality education is simply unavailable at that school, then what you owe to your child is a far greater obligation than what you owe to the local school infrastructure.

Joe Smith said...

'He did more extra-curricular stuff than I did (it would be impossible to do less) and like me he always did well on the IQ and IQ proxy tests.'

You can't give those anymore in California...too many white and Asian kids score too well.

They're also getting rid of a lot of Advance Placement classes in high school. Again, too many whites and Asians getting in.

The special classes for gifted students in CA have been completely gutted...

Tim Wright said...

A red pill won’t do it for that woman. A massive red suppository might do the trick.

Achilles said...

Drago said...

Achilles: "You all know that this article was targeted at you all as well right?

Letting an enemy think they are "winning" is a high level tactic."

What Achilles is referring to is when a faction believes they are winning, usually all members of that faction will become emboldened and make themselves public and many sympathizing fence-sitters will do the same, thus making it easy for the opponents to identify all of their future targets....and this article was published right at the very time the DOJ has announced a new domestic "anti-terrorism" group.

So, there's that.


Right path.

But I must expound.

They are letting Republican voters think they are winning but not allowing any of the things that actually matter change.

We might get a Republican President and all sorts of republicans in congress.

Will anything really change?

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Original Mike said...

To be a progressive you can't be rational. Not meant as snark. If I had the motivation I could list a lot of ridiculous stuff they believe.

I don't think it's a lack of rationality so much as it's that progressives have been conditioned to suppress their natural skepticism or at least not admit to themselves that they were having second thoughts.

Jersey Fled said...

There is a growing cottage industry of Black, urban kids who "live" with grandparents, aunts, and uncles and thereby go to white suburban schools. My daughters went to school with dozens of them. The suburban relatives (and some of them actually are) claim the kids on their tax returns and are eligible for the earned income tax credit if they otherwise qualify. The schools get state money based on enrollment.

Works for everybody.

Rabel said...

The lady has made her choice and she is now on the side of George Wallace and Jefferson Davis.

Welcome to the club, Rebecca.

Real American said...

being progressive in the face of reality is, in reality, just being progressive.

I'm Not Sure said...

Ceciliahere said...

"She was in favor of all the progressive action until it impacted her poor little baby boy. Live what you preach, lady. After you help fuck up the public school system, you now decided that it’s time to pull your precious kid out."

Yep. And when she realizes all the other things her progressive beliefs have fucked up, she'll move to Texas or Idaho or Florida to escape the shithole she voted for. And proceed to vote for the same things in her new home.

CWJ said...

"But I suppose that goes a long way to explain why those who move away from deep blue states bring their political ideology with them in spite of having fled the effects of same."

Exactly.

Narayanan said...

"I’m well aware of the stereotypes of white parents choosing the private-school option when the going gets tough at public schools."
-----------
when did reality become = stereotype?

why can't she become carrier of Δ variant of progressive virus that supports school choice since progressive = choice in many other cases

Scotty, beam me up... said...

When I was attending public school in the 1960’s / 1970’s, a number of teachers at my school sent their children to private schools; this is not a new phenomenon, and public school teachers back then were politically liberal just like today (although they didn’t penalize students back then for voicing conservative views like what happens today). Although Mrs. Scott and me are white, we are not wealthy. Mrs. Scott and I decided to send our child to the local Catholic system because we didn’t want our kid f**ked up by a public school system that has become ideologically far left (LGTBQ Club good, conservative anything bad). We had to scrape by for private school tuition but it was a great investment in our child’s future. Hell, we were paying simultaneously for two school systems - tuition at the private school and taxes to pay for our local public system. Also, most public school boards that I have seen in my state (and I assume most states) are made up mostly of members backed by the teachers’ union. Nothing like controlling the elected representatives who negotiates with the union on the union contracts as well as controlling the school environment such as no police officers in the public schools like Prof. Althouse’s home school district in Madison, WI.

Leland said...

"going gets tough at public schools"

Going? Tough? At least she didn't use the word garner.

I would abhor a political ideology that would suggest I choose deference to the ideology over my children. I guess if she had an abortion, she would have no problem being a good leftist.

Remember how evil Betsy DeVos was for suggesting school choice should be for everyone?

iowan2 said...

We have to ask ourselves.

Why have the government educate any children? To what end? Less the half the kids today read at grade level.

Been on that trend for 40 years. Why does the government accept this? Why do parents?

For an an answer consider all the "safety nets" in place. Consider who keeps creating ever more "safety nets"

What is that Insty says? Beggars are easier to control.

It is clear many believe the path to permanent power is an ever expanding dependent class.
A exceptionally educated populace does not vote for an ever expanding dependent class.

Josephbleau said...

She is a “red diaper baby” but claims her father suggested going to private school and paid for it. So her deeply communist father is not acting like a communist, perhaps he was a commissar. He probably also paid for her PhD and let her study music instead of farm implement engineering. Don’t think she was really a red diaper baby.

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

"We might get a Republican President and all sorts of republicans in congress.

Will anything really change?"

Please quit feeding my cynicism, it's become far too large on its current diet. So large, in fact, that its obesity makes it a prime target for death by (not just with) our custom-made SARS virus.

traditionalguy said...

The best marker for socialism is seeing people forced to wait in long lines for crumbs. That is now the apt description of kids enrolled in the k-12 public schools. It’s a long wait for very little education. But the teachers’ needs are being served first, second and third until the day is over, while kids are used as props in the EDU show.

Lee Moore said...

What a mercy that fewer and fewer of these bonkers lefties are breeding.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

"I’m well aware of the stereotypes of white parents choosing the private-school option when the going gets tough at public schools."

Actually, what they do is buy houses in neighborhoods that are scored as having "good public schools", where all the homes in that area are to expensive to let the ref raf in.

Then they oppose private school vouchers, because decreasing the importance of public schools would lower their housing value

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Josephbleau said...

She is a “red diaper baby” but claims her father suggested going to private school and paid for it. So her deeply communist father is not acting like a communist, perhaps he was a commissar.

Hasn't that always been the way? All good commies expect that they're going to be the top turds in the pile after the Revolution comes.

Vance said...

I homeschool at the moment. To be brutally frank, we aren't doing a great job. So I may send my kids to school next year, plus it's been a few years and they want to try socializing with their own age.

But I live in rural Utah... so the wokeness hasn't gone overboard yet.

I'm sure it's coming though--even here in Red Utah we've had parents catching out leftist teachers trying to put pornographic gay "Manuals" into school libraries, and teachers who have gotten fired for telling students to turn their parents in for "Covid violations."

So wokeness is creeping in everywhere. Got to be vigilant.

Jim at said...

Sometimes I feel bad for the mental anguish those on the left go through.

Not me. They deserve it, and then some.

Michael said...

Greg the Class Traitor wrote:"Then they oppose private school vouchers, because decreasing the importance of public schools would lower their housing value". Actually no need for private school vouchers if the public schools are good. And if they become less good the public votes with its feet and moves on to the next suburb with great schools. This maneuver baffles administrators and city officials.

Mark Nielsen said...

Menahem Globus said...

We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
What might save us, me and you
Is if the Progressives love their children too

Nice! Has a certain "Sting" to it . . .

Greg The Class Traitor said...

John henry said...
Why would any rational person choose anything other than what they think is best for the kid?

Well, when you're trying to justify why you oppose private school vouchers for the BIPOC, it's much easier to do when you're sending your kids to a "public school", "too!"

Even though their school is nothing like the schools the poor people want to escape.

Once you've given up on the public schools for your kids, it's hard for anyone who wants to think of themselves as decent human beings to then deny private schools to poor BIPOC.

But to make that change you're now the enemy of the teacher's unions, which are pretty much the core of the Democrat Party.

And at that point, if you're even remotely honest, you start voting Republican.

After which, if you admit it, you lose all your "friends".

Greg The Class Traitor said...

"They just miss their babysitters..." said by a teacher at a SF School Board meeting.

To which the proper response is: "so even you don't think of yourself as an actual teacher, just as a babysitter? Thank you for clearing that up"

Scotty, beam me up... said...

I am willing to bet that the teachers at the private school that Rebecca Bodenheimer sent her child to are more responsive to both her child and to Rebecca as well. Our child’s Catholic school teachers responded immediately to emails from Mrs. Scott and me when we had concerns. Even when our child was struggling with homework at nights and on the weekends, he would email the teacher and get responses within an hour or two, if not immediately. I don’t think many public school teachers would do that - maybe fresh out of college teachers but not too many long time teachers. The Catholic school teachers also appeared to love their jobs more than the public school teachers in our town as well. There were very few disciplinary issues at the Catholic school, unlike the public schools. I knew teachers who burned out at the public school system in our town, retiring early (or just quitting) with PTSD due to disruptive students most of whom which the school district did nothing about because of their race. Finally, at the start of the 2020/2021 school year, the Catholic school system that our child attended and graduated from, were in class full time UNMASKED. The public schools started the year in the virtual mode, then halfway through the year, half the kids were virtual for 2 days a week and half in class 2 days a week MASKED, then the kids switched places, all so the kids could maintain social distancing. I am guessing the Catholic kids came out of this much, much better than the public school kids.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Here is a poem by a vaccine true believer published in October last year.

Walking by the lake, I lose an earring
and don’t even notice it at first,
overwhelmed as I am
by the strangeness of everything.
Blocks later, my hand reaches up
to feel that slight absence in one ear.
So then I have to retrace
my steps, as they say to do,
past the guy jogging with his mask pulled down
and the hijab-wearing,
stroller-pushing young mother in stylish jeans
and the homeless man emerging from his tent
on the banks of our urban oasis
bearing a boom box on one shoulder.
And that’s where I spot it, lying on the sidewalk,
miraculously untrampled — small, precious
found thing, a turquoise oval
encircled with rows of beads,
given to me with love by someone
I haven’t hugged in more than a year.
Tiny rescue from the sea of loss,
just as we seem to have found
a raft to grab on to

in the wake of a shipwreck so vast
we cannot yet imagine the end of it.


The "raft to grab on to" was the vaccine.

And now the raft is leaking left and right.

Needing boosters/patches. (h/t Darkhorse Podcast)

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

I do not agree with those above criticizing her as a "red-diaper baby," and specifically calling her out as a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UC/Berkeley. I was myself a graduate student in musicology at UC/Berkeley; ethnomusicology students weren't by and large in the same classes (though I remember a seminar in music and iconography co-led by my own advisor, Daniel Heartz, and Bonnie Wade, a specialist in North Indian music), but the whole department is very high-powered, and anyone finishing and successfully defending a diss. there has done something spectacular. (I didn't.)

Please, don't shrink at the "ethno-." In that seminar, I learned both about Fragonard, and about Mughal art. Neither was negligible.

Owen said...
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Owen said...

This writer seems to have zero self-awareness, by which I mean to include awareness of history. The terms "champagne socialist" and "limousine liberal" and "trust fund hippie" are not new. The philosophy to which they point (if it can be dignified as a philosophy rather than just a stew of self-regarding sentiments and reheated Romanticism) has been around a long, long time. Idiots like Jean-Jacques Rousseau come to mind.

I wish her luck trying to square the circle. But maybe, just maybe, she'd like to concentrate on raising her offspring with better values and more common sense than she has; and maybe, just maybe, she'd like to stop forcing the rest of us to accommodate her precious ideas. The Progs have done enormous, probably fatal, damage to our public education system, and the biggest victims are the minority children with nowhere else to go.

Critter said...

To paraphrase: Newly-minted conservatives are leftists that have been mugged by reality.

Drago said...

Achilles: "We might get a Republican President and all sorts of republicans in congress.

Will anything really change?"

Well, yes.

I mean, the dems will get everything they want, just a bit more slowly, but no more mean tweets!!

Hurray for the GOPe!....assuming Frank Luntz will allow the republicans to cheer for themselves....

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I taught in Fontana (SoCal) for ten years and about half the teachers I knew sent their children to private schools. One let her son go to FoHi and he got stabbed.

Jamie said...

"Then they oppose private school vouchers, because decreasing the importance of public schools would lower their housing value". Actually no need for private school vouchers if the public schools are good.

But the public schools are not uniformly good and cannot be made uniformly good. And my house costs a lot more than a similarly sized and appointed house in a bad school district, because my schools are excellent. (As usual, there are cargo-cult aspects to this situation: building a pretty school and throwing lots of money at it will not imbue the area residents with all the other personal traits and circumstances that make good schools happen in some suburbs, like intact families, an emphasis on educational achievement, and parent involvement. But my mom used to teach in a Catholic school in East St. Louis - yes, murder capitol of the US - and that school had excellent stats despite drawing from a population that looked superficially the same as everyone else in ESL. These families self-selected into the school, because they did possess those traits, however they gained them, and were willing to do whatever they had to do to keep their kids out of the horrific public schools. Think of what could be possible with vouchers.)

What the original commenter was saying is that this brand of liberal will often -perfectly rationally - buy a house in an area with good schools, and then - again, perfectly rationally, with the added bonus of also being a good progressive - vote against vouchers everywhere (which won't affect her kids since they are in a good school, but will help her house retain its high value).

So the two takeaways are: 1. This brand of liberal is hypocritical in that she says she wants great schools for everyone, but will vote her own financial self-interest over the interests of disadvantaged kids. And 2. Those of us in favor of school vouchers are sometimes doing it in opposition to our own financial self-interest, because we really do care about the ability of disadvantaged kids to attend good schools. If we are successful in voting in school choice, our own property values may go down (or at least not go up as fast as they were) thanks to the reduced importance of public schools.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Thank you Jamie, nicely said

Caligula said...

A prediction: she'll work as hard at making the private school her child attends as she did in degrading the public school system she thinks she's escaping from.

Because, wherever you go, there you are. She may even make it worse, as parents have no difficulty 'escaping' from a bad private school.

Then she'll wonder what happened that made it all go bad.

Owen said...

Jamie @ 5:52: What you said. You've caught the complexity of it. ...My own version was this:
(1) before my kid went to the local schools, I had no clear view of how good or bad they were and I had "no dog in the fight."
(2) when my kid did go to those schools, it was too late for me to start pushing for structural changes that would take years to be realized (and I didn't want to antagonize the school personnel by suggesting their work was, well, questionable).
(3) After my kid had finished going to the schools, reform wouldn't help my kid. So I no longer cared enough to fight.

So it's never really the right time to push for reform. It takes a special kind of alert, courageous, articulate, stiff-necked troublemaker to persist.

And I think the teachers' unions have figured this out.

glacial erratic said...

Shouldn't this woman have a hyphen in her last name?

Stephen St. Onge said...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
“I don’t understand the angst. She’s torn between doing what’s best for her children and what exactly? Doing what’s most progressive? For the teachers unions? Not getting it. She sounds foolish and immature.”
____________________

        This is a nice illustration of how hard it can be to understand those who think entirely differently about something than you do.

        She’s the child of communists, she’s been a progressive all her life (I’m assuming the article is accurate).  What was “best” for her son were the political policies she supported.  The idea of a possible conflict didn’t exist.  Criticisms of her policies came from evil/stupid/ignorant/crazy people who wanted evil/stupidity/ignorance/insanity.

        In other words, if she had been able to believe that she might have to choose between her ideology and her child’s welfare, she would’t have held that ideology in the first place.  Her god has failed, and it’s an immense shock.

        After Arthur Koestler broke from the Communist Party, he found one of the hardest things to take was reactionary members of Britain’s upper class saying ‘Well, now you see we were right all along.  Glad you finally wised up.’ What she is going through strikes at the heart of her self-image as a good person.

        Such transformations are very hard on the transformed.  I speak from experience.

Kate Coe said...

She cried about Castro, too.
https://brightthemag.com/rest-in-power-fidel-c487702f1ad2