11-07-2004, 06:07 AM
Occhidiangela,Nov 6 2004, 09:16 AM Wrote:Not funny, and let me tell you why. (The fact that I was born in Washington DC has nothing to do with this post. :D )
That IQ does not reflect the people who "work" there, as in Senators and Congressmen, cabinet officers and ambassadors, civil servants, etc. No, those folks all live out in the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia.
It reflects very, very badly on the people and education serving the people, who LIVE in Washington DC, and that is no laughing matter. The White Flight of the 1950's and 1960's has made the demographics of Washington DC more similar to Harlem than the surrounding counties of Maryland and Virginia.
That number, the one that caused you to giggle, has been used by some real arseholes to point to a mental shortcoming in the ethnic background of the residents of Washington DC, a city that was for a couple of years the murder, per capita, captial of the US, a city where far, far too much neglect has occurred, a city where the Mayor got busted for crack possession. And re elected the next time he ran!
Any number of hard working and sincere reformers have been . . . shown the door. And the kids are still left behind to deal with the pimps and drug dealers on the street corners of the Southeast DC area.
That's my old neck of the woods, and it angers me. RFK stadium, the Redskins home turf, was in Southeast. The Redskins have since moved out to suburban Maryland, more White Flight. The new stadium for the Expos, who are moving to DC it seems, was planned to be in Southeast, and guess what? All of a sudden, someone is balking at putting a fancy stadium in the "blighted area" of DC.
Where in DC would such an alleged economic engine do the most good?
Southeast. The hypocrisy makes me scream, sometimes.
While I understand what made you laugh, it is a joke about a complete embarassment to our nation, and to the local political leadership of our capital city.
My cousin used to teach there, hearing deprived children and special ed. She finally got tired of having knives pulled on her.
My mom's college roommate's daughter worked for two hears in Southeast as a Christian Missionary (she's from lily white, suburban, San Jose, CA) ministering to the folks who need a hand up. After two years, she was alive and unshaken in her faith, though disappointed that after two years . . . little to nothing around her had changed. She lives in Atlanta now.
While the poke at Congress and the White House is appreciated, the numbers are no laughing matter.
Occhi
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Heh. It's not about putting the stadium in a blighted area, it's about positioning for the next mayoral race. So, in a move to pander to the anti-stadium crowd, the DC council chair backstabs the mayor and proposes a site for the new baseball stadium next to RFK (which is neither in NE or SE, being right on East Capitol St). Dead on arrival with MLB, since the location is not "downtown" in their view. (That's kind of like a comparison of Camden Yards and Memorial Stadium in Bal'more, IMO) BTW, she was one of loudest of the chorus of folks at the mayor's orignal press conference announcing the deal
Politics as usual in the District. Some can debate the usefulness of $500M of public funds for a ballpark, but there would be a nice kick in the pants to a not-so-nice part of town. It would further add to the millions that the Government is pouring into the Navy Yard and the Southeast Federal Center. I can see the changes in just three and a half years since the Navy moved a whole host of folks across the river into the Navy Yard. I think we are down to just two crack houses between Eastern Market Metro and the Navy Yard. :P
Seriously, there are tremendous possibilities for Southeast, if the folks running home rule don't screw it all up. Of course, with our good buddy Marion Barry back on the council, I wouldn't bet on that.
Yeah, Occhi, it makes those of us here just as sick, especially since we here it EVERY day.