Readers:
From watching space aliens to yodeling singers, please don't forget the lovely Warner Grand Theater's Sundays are Fundays -- dedicated to bring families back to the historic era in downtown San Pedro.
Coming up are some family favorites, both on Sundays at 2 p.m.
E.T. will play April 1 at a cost of $5 for adults and $2 for children under the age of 12.
The story about the space alien who lands in a family's backyard and eats up M&Ms, turned immediately into a family classic -- which all ages can enjoy.
Another family treasure, the sing-along Sound of Music, will be shown May 6 for $10 a ticket on the day of the showing and $5 for advanced ticket sales.
Susan Wilcox, a constant volunteer for the Warner who helps run the Sunday's are Fundays program, said: "a costume contest and other nutty things relating to the theme of the movie, will be included in this showing." For further information, call(310)833-8333 or visit the website at www.warnergrand.org. The theater is located at 478 Sixth St., San Pedro.

Dear Readers:

Please consider this site a place to post items going on at your school, fundraisers for a non-profit entities involving children, children’s submissions and other possibilities by sending them to hartchap@earthlink.net. Your voice will be welcome at this post site, especially for events involving children. ..


At this time, I want to send many special thanks to Its’ A Grind – a coffee house on Western Avenue in San Pedro that has supported several schools by providing free coffee for many school events. San Pedro High School, Dana Middle School, Crestwood Street Elementary and Taper Avenue Elementary have all benefited from support from owners, Karen Anderson and Robyn Richardson, a mother-daughter team who partnered to run the chain at this location.
“We just help as much as we can,” Karen told me yesterday. – who frequently has encouraged schools to consider her spot as a place for students work to shine, such as having poetry readings or one-person skits at the sight.
I thank Karen and her daughter for what they do for children and the many local businesses who reach out and support their schools.

By Diana L. Chapman

A beloved Dana Middle School teacher, who came into field of education later in life and carried on a brave face for the school’s staff and students while she faced a terminal illness, passed away Tuesday night at the age of 51.
Kimberly Larsen, held many other occupations including raising goats, before becoming a full fledged special education teacher for the past five years at the middle school where she snatched the hearts of many students and cemented close relations with staff members.
As a volunteer at Dana, my limited amount of time with Kimberly led me to respect her as she continued to bring a vibrant energy to the campus, despite her fight with cervical cancer, and always told everyone she was doing great with a big smile.
The staff appeared lulled by her faith that she would survive and was shocked and heartbroken when she died suddenly at her San Pedro home.
“Kimberly loved kids and life,” said Principal Terry Ball, who was confounded by the times he went to help Kimberly and found her helping him instead. “She poured herself into her work, not because she was a workaholic, but because of her love for kids. When she was ill, I wasn’t only lulled by her faith, but by her upbeat an exuberant personality. When I would try to encourage her, she would turn tables on me and end up encouraging me—no matter how ill she felt. I always felt better after I spoke with her. We all continue to grieve and be heartbroken.”
While she decided to pursue an educational course later in life, her friends at the school said after she tried several other careers she returned to the one thing she loved ….”children,” explained her close friend, Brian Spencer, a counselor at the school.
Quickly after she arrived, Brian explained, they had a bit of a “who are you” attitude and then realized that they had similar priorities: they were there for children, they were there to help people and they were both extremely forgiving even when people treated them harshly.
After that, they were so close it was as though they’d known each other all their lives and Brian became close with the entire family, including her 15-year-old son, Cameron, and her husband, Brad.
“I knew I had a special connection with her and I never thought anyone else saw that,” explained Brian, who said he later discovered she had established similar friendships with many others. “It was just how we connected. It was just how she was. She fought for people. She fought for her students. And she didn’t have a problem with that. She has a passion for children and a passion for life.”
Calling her “Earth Momma,” Brian said when you find a friendship like that, it’s something to be cherished – which others at the school full-heartedly agreed with – and most of all – she taught her special education students to be their own greatest advocates.
Students who had graduated constantly came back to praise Kimberly for the efforts she acclaimed for them, often carrying gifts and words of appreciation -- especially that she taught them that no one could fight better for a student then the student themselves.
“She was just great with kids and she always as very protective,” said Dana’s special education coordinator, Hengameh Rahmanou. “She was always on the internet doing research trying to do the right for her kids. She had kids to this day still coming back to see her. She’s such a well-known figure.”
At one point, Kimberly became the special education coordinator but became frustrated when she found she wasn’t having enough one-on-one- relationships with children. She dropped the position to return to teaching.
“She was my rock,” said Sherry Graves, a special education clerk at Dana. “All I had to do is let her know what I needed or what a student needed and it would happen. Her students always came back to see her.”
Kimberly joined Dana in 2001 after years in a series of other occupations, including raising goats, being a full-fledged nursery manager and prior to that was a substitute teacher for three years. She also taught kindergarten at Point Fermin Elementary School. But before ever beginning a career in education, Kimberly gathered a vast knowledge about plant life and managed plant nurseries for five years from 1987 until 1993 in Albuquerque, N.M. and later held a similar post from 1993 to 1998 in Bellingham, Wash. Her family owned a farm in Ferndale, Wash. before returning to San Pedro, where she was born.
Brian, the counselor, said he has to fight away tears just thinking about Kimberly and how she would visit his office to help him take care of his plants. Several employees said they were dependent on her not only to brighten their day, but to come in and nurture the plants she had bought them.
Kimberly graduated with BA in Philosophy in 1987 from the University of New Mexico and when she returned to her birth place of San Pedro, she attained a master’s degree from Cal State University, Dominquez Hills, in special education.
She is survived by her, son, Cameron, her husband Brad; her parents, Ethel and Rorvik Johnson, of San Pedro; a sister, Diane Berkey of Washington and a brother, Dennis Berkey of Colorado. She is also survived by numerous cats and dogs she’d rescued.
A celebration of her life has been schedule for Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m at the Cabrillo Beach Youth Waterfront Sports Center, 3000 Shoshonean Road. Instead of flowers, the family has requested that visitors bring food for this event.
The family also requests that those wanting to given donations to either her son’s college fund or a pet rescue organization. To give to Cameron’s college fund, makes checks payable to the Dana Staff Association for a college fund and drop them off at Dana’s main office.
Or because Kimberly was a woman “who cherished all living things” and rescued many animals, donations can be sent in remembrance of her to Rover Rescue, P.O. Box 424, Redondo Beach ,California or visit the website: roverrescue.com under the “You Can Help” section indicating the donation is in remembrance of Kimberly.
Please post your thoughts about Kimberly at the Underdog site because that’s exactly what she was -- a fighter for the underdogs in life.

I remember the day I met him. It was a few months ago in one of my writer’s workshops at the Boys and Girls Club.
The teens in the club’s College Bound program were writing essays for their applications, and I asked them to jot down 10 great things about themselves. While other kids’ pens and pencils flew, the one belonging to a 17-year-old named Emmanuel didn’t move an inch. Not even a half-inch. In fact, when I peered over, there was nothing more than a dot.
I looked at him and said: “Why haven’t you written anything?” I kept prodding him about it.
Finally, he looked at me, somewhat sorrowfully, and in front of the entire class of perhaps 16 students announced that in his honest opinion, “I’m a failure. There’s nothing to say. My grades are a 1.8. I move all the time. I’ve never done anything.”
It’s a rare moment when a kid speaks so candidly about himself in front of a class. Of course, I didn’t believe him. I continued trying to pull out some of his potential, knowing that somewhere there had to be some raw, untapped talent--a gold nugget, if you will. All it needed was a bit of coaxing. Sometimes, it comes from an expected place.
Other students began sharing their lists. Whispers passed between Emmanuel and the girl sitting next to him, Annabel. Suddenly, Annabel announced loudly: “Emmanuel, aren’t you a sergeant in the junior ROTC?”
I stopped dead in my tracks.
“What?” I yelped, turning on my heel and looking directly at him. “You’re a sergeant in the junior ROTC and you think that’s nothing!?! Emmanuel, that’s huge! Think about all the things that says about you. It means your committed, determined, disciplined.” Looking rather surprised, it was clear Emmanuel had never thought of it that way.
Since this happened a few months ago, Emmanuel now has an excellent mentor, George Mayer, to work with at the Boys and Girls Club. Annabel helped him realize his great potential. And the changes Emmanuel has undergone are remarkable. I am sad to report that his mother is being transferred again and now he has to move to Florida. While that breaks my heart as I moved many times in my life and know the struggle, I was able to tell Emmanuel that he will survive because now he has a better sense of himself.
Proudly coming to my most recent writer’s workshop, Emmanuel wore his crisp blue junior ROTC uniform, polished black shoes and stood tall. I asked him to write a piece about his mentor in the next 10 minutes. When I read it, I was so moved I made him share it with all the class and told his story that when he joined he wouldn’t write a line.
I’d like to share this with you, readers, because in every child there is a gold nugget just waiting to be mined:

About George Mayer, my mentor
It was about eight weeks ago when I met my mentor. When I first set eyes on him, I’m not going to lie, I didn’t know what to think. However, the second he started talking and telling me about himself, I was profoundly amazed. He started telling me how he survived the most devastating tragedies of humanity. That tragedy was the Holocaust, and based on his experiences from surviving the Holocaust, and being accommodated by some of his closest friends, who were surprisingly German. That kind of altruism and amity inspired him to go out and help other people the same way he was helped in his time of need.
Later on, he asked me what my aspirations were and what my ultimate goal in life was and when I was able to confide in him, I felt like finally there was a person who was willing to listen to me and my story. I told him my dream was to be deeply involved in law, perhaps a district or defense attorney. I told him what I was able to overcome and he even suggested to me some advice on some of my current problems. I am 17-years-old and in the J.R.O.T.C. program with a 4.0 GPA for the fall semester in my junior year and I aspire to be a district attorney.
I chose that profession because I believe that people should hold themselves accountable for their actions no matter what the circumstances are and once they stoop themselves below reproach, they must suffer the consequences. I feel I can be one of those people that forces people to hold themselves accountable for their actions.
Anyway, I also found that Mr. George has an extreme passion for sports, especially college sports. I was shocked as I have the same interests as him in professional basketball and we would talk about who is going to win the championships and who is going to win the MVP. The only thing that I found presented a problem was that I only get to see him once a week and sometimes, I’m not there (Boys and Girls Club) that day. Other than that, I have the utmost gratitude and respect for his influence on me and how I want to live my life.
I hope I can be the kind of person in the future that has had the impact on people’s lives as he has had on mine. When I am able to do that, I will be able to say that: “’Hey, I made a difference.” I did everything I could to better myself and increase the welfare of all humanity. Until then, I will continue to work for my goals.

Bravo, Emmanuel! One thing for sure, now you can write!

Remember when I told you about the LA Surfbus – which takes inner city kids on waves, literally, and teaches them to enjoy the ocean – and be safe?
One day a week and all summer long, the kids learn how to dive into waves and ride them in, climbing on surf boards, flying on bogey boards and often body surf to the shore line – and many of these children have never even been to the beach.
Toward the end of the summer, I was able to surf over to Huntington Beach and spot
the kids in the waves myself. Some of the kids thought it was the last day and when I told them it wasn’t, they were begging me to let them come back.
I, unfortunately, wasn’t the woman to grant them that magic wish. But Mary Setterholm, a surfing champion, was. When they surrounded her to ask if they could return, she nodded her head with a smile and the kids ran off screaming in the ocean: “We get to come back. We get to come back,” and then gleefully, some of them jumped on their instructor’s back.
Here’s what the kid’s said to me about the program:

§ --Lauren Alleshouse, 8, : “I learned to go by myself and when this big wave was coming, I made it all the way to the shore.”

§ --Kaitlyn Andrews, 10, who lives near the water, said: “I’ve lived by the beach my whole life and don’t swim. I just had a good time and I’m not scared I’m going to drowning anymore. I learned to surf, body board, go under waves. I never did that before.”

§ --Charlene Ramirez, 8, “What did I learn? I learned about surfing. It’s a lot of work to learn and you have to keep practicing.”

§ --Tatianna Newborn, 8, “I liked going under the waves and throwing water at the instructors.”

§ --Chris Vu, 7, who jumped on the back of a surfboard and rode it into the shore: “Actually this is my first time. I was just lucky I guess.”

§ --Kyria Washington, 12, “It was the first time I ever learned bogey boarding. We got to swim around and I learned how to swim in deep, deep, deep water.”

Mary, who won the women’s national surfing championships in 1972, became like a magic fairy Surfmother – after an incident at the beach took her for another journey in life. She was teaching a bunch of kids how to surf when all of a sudden lifeguards ran by and a helicopter flew overhead Later, she learned a 13-year-old girl, who had come from the inner city, had drowned.
That’s when she decided she would get as many land locked kids down to the beach, especially kids who wouldn’t normally receive such opportunities. She pays for the program through donations and her private Surf Academy.
Every day, I thank God for people like Mary. She may not have been able to stop that little girl from drowning that day, but she probably will help prevent such horrible mishaps in the future.
And that’s no wipe out.

http://www.paigeyfund.com/


This one’s for Paigey…

In a world filled with grief and pain, the type that can turn a family upside down and make them feel as though they are about to drown, few ways seem left to surface and drink in air again.
When the Marquez family lost their sparkling 4-year-old Paige -- fished from their lives by a radical brain tumor which swamped her brain stem and later rippled along her spinal cord, the holes and gaps left behind were so enormous, it seemed they’d never be seamed together again.
The only trouble was, when you talk to the family, you know that “Paigey” wouldn’t want it that way.
Before she became ill, she had boundless energy accompanied by a sense of compassion and caring unusual to most four-year-olds, her parents, Cheryl and Tim, told me when I interviewed them and tried to make absolute sense out of such a loss when there is no logic to be had.
Paige left the family behind with these sharp, but crucial memories which would lead them on a new path:
--If a fight broke out, she would wave her arms at everyone and tell the family: “Guys, stop fighting. Stop fighting.”
--When someone wasn’t well, she turned into a family caregiver, rubbing the backs of her brother, Joseph, 8, or sister, Blake, 6. She’d care for her mom and dad in the same way.
--As family members streamed to the hospital (Cheryl stayed with her every night) they would burst into tears or start crying. That made her angry. She told them to stop. Paige only cried in the hospital when she was in extreme pain.


It’s been one year since one Paige Lauren Marquez left all of us in a snap when she told doctors to stop. She was too tired to continue the series of treatments, the poking and pinching, the medicines.
It’s been one year since the family realized that Paige would want them to heal, want them to go on, and more than anything, help other children with catastrophic illnesses. Sometimes in life, people are telling us what they want us to do the whole time – just by their own actions.
I honestly believed Paige did this for her family. She left them a simple list: stop fighting, take care of others, stop crying.
On July 15, the entire Marquez family (including cousins, uncles and aunts) held a huge, dinner fundraiser in Paige’s memory in San Pedro, California with all proceeds being donated to the groups that helped their daughter: Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center at Millers Children’s Hospital in Long Beach, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation and the Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation.
The goal was to raise $10,000. At this point, nearly $17,000 (and more keeps pouring in) have swamped the memorial fund. Often just when people see Paige’s picture – her gurggling smiles and mischievous eyes – they whip out their check books. You just can’t help it when you look at her photo – her eyes and smiles tell you what to do.
If your heart so incline’s you, look up www.paigeyfund.com to give donations to this site or call (310) 892-3503.
I couldn’t help giving myself. I knew Paige would want me too.
And Paigey…to you specifically: you are “somewhere over the rainbow…with skies of blue and clouds of white…where trouble melts like lemon drops…”
Thank you for helping other kids. It’s that simple.

Diana L. Chapman
Mary Setterholm is a woman after my own heart. Her mission: to take inner city kids to the beach, teach them about water, surfing, waves and how to survive in the sea.
Her reason: She never wants to see a kid drown again. When I heard about Mary from a mutual friend, I knew I had to meet her for, if for nothing else, inspiration. She cares about kids other than the five she raised--two of whom help her with her mission today.
This Hermosa Beach resident, a 1972 U.S. women’s surfing champion, who teaches kids about the sea will take hundreds of kids from all over the impoverished sections of Los Angeles – most of whom know little about the ocean -- and they will board Mary’s LA Surfbus once a week, drive to Huntington Beach or to other beaches and learn about the ocean in ways they could never have imagined.
By the end of the summer, kids who were once terrified of waves will likely know how to surf them. At a minimum, they will understand the ocean much better. And they will learn all this for free. Mary runs the program with proceeds from her Surf Academy in Hermosa Beach – a school designed to teach anyone how to surf, from young pups to the elderly.
But this didn’t happen before she went through her own wild journeys, quitting the surfing life around 20, moving to New York for school, becoming a fashion designer and then a sales manager at Nordstrom’s when she returned to California. But she wasn’t sure if this was what she should be doing with her life.
In 1998 while recuperating from a horrendous bicycle accident, she went to the beach and prayed, asking God what she was supposed to do. In her head, she heard a strong voice announce: “You are supposed to teach surfing.”
“I could feel there was a big something missing, but I never thought I’d go back to surfing again,” she mused over a cup of coffee. Mary, 50, looks exactly how you’d expect a surfer to look: strong and healthy, short-but-shaggy blonde hair and a Volkswagen van with dive suits stuffed insid, fallling out of plastic baskets, and surfboards perched on top the van.
“I was told to go back to your first love,” Mary revealed. “It was like I knocked on the door and was let in.” Soon after that, she began teaching surfing classes for the city of Manhattan Beach, but the lists of interested people grew endless and she began thinking about starting her own company.
In 1999, she caught another wave of change – this time, forever. She was teaching a group of about 30 kids south of the Manhattan Beach pier when the entire beach became enflamed. Helicopters buzzed overhead. Lifeguards and paramedics raced by. A 12-year-old girl – Mary remembers the name to this day, Teresa Alexander--had skipped school, taken a bus from Los Angeles to the beach and was swept away by a riptide. The girl drowned.
Mary felt overwhelmed and helpless but with a keen sense of urgency that she was there to prevent further drownings like this. She began asking parents to bring “water shy” children to her and she would teach them to swim and surf and the ways of the ocean for free. But her desire to bring hundreds of children, especially inner city kids who might never have seen the water, to the beach bloomed especially after she began her Surf Academy business.
One hundred employees and seven-days-a week-of surf lessons later, Mary dumped in much of her own money to pay for LA Surf bus. She works primarily through city recreation departments and organizations like the Boys & Girls Club.
This year, she connected with the San Pedro club on Cabrillo Avenue. Antonio Prieto, the branch director, said he’s thrilled to give his kids this chance.
“It’s a great opportunity, especially with someone of her caliber,” he says. “We’re going to send about 25 kids. Our slots will be full.”
Because Mary spends much of her own money to support the cause, she was delighted when the Automobile Club of Southern California made LA Surfbus the focus of its “battery roundup” fundraising effort in April. The company donated $1.50 for every car battery dropped off at recycling centers – a win-win for everyone because it helps keep battery poisons away from children, animals and the ocean environment.
“I’ve never received so many phone calls in a day,” said Elaine Beno, an Auto Club spokeswoman. I’m just delighted someone else has taken up a cause that has bothered me for years, since the first couple of times I wrote about inner city teenagers drowning at South Bay beaches.
But you don’t have to go to the inner city to find kids who can’t swim. I discovered that when I found hundreds of local kids at Peck Park Pool who had no idea how to do the crawl – and they live near the beach!
When Mary launched the program in May 2002, she went to McArthur Park in downtown Los Angeles for a “dry beach day,” putting inner tubes beneath surfboards to give kids the feel of bouncing across waves, or “liquid silver,” as she calls it.
“These kids had never even seen a surfboard!” she exclaimed. “All I know is that going to this extreme, lives are changing, and they will continue to change for generations to come.”
To make a contribution to LA Surfbus, write to Mary Setterholm, director, LA Surfbus, 302 19th Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 or call (310) 372-2790.
To suggest column ideas involving kids to Diana Chapman, email her at hartchap@earthlink.com.

To blog about kids.

That is the mission of The Underdog for Kids site.

It's about anything to do with children that pertains to daily life: where to go in town , where to travel, different folks stretching out a helping hand to mentor, bad kids, good kids, new programs in school – anything I can do to help the public understand the difficult circumstances that children face today.

Currently a newspaper columnist, I want to expand beyond writing about things to do with kids like visiting a museum or the zoo. I want to write about issues involving children I stumble onto every day.

As a parent volunteer at Los Angeles Unified School District campuses, I have many things to share with other parents about how their children try to cope in school. Believe me, things happen at all schools--they are like small cities, after all--that we should all be aware of, whether the school is public or private, in a wealthy community or one that is middle-class or poor. I invite you to add your experiences to this blog site.

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Today's menu: Mayoral Takeover of Los Angeles Unified School District

Car pooling with the kids to their local middle school, I announced to them that the Los Angeles mayor forced his way in the door and was successfully paving his way to break in and takeover the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Their reaction:

“That’s it, I’m moving to San Diego,” announced a 13-year-old student whose father is heavily involved in Los Angeles city politics in our region.

My own son, who loves San Pedro where we live, immediately agreed that he wanted to move out of Los Angeles, too.

At first it surprised me, but when I thought about it, it became clear what was happening here. Both children have been subjected to watching their parents frustration over the years tackle one giant, unwielding, unforgiving, entrenched beaucracy: the city of Los Angeles.
I choke everytime I hear Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa bleat that the school district forces a “one glove fits all” attitude across the board and uses that as one of the many springboards to the reason why he should run the school district.

The powerful move, which only pushes his own politcal agenda (I believe he wants next to be California’s governor and then the first Hispanic president of the United States) makes my stomach churn after watching scores of troubles within the city – where I’ve seen mucho prominence of the “one glove fits all" atttitude.

It’s not the school district that’s driving me mad. I’m not entirely pleased with it and I can see a break up is truly necessary. However, everytime I’ve knocked at my kid’s school doors, they’ve let me in willingly to volunteer and I do so, every chance I get, so I can help not just my own son – but scores of Los Angeles kids.

Here are my questions that we all should be asking:

--Why has the mayor avoided the residents, the parents in particular, in this arrangement he’s creating up in Sacramento? Why does he think he should take away our rights – our rights as residents and citizens to vote – a right we used when we voted for the board members of our school district regions? Why should we give up those rights?

--Why is the fight not in Los Angeles where it belongs? Why, in fact, does this not get placed on a ballot measure so all of us can decide and have a vote. We all know why it’s not being done here. It would never pass.

--Why would any of us want the mayor to run our schools when he has yet to clean up his own backyard? There are hundreds of examples I can give where the city breaks down completely. Here are some:

--Our local city-run pool couldn’t even make change for patrons coming to the pool to swim laps, and were told to go to McDonald’s to get some…many times. (The city is too afraid employees will steal the money.) “What do you suggest we do?” a manager asked me. Geez, it’s not rocket science.

--Our local, city-run animal shelter couldn’t give change to a woman trying to adopt a dog and told her she get change herself. I just prayed she would come back so that the animal didn’t get put down instead.

--When I begged the city to remove a giant, city-planted ficus tree from in front of our house because it was throttling our sewer line, they refused because the tree helped protect the environment. Whatever trouble the tree was causing, city officials said, was our problem because it is a “privilege” for residents to tap into city sewer lines even if roots (city roots, I might add) are clogging them.

When the same tree fell from the weight of its branches, missing our house by a few inches, it took months for an aide from our councilwoman’s office to get the stump removed – and not without hitches. The first time the crews showed up, they left because neighbors were parked in the way. Then, the city came out and put up barriers but left them for weeks at a time to the point that the neighbors began parking there, anyway. After more calls, a city crewman showed up after driving down from East Los Angeles (40 miles away) – to do what? To put up barriers, which his boss "told him to do.” “You had to drive down here just for that?" I said. "As you can see, they're already here!” He was as chagrined as I was. I wonder how much the taxpayers paid that employee to waste his time.

With the tree now gone (God must have been on our side), I called the city to repair the sidewalk. The city tree roots lifting up so that my nickname for the incline is Skateboard Ridge. All the kids love running and skateboarding across it – an accident waiting to happen so we all can be sued. Again, I tried to go through the council office and talk to street services, but I was rebuffed with one man telling me in street services: “We’ll get to it in 15 years.”

I sat on the city’s Peck Park Advisory Board for eight years and watched the city promote employees who were yes-folks to their bosses and who climbed the ladder – and were completely incompetent obstructionists. The people who forged ahead to fight for the community were brutally battered by their bosses – to the point, they finally quit.

That pattern happens repeatedly.

I watched city officials tell advisory boards that they couldn’t do the things they wanted. It just would not work. It was just always easier for city employees to say “that can’t be done” then to actually get things done.

There are many stories to tell about problems with the city of Los Angeles. But I don't want to bore you with dozens and dozens of examples. And I know the school district is by far from perfect. But I just can't, for the life of me, understand the logic of one giant, inept bureaucracy taking over another that it calls inept -- when it is not without a few giant, ugly red blemishes of its own.

So this is my question to my mayor: How can a city that runs so poorly take over a school district? Could you, Mr. Mayor, please, please clean up your own backyard first? Then perhaps we can all believe in you.