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High school is hard enough without enduring bullying. But when there is constant verbal abuse, and fear of worse, learning becomes impossible.
Rick Bartalini
Part of the pain of his high school years, said Rick Bartalini, was feeling the absence of support or protection from his teachers, even though, he admitted, they probably had little idea how they could help. But with the perspective of adulthood, he suggested that even small gestures to reign in the most overt verbal abuse would have been important and meaningful.
Bartalini was interviewed before the Montgomery teachers by Phyllis Rosenfield, founder of Listening for a Change.
The image of the Golden Gate Bridge is immediately recognizable worldwide. Composer Rob Kapilow has embraced the challenge of translating that image into music.
One of Kapilow's first scheduled "research" meetings was with the members of the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, none of whom, he says, had ever talked with a living composer before. But it didn't take long to get past that, and into a playful--and fruitful--exchange about the sounds the young musicians associate with the iconic bridge just down the freeway.
Unabashedly inspired by the example of Leonard Bernstein, Kapilow is something of a modern-day classical music resinssance man, but he sees it all as working toward the ultimate goal building a wider understanding and appreication of the music he himself loves.
Kapilow welcomes suggestions and ideas for the new symphonic pice, which can be submitted to his Facebook page.
As the legal jeopardy associated with marijuana diminishes in California, increased attention is being focuses on it's healing properties. That was the subject of a symposium over the weekend in Ukiah, titled Cannabis as Medicine.
Dr. Jean TalleyrandThe weaving of hemp--a botanical cousin to cannabis--has been documented as far back as 8000 BC in Persia and Asia, reports Dr. Jean Talleyrand, and there's a written record of medicinal use for the herb in China that dates to 2700 BC.
The US government's official stance has long been that there is no medicinal value to be had from marijuana under any circumstances. But Talleyrand says that position was belied by the creation and sanction of a synthetic version that was branded "marinol."
All across America, even here in California, political progressives have been dispirited and depressed by the apparent abrupt change in the electoral landscape last November. But a leading progressive activist argues that this is a mis-reading of what actually happened, and buying into it is a serious mistake.
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Rabbi Michael Lerner pulls no punches in holding President Obama accountable for the decisive Republican gains in the November 2010 midterm elections, but he sees no indications that the president has taken away anything from those outcomes that is prompting any reconsideration of the course he has charted.
Lerner sounds some of these same themes in his recent Huff Post article, Ten Commandments to Revive Progressives after the November Defeat. But he also cautions that while the ideas and ideals on the left have merit and should be part of a vigorous political debate, they often come freighted with attitudes that undermine those goals.
Calling the Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the US Constitution (ESRA) unrealistic and over-reaching is missing the point, Lerner says. As was the case a generation earlier with the Equal Rights Amendment, promoting a widespread discussion of the ideas in the measure can in itself become a means of effecting change.
Rabbi Michael Lerner will talk about the ESRA and a renewed progressive agenda in an appearance at the First Congregational Church in Sonoma on Sunday, January 23rd at 3 pm. Sponsored by the Praxis Peace Institute.
Read the full text of the proposed ESRA (Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the US Constitution) here.
Trade and tourism will lead the local economy as it climbs out of the Great Recession, but job growth will be slow for at least another year, and require thousands of displaced workers to find training and employment in new fields, because their old jobs are likely gone forever.
Dr. Jerry Nicklesberg
UCLA senior economist Dr. Jerry Nicklesberg also downplayed concerns about the weakness of the dollar versus other currencies internationally. He sees that as a good thing for California's trade and tourism.
The California political landscape also shapes the state's business growth prospects, and Nickelsberg says the results of the November 2010 election sent some clear economic messages to Sacramento.
Dr. Nickelsberg mad his presentation at the 8th annual State of the County porgam Wednesday morning. Efren Carillo, new chair of the Sonoma CountyBoard of Supervisors presented the State of the County address, which you can hear here.
