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To show support for a teammate battling cancer, the Lowell High School football team and friends will participate in Saints Medical Center’s cancer walk this Saturday, Sept. 20.  The one- or three-mile walk starts at Two Hospital Drive in Lowell and returns to the center for music, fun and refreshments. For more information on the walk, check here. Also, tomorrow night you can show your support for the Red Raiders as they face Nashua in their first varsity home game of the 2008 season (7 p.m. Cawley Stadium). In true LHS tradition, these boys not only know how to play football, they know what it means to be good sportsmen with big hearts. Go Red Raiders!

Have you been up to Parlee Farms this year? Today, you can pick your own apples, flowers and raspberries, or at the Farmstand, they still have fresh peaches as well as apples, blueberries, strawberries and corn. The rarity of a fresh, local peach is something that I have come to cherish, and I’ll go a ways out of my way to get one. I always get a sense of peace and serenity just turning down Farwell Road, lined with stone walls and overhung with trees, it’s like going back in time 30 or so years, then rounding the corner to the welcoming sight of the farm and fields – so much ordered prosperity delights the eye. (It’s a great place to bring the kids, too – they have hayrides, homemade ice cream, fresh donuts and animals!)

I wasn’t really sure who Rep. Jay Kaufman (15th Middlesex) was (until I googled him) but I’m on his email list and I found out that he is hosting a forum on Question 1. It’s tomorrow night, Thursday, September 17 at 7:30 pm at the “historic depot on Massachusetts Ave in downtown Lexington.” As decribed in the email, this will be an in-depth look at both sides of Question 1:

from an end to overburdening policies and programs that force one to live in ‘Taxachusetts’ to the potential devastating loss of basic services if over $12 billion in revenue were suddenly stricken from the books

Kamel Jain, from the Committee on Small Government, which sponsored Question 1, and Michael Widmer, President of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Association, which opposes the measure, will join Rep. Kaufman.

So, thanks Rep. Kaufman for doing this. I’m not sure how I got on your mailing list, but I like your style. I think there should be more of these face-to-face encounters and hashing out of issues in public and apparently he makes a regular habit of hosting these public policy forums. This one could not be more timely or pertinent. Unfortunately, I can’t make it so I really hope some other bloggers attend and can report back.

I’ve been distracted and I apologize for my earlier post with an incorrect address for tonight’s Lowell School Committee meeting to discuss sex education. The address for tonight’s meeting is actually 155 Merrimack Street (school department headquarters) second floor at 7 p.m.

It’s a rainy Sunday; take a minute and enjoy this music video on YouTube by Cory at smpfilms. My daughter showed us the video today and we all enjoyed a laugh at Sparta’s antics and Cory’s catchy tune and lyrics. Aside from the fact that Sparta bears an uncanny resemblance to our own cat, the video captures a slice of life with a “mean kitty” and was definitely worth watching. We ended up hovering around the computer to watch a few other films by Cory featuring his cat, and I thought I’d share Identity Crisis with you as well. Who says a cat can’t act like a dog?

After writing my post on Question 1, when I urge others not to vote “yes” in a knee-jerk reaction to the whole idea of taxes, it occurred to me that I could be accused of the same thing in my support for the income tax and the idea of taxes in general. My position is that taxes pay for what we need as a society, for civilization – good schools, police protection, fire safety, sidewalks, clean streets and a social safety net that protects all of us in case of hard times. In each case, it would be much less cost-effective and efficient to take care of these issues on our own. Spreading the cost among many achieves economies of scale that the individual cannot command. As for tax cuts fueling economic growth, that pipe-dream just won’t die. The Libertarian-backed group behind Question 1 (in 2002 and 2008) gives the usual reasons reasons to get rid of the Income Tax, they state:

3. In productive, private hands this $11 Billion a year will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in Massachusetts.

As it happens, an article in the Sunday Globe Ideas section addressed this very idea, saying that while the belief that big government and taxes stifle economic growth is widely held, there is no hard evidence to support it. Recent studies by mainstream economists seem to show just the opposite is true, and that government interventions and programs have been ‘vital contributors to growth’ through investments in the railroads, land purchases, R&D, and more. Currently, the author concludes, the lack of belief in government (think New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina for the end result of that kind of thinking) has stymied the kind of investments that need to be made in infrastructure, healthcare and education. He concludes:

a nation steeped in antigovernment economics, the idea that government cannot be of help – or that taxes are not worth paying – is now seriously jeopardizing its future. There is no rich nation in the world today, including America, that has grown wealthy without significant government involvement. And there will be no rich nation in the future that can stay wealthy without robust government, either.

The Citywide Parent Council (CPC) will meet Monday, September 15, from 7:00- 9:00 pm, at the McAuliffe School . The “Welcome Back” meeting will be aimed at answering questions and easing the transition to a new year for parents and students alike. In addition, you can meet the new CPC Board members and find out what the group is all about. The CPC is a great way to learn your way around the system, network with other parents and advocate for your child. Everyone is welcome! (Unfortunately, as Jackie points out in her earlier post, the school committee’s curriculum sub-committee is meeting at the same time; so Jackie and other committee members won’t be able to make the CPC meeting, and interested parents will have to divide up to attend both or give one of the meetings a miss.)

This morning dawned bright and crisp, similar in many ways to Sept. 11, 2001, a day forever etched in our hearts as a national tragedy. This morning, we remembered 9-11 together in a moving ceremony in the courtyard at Lowell High School led by the Jr. ROTC Honor Guard with accompaniment from the high school’s show choir, students, staff and school administrators. As the superintendent noted in her remarks, most high school students were in elementary school when those jets slammed into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, but the adults remember exactly where we were when we learned of the attacks. We remember this day as we do other days that have marked our national consciousness—from the assassinations of beloved leaders to the bombing of Pearl Harbor—because it is important to recognize the sacrifice of others as a way to appreciate the gifts we live today. Yesterday, the Boston Globe ran an op ed that noted a different kind of remembering—one that also resonated with me because it spoke of hope and moving forward: “On Sept. 12, 2001, America’s tragedy elicited sympathy from all over the world, including places as unlikely as Tehran. Thousands of Iranians spontaneously lit candles in solidarity with the families of victims and the American people.”

Perhaps we have squandered that goodwill as the authors claim. Perhaps our current administration’s tendency to rattle the sword rather than sit at the table of diplomacy has not made us safer, instead fueling those who hate and would destroy us, and leading us down a slippery slope of ongoing battles. As we look toward new leadership this fall, I hope voters will remember the attacks of 9-11, not as an impetus for revenge or fear, but as a tool to bring reasonable people together worldwide to create a new kind of international community—one that recognizes the mutual benefits of peace.

While teen pregnancy took center stage nationally with the news that GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s unwed 17-year old daughter is expecting, it is also an issue that is hot in Lowell these days. At its curriculum subcommittee meeting on Monday, Sept. 15, the Lowell School Committee will explore offering comprehensive sex education to its students as opposed to the program in place since 2003 when district budget cuts and federal funding mandated abstinence-only programs.  It is no secret that teen pregnancies directly correlate to dropout rates and poverty. What is debatable, however, is the role schools should play and the impact these programs have on teen behavior. As these responses (100+ comments) to an Aug. 21 article in the Sun show, sex education is controversial and fraught with misconceptions. The subcommittee meeting on Monday (2^nd floor, 155 Middlesex Street at 7 p.m.) is open to the public and should shed some light on the issue. It’s also important to remember, as this Globe article notes, many teen parents do not come from financially secure, supportive families as Palin’s, and of the 100 or so teen parents currently attending LHS, most struggle with basic living expenses and being able to attend school. Although some GOP supporters want to make Palin and her daughter heroines, I can’t help but see the irony of her family’s situation given her own and her party’s positions on sex education, contraception, and a women’s right to choose. The reality is most unwed teens continue a cycle of poverty they themselves were born into; it is only through education that we can stem that tide.

I was using an old website for Congresswoman Tsongas and couldn’t figure out why it didn’t seem up to date. Here’s the proper link
A friend forwarded to me Congresswoman Niki Tsongas’ email update, called “Congress in your In-box.” I learned what Niki had been up to lately, especially that she had been in Lowell visiting the schools with our new Super. She heard from teachers about the demands of No Child Left Behind and summarized her findings:

The law was also supposed to provided additional funding over subsequent years as standards and expectations increased; however, the federal government has not provided the resources that the law promised for the succeeding years. These funding increases called for under the Act were intended to keep in step with the increase in targets for student performance. As a result of the lack of funding, schools are often unable to meet student learning standards required by the law further compounding the problem it was intended to address.

In other news, Niki recognized the efforts of ONE Lowell to help decrease truancy among ethnically diverse high school and middle school students, achieving improvement in 76% of their cases so far this year. From Niki:

Earlier this week, I was pleased to announce that the Department of Health and Human Services had awarded a federal grant in the amount of $93,397 to ONE Lowell in support of their efforts.

It is great to hear that this organization is getting the funding and recognition that it deserves. This is truly how we stop leaving children behind, rather than through unrealistic, unfunded mandates.

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