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Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes testifies during the first day of the legislative special session Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, in Carson City.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 | 2 a.m.
In Today's Sun
Reader poll
Raw video of rally
Sun Archives
- Session sets the tone for 2011 (3-1-10)
- Legislature’s actions will bring higher fees for many Nevadans (3-1-10)
- Budget gets OK as session ends; sales tax extended for roads (2-28-10)
- UNLV students let their voices be heard on proposed education cuts (2-10-2010)
- Hundreds rally to protest governor’s proposed budget cuts (2-9-2010)
- Governor sounds like the GOP candidate he is, observers say (2-9-2010)
- The bleeding of education: Gibbons faults ‘whining’ about school funding (2-9-2010)
- Cuts would dramatically shrink Nevada safety net (2-9-2010)
- Gibbons: No battle expected over taxes during special session (2-8-2010)
- Governor plans emergency address on Nevada budget (2-7-10)
- Governor’s speech will lay out state’s budget problems (2-7-10)
- State budget comes up $800 million short (1-22-10)
Sun Coverage
History suggests that Nevada’s public schools may never recover from the budget cuts being required of them by legislators after this weekend.
Consider what has happened since 2001, when the Clark County School District increased class sizes in grades 4 through 12 in order to save tens of millions of dollars. Larger classes meant fewer teachers to pay.
“I thought we would work our way back out of that in a year or two,” said Superintendent Walt Rulffes, who as the chief financial officer at the time was responsible for signing off on the operating budget. “But it never happened. It just got worse.”
Now, with the Legislature’s special-session mandate that the district trim 6.9 percent from its operating budget, Rulffes wonders whether the district will ever be able to restore what is being lost this time.
State Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson, chairwoman of the Legislative Committee on Education, said she and other lawmakers share Rulffes’ fears.
“One could argue you never really do catch back up,” said Woodhouse, a retired educator who ran the School District’s community partnership program. “You’ve lost the momentum you would have had if you had kept on going, even if it was small steps.”
And for much of the past decade, “small steps” are exactly what Nevada had been clinging to as evidence of progress in academic achievement: slow and steady improvement in graduation and dropout rates, tiny gains in average student test scores on national exams, more opportunities for career and technical education, increased funding for full-day kindergarten.
When the budget crisis began more than two years ago, one of the first items on the state’s chopping block were tens of millions of dollars in grants for innovation and remediation in the state’s K-12 schools. Also lost was funding for “empowerment,” a pilot program that provided extra per-pupil dollars to schools and more control over daily operations in exchange for stricter accountability. A statewide “pay for performance” model for teachers has also been abandoned.
The new fear is that changes required by the latest cuts — with more budget shortfalls expected when the 2011 Legislature convenes — will become part of Nevada’s public education DNA.
“As much as possible, we need sunset provisions, so we don’t get stuck with them in perpetuity,” said Alison Turner, president of the Nevada PTA. “But the reality is, some of these things are never coming back.”
If there’s a silver lining to the special session, Turner said, it’s that lawmakers hammered out an agreement to change state statute so that Nevada can qualify for the federal “Race to the Top” grant program. The Silver State had been excluded because of a law that prohibited using student test data in teacher evaluations. Nevada could be eligible for up to $167 million in grants for public school reform.
“We consider that a significant victory,” Turner said. “We have some proven, research-based programs that were in place already in Nevada and lost their funding. And we have some school reforms that are just waiting for the federal money.”
Although the 6.9 percent cut in public education is certainly better than some of the worse-case scenarios that had been floated in recent months, local schools will still take a hit.
The Clark County School District’s share of the cuts comes to $123 million trimmed from the general fund, and $25 million that would have gone to capital expenses such as campus renovations and repairs.
The district currently is under budget by about $40 million in the 2010 fiscal year, and Rulffes plans to apply that savings toward the $123 million target.
The Legislature also approved letting districts put off replacing textbooks and instructional supplies for a year, a savings of $10 million, leaving Rulffes with $73 million more to cut.
Rulffes plans to recommend reducing school and central office administration by 10 percent — roughly 120 jobs — at a savings of $11 million. The district also intends to increase class sizes (sound familiar?) by one student per room in grades 1 and 2 and up to two students per room in grade 3, saving $30 million largely by eliminating 540 teaching positions. The lower grades had previously been protected by the state’s class size-reduction mandate, which lawmakers agreed to temporarily suspend.
District officials are hopeful that such extensive layoffs won’t be necessary. It’s likely that enough people will retire or relocate at the end of the academic year that most of the teachers who lose their grades 1 through 3 classroom assignments will be reassigned, although “finding the right fit will certainly be a challenge,” Rulffes said.
That leaves $32 million left to cut, and that’s where contract negotiations with employees’ unions come into play. With personnel costs accounting for more than 86 percent of the district’s operating budget, cuts in salaries and benefits will have to be part of the discussion, Rulffes said.
“We know this is going to be a very difficult year,” Rulffes said. “And the next biennium isn’t looking much better. We fully realize there isn’t enough money to go around, and that’s why shared sacrifice is the best route.”
One option might be delaying step increases to employee salaries, which would save $26 million annually. And eliminating one of the noninstructional days in the teachers’ contracts would save approximately $9 million.
If the district can’t win the union’s support on those fronts, “we would probably have to implement the elimination of another 500 jobs,” Rulffes said.
Ruben Murillo, president of the Clark County Education Association, said he thinks that through negotiations “we’ll come out with some sort of plan that minimizes the impact on students and teachers.”
Former state Sen. Bill Raggio, shown here during the 2010 special legislative session, died Thursday at age 85 after falling ill while on a trip in Australia with his wife, Dale.
Nevada’s public colleges and universities are also facing 6.9 percent reductions in state funding, and there are similar fears that what’s cut won’t be restored. That could mean eliminated degree and research programs, larger class sizes and higher costs for students.
“Things that go away tend not to come back,” university system Chancellor Dan Klaich said Monday. “The outlook for the revenue in this state, based on what our tax structure is right now, isn’t good. I don’t think any of us can look forward to a speedy or robust recovery that would support bringing things back quickly.”
College and university presidents are meeting with faculty and staff on proposals for meeting the mandated budget cuts, and tentative plans are expected in the coming weeks.
Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the budget crisis is forcing education leaders to scrutinize their spending and make appropriate changes, and “that probably can be therapeutic in the long run … I expect some funding restoration as our economy improves. These are austere measures taken in tough times.”
And certainly, time will tell.
We just don't value education enough to protect it and our children's future when times are tough.
Oh, well, at least Steve Wynn didn't have to give up some of his fortune to help the budget shortfall. Maybe he will volunteer his time in the classroom instead? What could he teach our young people that would be of the same value as the millions they just lost...hmmm...
Mention Steve Wynn, but did Ruffles take a pay cut? How about the other educrats? Why are they so special?
If you cut the pay of firefighters in Clark County so it would be the same as North Las Vegas, it would save about 66.5 million dollars a year. But no, people like Ruffles and the firefighters are too greedy to give up some of their 6 figure salaries. Then you blame Steve Wynn.
Steve Wynn has created thousands of jobs for Las Vegas.
And by the way, did they cut the size of the administration? AND WHEN WILL RUFFLES OPEN THE BOOKS OF THE CCSD SO THE PUBLIC CAN SEE THEM? THE CCSD IS NOT A PRIVATE COMPANY THAT IS OWNED BY RUFFLES AND THE EDUCRATS.
Tiny gains in average test scores, but big gains in salaries for educrats and firefighters.
Put off buying new books, cut teacher salaries, lay off teachers, raise taxes on small business people, whatever it takes. But don't cut the salaries of firefighters and educrats.
Hey, Walt,
Did you ever get rid of the "teacher morale" position? Until you do, we know you aren't serious about protecting teachers and students from cuts.
Does anyone else ask, "What is wrong with this picture?"
The entire "everyone suffer" mentality is crazy but typical Nevada.
Instead of asking, "What do we need to do to take care of our state citizens", it's all about who is bleeding the most and taking it like a champ.
What a sick paradigm.
The number of students in each classroom would not be a concern if:
1. Disciplinary students were sent home.
2. All students were required to speak English before entering school.
3. Parents were held accountable for making sure their child/children completed home work assignments.
4. Standardize the education system countrywide.
5. Stop all social promotion.
China has between 50 and 100 students in every classroom. They are producing some of the smartest indiviuals in the world.
6.Place all mentally challenged students in special education classes.
7. Require all new students to pass an entrance exam before entering school
If Ruffels had all the money in Nevada the greedbag would still be whining for more. He is a total incompetent.
lv55 - Rulffes voluntarily took a 10% pay cut in October.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jan...
So now Ruffles is only making $276,300.00 a year. Hope he's not sufering too much.
Hope Ruffles and rest of the 6 figure salary educrats aren't suffering too much. If you cut the salary of someone making $307,000.00 a year by 10%, they are still making over $23,000 a month.
We could try something totally different. Allow any student to enroll in a public, charter or private school and let the state funding flow with the student.
Competition in education might just find innovation and success where the current system only finds high paid administrators with no new ideas.
I wish I had a nickel for every time I've heard this over the past year;
"AND WHEN WILL RUFFLES OPEN THE BOOKS OF THE CCSD SO THE PUBLIC CAN SEE THEM? THE CCSD IS NOT A PRIVATE COMPANY THAT IS OWNED BY RUFFLES AND THE EDUCRATS."
If you're talking about where the dollars are spent, it's all available online. OF COURSE you can see the budget, it's public information.
Ruffles have ridges, and FLAVOR!
Yes, the k-12 system has been corrupt for awhile, but yes, we still have a very strong need to provide these youngins a starting place.
'Fire the creeps!' would work if we had a backup, which we don't.
'Throw the unions out!' would work too if we wanted to go ahead and violate the rights of those people who have been doing their best to help Johnny and Maria get their lessons down.
We really to need to restart the behemoth but without the dummies.
Here's how. Entrance exams. Speak, read, write, count, add = grade k.
Write sentences, use eye contact and speak clearly, add and subtract one-digit numbers, read story and tell the events and what was memorable = grade 1.
You see where I'm going with this. Not Carnegie units. That was how we measured progress, by how many hours the kid sat on his ass. That does not promote cognitive development. We know this now. Look at Rulffes!
If a kid causes trouble, he's out until he and parents can convince teacher that tere is a good reason for the child to proceed. If not, get your own babysitter/homeschool program. Public school is for instruction, nothing else.
Drop all extras. You want to be a jock, run, lift and jump. You want a game, go to the park. Physical education, however, shall resume its rightful place in the curriculum. It's simple. Oxygen. We need it inside us. Run. Jump, Throw and get strong, coordinated and oxygenated. You survive with it; ya' don't without it. Get it?
Plays, clubs, sports - all things of the past. Too costly.
Now the big one. Pay the principal about $2,000 more than the lowest paid teacher. Hook a bonus onto that connected to performance by standardized tests. When the admin actually support classroom efforts, poof, kids gobble their little way up the learning curve. When okee dokee is good enough, Johnny sells dope and Maria does tricks.
NoMore hit it on the head. I'll go a step further. After age 14, students need to apply to stay in school. They need to convince a panel that they are motivated and willing to participate (Notice I did not say smart.). Make it a challenge. High School in current configuration is not working. The minority of motivated students have to endure poor discipline, teaching to the lowest denominator, and burned out teachers.
That $2,000 for the principal is per year.
Another thing. Principals I have known fall into two distinct categories: love kids or handle the situation.
One guy did everything possible; the other, enough to get by.
Results-Only Working Environment lessons from successful businesses world-wide dictate that we:
pay good teachers for good work;
eliminate most of the fluffy district-level positions to empower teachers and parents to collaborate, for school-business relationships to engage community and enable youth to find positive connections within their chosen fields of endeavor and curiosity;
offer alternatives to cookie-cutter, standards-based program so that individuals strong in one area may pursue their expertise track alone and with credit.
Just as a side note, when you see how many extra hours kids in foreign counties put into their own personal development and skill quiver, it'll make you shudder and quiver to see your own kid out on the world stage competing with 'em. BUT, and it's a big but, the one thing Chinese kids do NOT really understand, brotherhood. They missed this one because of their national law and their population size. Incredible human generosity flowing from one soul to another just because he's like me. We have an advantage that is spawned in our family groups that open our hearts and our minds. Now, what advantage is that?
AMEN!
Education will recover but it will be a slow process
The pay thing has a wrinkle. Pay plenty, but do NOT hook pay to performance as measured by exams. Get over the 'enough' hurdle and then take pay out of the picture. A good teacher ought to make 5 grand a month. Then let 'em do their thing. Rock stars, most of 'em.
But you cut 'em loose to shine by getting the unmotivated warehouse fodder to go home and play video games. School is a learning place, and the center of the action is what the circus director has in store for you today.
Then the learners have confidence in themselves because they know progress from the challenge, the struggle and the mastery. They find excitement in their feet.
In today's unfortunate bastardization, phony folly is the filler of time. Too few lessons that engage and way too much trivia and crayola. Going through the motions, not the emotions. The student soul is neither shaken nor stirred. It's vacant from boredom and disrespect disguised as low expectations.
Lack of challenge for today's youth when our world cries out for solutions to problems like never before is tantamount to child neglect and abuse on a galactic scale.
If it weren't for the kids, this would actually be funny. The state of Nevada has been known for I don't know how many years of not properly funding education, and of having one of the worst school systems in the country. And yet, they continue to cut, thinking that things will somehow get better. I dont think so....
Like I said, if it weren't for the kids. this would be funny.
Tighten your belts, superintendents and principals! Get rid of your friends and family members that don't actually teach.
You knew that the Stimulus money was temporary - so you went out and hired all these people...so stop whining now that you have to cut their jobs.
Obama's Race to the Top of the Heap may cost you to implement - so be ready when THAT money runs out...can't you see past the nose on your face?
Physics 101: pressure - hole - flow
Given a hole and a pressure, we can find flow.
Given a pressure and a flow, we can find hole.
Given a hole and a flow, we can find pressure.
When there's no pressure, kids get no flow.
It's not the hole's fault; it's the pressure.
Flow, baby, flow.
Push, momma, push!
Las Vegas population is shrinking and so should the budget for education.
Saving 11 million dollars by cutting 120 administration staff, the math tells us that is an average cost of almost 92,000 per position. Gee think that might be part of the problem?
Nevadappleslices is correct if the population is shrinking the budgetary needs should be also.
airweare, I'm a fan of a lot of what you're saying. I question some, but I'm not an expert in the field.
For all of you teachers out there, what do you think of the plan that Florida implemented? Essentially graded each school, and teachers at schools that improved were given bonuses. If a school was ranked below average for a certain # of years, parents had the option to send their kids to a better performing school. PLEASE put politics aside and judge the plan based on its merits, and not by the fact that a Bush was involved.
Anyway, some info can be found at: http://www.foundationforfloridasfuture.o.... It appears as though the results should speak for themselves, but it could be that different groups show different results. I do know that Florida was ranked very poorly in most education rankings about 10 years ago (about the same as Nevada) and has since moved up the ranks very quickly.
Just to be clear, I don't have any affiliation with this group, I just want to implement a solution that works, not just talk/complain and throw more money at the same, failing programs.
Oh, Rulffes is only making $270,000 a year now? Cut it another $200,000 and then I'll believe they are in trouble.
Rulffes is a major d-uchebag. Not as bad as Garcia though.
They are still receiving more money than before! And they have less students! How is this a big deal?
I'll guess what happens when you hook bonuses to improved exams. get ready... scores go down. Learning slows; fire is gone.
Teachers don't teach for the money. They teach because their little voices direct them. Same as Mother Teresa. Michael Jordan. Allen Ginsberg. Henry Ford. Guttenburg. Einstein.
Hooking bonuses on their kids' progress or their school's AYP is akin to pimping them at the PTA meetings. "Here we have a young philly, 28 years old, 36-24-36, BA in English, M.Ed in Teaching Composition, kids love her lessons, great legs, tight sweaters, what do I hear? twenty, twenty-two. Trying to make a teacher believe it's really about the money is like callin 'em nappy headed hoes. They ain't.
They ain't nappy headed hoes, and they ain't fer sale cheap.
Pay 'em 5 or 10 grand a month and let 'em show you what progess smells like. Kids publish at ten. Scholarships at 15. College grad at 18. Sought. Appreciated.
But hook that dough to increments on exams, and poof! 'Spit in somebody else's art, Mac. I'm history!'
Call me crazy. That noble profession doesn't call and sustain the corporate money types; it appeals to those who would do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. Equipping youngins with skills and basics is a helping profession, not a high-dollar profit thing.
The good teachers are underpaid; the lousy ones are hanging on and dragging down the gene pool, and it's top-heavy, i.e., with admin taking the most and doing the least.
The good teacher can be seen caught in rapt amazement at the responses of a child to a good question just like Rodin watching the chunks fall away from a mallet blow, just like a line in Ulysses rubbing off a pencil under James Joyce's fingers or a sliver of copper from the stroke by Rembrandt.
It's really not at all about some currency; it's holier, less common and beyond price. It's a purpose-driven statement of the best a person can give to humanity; it's an autonmous declaration of values. Put a price on vision? How?
MysterMr:
I'm pretty sure there aren't many of us who miss Garcia!
NoMore:
I agree with you about national curriculum standardization. They do that at the higher levels via accreditation. I also agree about stoping social promotion. But, I do have problems with some of the rest. (see below)
Airweare:
Who do we pay to create such Entrance exams? What is the standard minimum? You said: "Speak, read, write, count, add = grade k."
Speak how many words? Which words? Read how many, and what sort? Count how high? Add how many numbers? What do we do with the kids who are bright, but shy? If we only require they learn to read, say, three-letter words, how do we instruct them on how to take the test?
It's easy for us to say a child must learn X and Y, before advancing to the next grade. It's the teacher's job to spend the year teaching those concepts.
But no one passes out a checklist on what your child needs to know before sending them to school.(If they DO, I didn't get one, when I left the hospital!)
Even if there were some sort of list, if the child only passes 98% of those items, do you admit them in November, when they master the other 2%? Or do you allow them to stagnate, until the following September?
Either way- please people- no more talk of cutting things like recess. Of course a child is going to fidget, or cause disruptions if they have no other way to release that energy. It's not ALL ADHD, you know!
Airweare:
Joyce? Rhodin? Rembrandt? In public schools?
Ain't from 'round HERE, are ya, boy? ;)
"BUT, and it's a big but, the one thing Chinese kids do NOT really understand, brotherhood. They missed this one because of their national law and their population size. Incredible human generosity flowing from one soul to another just because he's like me. We have an advantage that is spawned in our family groups that open our hearts and our minds. Now, what advantage is that?"
airweare, that is the DUMBEST statement I've ever read from you. so all this "incredible human generosity" must explain our violent crime and murder rates, which are the highest of any developed nation.
jeez your blatant racism is showing. get a clue.
yeah, this "advantage that is spawned in our family groups" is why the younger generation of chinese will work a large portion of their lives to support their aging parents, who are closely included in raising the grandchildren, while here in the US we ship them off to "old folks" homes.
How can all of you think that this is good for children. You must not have children in school. I do and this hurts their ability to learn what they need from qualified teachers. Im sure not all teachers are in it for the right reason, but they are not earning six figures. You can scream all you want about administrators, the kids are the victims in all of this.
Appleslices, do you ever say anthing intelligent with reason? I think you are the most negative person I have had the displeasure to read on this board. I cant believe anyone would every take someone like you serious when all you ever say is education is bad because it cost money and people at the top make to much. Provide some reason for your anti-education rant so we can understand why you feel the need to damage a childs right to an education. Im waiting....
What's so negative about appleslices? All of the people who think that "kids are the future" think that you can just print money, like in the movie "The Counterfeiters". They tried that in Zimbabwe and the result was 10,000% inflation. Education (and exhorbitant teacher pensions and health plans) cost money, and now there isn't any. If that's negative, then maybe I'll try being positive and ask the attendant at the gas station for a free tank of gas. lol
Is this guy related to " Carlos, give me more money Garcia " ?
average joe
yes I meant it because it made sense at the time. Maybe it is dumb to count our blessings, but when ya go back a ways in my family and many other I know, there is this pattern of sibling encouraging and stimulating sibling.
Yes today, it is different. There is a distance, an antipathy among siblings. We liked and helped. they antagonize and torment.
I know now it's a dumb idea to think that there might be some kind of benefit in establishing positive relationships that nurture and challenge.
I know that autonomy and purpose are noises without meaning in LV. It's clear that mastery of manifest humanity has absolutely no relevance whatsoever where life is a given set of bad odds, where learning doesn't matter and development of human beings is the least of concerns.
racism?
how is it racist to identify loss of humanistic concerns by legislating solitaires?
race was never mentioned.
what's blatant is irrelevance of your comment.
When it's just a zero-sum game, why not go for the money?
Money is what life's all about right?
Perfecting skills and developing a practical knowkedge base have only one purpose: to make money, right?
Doing what you want has nothing to do with happiness in life; controlling destiny is overblown. But don't ask Michael Jordan or Michael Phelps. Don't seek out Mother Teresa or Madam Curie. Bill Gates and Bill Clinton know nothing of relevance of personal drive to success.
It's all about money, so you and your dumb edification and acculturation and mastery don't count. Look at the bottom line. Look at the whale droppings at the bottom of the ocean. Now, ask yourself, 'feeling inspired?'
M. Jagger & strolling bones: "You can't always get what you want..."
The tragedy with the strategy that money makes me happy is that even rich kids think more money will fill the growing hole in the heart.
hear frank: i did it MYYYY way!
Absent autonomy, hollow in a castle; with purpose and mastery, ebullient in a hovel.
Whatever you do, kid, do NOT listen to jazz. There you will hear idiots blasting off on an individual interpretation of a feeling and trying to express it musically. And DON'T ever read... And wear these at the Art museum...and drink when you're not workin', and waste your time because you got my cards, limited options and so you're stuck in caste 4, LV, blanded and starving for stimulation like salty sand in scorching sunlight.
Airweare:
I thnk what Avg Joe MEANT was your nationalism is showing, not racism.
All of the things you reference, in promoting the idea that we all (but especially our children) embrace the idea of taking control of our own destiny, are things that cuts like this will destroy. Art, Music, Dance, Athletics, shop, home ec, and foreign language classes will all be lost. The money will have to go to the "three R's", and it will be up to parents to provide instruction on the rest.
But the truth is; learning enough to follow your dreams, can be VERY expensive. Even Mother Theresa, with her vow of poverty, could not have helped people, without her Church funding her efforts.
It seems that when we get to a point where we cannot even afford the basics, we stop allowing ourselves-or others- the luxury of dreams.
ok vegasVixen, is that from around here enough?
Or do you want me to run over it again?
I'm working on a sequel from twenty-eight years ago in Amsterdam for a few weeks and I'll be missing all the shows. So my best to you and all your wonderful friends in LV.
Dearest vixen,
You're so right! Appropriate education takes time and money. But when we start off saying that the goal is to get skills to get money, we miss the valuable reference! What the kid likes! When human motivation includes the notion that doing satisfying and stimulating stuff (and you call it 'following the dream', I call it purpose and mastery and autonomy and we are absolutely on the same page) is way more important than the Rs.
Maria Montessori recognized this feature of her best and brightest - autonomy and the absorbent mind- and built a life work on getting kiddos to discover and do the thing the Rs fail - think!
Waldorf schools succeed for the same reason ; teachers see kids getting really strong in Y and encouraging them to plunge ahead in areas of strengths.
We are losing Art, music, language and like you, my heart goes out to this deprived generation. We're going through the motions of providing an education; but, by not employing the Emotion of the learners, we're paying teachers to dumb our kids down. We're paying lip service and losing voice.
Do I have the answer? Of course not. I have only a viewpoint that we're taking the wrong routes for the wrong reasons. And I think you see where I'm going and that we see eye to eye on this landscape where Child Protective Services ought to arrest the school boards and Governor and legislature.
Put you and me in charge and bust out the songs and art and plays and grampa's stories and canal rides and hootenannies at coffee shops. Beatniks forever!
airweare said:
"BUT, and it's a big but, the one thing Chinese kids do NOT really understand, brotherhood. They missed this one because of their national law and their population size."
yep nothing racist about that. heck I bet you would even let a chinese kid come to your house to shine your shoes, as long as he uses the back door like the "house negroes". if those chinese kids would understand brotherhood, they might even be considered real people, not subhumans as you obviously think they are.
geez you are a long-winded blowhard who likes to hear (and read) himself talk.
I bet you have LOTS of friends who just LOVE to hear you blather on and on and on and on.....
NOT.
Call it nationalism. Yes, it stinks. I'll stand downwind while I shout: solitaires see friends differently than the kid who grew up with siblings.
Call me crazy. It's not a statement of dislike or disapproval. It's fact, amigo. They have a standing law, carefully enforced in that country that is a response to the recognition of overwhelming numbers. Solitaires.
Over here see...and crown thy good with ...
If you know so and so's brother, why, you're in.
Roosters don't learn from people; they learn from hens. Sometimes only a sibling can tell what you need to hear.
Not saying anything in particular is wrong with this bastardization of family values, not saying it represents a breach of community, not saying they don't love grams and grams don't love the daylights out of those chillun, not imputing any specific social repercussions attached to the plight of this massive hunk of current manifest humanity (PS I married a Chinese woman from Indonesia with 3 kids: goat, monkey and pig); nope, none of the above; only saying it's like nuclear storage, won't know for years...and years. And maybe won't know.
If it's an advantage to have brother and sister, and we have it but choose not to value its contribution to our consciousness - commonality, closeness, dearness - then we may as well throw away the shared human kindred notion and replace it with the up-to-date picture of the only child.
It's different, isolates where once we shared, alters patterns of sibling relations and relations in general in ways heretofore untold in our annals. Fossils tell of glorious lives and stranded demise.
As the son of a house Negro and husband to a Chinese woman, I simply howl at your unfounded projections of your sorry vegas, hang-dog, knee-jerk accusatory tone of disapproval based on absent values and vainglorious self-aggrandizement. Chink-lover, Jose.
Air:
(snaps fingers) Crazy man, crazy!
I agree that the child should be encouraged to follow their strenghts, and their interests. I'm just saying that they need a basic introduction in/exposure to as much as we can throw at them.
We just need to lay it down- they'll pick it up.
BTW- While you are looking rakishly handsome, in that beret/turtleneck combo, you really don't want want to encourage MY free spirit!
I'm sure at some point, It would end up with asking you to host a burning-man/free love/hippie-fest type of event.
For the sake of the kids, of course. ;)
Joe,
'Long-winded' and 'blowhard' are funny. God, i wrote songs for over fifty years and after this last set, I just can't seem to push near as hard as some of these songs are worth.
What, are you out there in Amstiel Station? I'm the guy with the gold shirt and the gold Les Paul.
air
oh my vixen,
Check out these plans for Burning Man Shelter, by the Sheltersmith.
Solar electric. Bidet. Assembles in one hour by geezer in howling wind. Candles flicker not within. Beards do not grow. Jerry Garcia visits up on a silvery cloud/stage and joined by Elvis and John Lennon, Allen Ginsburg and Kenny Rexroth, our nights are filled with rainbow-sky dancers and mornings are soft and smoothe with frothy lattes and warm oatmeal with fresh berries.
My Vixen, for your pleasures,
assembled by geezer in ascot and matching kerchief. And smile. Nothing else required but sporadic tumbleweed rolling by.
plywood sandwich components hinged into yurt. Solar electric and solar water in complimentary, suspended design. A/C. Fridge. Espresso machine. Flat screen. Guitar amp. Guitar cases mounted in wall. Range top. Microwave. Pressure h/c water. Custom only. The ShelterSmith
Airweare:
Toss in some regular bacchanalia, books by the (non-racist) 3Ks, Ken Kesey, Jerzy Kosinski, and of course, Jack Kerouac, and I'm SOOO there!
The Wise Witch, would greatly enjoy the geezer's ascot/kerchief combo, and knows that the power of his smile might help her refrain from asking about his dickie. ;)
Our Utopian University shall be known as a place where the elders instruct, the breeders provide, and the young dream.
All for less than the current per-student spending costs, as well!
Going once, geezer with guitar, gonads and a yurt.
nappy white hair, accolades and attitude adorning ageless mahogany upholstery, still stretchy after all these years.
ShelterSmith, airweare, angel of ancestral haunts plays on in Europe doing: Reno Raunch!
Back in the 80s Johnny and Elvis and sometimes Willie would do private bachelor parties in Reno. The current shows feature either the original stars or such fabulous residual talent that after the first rounds, nobody was really sure who those people were. Elvisia and Johnetta round out the chorus. Packin' 'em in like June Hog Salmon on the Columbia River with a Fish Wheel.
"geezer with guitar, gonads and a yurt."
THAT would be a great title for a song!
Blaise me with Kerouac and Kosinski, Fly me with Kesey and heal me with your heat and bachanalia.
Tom Brokaw just did a TV story on salmon, subject of my book due out in June. I gotta get him a copy. See ya later.
The City of Las Vegas' proposed budget cuts suggest the closure of Reed Whipple Cultural Center. This historic building is not only home to the Rainbow Company Youth Theatre and the Las Vegas Youth Orchestra, it is the site of countless theatre, music, dance and art classes, and performances of all mediums.
Please sign this petition and tell the Las Vegas City Council that the closure of Reed Whipple would be a devastating blow to the arts, cultural and educational community of Southern Nevada.
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/sa...
Closing the Reed Whipple Cultural Center might pencil in the eyes of a bean-counter trying to escape his own axe by showing all the savings that would accompany thwacking culture a cheap shot, a blind-sided groin punch to all the arts, and a Tonya Harding-style way to advance a personal bastardization of what's good for this manifest humanity.
Assail stupidity; don't dismantle flowing consummate arenas of expression of our souls. Penny-wise and odious.
March forth today if ever.
I'm too busy "beware-ing" tomorrow, Air! ;)
Relax, my vixen. You got until the fifteenth. The ides = 15th, not the fifth. It's safe. Come on out and play... in your Tee-shirt.
I've always thought the 15th too...but over the past few years, it seems to have changed (somehow) into the 5th!
The Ides of October is the one to fear, anyway.
You know I'll always play with you, sweet Air! I shall weave you a crown, of long-stemmed flowers, and our frolicking shall continue unchecked, until the last petal falls from it.
(I hope you don't mind if I leave the shirt indoors-they always interfere with a good frolic!)
Hey Vixen,
Gary Snyder read some of his poetry from 'Rip-Rap and Cold Mountain' on about this date back in '71. I was there. That guy...whew. An' he was close with Gregory Corso and Ginsberg and Kerouac (when he wasn't too wasted!) but Gary was way more of a wanderer and searcher and autonomous being apart from his times with a longer view and more spiritual connection, a poet's poet, a real follower of dreams, and of something else much more understandable, pretty women! What else is there to do on an outpost all those blizzardy nights? Before computers, cell phones, even black-and-white TV, etc. Duh! Honey let's try this...Blame buddhism for valuing time.
The shirt, my vixenness, is your domain; the presents you share are ours.
What's this I hear about October? That's, ahem, MY month. A Libra cusper, borderline scorpio. And though my ear's crusty from listening for harsh words, I've not been told of this ides of October you speak of. Whazzup wi' dat?
This Ides thing has given me an idea, Vixen.
Perhaps this is nature's way of suggesting you and I spend ten days in harmony to adjust and reconcile, to atone and ascend and reaggregate.
Missing the Ides of March by ten days is no small miscalculation or rounding error. This is cause for some dedicated energy flow to recalibrate your clock from within, slowly and cautiously at first and then with rising reckless abandon and frolicking foreplay and finally pounding savage thrusts of moaning purposeful grind.
Air:
Spring IS the perfect time to have one's clock recalibrated. As you so astutely noted; mine own quickly begins to fail, without such dedicated attentions.
You've solved it! The riddle is discovered, and Bhudda is the culprit! Slowing people down- offering zen, and tranquility and then yes-placing time iself at a premium. Sounds like monk-y business, indeed!
As to the Ides of October, my trancendental phallistic missile- it is merely the 15th day. The polar opposite to March, and it comes as another feast day to honour the warrior Mars, during the month of his peaceful lover, Venus. There were also competitions between the haves and the have-nots, something about tributes...
You know, it's all about the sign of the scales, keeping her balance. 'Tis the true shizznit.
Greasers vs, richies. LOL
You are one fiesty and worthy human.
You can only imagine how warm you make me. How balanced and resonantly swayed in a dance of ether and darkness at sundown of our days. Here's to tomorrow and your wisdom piling up on my doorstep.
carry on sweet bird.
Vixen,
I saw you at the grocery store. You were the dark cherry in the bunch, sweeter and riper. You were the organic Bartlett just starting to loose grit for smooth texture of perfection. And the solitary banana, firm but with brown spots, murmuring, sweetly...air...air.
I saw your royal fullness in the purple skin of the eggplant, heart-shaped in boldly hilarious visual onomatopoiea.
Even the checkout lady had a long red tail. How vixen!
Air:
What you experienced was merely the spell of Venus. She resides in all things feminine- her beauty is your sirens' song. It's hardly surprising that you're drawn to her, she rules Libra, and it is an 'air' sign. ;)
Follow that flash of red, sweet Air! We'll retire to my desert den of iniquity. You may bury yourself in my soft fur, and sing to me the wisdom of Leonard Cohen.