Derby Post Positions Drawn and Morning Line Odds Assigned

Exactly 1 week until my "Christmas"

Exactly one week from today the sound of the trumpet announcing the trek to the post for the thoroughbreds to "run for the roses". The Kentucky Derby 'tis my "Christmas" and it lasts for over 5 weeks as The Preakness is run 2 weeks after the Derby and The Belmont is run 3 weeks after The Preakness. Let's all hope and pray that the thoroughbred horse gods and the equine Santa reward me handsomely (think BIG $$) on May 1st (I've been good so "Santa" should be kind!).

And to get all in the mood for the Derby below is Secretariat's (the best thoroughbred of ALL time) Kentucky Derby. Though he starts at the back of the pack remember he ran each quarter faster than the previous - his time 0f 1:59 2/5 still stands today and will never be broken. From a payoff standpoint it wasn't great because Secretariat was the "chalk". However, from an artistic standpoint "Big Red" was beauty and art in motion - Pegasus in flight couldn't been any better. It's as if the gods delivered this magnificient once-in-a-lifetime blessing. He was just that - a once-in-a-lifetime gift. Secretariat was, is, and will always be the best thoroughbred of all time - bar none. But more importantly, he was beauty in its truest form and watching him in action is akin to drinking nectar from the gods. Secretariat was perfection, he was dignity, he was grace, he was that spirit we should all aspire to.

Rain or Shine - Tomorrow's the Day!

Tomorrow is the big day - the culmination of our "March for California's Future" march. We will march the last mile to the Capitol with our core marchers who walked the entire 400 miles/48 days and have a massive rally with the rest of California that will send a message not only to the "Governator" (wherever he may be hiding tomorrow) as well as the rest of the nation. Many of my students flew to Sacramento today and many are carpooling at 3:30 AM tomorrow - I am so proud of their commitment to not only their own futures but the future of California.

We're flying up in the morning and flying back late (and I mean late - I think we're on the second to the last flight) tomorrow evening.

The video below should inspire anyone who cares about not just California, but the entire United States. Don't think for one minute that this issue is only California's problem - for it can happen to you and your state just as easily. If you are able to join us tomorrow please do so (dress in layers and bring your umbrella - it's raining right now with an 80% chance of continued rain and showers tomorrow). Please don't be a person who "sits and bitches", be a person who "gets up and stands up". Or, to use the eloquent words of Gandhi - "Be the change you wish to see in the world".

2 More Days!

Only 2 more days until our massive rally - it is sure to be a remarkable and unforgettable experience (want to lay a bet on whether "The Governator" will be a wussy "no-show" - I'll give you great odds...).

Sixth grader sends message to Obama about Education

Hmmm...are you smarter than a 6th grader? How can an 11-year-old "get it" and the politicians can't?

Defending a Life's Work in Education

Editor's Note: the following was posted by David Bacon. In a earlier blog posting Gavin talks about why he's involved in this march. The photo shown below shows Gavin after he received a new pair of tennis shoes - it takes a lot of pairs of tennis shoes to walk over 260 miles...

DELHI, CA -- Evenings in the San Joaquin Valley have grown warmer as the marchers for California’s future head for Sacramento. At the journey’s start in Bakersfield and Shafter, even the days were cold. But as night settles into a campground beside the Merced River just north of Livingston, you can feel spring is in the air.

Gavin Riley can be happy about that. Retired from 37 years in the ABC School District, in the southernmost part of Los Angeles County, he’s glad he spent 20 of those years teaching physical education in middle school. “That’s one thing that made it easier to do this march,” he says. At first he wondered whether he’d have aching joints and blisters, but now he easily takes each day’s walking as it comes.

The march has shown him a side of California that he may have known existed in theory, but has brought him face to face with it in reality. “This isn’t just a march for California’s future,” he explains,” but also a march through California’s past, both the labor history and the social history. We visited Allensworth, a town that was built by Black people because they weren’t welcome in other communities. Now it’s a state park, but it’s been closed by the budget cuts. We’ve visited many farm communities that seem like they’re suffering grievously. Deteriorating roads. The great California water project that was built to make the San Joaquin Valley bloom is falling apart in places from lack of maintenance. We’ve seen boarded up homes everywhere. We’ve seen farms where the land lies fallow and the trees have been allowed to die.”

A few days ago, as the marchers walked into Fresno, the extent of the economic crisis shocked them. “We walked through a Skid Row type area, where people were living in cardboard and wood shacks underneath a freeway, and sleeping on the sidewalks. But when we got into some of the suburbs of Fresno, we found homes like you’d expect to see in Beverly Hills. You can see that the economy right now is not working for everybody.”

What got Riley marching wasn’t just the polarization of California between rich and poor, but the lack of will by state legislators to do anything about it. He remembers a different California of his youth. “I view myself as a legacy of the California system when it worked,” he remembers. “I went to school in the 1950s when our school system was ranked as one of the best in the nation. When it was my time to go to college, it was free at the state university system. The theory back then was that if we had an educated electorate, they’d be more productive, more supportive of the state, not in trouble. I think that worked. They gave me a free education, and I came back and worked my entire life in the state. I’ve owned businesses here. I’ve taught in our schools. I think I’ve more than returned the investment. But we’ve kind of lost track of that. At one time we were a selfless society in California. We seem to have become more selfish. That’s unfortunate, because we’re losing track of the dream.”

Although he’s retired from teaching now, he’s still the chief contract negotiator for his union, the ABC Federation of Teachers. And the experience of trying to cope with the way that the effects of economic crisis have been multiplied by legislative gridlock in Sacramento convinced him that drastic action had to be taken. “I find it very hard to go into negotiations every year talking about saving jobs or increasing class sizes, potentially closing schools, and fighting rearguard actions against all the things that we’ve fought to avoid all these years. I don’t want to deal with that.”

Going on the march was an answer, because Riley believes it will convince even the parents of his own district of the gravity of the crisis. “I frankly think our parents are not aware of its depth at this point,” he cautions. “I repeatedly send articles to the local newspaper, saying we just can’t continue down this road. The public seems to think that the only problem we have in public services everywhere, whether it’s taking care of our schools or our elderly, is the need to be more efficient. But you can’t be more efficient when you’re slashing, $17 billion from the education budget. That’s not something you can solve by saving on paperclips. Schools don’t waste money. They’re audited continually. Certainly I watch our district’s budget like a hawk, and if I see any expenses that are unusual, I’m the first to raise a question. I actually think the Governor might be doing us an unintended favor when he tells districts to reduce the school year by five days. Then all of a sudden parents begin to grasp the gravity of the problem.”

He sees the march as a spark that can ignite the smoldering anger of parents in his district, or the people living in shacks beside the roads the marchers see almost every day. “I think we’ve reached a tipping point,” Riley predicts. “We have legislators in Sacramento who have greater loyalty to their political party then to the state and its people. That’s disgraceful. The only thing that’s going to change it is a groundswell of anger from the public. Then maybe some of these politicians will realize that their job may be in jeopardy.”

Is that happening? Riley points to the rallies that have greeted marchers in small valley towns, and their reception when they collect signatures on petitions in front of grocery stores and malls. Madera’s newspaper hadn’t carried a labor story in years, and the march made the front page two days in a row. “We think we’re beginning to see the snowball effect that Cesar Chavez had back in 1966, when he marched right up Highway 99 from Delano to Sacramento, and told everybody driving down the road that there was something going on and they needed to pay attention to it. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

He looks especially at the college students the marchers have been meeting at community colleges, state university campuses and UC Merced – the only UC campus in the central valley. Rising fees, unavailable classes and shrinking financial aid are putting them in the budget crosshairs more than most people. Yet, Riley says, he’s often bothered by how few students are even registered to vote.

“We’re circulated the petition to get the majority vote on the budget – we’re one of only three states that have this two-thirds rule. That would go a long way towards helping students solve their problems. But it’s of no value to get something on the ballot if you can’t pass it. And if you’re not registered to vote, politically you’re a non-person. I’d think that every college student should be registered and go to the polls and vote. If you’re an effective bloc, politicians will take notice.”

Sacramento is less than three weeks away now. For Riley, that will be the final test of the march’s effectiveness. “Politicians are swayed by crowds,” he feels. “If there’s an angry group out there, they can’t ignore us. You put a life’s work into public education, to make it as good as it can be, and you don’t want to see it dismantled, the way it’s being dismantled today. That’s why I’m out here. I don’t think it’s a hopeless situation. But I do think we need to make some changes.”

Back from Spring Break

Editor's Note: Back from Spring Break - many people took the opportunity to march during Spring Break. I'll include a few of their posts, etc. See first of those posts below.


Why I'm Marching

Jennifer Cost: AFT local 1931 member and San Diego Mesa College professor of English

Marching these two days, I feel something powerful stirring in people. This march is the beginning of something remarkable and unstoppable. I drove up from San Diego on Monday with another teacher, Berta Harris, and I thought we’d join people and create a good sight: marchers with a noble cause.

But I’ve learned a lot in these two days about how people live here in the valley, the land of Cesar E. Chavez. I begun to understand a tremendous lesson about strength,generosity, dignity, hope, unity. I am so moved by what I’ve seen--so many generous people in this valley, opening their schools, their hearts, waving and smiling at the spectacle of the bus and the marchers.

More than a few here know about marching, and many had marched with Chavez as he organized the UFW. His legacy is everywhere here. Yesterday at La Planada Elementary school as we marched into the school yard, some of the children started chanting “si, se puede!” yelling with their tiny voices, so powerful. Some even ran up to some of the marchers for their autographs! Later that evening, the children performed an amazing ballet folklorico. I have never seen such a beautiful performance. The school fed us and honored us. I want to thank everyone, the core marchers, but especially the people here for an awesome education about real unionism, and the true meaning of brother and sisterhood. March on.