Virginia Tech

My thoughts and prayers this morning are with those grieving following yesterday's tragedy at Virginia Tech. I've heard many gruesome stories from students who barricaded doors and heard the gunman outside, or others who jumped from the third floor, or others who survived in rooms where most were shot, with blood covering the floors. College campuses are open, and violent actions such as unfolded yesterday would be difficult to prevent. As information is being released so slowly, even though I understand the risk of spreading false rumors, I wish there would be more transparency.

2.8 Million Reasons to Smile Today

Congratulations to the Weiss family are in order today as a jury has punished Allstate with a 2.8 million dollar ruling for their misbehavior in dealings with a Katrina related claim. Note to the insurance industry: have the engineer at least visit the damage.
Later Note: It turns out there are no reasons to smile today, given the tragedy that happened at Virginia Tech.

Mojo'd

I returned to our house on Alexander Street and a neighbor said that at 4AM last night our dogs went crazy in our backyard. I investigated and found that someone put wax on our gargoyle's forehead and nose.

Later Note: Gilgamesh, it turns out, found an old citronella candle and poured the wax on the gargoyle yesterday.

Dream

Last night I had a dream that we were living in our new house while our old house damaged from Katrina gets fixed. Our new house was much nicer though, with many windows and giant hot tubs. My dad was alive and living with us. He had been quite sick but was getting better. I spent most of my time helping him bathe, shave, eat, and get around, and we had a nice conversation in the dream. Then at night I saw through the giant window a giant funnel cloud that slowly came towards our house. The room I was in was fine, but the tornado ripped through the other side of the house where the children were playing. Therese and I were joking about how God was angry with one of us, and now we needed to find a new place in which to live while we fixed up that house as well.

"America When Will You Be Angelic?"

A student today in class said she read Allen Ginsberg's poem America, and she thought of me. That made my day.

How To Fix Public Education in New Orleans: Hope, Values, and Vision

I spent much of Good Friday riding around the Carrollton, Lakeview, Gentilly, and Mid-City neighborhoods of New Orleans. A group of neighborhood activists, including myself, were taking several people from the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education on a tour of our neighborhood schools. The meeting was organized by Denise Byrne, a founding member of the Friends of New Orleans. It was a great experience for me. So many of the meetings that I attend are dominated by the pro-charter schools lobby. They're well funded and they hire some bright and articulate spokespeople. But here, all of the neighborhood leaders wanted the same thing: a quality public school system in all neighborhoods run by a competant Orleans Parish school board. On the tour I sat next to the president of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, Dr. Eric Cooper. He is my new hero. He spoke passionately about how students need hope, and how we should stop using data driven assessments to make our decisions regarding education. Instead, we should use the data as a tool, but the decisions should be based on values. He spoke about how students need hope, and about how the government has contributed to the widening of the achievement gap in education. He said that for a community to be healthy, they need healthy community schools. We all spoke about how the Recovery School District took over our schools in New Orleans and has been running them without any sort of a vision. Dr. Cooper, the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, and the Friends of New Orleans all indicated a committment to helping us improve our public schools in post-Katrina New Orleans. I was very impressed by all of them, and look forward to future collaboration.

Our New Duplex

After trying and failing to live in a FEMA trailer, and as work on our flooded and racked house nears the initial stages of repair requiring us to be based elsewhere, we decided to buy this split-level duplex at 224-226 S. Hennessey last Wednesday.

It cost $214K, and our mortgage payments will be just under $2,000 per month. We're hoping to rent out the upstairs for $1,000 per month, and we'll live downstairs until our house on S. Alexander is fixed. We hope that we'll be back for Christmas, though it will probably take a full year. Then we hope to rent out both units. The duplex is convenient because it is only one block away from our house. This is a huge step for us financially, and we certainly can't afford to keep the rental units empty for too long. We thought this made more sense for us at this stage of our lives than renting an apartment for a year. Also, last weekend, I noticed that I am getting too old to move. I pray that I only have to move once more in my life: back to my home on South Alexander.

So if you know anyone looking for a two bedroom apartment in Mid-City, let them know that Therese and I are anxious to be landlords. I'd even share some of my beer with them.

Leslie Jacobs Defends Charter Schools

In response to my opinion piece in the T-P about charter schools last Saturday, Leslie Jacobs, the vice-president of BESE, today in a letter to the editor defends charter schools. She claims they are not elite, and do not represent a system of "haves" and "have nots." I disagree with her on these points, but I do agree with her that "our key challenge will be recruiting teachers."

Our Trial Against Allstate Gets a Date

I just heard from Greg DiLeo, the attorney who is representing Therese and I in our lawsuit against Allstate Insurance. We were assigned the trial dates of December 17th-18th in 2007, and it will be in federal court. Greg wrote that Allstate's attorneys "are very aware of your blog entries and think you're on a vendetta." He said they will try to use that against us in court. Mr. DiLeo didn't advise me to stop blogging about Allstate, but he wanted me to be aware that any statements I made on the blog that could be shown to be inaccurate would be used to attack my credibility. Allstate's attorneys said they didn't anticipate settling unless I would compromise, which I won't. Unfortunately for Allstate, this isn't about money for us. With the Road Home funds, we've already been paid what Allstate would have had to pay if they lived up to their contract and paid us our policy back in 2005. Instead, this is about justice and documenting the unethical practices of a company that makes people feel secure, but then doesn't live up to their contract.

Senator Jim DeMint Killed Our SBA Loan

Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, representing many people such as Therese and I who lost our SBA loans when we received Road Home funds, filed legislation so that we could keep the low interest loan as well. Her bill is supported by Republican Senators David Vitter and Trent Lott. We honestly needed the loan on top of Road Home funds and insurance money in order to rebuild. When they cut us our Road Home money, the SBA cancelled our loan for $110,000. Thursday an anonymous senator objected and effectively shelved this bill until at least April 10 when the Senate returns from a break. Today in the T-P, I read that the anonymous senator is not so anonymous anymore. It was South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint. He argues it violates the budget that the senate just passed. Landrieu argues that because the loans will have to be paid back, it won't cost tax payers a dime. I believe that there is momentum for Landrieu's bill and it will pass, and we'll get our loan back. Someday, and it may still be a couple of years away, we'll be back inside our house for good and not living temporarily, as we've done for 19 months.