iCivics uCivics weallCivics

President Reagan and his Supreme Court Justice nominee Sandra Day O'Connor at the White House

In 2009 retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor founded iCivics as a resource for teachers & students. It's brimming with free educational materials and games. 


Today she was on C-SPAN speaking about the importance of civics education for our youth: 

 “Young people need to know how our government works and how they are part of it. It isn’t self evident. And in schools today, I don’t think it’s widely taught. And young people want to know how to be effective. They want to know their role as citizens and how to make things happen at the local level, at the state level, and national level. 

And iCivics tries to do that, tries to help young people develop their own proposals and programs, and learn in the process more about how government works." 

Iowa's Senator Grassley concurred:  

“I believe that all citizens in a democracy benefit from the participation of informed and active citizens.” 

Yet he doesn’t believe the federal government should “develop and mandate civic standards,” so I don’t know how he’d like to encourage a more civically engaged citizenship...


As much as I like hearing all of this talk, I'd prefer to see more action. 

My Friend Mark Nash

I’ve known Mark Nash for seven years. We met as volunteer producers at TBCN, the local community access TV station.  

Hillsborough County broken down by districts. 

He’s been involved in campaign work I think at least as long as I’ve known him. Now he’s running for public office himself.  


I'm of the general opinion that local politics is where change really begins, and lots of the people I encountered at Mark's campaign kick off Friday in Riverview agreed. 

Volunteer Joan Williams checks party goers in. 

With local-minded ladies Jen Greenfield, a social media coach, and Michelle Kenoyer.

Angie Angel, the past president of the East Hillsborough County Democratic Club with two former Florida gubernatorial candidates, former Florida CFO Alex Sink and husband Bill McBride.

I thought my education was lacking since I had just one semester-long civics class in 8th grade. Tom Morgan (no relation), Vice President of the College Democrats at USF, said Florida public schools don’t even have that.  

“I had no idea of the difference of the political parties,” he said. So I was curious – how did he get enmeshed so young? 

Tom explained that he started at USF as a history major during the 2008 election cycle. But he became so interested in the excitement of the election and his American government class that he switched his focus to political science. 

He’s currently pursuing his master’s and hopes to go on to earn a Ph.d. 

Grace and Charles McComas of Seffner are busy volunteers in their town’s library and community alliance. But that wasn't always the case. 

Grace said that as “a mother, a nurse working nights all my life,” she didn’t have time to be involved until her retirement. Now land use in Seffner is among their top priorities.  

"People don't usually get involved until it affects them,” said Charles, who is retired from MacDill AFB. 

“You can't remake wetlands,” Grace said. “God made the wetlands. You can't move them. We have to protect them." Grace is supporting Mark because she said “He can see the future but also what we have to preserve." 

Political consultant Victor DiMaio and Julie Jenkins.

I have great pride for my friend and his goal to represent his district, but you don't have to befriend your public officials in order to get to know them before or after the race. 

All you have to do is pay attention, maybe ask a few questions. What better way to hold them accountable? They can't do their job if we constituents don't do ours. 

An Education

Smile class!

Happy Open Education Week!

There’s a lot going down now with Florida public schools, cuts to higher learning, and tons of people with expensive degrees without decent job prospects to pay off that student debt. 

My friend and fellow Tampan Mary McKenzie, affectionately known as Mary Mac, told me recently, “It’s incredibly exploitative to the students who buy, literally, into it.”

It would seem that education in America is not very cost effective, with the only reward being, you know, getting to learn stuff and use it for the betterment of society. 


Mary, 28, is a smart & highly educated cookie. She earned a B.S. from UF in natural resource conservation. (Her idea of a fun internship was writing entries for 300 plant species in the Tampa Bay Watershed.) But she’s “not a fan of the system we have in place.”

Excited by Skool

So last summer when she heard about the St. Pete Free Skool, which offers free classes led by volunteer teachers, she decided Tampa needed one too. Tampa Free Skool and its busy class calendar was off and running.


“I place a lot of value on sharing knowledge. I’ll teach this ethnobotany class then maybe the 18 students will want to teach a class. And I’ll learn.” Anyone can take or teach a class. 


Another class Mary leads is the monthly hula hoop jam. Other upcoming offerings are Bread Making 101, Geocaching, a Sci-Fi literature class (From Frankenstein to The Hunger Games) and more. 

Art Skool

“In some classes three people will show up. Others, upwards of 30.” The Tampa Free Skool founders, about 18-ish people, are still trying to figure out what attracts a large turnout. The subject matter? The day of the week? But there's no doubt it's growing. 


Philip, 35, is a part of that original core group. He said he values the idea behind the free skool concept because it has a lot to do with building community. 


“Skill sharing is fun. I like acquiring new points of view and adding that binds me closer to the community.” 


“It’s really exciting to see friends so excited about their knowledge,” said Mary. “Cool to see your friends stepping up and being that source of knowledge you weren’t aware of.” 


Tampa Free Skool can also be found on Facebook and Twitter. 


Other free courses: 


The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists is offering a multimedia training session at the Tampa Bay Times building in St. Pete on Saturday, March 10th at 11 a.m. 


Stanford and MIT offer some their classes free online. 


And as always, your public library is an excellent source for introductory computer classes, book discussions, foreign language lessons, etc. (You could say it's the original Free Skool.)

2011 (Prison) Reading List

Last year I compiled the list of books I sent to my incarcerated younger brother. 

I liked Pelzer's healing attitude and his inspiring ability to move forward.

Having not spent a lot of time with him as an adult (he went in at 21 while I was living on the West Coast), it's great watching his literary tastes develop. 

All Ned Vizzini's books should be required reading for young men who've ever identified with Pearl Jam songs.

I send him several a month, or as many as I can afford. He's become quite the voracious reader. 

I tutored a high school freshman for a couple of months and delved into YA fiction for the first time in my own life. So many beautiful books, my whole world opened up, too.

When I started sporadically sending my brother books a few years ago, I had yet to become an avid reader/savvy county library employee.

I sent only a handful of do-gooder books & mags I was familiar with: To Kill A Mockingbird, Utne Reader and Yes! Magazine. 

This pick was inspired by a story I did for WMNF on USF's children's mental health research conference

Sadly my bro told me early on that he preferred Cosmo & Country Weekly, and was bored by anything journalism related. 

Sorry Mr. French, I tried.

Take another little piece of my heart now darling. 

The only book I've been able to find on the topic of reentry.With millions of imprisoned Americans, you'd think the free market would be teeming with this stuff. 

It reminded me of us as kids, when we'd play school. I'd lock him in my room until he finished the homework I assigned. (Yes, I feel very guilty about being one of the reasons he's locked away now.) 

And its sequel The Sea of Monsters

I'm happy to report that my pedagogic skills have dramatically improved since I was 8.  

And its sequel. He ate them up! Finally I succeeded in my effort to make him like journalism, or at least know its struggles.

Now I want to be sure he's engaged and entertained by what I send. He needs an escape as well as an education. 

And as always, many thanks to Inkwood Books for accommodating my need to do something in a situation where I otherwise have no power. 

Few other stores are willing to ship books out for me, as required by the FL department of corrections.

He La was my pick of the year, yet I can't believe he liked it! My bro said he paced himself to stop from reading too quickly because he enjoyed it so much.

I'd like to give him & Rebecca Skloot a big ole hug now. After nine long years away, 2012 will be the last (prison) reading list I'll have to compose. Let's hope & pray for no encore.

Dear Next Boyfriend: Please Be Ryan Gosling

Image kindly shared by Danielle at

Feminist Ryan Gosling

When I worked at the public library, the assistants &  librarians alike were all pretty choosy about the books and other media we consumed.
 
Me: Do you like Nicholas Sparks?
Former County Librarian: No! Well, I don't know. Never read any of his books. But I'll watch The Notebook.

There's just too much good stuff to be distracted by the less than pristine.

Conversely, my BFF, a book/movie critic, once tutted me when I railed on about crappy entertainment & light-hearted fare. She pointed out that fluff has a purpose too.

I push myself because I'd like to be more informed than I am. I want to read every book on the Iraq invasion so that I can explain to my (thus far unconceived) children what we did wrong so they can attempt to make it right.

We live in an increasingly superficial culture where strangers can bond in the grocery store line as they bash quickie celebrity marriages, but they fail to hold their politicians & business leaders accountable for bad decisions that affect us all.

That makes me want to work harder to pick up the slack. But by necessity, I have come around to see my BFF's point. As a wise woman once sang:

I can't carry it all/I got a lotta troubles of my own

When the weight of life gets heavy, I'd rather just float around in the shallow end of the pool.

Voting Early

Eddie Shedrick, 49, of West Tampa, volunteers for Rev. Scott's campaign for mayor outside of the C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. Public Library on East Dr. MLK, Jr. Blvd. 

Eddie told me he registered to vote the year he graduated from high school, and has voted (and had jury duty) every year since. 

According to the US Census in 2008, younger citizens (18–24) had the lowest voting rate. I asked Eddie if he had any ideas how to increase voting among the younger population, especially among young black men. 

 

Eddie replied he has no idea. "I don't know how to reach them. If they would only listen and react like we did...they're gonna get what they always got." 

 

"I wish they'd get out to vote," he added. "We have the college students, but we need the others."

Early voting continues at various locations through Saturday.

Good Days and Bad Days

Last week after reading about Florida's new budget cuts, I could only see the waves of impending suffering pounding down on the state's most vulnerable citizens.

The Florida Department of Elderly Affairs then fired Brian Lee, who was the director of the state ombudsman program, which investigates complaints against assisted living facilities (ALF's) and nursing homes. As a former volunteer ombudsman and nursing assistant myself, I have seen first hand the harm done to the elderly when there is no one to hold these facilities accountable.

For a recent editorial by current ombudsman Pam Anderson, click here and scroll down to the letter entitled "Facilities need watching".



That's one of the challenges of fighting the good fight: the little guy often loses when pitted against massive Goliaths backed by big business, money, media, and power.


As a sensitive individual (and I know lots of us are out there!), some times I wish I could either turn off my need to care so much. Or at least finally fill that Xanax prescription I was prescribed long ago.


But I don't want to feel less, I want to be empowered and do more. Work more efficiently. But unless you do that kind of activist work every day, it's easy to lose focus or focus on failure.


Which is why I interviewed Hannah Sassaman last week for 88.5 WMNF. Here's a gal who has made it her job to fight the good fight against corporations who want to own everything and deny the public airwaves to the public. She spoke about how everyone can be an advocate and activist, and addressed some tools, like grass roots lobbying.

We have so many options as citizens: we elect our representatives, and we have to tell them when what they're doing is not in our best interests. The worst thing to do when you're having a bad day is to do nothing at all.