Some clips of leaving Genoa and getting to Venice…
A book store in Venice advertised as “the most wonderful biblioteca in the world,” and featuring a literal “boatload” (gondola) of books – and maps, prints, etc…
Panos of Saint Mark’s Square just after sunset…
The aesthetics of window shopping (Can you tell what Venice is known for? Can you find the edible display?…
One day during our five night stay in Genova, we took the train to the village of Nervi and walked along the Passeggiata Anita Garibaldi – a nice way to experience the Italian Riviera.
The Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa and one other building…
Ice skating, miscellaneous street images, and the Milan train station…
After over two months in Spain (including 10 days in Morocco), we flew from Barcelona to Milan then took the train to Genoa (Genova!). In addition to the world class Aquarium and medieval old town, we have had fun on the funiculars. Here are some pix!
Genova Aquarium (Check out the dolphin rings!) …
Images around Genova…
Panos of Genova …
Videos in Genova …
As a former president of my school district’s CTA chapter, I am interested in the current Supreme Court case, Friedrichs vs. CTA. I hope that people are aware of who is supporting this case and that it loses. Further, I would say the plaintiffs should have involved themselves in the bargaining process, rather than just criticize it – legally.
However, CTA, NEA, AFT, etc. should be on notice in a number of ways. The ‘fair share’ idea, that everyone represented pays dues has bred a certain complacency. The teachers’ unions have assumed too much – too much money and the support of their constituency. At the same time, they are out of touch with teachers.
Having been to the ‘mother ship:’ CTA HQ, and several regional and state meetings, I have always felt like an outsider. Having interacted with various CTA representatives, I have found them as distanced from me as they are from classrooms. Their concerns are not those of the average teacher. They are dedicated to the profession, but they do not uplift the profession.
The primacy of tenure is a mistake; and just because someone on the other side of the bargaining table, an administrator, chose someone to be on the teachers’ side of the bargaining table doesn’t mean we, the teachers, should defend that person’s right to a job. Teachers should demand more from each other if they are going to expect more from the system. Teacher unions should be more like the American Medical Association or the Bar Association and be involved in the credentialing process to determine who should be a teacher.
Further, teachers’ unions – and all public sector unions for that matter – should drop the adversarial, management vs. labor perspective, and realize that we’re all on the same side: the public sector (vs. the private). Rather than just asking for a raise, better benefits, or even improved working conditions, then expecting administration to make it happen, we should get involved with budgeting, school finance, and the responsible management of public funds.
Teacher unions should realize that all teachers’ primary concern is their students, the parents, the subject matter, and getting through the day, week, month, year. They should be concerned about their salary, their health insurance, working conditions, and the myriad social issues, economic circumstances, and laws that bear on the profession, but until they’ve put several years into mastering the art and science of one of the most difficult jobs on earth, they can’t be expected to handle that level of multi-tasking.
In the meantime, teacher unions need to make themselves present with support of all the aforementioned, the onslaught of testing, accountability, local politics, and anything else teachers need before expecting them to cough up hundreds of hard earned dollars in union dues. There are some good efforts, but there need to be more.
Nonetheless, shame on Rebecca Friedrichs and those teachers, people, and organizations that seek to undermine the teaching profession even more than it has been in recent years. As if it isn’t hard enough to deal with politicians (left & right), fundamentalists legislating curriculum, a corporatocracy stealing the hearts and minds of kids, and every social problem invented by inhumanity plaguing families everywhere? To have fellow teachers trying to undermine the very organizations that seek to represent and promote them, well, it’s just pathetic. Be the change, the solution, not more of the problem!
…reads as follows: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
First, bear in mind first principles: that the first part of the sentence is the most important. Next, consider the “well regulated Militia.” There are two key parts in this first and most important section that are not happening enough in the US: regulations and Militias.
Those would be government regulations about fire arms and groups of people bearing them. As the framers of the Constitution would not have been able to imagine automatic weapons and modern handguns in general, it is necessary that legislators imagine and regulate them, but they have not to the extent necessary to stop the killings of hundreds of American children and more than a few innocent adults.
Allow me to jump to the part about “the security of a free State.” Anyone who is killed by a gun and who is not violating another’s security has had their own security violated. Amend the amendment!
Getting back to militias, there are many gun enthusiasts who are members of militias, and some of these have received negative media attention. However, if they are well regulated, as the second amendment states, these would be necessary and proper institutions for the exercising of this right. Gun clubs, well regulated, are OK. Militias, guys collecting weapons, target shooting, and preparing for the defence of our country, if well regulated, are OK.
In fact, since the train has left the station, the cat is out of the bag, and Americans are already armed to the teeth, this kind of institution is the last, best hope for gun control. And every level of government from municipal police, county sheriffs, state patrols, federal marshalls, the ATF, and the US military can and should participate in the regulating of these militias.
Having established the well regulated militia imperative of the second amendment, let us turn to the last and least important section of that single sentence: keeping and bearing arms. It doesn’t say anything about shooting them! It doesn’t say anything about ammunition! And why can’t we say something about the arms that existed around 1789? Perhaps it should not apply to any arms manufactured after the 18th century, what with ex post facto laws and all? Perhaps it should be as irrelevant as the third amendment?
But let’s back up to the first amendment, that thing about freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and the petitioning the government over grievances. If every grieving mother appeared in the press – the media, as should be her right, perhaps the people would think differently about rights? If every grieving mother’s dead child appeared in the press – on TV and all over the internet, perhaps the people would think differently about what is right? (Google “innocent dead shooting victims” or similar and you only get distant crime scenes or previously alive smiling faces – not the real deal. Prior restraint!)
Speaking of who is “Infringed?” Please! After centuries of misinterpreting this amendment, infringement is an unfortunate impossibility. Even if guns were completely banned today, they will never be an endangered species in the US. Anyone hoping for a career in politics would never suggest banning them, but someday someone will grow enough sack to persuade voters with the same to realize gun control is good for everyone, especially law abiding gun owners and children.
So I’m walking through the medina of Marrakech with our family tour group, concerned about the safety of the children, and trying to keep up with our guide. Through the narrow passageways crowded with shops and stands selling food, clothing, jewellery, rugs, ceramics, and every measure of tourist chotchky zip bicycles, mopeds, donkey carts, and even cars. The hazards are many and a few of us have had encounters with tires, sideview mirrors, and other people trying to get out of the way.
Our guide has warned us off of certain food stalls and of course we have bottled water as the taps apparently are not even safe to brush your teeth from. There’s a roadside mechanic starting a scooter that is spewing blue-gray exhaust into the street, there is a woman throwing a bucket of lumpy wastewater onto the street, and there are shoeless chidren now running into that same street, through the wastewater, breathing that exhaust, and is it mid-morning on a school day?
In addition to the myriad snake charmers, monkey men, water-wallahs, toothless touts, and fly-spotted goat carcasses to assault your senses, there are the beggars. I am not brave enough to wear sandals what with the donkey turds, feral dog & cat droppings, and piles of trash, all covered with a patina of soot. The streets have no names – or at least no signs proclaiming them – and our taxi drivers have seemed oblivious to the lines on the road.
At some point, it occurs to me that the Republican presidential candidates who are ever-clamouring for less government and more deregulation should be walking with me side by side (at least with them on the outside where the motor scooters are flying by). I would point out that this is what a lack of governmental regulations looks like. This toxic chaos is their neoliberal, laissez faire, free market paradise. More effective however, would be to have a Fox News reporter or average Republican voter with a video camera to experience and convey the scene. (Then maybe juxtapose it with a street scene from one of those Socialist countries like in Scandinavia?) Would they agree?
Later, I’m at a second floor terrace café having some mint tea and surveying the market square. Smoke is rising from numerous food stands and the sounds of the snake charmers weave into the drumming of the street musicians and exotic Morocco transports me. It will be good to return to the ‘new world order’ that is America eventually, but not just yet…
On January 5, 2016, we crossed the Strait of Gibraltar back to Spain. In Algeciras we rented a car and drove to Granada. Of course we visited the Alhambra, and here’s a little slide show of that amazing place…
Version 2, same pix, different theme & music (which do you like better?)…
As mentioned previously, there is a lot of graffiti in Spain, some better than others, most others. Here are a few favorites (including one cool men’s cologne ad for perspective), but again, there is too much random, unsightly, never cleaned up tagging…
Here is one shot of a city gate (two towers in Valencia), and the rest Barcelona. Most are from/of/in Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, a couple on La Rambla and one from our AirBnb apartment looking out over the city…
More video clips from second half of our trip to Morocco. The port in Essouira (2), fresh fish lunch, New Year’s Eve day parade (2) and a party, Marrakech market (3), train to Casablanca, getting lost in the passageways of the medina in Tangier, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar (2). They are all quite short – minute or less, some quick time lapses. What, you shouldn’t enjoy…?
I’ve been trying to post some video clips for days, unfortunately even the Spanish wifi has been problematic (or is it WordPress?). It’s fast here in Valencia, so here are some clips from the first part of our trip in Morocco…
First, some of the famous tree-climbing goats of Morocco. They’re in Argan trees, the nuts from which produce an oil used in a wide variety of products. (Would have like to capture footage of the goat herders who protects and manages his goats with a slingshot.)
Another of Morocco’s famous domestic animals are donkeys which were ridden through a variety of pastures and palm groves (so short!)…
Here’s a small town snake charmer (Note the cobra among others). The difference between this guy and the ones in the market place in Marrakech is the schtick (wish I understood Arabic, or was it Berber?). Rather than playing a squeaky mini-clarinet, he talked to the crowd and they laughed often…
The boys at the beach in Agadir…
At an Argan Oil factory, here are some nut crackers (much harder than you’d think), the first step in the arduous process of extracting the precious oil which is used in food, cosmetics, etc.
Two clips from our camel ride in Essouira. The first is of the four ladies (Maria & Cathy and Annie & Mary Lynn) just in front of Charlie & myself. The second is of our camel train heading back to the ranch at sunset on the beach in Essouira.
Sunset in Agadir…
Our Intrepid Moroccan Family Holiday began and ended in Marrakech. Of course we missed the beginning since we missed our flight, but we didn’t miss the ending which included a tour of Marrakech – the palace, the old sections of town, and the market square. I demurred from the snake charmers but Charlie couldn’t resist the monkeys, the Stars of David marked the beginning of the Jewish quarter, as you will have noticed I like to appreciate ceilings with selfies, and past the cooking smoke of the medina the tower of a mosque rose against the sunset…
After the tour ended in Marrakech, our wonderful guide Aziz put us on a train to Casablanca. We checked into the funky and aptly named Hotel Central in the old town, then toured ourselves through the medina. It seems there were a few murals, including King Mohammed VI, a map of Morocco, a few iconic images, and of course Rick’s Cafe. Then I went solo to the Grand Mosque of Hassan II, one of the largest in the Islamic world, set majestically against the sea…
After Casablanca, we took the train to Tangier and checked into the charming riad, “La Tangerine.” We toured the Kasbah and ancienne medina, but enjoyed lounging at the riad. We met a great family there who were also finishing their tour in Morocco – Roberto & Chelsea, and their kids Gabriel & Maya from Oceanside.
Just some of the pictures in La Tangerina and on the walls of Tangier…
And finally, here’s a vertical pano inside La Tangerine…
