LHS Fundraising, Horse Racing and a Picnic, all in one afternoon event

(Passing along the information below sent to me about another alumni event to give you a jump on ordering your tickets.)

A Lincoln High School Alumni Association

Fundraising Event

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"Day at the Races"

SANTA ANITA RACE TRACK

Arcadia, California

WEST INFIELD AREA #3

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ENJOY A RELAXED & FUN EXPERIENCE.

SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 2009

12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

This special day at the races for Lincoln H.S. Alumni Assoc. includes a delicious buffet spread of turkey, ham, salami, cheese, fresh rolls, desserts & homemade salsa & salads; hot dogs, too.

General Admission, parking, all you can eat, and the day’s Racing Program are also included with your ticket purchase.

Present your ticket stub at West Infield Area #3. Each person will receive 2 raffle tickets. Prizes will be awarded from the 2nd to 6th races.

Special prizes will be raffled after 7th race, main prize winner CASH from the 50 / 50 drawing. Please provide your transportation to the track. You may bring your own drinks – soda, water, etc.

(Liquor is not allowed to be brought into the park however; you may purchase alcoholic beverages at the track.)

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Our own betting area with no crowds to fight and our own exclusive area to sit and visit and look over the racing program. Invite your friends & family, support Lincoln H.S. Alumni Assoc., - win a few bucks, and just have a nice day.

Children are certainly welcome! Play areas are scattered throughout the area that young ones enjoy!

Races will be held rain or shine.

TICKETS IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE.

TICKET PRICES: Adults: $25,

18 & under with adult: Free

Contact Person>> Genevieve Granados, (323) 222-2847
Email lincolnhighschoolaa@hotmail.com

Please, No Refunds, Tickets are transferable. Purchase in advance to assure reservation.

"Day at the Races": This popular activity, historically, has been one of the longest running resources in raising funds for varied groups; enabling the Alumni Association to continue to support so many projects helping Lincoln H.S. Making this activity successful can happen by your participation via ticket sales. Your help will be very much appreciated.

(And there you have it- If you're still not convinced to act on this, talk to someone who has been to this before and you just might change your mind. In case you were wondering, I did not see anywhere that YOU or anyone else had to be one of the Lincoln alumni to buy a ticket. If you can't make it, it can always be a "gift" to a friend or relative- or to several of them. )

Lincoln High featured in Debate team article in L.A. Times

Did you know that Lincoln has been organizing student participation in a different kind of high school activity than we regularly find in a high school: “Debate.” The L.A. TIMES published an article last week on this topic, featuring LHS as one of the high schools where this is happening, "No argument: High school debate is popular once again," http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-debate20-2009jan20,0,1406037.story It’s good to see that amid the trend of reduced activities in LAUSD schools over the years due to decreased interest and funds, that is worsening now even more with tight budgets all around, that there is something that can be both helpful academically to an individual student, and operate to represent a school’s program.

You can read the article for some insight into the high school setting that some of you might recall, and if you have been out of school for a number of years, then don’t really bother to recall since those times are very different from what’s happening in the high school experience today. If you compare your experiences to those of current students, there’s a lot that doesn’t match. That might be because of changes that happen due to technology and social views, as well as the management of school funding.

WHAT WAS YOUR SCHOOL EXPERIENCE?
The different experience brought out in this story is a vivid example of how we former students at Lincoln had limited and lesser ranges of experience in our school life as a general condition. Having less exposure to what’s out there in the world doesn't help the learning process nor does it get the students prepared in the best way for handling future situations. Some other high schools were able to provide students a wider scope of experiences that helped them to be better students. A lot of this happens, too, because of what is done by parents who work on doing more for their children's education, since you can’t expect the school to be any substitute for what parents can do. It just shows how important it is for parents to work with educating their children, and not to expect everything is a teacher’s job to do. Reasons for this can be varied, but for education to happen, it has to be done consciously, not accidentally, for the best effect.

DEBATE- A TIME FOR A CHANGE, A GOOD CHANGE.
But this topic, “Debate,” is really one developed in the school setting that is different from most sports by the simple reason that most equipment for needed, besides the teachers and students, is already there to start.

By now, you might still wonder, “What is debate about anyway? What does it do for students or anyone?” I pulled out some selections from Wikipedia, presenting a few interpretations on what I see can be a very broad area.

Here is how it’s defined: “Debate (American English) or debating (British English) is a formal method of interactive and position representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examine the consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examine what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is technique of persuasion.”

And the special skill that this brings out is “argument” and they don’t mean the kind you might expect when two people become angry. What happens is what we in a school setting prefer, discussion, and it happens in a special way.

Continuing with another very brief part taken from that Wikipedia section, the part that we have in the high school program is the competitive aspect of applying the learned skills so that we have something to judge:

“A rule-based competitive debate is often encouraged in high schools and
colleges. Often, it takes the form of a contest with explicit rules. It may be
presided over by one or more judges. Each side seeks to win, by
following the rules, and even by using some rules to break other rules, within
limits. Each side is either in favor ("for, 'Affirmative' "), or opposed to
("against, 'Negative' "), a statement (proposition or Resolution)
which if adopted would change something with the exception of some high school
and college debate where moots may hold no outcome, i.e., the moot "ignorance is
bliss".” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate

As I mentioned before, among the memories as a student in high school, having any debate competiton or real training about that in class was not part of the picture. I don’t remember calculators, computers or cell phones in school either, but here we are. I am glad for the changes, generally, and this is one where “better late than never” applies in seeing it at Lincoln.

WHAT DOES THIS BRING OUT IN STUDENT PERFORMANCE?
While I am glad to see that change here now, the ones who can participate really are fortunate they are equipped to do so, both in terms of their own hard work and study, their own natural ability, and the assistance along the way from parents, friends and teachers. In the bigger picture, we still don’t have enough progress by so many other students to be able to expect participation from that greater group.

IS SCHOOL ATTENTION BEING MISDIRECTED OR NEGLECTFUL AS TO SOME STUDENTS?
That’s just the way it is. Briefly, you can look to the Magnet Program at LHS involving the Science department and you will have something roughly, by my estimate, about a fifth of the school population of around 2700 or 2800, qualified for participation. That means that the Magnet Program has an actual pool of about 500-plus who can benefit from participation in the program. The majority of the school is excluded as a result. You wouldn't think that was the case, as my recollection of all the P.A. daily announcements of the "Magnet Programs" plans, meetings or other activities came across very loud, but not clear, over the school P.A. system installed during or before the "modernization" a few years back.

P.A. volume levels at Lincoln seemed to be well over the OSHA safety limits for preservation of our sense of hearing but complaints literally were made on deaf ears. We had no control over the volume in our rooms, and it must have had a setting in the main office as "FULL BLAST', so a lot was garbled when people spoke too loud. If you were a community neighbor to Lincoln, you had a better knowledge of what's going on than the students in school who covered their ears or talked over the intrusive announcements. When you happened to be walking out in the campus during the "bulletin" announcements, it sounded more like echoes across a prison yard- I could never ignore that impression every time it happened. That's a complete aside and something that goes into the "I don't miss that part" bin. I do think that this daily delivery to the small target audience made the rest of the students suffe in more than just the aural overload sense, and needlessly so.

The daily bombardment of irrelevant items was not a positive event for the students or the other teachers with decibel-resistant speakers. All it ever did was to get a lot of students either more resentful of, or more oblivious to, that program itself, as well as to all the other announcements coming across the P.A. system that should have been submitted for the printed daily bulleting, which instruction to teachers and administrators was perpetually ingnored during the few years I was at LHS, leaving that handout with virtually no changing news to break up the boilerplates paragraphs inserted throughout.

Of course, the Magnet program is not able to handle that many students at one time and all those students are being kept out by their own choice since a big part may have little or no interest in becoming involved. Reasons for students lacking interest in further achievement is something that deserves it’s own discussion, and that will be left for another time.

But what seems to happen in many school settings, Lincoln included, is that the “good” students or “high performers” will be what carries the rest of the school in any given assessment category, and a result, will get the better attention and benefits while in school, perhaps being considered as “favored treatment.” This turned out to be one of those "unintended consequences" when it came to state tests and dealing with NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND standards of the API ratings, while very low average scores were avoided by the good results of many "high" performing students. Leaving the consideration of fairness aside, you will often, if not always, find that the students who are performing well will turn out to be the ones that will succeed under any set of circumstances, even without any extra training or programs. Was that Darwinism at work? I don't know, it just works out like that.

The real problem in high schools are at the other end of the spectrum, those that don’t get good report cards, and those that don’t have a good handle on English skills or math, who become moody, withdrawn, passive, boistrous, inattentive or defiant and who have to be unhappy with the high school experience when it comes to successfully accomplishing any studying or testing.

THE WAY THAT THINGS WORK OUT LEAVE WEAK PERFORMERS LESS SUPPORTED.
And that job of preparing these underperforming students to handle work at their grade level with some proficiency is what remains the daunting task for LHS and other LAUSD schools from K through 12. Everyone wants to teach the high performers since, among other things, they allow a teacher to move through planned lessons at a consistent pace and you see home work coming in from everyone, with pretty good level of classroom behavior, too. The also serve to make the teacher look good as a teacher. There’s always a few students who will cause assorted conflict, but not consistently or characteristically so, I’d say.

We get back to he other students who are more challenged, more rebellious, more distracted, and who are less prepared and less supported by family, friends and teachers in getting the most from attending school will be the real concerns of the educational system. Here is where you might find that part of any school’s problem that still has no solutions for improvement.

It is nothing new, and the results don’t really change from year to year, but we continue to have more dropouts, those being the ones who don’t get to graduate either “on time” or ever. Some will manage later to earn a GED, but others will not and won’t care to. This is where I see we are now. Solutions come and solutions go, but unless you have students WANTING to get through school WITH some achievement, it’s going to be a losing proposition.

DID BRINGING THE "ALL COLLEGE PREP" NO-CHOICE TRACK HURT STUDENTS?
Our vocational training is now almost all gone from the campus site, with Skills Centers off-site as the available-but-not-quite-equivalent alternative. We have an "A to G" track that is a college prep program for everyone in high school, as if everyone is going to go to college. It winds up just pushing more to drop out. Very talented students drop out, too, not just the the "troublemakers." Many are just bored with what they are presented with. Of course, a student may be bored by having missed lots of school or not doing the class work and home work assignments. Then besides just being bored, he or she is then mystified by the discussions and assignments, becoming more and more detached from the subject, left further and further behind. Leaving school under those circumstances begins to sound like a reasonable choice.

WHAT "LEADERS" DO DOES NOT REALLY APPEAR TO HELP
The dropout problem is addressed unrealistically by LAUSD leadership. The "A-G" track is still part of the council re-election campaign boast of FORMER LAUSD President JOSE HUIZAR (Now the Council Member for Council District-14), although it's not "a positive" change as I contend here, but a negative one, not even harmless enough to be a neutral value. HUIZAR'S place on the LAUSD Board was filled by his former aide, now the Board President, MONICA GARCIA. GARCIA is fooling no one with her absurd "100% graduation goal." She needs to start beating a different drum. Ms. GARCIA, who announced that it was not until she attended U.C. Berkeley that she really learned about the Chicano struggle and needs and the social injustice. In this case, maybe it was not "better late than never" in getting involved with social change. Trying to revive the 60's style of activism is long past and, Ms. GARCIA, sorry you missed it, but move on. I am glad that you made it to U.C. which was probably a big part of it's effect on her education and attitude.

What Ms. GARCIA needs is to sit in on some classes and see that we would be lucky if everyone would be able to write a simple declarative sentence or have an ability to read books, standard classics of a high school curriculum level. For the record, LAUSD has never had a "100% graduation rate." Even at the grad school level, not everyone who begins a program is able to finish it. All this unrealistic boasting does not do much for MS. GARCIA'S credibility nor her ability to assess the problem.

WHAT DOES "NO VOCATIONAL EDUCATION" DO FOR STUDENTS?
This part of the educational component now missing is that part where many students find they can flourish and apply their talents, developing their skills and satisfying their needs that in turn allows them to “tolerate” the academic side of school that is not so interesting to them. THAT is the part of the day that lets students have their time in vocational training that is comparable to the arts programs as being something special to each student and a time when they work to be able to enjoy the results of what they learn and put them to use.

If the powers that be would take a breath and look at what you have, it might help them find solutions or improvements. Let's look at this situation regarding the trend for "healthy living" that is becoming more popular, whether we want to hear it or not from our politicians. Aside from eating habits and choices, EXERCISE is important.

Many people have the benefit of working at jobs where a lot of physical energy is not needed, but then, avoiding weight gains and keeping the circulatory and other body systems has been attended to, for many, by lunchtime walking. Other choices include joining groups for sports or outdoor activity for exercise needs and then theres's the gym membership and putting hours of time for that activity to burn calories. Lots of people wind up feeling and looking better from all this.

Exercise works for improving physical health and for our mental health, too. "Endorphins" produced during strenous exercise make us FEEL better, almost drug-like in their effect. So you see, to be healthy, it's not all sitting just still and working quietly, but mixing some activity to use up the rest of your body's parts so it stays in working order. Physically and mentally, there's a greater feeling of well-being.

"ONE SIZE" DOES NOT FIT ALL.
NOW, getting to my point, putting a student in only classes for math, English language (reading, writing and literature), science and very little else is done without much to differentiate the time and activity in any part of a school day from any other part. We don't even have P.E. to use for an outlet for physical activity, having been cut from a P.E. class as a requirement every semester, down to only two years out of four now, a 50% cut in that area. Taking out the vocational classes from a student's choices is what leaves students without their "reward", "highlight", "creative outlet", "physical break" or "favorite" time, or any other label attached to that different kind of needed activity is, simply stated, a functional mistake.

I nearly forgot about the female students' side of things as electives went. They had the "homemaking" style of vocational opportunies in education. "Cooking" "Sewing" "Typing" and so on, were what you found in the 500 building- and the sinks of old still are there, with the old wall mounted ironing boards to be found in some rooms before the "modernizaton" took the reminders of the "past" out of the school. Those classes permitted boys to enroll, but there weren't many. I was in a typing class with one or two other guys, and that turned out to be the most practical one I ever took at Lincoln, using the skills in college and later, almost a necessity for students today with computer work.

The variety for the mind and the physical interaction makes for a different and enhanced learning experience. We might not be able to continue in the vocational field in a career sense, but the experience helps in other ways and any practice in the learning process is of benefit in improving learning skills that can be applied for other subjects. A shortsighted LAUSD is what we have by their idea of clearing out all the shops since some, mainly Latinos exerting their influence, thought that if you eliminated vocational ed, everyone would HAVE TO GO TO COLLEGE (and I think this might be what justified such change for CM JOSE HUIZAR) and not, I suppose, be headed for a job as some lowly worker, as they saw it. They did not consider the "dropout" option taken so often by so many in response to these curriculum changes.

The school district needs to use better strategy and to look back to what was taught in the times when I and many others were able to stick it out, not drop out and learn a few things. My parents would have had a big part of that decision if I ever tried to consider it. These days, too many parents are isolated from the schools and, unfortunately, their children, so like the "Las Vegas" motto, they treat it all like, "What happens at school stays at school." Involved parents can be so helpful to their child's improvement or good performance without having to be college educated or even without having English language or math skill. Parents need to keep their children on the right path by showing they care. Single parent families and a high divorce rate don't help things, neither does having babies from teen mothers. "An uphill struggle" is what you have there from the beginning. But let's look again to the school district's side of action.

VOCATIONAL CLASSES WERE SUPPORTIVE OF A SUCCESSFUL EDUCATIONAL PROCESS
Dropouts decide at some time not to come back to school, and making the choice to remain in school is not helped when you take away those elements where students find they achieve success and satisfaction. I recall my own time at LHS with auto shop and drafting being among the best classes for my enjoyment in a different way than just doing well in the purely "academic" side. Some students were able to actually begin to head toward their career activity by our school's print, metal, wood, auto and other shop classes available. Low pay is certainly not the characteristic of most trades now, and a society without such skills will leave us to turn to what, China, for filling that need like it does for most manufacturing formerly done in the U.S.?

STUDENT ACTIVITY SHOULD BE AVAILABLE IN WIDER RANGES OF TOPICS AND AREAS.
The students who are able to participate in the debate program should be congratulated for applying themselves here. It may not be as glamous as catching a touchdown pass, putting the ball in the hoop with a 3-point shot, or hitting a bases-loaded home run, but it’s something worthwhile that gets into a style of thinking for continued benefit since you will always have to think while awake. Well, I suppose it's your choice there It’s exercise for your brain. And for more exercise, you still can try out for school sports to do those other things, too. At least as long as there is funding and as long as there are sponsors who can provide the time and energy to help, it's all there for you. Did you know that golf was another area for LHS student activity these days? It's a different LHS from before.

On the negative side, we don’t have a tennis team- or even tennis courts. Franklin High has lots of them, and nice ones, too. We have a conversion fom tennis to basketball courts there now. THAT is a sport that we DID have in my time, and I remember seeing Rudy and Steve Salas of the band, TIERRA, in the school yearbook as members of the varsity tennis team. And don’t forget about 10 years later that Rudy Moreno, comedian and actor, was a baseball team player for LHS. I remember Louis "Benny" Torres of Cl. of S'68, who was on the journalism path early when he worked on the "Railsplitter" school newspaper before we had an internet. He went on to win awards as a journalist while working for KNX-RADIO 1070-am. A variety of experience benefits students.

Let’s hope that our debate team members can be remembered in years to come for their work on the present debate team activity, and that we see more of these and other students in this activity given the recognition deserved while they are still students here. Getting due credit and support for such things is necesary to sustain movement in that positive direction.

2008 Dodger star feeling down- poor Manny Ramirez

After a playing a great role in helping the Dodgers see some post-season play, Manny is feeling down:
Manny Ramirez: 'No one wants to sign me' Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times, Manny Ramirez is still a free agent. http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-manny-ramirez30-2009jan30,0,5985679.story

I would have to make a wild guess but I say that lots of teams would like to sign Manny, but he's just a bit too expensive and we've got tough times all around, moneywise. Join the rest of the world, Manny, at least until you manage to adjust your price tag and get yourself back onto a major league roster.

And cheer up, lots of teams want you, admit it. It's just the way you look at it. Poor guy, so sad a story.

Taggers arrested in L.A. for major damages

Another story in today's news about the damage and expense caused by "taggers" spreading the graffiti style of vandalism to public areas, shown by a photo of the concrete riverbank of the L.A. River between downtown and Boyle Heights. It's a three-story, half mile long addition to the urban blight found locally. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/crime/la-me-big-taggers29-2009jan29,0,2885943.story For those who persist in defending the practice as art, you should consider the cost to the public for this unwanted "art,"

The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that removing the MTA tag from the river alone will cost $3.7 million because hazardous materials crews must create an elaborate dam to capture all the paint and runoff water so it doesn't get into the riverbed.

In this case, however, the particular culprits are neither teens, nor dirt poor, and they may be experiencing the more painful side of paying some serious dollars for applying their "art" to property that is not theirs. Sorry, but that's just the way it looks to me. If you're into this activity, pay your own way to get material as your canvas, use your own property or don't do it. No matter how much you might support it as an art form, I don't believed that even the biggest advocates would appreciate getting their house and garage hit with some crew's unrequested application of their "art."

Steve Lopez in the L.A. Times- Should Mayor enter debate? What's to hide?

Steve Lopez: "Mayoral race is worth a debate"- Vote on that decision on same page as the story. Mayor ducks from the challengers. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez28-2009jan28,0,5532518.column

Election time will be here in just over one month. Compared to the presidential elections there’s not been much of any widespread news about the race for Mayor of the City of Los Angeles. That was the case until today when Steve Lopez, columnist for the L.A. TIMES wrote in his column about the fact that the mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, has refused to participate in any debates with challengers for the office.

Lopez’ column is the first real commentary on Walter Moore, the candidate for mayor who, of all challengers, has raised the most money for campaign funding, over $200,000.00, but no one really knows ABOUT him or any of the other candidates where the general public is concerned. (Moore's website: http://web.mac.com/waltermoore/WalterMooreForMayor/Home.html )

Lopez mentions only Moore and not any of the others, including Zuma Dogg, a friend who I think has learned a lot from attending city council meetings for well over 2 years. ZD has had better attendance at the 3 meetings per week than some council members, many of whom wind up missing important matters, and many just missing a lot of meetings, like Jack Weiss, a council member running for City Attorney.

My opinion has always been that if you want the vote of the public, then you should earn it and not just expect it. Antonio Villaraigosa has become so smug in his job as mayor, a job he has done very poorly, that is, when he decides to stay in the city instead of campaign for Hillary Clinton for President, and then shift to Obama when Hillary ended her attempt. Also part of the road trip was Antonio’s need to travel around the country to raise campaign funds for this election. It’s kind of funny that he’s collecting money to be reelected as mayor of a city that these donors don’t even live in.

Antonio’s focus on getting as much money as he can to pay for ads to convince people he’s great and he’s working for you all the time, things that are completely unsupported by any facts and that would actually or “should” actually cause an uprising of voters against him.

In Los Angeles, you don’t have a very informed body of voters. Campaign propaganda gets to be a very effective tool when reach people who do not bother to look beyond the advertising. When you get your news from television as your main source, it’s like getting the TMZ version of life, more than any real news. Listening to radio will do more to inform but even radio news is not evenly available.

This all leaves the voter to rely heavily on what comes to him or her by the one-sided presentations typical of political ads. Tony Villaraigosa depends on this condition and the campaign funds he raised while traveling out of L.A. amount to over $3,000,000 (that’s right, THREE MILLION DOLLARS, to be spent to keep him in office. Like I said, don’t expect there to be anything objective in those ads. Honesty is not part of the political gain.

Tony wants to win and he is so sure of it that he will just skip any debates and FORGET ABOUT VOTERS as usual until he needs them.

VOTERS deserve some respect from a candidate- he’s asking US for our vote, we are asking HIM for his approval. THIS IS RIGHT WHERE IT’S ALL TURNED AROUND and there is complete and utter contempt the voters, especially regarding their needs in terms of honesty and some truth. With Mayor Tony, that’s asking too much. Debating ANYONE for him would show the flaws he has to hide. Someone doing a good job would gladly entertain challenges and be able to HANDLE QUESTIONS with some confidence, not trickery and playing out a strategy to cover up things.

The Mayor has become such a publicity whore that he finds his way to tragedies in the news. Anywhere there are cameras clicking or tape rolling is where you can expect to see the Mayor, even if he really has no legitimate function or business to make his presence necessary at the scene. Sometimes his presence entirely inappropriate, but Tony cares only about getting his face on camera and more publicity to try to cover up the true picture. Remember the recent train crash that happened in Chatsworth? There was Tony to give us the updates on what was happening as if he were the news reporter there.

The head safety official working on the scene normally handles this. In this case, the City Fire Chief was the man on that job, but Tony actually bumped him out to take over at the mike, while he also put on a fire fighter's yellow coat that might make you think he was doing some of the rescue work.

It’s all for appearances, like a magic act that tricks you into believing something that isn’t really happening like it first looked to you. That’s Tony’s entire administration of the past, coming up on 4 years. It was 4 years of planning for the next election and the next political moves, when you could see all the while that the city was being run on auto pilot, with the Council doing most of the decisions for the mayor to just come by and approve when he was in town.

And now, after the Presidential election is done and his own race is rapidly approaching, the mayor is staying around longer inside the city limits, but he still cannot stay in his city hall office. Tony has to find those camera lenses for his own performances. The family of 7 that was killed by the father in Wilmington was completely shocking and a horrible event, but Tony found that HE was NEEDED there on the scene. It wasn’t the police and counselors and other emergency responders on the scene who were important, only Tony. The EVENT, with the loss of the lives of an entire family ws not bad enough. It was NEWS, so that was enough for Tony to do this ghoulish appearance, saying NOTHING THAT WE DIDN’T ALREADY THINK AND SHOWING NO RESPECT for the sadness of the friends and family of the deceased. But Tony got his face in the cameras to show us HE’S important.

I forgot for a moment that the L.A. Weekly’s story has it right, “Antonio Villaraigosa, the All-About-Me Mayor” who works 11% of the time on real city business and spend 89% traveling, attending fundraisers and other personal matters, all documented in the story which based it’s calculations on the calendars that it was entitled to receive according to the law. http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-11/news/the-all-about-me-mayor/

Well, as Steve Lopez’ column says, maybe Tony will win, but aren’t the citizens entitled to hearing him in a debate for the voters of Los Angeles to know what there is from each Moore and Villaraigosa to give to voters? Lopez thinks it’s pretty arrogant of Tony to refuse to present any kind of information to voters that he could give in a debate.

I say that Tony should debate Moore and include the other challengers, too. Most of them are only known to a few people and Zuma Dogg is one of the grass roots challengers who got way over the 500 valid petition signatures almost entirely by himself in order to qualify to be on the March 3 ballot. It worked well for him so that he could personally hear from people as to what they thought about matter's including the city's needs and conditions.

David Hernandez, another candidate, is an activist on the ballot as well, and was a plaintiff in a lawsuit that tried to have the winning city ballot measure overturned by the court to cancel the EXTENSION of the term limits to three terms from two, a measure that the City Council intentionally and dishonestly described as “limiting” as in shortening, not “extending the limits” like it actually did. It was all done by them to keep their jobs longer, and 5 of them benefited from this voter approval that I call a voter deception.

Hernandez recently returned to the appellate court to hear the decision. The court there rejected his challenge that relied on the actions being in violation of the city charter, saying that while it could not be done by the state government, the 2-in-1 law was not prohibited specifically by the city's charter.

So if you think that Tony is such a great individual, just think about why Tony could only could get hurt and not helped from being in a debate- maybe something might come out such as "the truth." That's a threat to his image; “the truth” about what he’s done and what he’s not done.

Of course the Mayor is not into truth- that’s his enemy. I just said that the campaign money will pay for ads on TV and radio. And the money will give you those very fine glossy brochures in your mail that should include lots of the pictures that Tony’s generated from all his necessary appearances. I see Tony proclaiming, “I’m the pothole king” and figure that it’s all that matters to him, the publicity. It brings to mind the Sit’N’Sleep set of commercials where the owner “Larry” is always doing something to sell more mattresses and making deals that make his accountant say, “You’re killing me, Larry.” Tony is the huckster, hustling the voters for something he’s shown he does not deserve. He needs to be the “One-Term Mayor.”

One other item missing from Tony's election brochure and website this year will be the same family man style of photos he used last time around. We all know why that is the case. Nice job, Mayor.

See the Steve Lopez column online (linked at the top of this item) in the "California" section of the L.A. TIMES, and make your selection online to VOTE on your opinion, Should Tony debate? Most responders are saying “Yes”

Concert views from the Andrus Theater

From Tuesday's Band and Choir performances

And Tomorrow Night, Thursday, a different concert presentation from the several Dance programs featuring our very own student performers.

The program begins at 6:30 p.m., all absolutely free- not even a donation is requested, so just bring yourselves over and enjoy another student presentation in these fine theater surroundings.

Reminder of LHS Band and Choir Free Concert tonight

If you have an opportunity, please try to squeeze in some time to get to Lincoln for tonight's concert program by the Band and Choir programs. It begins at 6:30 p.m. and I don't know the situation on refreshments available there, but you won't be able to partake in alcohol or tobacco on school grounds. You could make sure that you eat something before coming on over tonight. If you think you might want to leave early, try sitting near an exit so you can slip out comfortably without too much notice, taking that tip from the playbook of Mayor Tony, who issued that direction to his aides (and there's 93 on his staff) to set up his appearances that way.

I don't expect you to need that exit option, and live performances, even where there's those unexpected problems, still are much more entertaining experiences for an audience than any recorded "perfect" performance we would all like to make if we played.

Since the last year's opening of the auditiorium as the Ethel Percy Andrus Theater, there have been several performances presented there. Still seeming to me to not be fully set up was the lighting, with the performers and speakers often entering the "dark" zone where there normally would be in one or more spotlights. It makes for some tough existing-light photography when that happens. I see from schedules that there has been lots of time on rehearsals from all areas to make this week's concerts happen, and look forward to more changes.

I haven't seen the actual program listings, being outside of the operations, but if learning from experience helps, there might be a little more introduction of each performance before the curtains open on each segment. That was a bit of a missing element in last year's musical performance. I would like to have been clued in to what was coming up, maybe a little description of the song or performers or even a quick culture moment, just to get the most from what's presented, maybe even to know what to look or listen for, too.

It's a high school situation and it's all about learning situations, so perfection here is not expected, perfection being a subjective matter to some extent anyway. And let us not forget, that a lot of the fun is in the learning by participation in what area you fit into.

Please take this opportunity to visit Lincoln tonight for these performances, to visit for the Thursday night concert, too.

Please, be aware. Watch street parking restrictions before 6 p.m. -and I don't know restrictions were changed to a later hour by the City Council's money-grubbing moves for issuing more tickets and more expensive meter rates- and that's simply the truth of it. (Talk to CM Ed Reyes if you need the official city "explanations," and if you don't mind a big helping of baloney served up.)

Another Showing of More Waste by City of L.A.- hundreds of cars gong home every day and no control on city's gas credit cards.

"As much as $10 million a year could be saved by cutting back on the number of vehicles that city employees take home." That's the conclusion of an audit report of city car usage, and that includes the fraudulent gas purchases. Records show that for a period of just over 2 years, there have been 393 instances of a car being filled up 10 times in one day. The city owned pumps are for city cars, but gas credit cards with a $1500 limit are issued for purchases at commercial stations.

The Los Angeles City Council continues its work of wasting money at the same time looks for more ways to collect more money from the individuals and residents. Remember it just finished one phase where their work triples and quadruples parking meter rates, installs credit card payment stands for parking and has raised all city tickets by another $5.00, as well as boosting trash collection fees from $11 a month to $36 last September. (All this happens during City Council meetings that often slip by quietly and quickly. Once in a while, it all hits the fan and the Council Members are quick to find reasons not to take the blame or to make it look like it is doing you some real good.)

This time is was City Controller Laura Chick bringing out information like a "Ripley's Believe It or Not" feature. She's released information from an audit that shows city cars have been assigned to employees of the city, some to emergency response personnel and others simply assigned to our wonderful politicians. Did you know that EACH of the 15 Council Members has 8 City cars provided to them, with gas, maintenance and insurance also covered?

The January 22nd story can be found- [last updated today] in the NBC Los Angeles News website report, Free Ride Ending For LA Employees With Auto Perks, http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Free-Ride-Could-Be-Over-For-LA-Employees-With-Auto-Perks.html The LAPD's included in the report, along with the civilian employess.

The Los Angeles Police Department has 4,692 vehicles, 786 of which are home-garaged. The audit questioned whether the more than 200 LAPD employees who live outside Los Angeles County and have take-home cars could respond to an emergency in a timely manner, and whether the department could justify providing them with vehicles.

"I really want to know the rationale for saying that our public safety officers need take-home city cars to be able to respond quickly in case of an emergency and they live 100 miles away. There's something wrong with this picture," Chick said.
As a result of the audit, the LAPD has decided to eliminate take-home vehicles for 120 employees

The L.A. Times' story, "Controller critical of L.A. workers driving city cars," http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/01/auditor-critica.html shows examples and blog comments of readers.

The City, like the State and Federal government, has its budget problems. The City however has no military personnel to support and the schools are not under their jurisdiction, with a separate budget under the LAUSD. A lot of what's collected as taxes is just turned around and shipped out as payments for programs of often questionable merit and unproven effectiveness, and a lot goes out to pay for services and construction costs. Some people call it "pay to play." Part of the benefit of being "in good" with the decision makers in City Hall, from the Mayor with his 90-plus aides, to the 15 City Council Members, with their 20 staff aides apiece, is that when you have a bid or request for funding a program or supplying a service you might get more attention- like approval of your request- and on that point, we see how tax money flows in the direction of some and not to others.

LAURA CHICK is on the job now but formerly was a supporter of Antonio Villaraigosa, also known as the Mayor, the "11% Mayor," The Absentee Mayor, the Photo Ops Mayor, Tony V., or simply, Mayor Tony. That closeness has appeared to have been over for a long time with a lot of the discoveries by the Controller's Office showing a poorly managed city with no one watching the store- or as I sometimes consider it, the inmates running the asylum- and running it very expensively at that, running it right into the ground if you look more closely, behind all the rhetoric.

You can see that WENDY GRUEL, CM from the CD-2 in the San Fernando Valley is trying to get some good campaign mileage out of this situation. She's been an Antonio supporter from way back and as CM, she's not been part of the "solution", but clearly, part of the problem.

Running against GRUEL as a better person for the job is Nick Patsaouras, formerly President of the DWP commission, but having left that post after finding he was still unable and not authorized to control a lot of what is DWP is adding to the cost of everything when you live inside the Los Angeles city limits. The L.A. Daily News story, "City officials to review use of take-home vehicles," has more response of officials to Chick's audit, including an order from Tony to departments to "suspend the issuance of new take-home vehicles or purchase of new equipment" and to end the use of city gas credit cards at commercial gas stations. Good move, Mr. Mayor. It's the least he could do.

CM WENDY GRUEL has been presenting a more enlightened image to the public since embarking on her campaign for City Controller. Her hard glares and lapses of patience have been toned down remarkably so and you can see that staying in a public office is her aim. The benefit of that will be going only to Wendy, not to us, the residents of the city. She's been too much the "yes man" (or "yes woman") when it comes to doing what Mayor Tony has asked for without any serious evaluation to see it his requests have merit.

Most of City government operates that way- "I do you a favor, and then, you do me one in exchange," and on and on like that. Unfortunately, these favors often come at a hefty price just because expenses run that way, or because they waste money by sloppy spending, getting into bad contracts that leave the city a loser on the terms, or just plain effing up the whole deal by not having SOMEONE keep track of things. The city lost thousands of dollars in parking fines by not collecting them from the agency it hired to do collections; the city lost money a few years back when they discovered that rent had not been charged to some tenants on Olvera Street and that there were many tenants without any written rental agreements.

Did you know that our present City Attorney ROCKY DELGADILLO was being audited, well, his office was, that is, for how it was handling workers compensation cases? So did he cooperate to show us how well things are? Not quite. ROCKY filed a lawsuit against City Controller LAURA CHICK to stop her from conducting the audit of his department- all leaving Ms. CHICK TO GO to the city council almost two months ago for some funding to handle the suit, but they put that off and left her on her own for legal costs EVEN THOUGH IT'S PART OF her JOB. Council President Garcetti tried to pass the buck saying that the litigation was done with any prior consulting from the City Attorney's office.

What Chick did get was a token showing of sympathy from guess who? WENDY GRUEL, the one who wants to be elected on March 3, 2009 to Ms. Chick's office. Term limits require Chick to leave the post. I suppose WENDY wanted to show some knowledge of the way things go in the Controller's office, or maybe she did not want to have ROCKY jack her around if she were to get elected and have to meet up with his legal antics while trying to get information from the City Attorney's Office.

The Council has approved payments of legal fees for other city employees very routinely, but you know they are not happy with Chick for finding out things that embarrass them and for revealing what is REALLY going on that SHOULD NOT be happening.

WENDY says she can be independent from any influence by the Mayor’s office, and that’s what ROCKY said about the billboard companies. So now the settlement MADE BY ROCKY with the billboard companies turns out to be a legal disaster, with the uneven exceptions undermining the whole thing. That allowed the court to find the settlement flawed as authority regulating billboards the way the city wanted to.

ROCKY has a history of problems, shown vividly by an L.A. Weekly story on June 28, 2007, "Rocky Delgadillo's Flameout," http://www.laweekly.com/2007-06-28/news/rocky-delgadillo-s-flameout/ that includes the problems created by false reports of an accident while his wife was driving a city car. And to remind you again that he is the city's top attorney, with the assigned responsibility for enforcing the law.

We don’t need more waste and we don't need those failng to do their job to remain.

LHS Alumni Association- membership drive and New LHS web address

Here are a few items for your consideration, passed along from the Lincoln High School Alumni Association:

1. Lincoln HS has completely updated its website, with a new look and new web address.

Yes, alumni are requested to register in the alumni directory (this includes ALL alumni- dues paying Association members and any others having attended LHS for any time, as well as the graduates). You can find that new official school site at: http://www.lincolnhs.org/


2. Join your your Alumni Association for just $1.25 a month.
(A bargain at double the price.) Alumni Membership Dues period: 2008 -2009.

Join the Lincoln Alumni Association and help shape the future of our school and its students! Membership dues are now due for the July 2008 - June 2009 fiscal year.

For $15 membership you will recieve the calendar of events, newsletters and invitations to the upcoming fundraisers and social events. Please contact Mike Sandoval, VP-Membership at (323) 342-9168 or email at lincolnhighschoolaa@hotmail.com for details and membership application. Tigers United!

If you have not already done so, please mail your membership dues payable to "Lincoln High School Alumni Association" -
LHSAA
P.O. Box 31257
Los Angeles, CA 90031

Be sure to unclude your name, class year (or years attended), and all contact information with your $15 membership dues.
Your payment will ensure that you continue to receive all alumni information.

LHS students' Evening Concert Performances this week- all free

THE STUDENTS AT LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL
CORDIALLY REQUEST YOUR PRESENCE

at their performances of the

LHS Winter 2009 CONCERTS

in

The Andrus Theatre

at
Lincoln High School
3501 North Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90031


Admission to each concert is FREE. Each

Program begins at 6:30 p.m.

THE BAND/CHOIR CONCERT

(marching band, chorus, concert band)
TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 27TH


THE DANCE CONCERT

(folklorico, hip hop, jazz, drill)
THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 29TH

Your support of Student Activities at Lincoln High School is

always welcomed and is greatly appreciated.

* * *

Performances in the Arts are made especially

more meaningful to the students

by the audience support supplied by simply attending

these programs.

Teachers get word that it's "no layoffs"...for now.

“L.A. Unified teachers' jobs safe for now; Superintendent announces that no teachers will lose their jobs this school year. But the decision will boost next year's deficit.” story by Jason Song and Howard Blume, January 24, 2009.

The L.A. Times details this story that appears in today’s edition, available online at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-budget24-2009jan24,0,4204719.story

Officials from the school district announced on Friday that they would not lay off any teachers this school year. This was a complete change from the District's position of last week when it received approval for issuing notices, “pink slips,” to teachers who were subject to a layoff. The change in plans will serve to avoid interruptions to the classroom teaching environment that would happen by a mid-year change of teachers. It was expected that up to 2300 teachers would be losing jobs in the cost-cutting action to be taken during this school year.

“ Next year” in school talk means the “academic year” that runs from September 2009 to June 2010, which will be when the layoffs will be the main topic again. Cuts to be made in costs will need to be even greater in the next school year to compensate for the shift in the plans that will keep the present number of teachers on the payroll. The motivating factor for this decision was to avoid the positive gains that are being made overall by the district, and a wide scale replacement would hurt such things. The district was said to have teachers who “aren’t teaching” at the Beaudry headquarters. AJ Duffy, union president, was interviewed one morning on KABC 790 radio before this change was announced, solidly criticizing the way that the District has managed things, especially making poor choices in the way it spends money and maintains the mini-districts for a district that has too many administrators for the needs of the district.

When the inevitable reductions in the teaching staff do happen, “bumping rights” will apply, more or less, a seniority system where former teachers who have become administrators can keep jobs with the district if their administrative function is eliminated. These bumping rights will put them into the job held by the least senior teachers, namely the probationary ones with less than 2 years with the district.

The practical effect will be putting “teachers” back into classrooms that have been out of that situation for some time, most likely measured in years, and they will have to adapt. I don’t know if all of them would be suited to handle students, and it obviously was not their targeted goal to remain in the classroom setting or they would still be teaching.

From my experience, many new teachers had set their sights on becoming administrators, working on their administrative credentials as well as their teaching credentials so that they could be eligible to apply for those positions when they put in enough the requisite number of years as a teacher, at least 5 years, as I recall, and when there is a job opening. This was what I saw back about 3 years ago when things did not appear as bleak on the financial horizon for the District as they clearly do now. I expect that for some, leaving the daily encounters with students as their teachers is quite tolerable, but for most I knew, it was the thing the WANTED to do. It clearly is something that not everyone has a taste for doing, but when you do it, there's not much that you can find as a comparable activity, all unique at the various grade levels, but all similar in the desire to impart upon students that "difference" you hope to make in your role.

I am sure that returning to classroom teaching is not something that many of the present administrators look forward to experiencing. I am even more certain that the classroom teachers now in place see no joy in that transition for their own sake, of course, but also because they’ll leave students in to the assorted ranks of even “newer” teachers to the classroom environs.

Saturday Music by Poncho Sanchez at Natural History Museum

"LATIN FESTIVAL"- There's a festival event that's featuring some lively music at an unlikely place, the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History on Saturday, January 24, 2009.

I received an email message directly without request for adding it to the blog and I really forgot to pass it on earlier (since no one asked me to). The information is as follows (and I always think that "free" is not really "free" if you HAVE to pay for something else FIRST- but that's my only question on this event). Check the museum site or call for more details:

Come you can join us for a festive Saturday at the Museum. Bring your families,
it should be a wonderful show.

Hope you can make it. All activities and concerts are FREE w/Museum admission. Poncho Sanchez will be playing from 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm (maybe if we are lucky--5:00 pm)

Lauren C. Delgadillo
Marketing & Communications
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
213.763.3540 phone
213.743.4843 fax

"http://www.nhm.org/"

Our mission is to inspire wonder, discovery and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds

NOW OPEN

Visible Vault: Archaeological Treasures from Ancient Latin America

Latin Festival / January 24, 2009

Thomas the T .rex Lab

PROGRAMS

Sustainable Sundays: Different Shades of Green
http://www.nhm.org/weekends/sustainable/

First Fridays
http://www.nhm.org/firstfridays/

LAUSD Budget Concerns and the Arts programs at Lincoln High

There was a question raised at the Alumni meeting last Saturday by a member on whether the arts program at Lincoln would suffer from the anticipated drastic budget cuts that the LAUSD will adopt as a result of the State budget outcome, as yet not resolved. Aside from the speculation and conjecture expressed at the meeting, some direction was provided from the District in the recent comments of Superintendent Ramon Cortines and those comments are relevant here.

At the meeting last week at Dahlia Heights Elementary, the same question was raised as it applied to the arts programs in the schools overall. Supt. Cortines acknowledged the importance of such programs, remarking that, for many students, "that is the hook that keeps them in school." He said that the Saturday school programs were similarly important for the large numbers of students affected. He said that he could not be certain with any specific commitment yet since budget numbers have not been established at the State level, but he considered arts programs important to the education process and would work to maintain them as important parts of the educational picture.

This budget crisis impacts the school district at all levels, and we had a topic area brought up that included consideration of a student field trip using LAUSD school busses for transporting the students.

According to the list of things that were covered in the LAUSD meeting and other similar content items appearing in print from Supt. Cortines, I would not expect much in the way of funds available soon or in the long run for expenses that had been made in the past. The District, according to Supt. Cortines, had begun belt-tightening steps last year as they saw this picture developing. A lot of things have been cut and more are on the way. (See topic from earlier posting here made last Wednesday.)

Supt. Cortines said coaches have been cut, and the aides are another area for personnel reductions. The increasing likelihood of more personnel reductions gets closer to becoming a certainty. Any available funds would be expected to go to the "necessities" of a school, so most of the field trips, if not all of them, will not qualify as “necessities.” That is another reason for parent and community support being needed if important programs are to continue at schools, generally, and at Lincoln, specifically.

The arts are a part of the educational process as well as the academics. The impact that that area has on morale of the students is important although not noticed as readily as the impact coming from good academic involvement. Long gone at Lincoln and many other LAUSD schools are the days of a mighty school spirit and the pride shown by student service clubs facilitating campus events- and long gone are many of the campus events themselves, when you stop and think about it.

The present day school band is getting Lincoln back into a level of where it should have been all along. The notable times from "back in the day" with Mr. Tozier and Mr. Benson, important names from Lincoln High’s past, genereally recognized as handling the bands very well for years show one end of the spectrum of activity in music, while the later times, with no band to speak of for years, give you an example of the weaker level of activity for the music involvement available to students at LHS . There is quite a difference to the school environment but it was at a subtle level, and restoring such things will be positive steps to improve things on multiple levels.

The Alumni Association contributed funding for the purchase of new band uniforms and in this fashion, generate a positve action, moving forward in the rebuilding of students' school-involvement and restoration of a level of pride in the school that such activities promote. The recent demonstration of LHS-organized talent during the Lincoln Heights Christmas Parade was a step in the right direction, raising the level of school spirit for particiapants and for the parade watchers, many of whom are also LHS alumni. Movement in that direction needs to continue if we are to expect the most that the students can achieve at Lincoln. It is not the only thing needed for a better educational program but one important item among the many.

Drama at Lincoln High- Students in a Resurgence of the Arts

Ms. Collins, a faculty member in the English department at Lincoln High, is working to bring drama back to the lives of students. The “drama” is in the sense of "acting" and "character interaction," and not that social tension type that you find so often in the lives of teenagers. There’s that kind of social drama already in abundant supply with teens at any high school. On the academic side, Ms. Collins’ has played a significant role with drama arts. She attended the Saturday Alumni Association meeting and provided some information on what’s been happening, both on-campus and off-campus, with students and theater arts.

As part of her program in working with students, Ms. Collins has arranged to take students on field trips to see live performances of plays, literally going the extra mile for her students to get to the performance. Her next scheduled date for a trip will be on February 11, 2009, when she takes a student group to the Pasadena Playhouse for a performance of “Stormy Weather,” a dramatic portrayal based on the life of the legendary entertainer Lena Horne.

Students often would not experience many things in a “hands-on” style were it not for the efforts of concerned individuals and organizations, including the one described above. This activity addresses the concerns in that area, giving them another experience to add to their positive development as members of a civilized (to some general extent) society.

SOME ANDRUS THEATER EVENTS FOR YOU IN JANUARY

But before the trip to the Pasadena Playhouse happens, Lincoln High will present performances of it's own on two separate days: Tuesday, January 27 and Thursday, January 29, at 6:30 p.m. each day, in the Andrus Theater. The cost will be that welcome amount, “FREE,” which should remove cost as a deterrent to attending at least one date. For your effort in arriving at the campus venue, you will be graced by the genuinely enthusiastic offering that will showcase the talents and skills of some of the students in various demonstrations of their artistic talent in sight and sound.

You can be certain that you will to find some aspect of this that will entertain you, as well as show another side of our students. The school extends the invitation to attend this event that is open to the entire community. Additional details will be supplied as provided.

“WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE PUBLIC and/or THE PARENT HERE?” or, “More about coming to Lincoln High School for Entertainment Presentations.”
Students in performance arts of all kinds, be it music, drama, painting or crafts, continuously work to improve their level as performers when they present their work to the audience.

In that regard, an essential component of the mix is, of course, the audience. This is where you come in. While the talent is young and still largely unpolished, you will find that students in all areas, have what most young people possess, the ability to learn at amazingly quick rates, especially when they are truly engaged in a subject. What they may lack in experience and seasoning is usually more than compensated for by the enthusiasm that they have for their work.

Be part of the audience for the benefit of the students and for the entertainment value that will cost you only a few hours of time. Your attendance works to help bring out that maximum level of enthusiasm that I mentioned above.

(And here’s THE OPINION COMMENTARY part- or "From the Soapbox")
There was a time when high schools, even jr. high schools, routinely had what we remember as the traditional school play that required the support of the artistic components of the school to prepare it, and the community to see it presented.

There were large numbers of students involved with setting up these local programs, most often apparent in holiday performances, with the stage crew helping create the environment, while the drama students presented the program that managed to include sounds provided by the music department’s participation, all for the benefit of the audience. At that time, this was a commonplace activity of local schools, something that was still being done by some, but for Lincoln High, it had been long-ended.

The shortsightedness in cutting these programs for a variety of professed reasons also worked to get the parents OUT of the loop as it affected their ongoing contact with the school and seeing what their children and neighbor's children were doing. The purpose of school visits became, from my observation, only things that had a negative event attached to them.

When it became necessary for a parent to go to school, it was usually not done for entertainment or enjoyable purposes. One exception was if the visit was for an "Open House," and even then, you might get a negative comment or two about what your son or daughter has been up to during the semester in the classroom.

Yes, the need for "good times" for school visits is sadly apparent. The auditorium at Lincoln has been tremendously improved as a facility for performances, with the second year of service under the newly renamed "Andrus Theater" name, a new era that just beginning for Lincoln. We look forward to a better collaboration between the school and the community in this area and working towards other areas of cooperation for improvement of services to students and their improved performance as a product.

The alumni are supportive in those goals to make education move in a positive direction in this, the last level of school that will be free for the students.

As usual, there is more to say on this subject.

A few Alumni events to look for in 2009- A call for committee volunteers at Saturday's meeting

There were a few more things to consider on the Calendar for Alumni events in 2009.

Saturday's Alumni meeting covered some items of old business, recapping the past years events ranging from the labor-intensive efforts at the AA's snack bar during Lincoln's home football games, to the November 1st 95th Anniversary Gala event at the Omni Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

There were lots of discussion points raised and comments made on what will be done in the future to improve areas that were considered below a desired level of achievement in the past, and a so few more approaches will be used to bring out the best level of quality as we move into the new year.

MEMBERSHIP CONSIDERATIONS
Our dues-paying membership procedures may need a change to enable a greater base of alumni to be able to fully participate in the voting process, since there are some present requirements that prevent that, cited by some alumni as a reason for refraining from a more active involvement. That's all to be worked out, again for the betterment of the organization, which will require changes to membership provisions of the bylaws.

SPRING ACTIVITY AT SANTA ANITA PARK
There will be another "Day At The Races" at Santa Anita Park on Sunday, April 19, 2009, continuing the annual event that brings us out for a nice afternoon at the famous local horse racing venue. The ticket price for the fundraising event that includes admission to the infield area and food, was announced as $25.00 per ticket, the same as last year. Ticket availability to be announced.

END-OF-SUMMER PICNIC
The Picnic is back, provided there are enough members in the organizing committee. The Summer Alumni Picnic that was held annually until it was suspended this past year so that more AA work resources could be focused on the Gala event that was held in November. The details of that event will be presented as the Picnic Committee assembles a list of volunteers to work on the date, location and other details. The event is one of the better opportunities for alumni to meet in a casual atmosphere for relaxing and eating with old and new friends and family members.

FALL DANCE
The Fall season will bring another dance event of a much more casual variety than we saw at November's Gala. This event is something that is planned to generate greater attendance with an anticipated nominal cost and the musical selections of a dance band and d.j. designed to maximize your enterainment value. That is still is in the planning stages, with committee membership in progress

2009 CHRISTMAS PARADE AND UPCOMING NEWSLETTER
A report on the Lincoln Heights Christmas Parade was presented with comments, and the Newsletter committee activity report was given. Amid a few other things suggested in content and delivery of the newletter, the question of email as a means to distribute information was presented, however, there was reluctance to commit to that mode based on stated reasons of often-changing email addresses and some other reasons that were not entirely clear to me.

The question of an Alumni Association web presence was raised by faculty guest, Ms. Collins, and was answered by noting that the AA has a section on the schools website, within which you can find it's information. Ms. Collins, was not aware of that, even with 10 years on the LHS faculty, which is something that belies the mistaken assumption applied to lots of things at LHS, generally. And that would be the widely-held but often inaccurate belief, especially in areas of content, simply that, "because it is there, everyone knows it."

The LHS website, by the way, is undergoing some changes at this time, the most obvious effect is that you can't get to the pages as of the meeting date. That condition is expected to be changed sooner than later, but that's only a hope since there's been no official word committing to any particular deadline, as far as I know.

LINCOLN'S BIRTDAY, FEBRUARY 12- 200TH ANNIVERSARY
There was a discussion prompted by the fact that this year marks the 2ooth anniversary of the birth of LHS's namesake, President Abraham Lincoln. The city of Redlands in San Bernardino County is the home to a Lincoln Memorial Shrine (http://www.lincolnshrine.org/)- a day excursion of the AA to this site is being considered, with any specific details still to be determined. Additional comments included making a field trip for students to attend, with some thought of using school bus transportation.

Historically, LHS remains one in which the history of its namesake has been largely a mystery to students, with the coming and going of Lincoln's Birthday passing without any noticeable recognition or event development happening each February. Such opportunities to instill some better knowledge of a major historical figure, President Lincoln, and, thereby provide a better perspective from which students to try improving morale and school pride.

The evidence of the opposite effects is commonly seen to exist by the presence of continued graffiti, other acts of vandalism and generally, by the lack of respect for the school facilities, demonstrated daily by the trash left after lunch and nutrition that somehow doesn't make it to nearby trash cans.

The school that you and I attended in the Vietnam Era and even up to the Gulf War era is long gone, along with most of the classes that we called "electives," nearly all on-campus shop classes and other vocational classes. The school service clubs of the past, like the Knights, Ladyes, and such, are relegated to the past, artifacts of a different time.

Different thoughts are connected with changes in society. Mention that we had "swats" in the discipline array and you will get a completely baffled look from students. Another notable reaction was from a teacher friend, also an alumnus, was absolutely amazement as I described the common practices of our days as students at LHS. He thought it to be more like something of a holdover from the Middle Ages in dealing with offenses. To him it was just barbaric. We thought it was pragmatic, except for the P.E. teachers where it should have been banned. Many of them had personality issues, often were bordering on insane in their zeal for swatting. Times change.

The February Lincoln's Birthday occasion provides the opportunity that has thus far slipped through our collective fingers at LHS, losing the opportunity that is variously called a "teaching moment," or, in this case, a sequence of moments. We need to work on changing this condition which can only benefit the students.

(Ed. Comment: Per my earlier report on the Supt. Cortines comments at the 1-13-09 meeting on LAUSD's budget crisis, it would be contrary to the spoken efforts, both those already taken and those planned, to reduce expenses to now see the District committing favorably to any request for that level of expense that this field trip would create. That is just a consequence of the severity of the budget situation. r.g.)

The Lincoln Memorial Shrine is located at 125 W Vine St., Redlands, CA, 92373, telephone: (909) 798-7632 about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, directly off the 10 Fwy, past the city of San Bernardino.

[Additional information: The Lincoln Memorial Shrine was built and presented to the City of Redlands in 1932 by philanthropists Robert and Alma Watchorn, not only as a tribute to Lincoln, but as a memorial to their son Emory Ewart who died from injuries suffered in World War I.]

"Aristocrats" Class of Winter 1960 Is Looking for Classmates

The LHS Aristocrats, Class of Winter 1960, is planning an October 3, 2009 reunion, as I found out while attending the LHS Alumni meeting today. Some members of their class were on the campus this morning working on collecting some video material for their class reunion, as well as getting familiar with some of the changes that have been made since their graduation. I was able to speak with several members of their contingent, learning that a two of their group present went on to become teachers after graduating from Lincoln, teaching at the high school level and above.

Their reunion committee is looking for more class members and you can help in spreading the word to get in touch with their classmates. For a point of reference in history, this is the class that graduated in the same year that John F. Kennedy was elected as the President of the United States, defeating Vice-President Richard M. Nixon, in 1960. So you see, they go back a long way in the history of Lincoln High, pre-dating even the Vietnam war.

A call for help goes out to neighbors, friends and relatives of Lincoln alumni- see if there are LHS class members of this class among them- There are always Lincoln grads around, and you might be surprised if you check with people you encounter to see how many you find, especially from the older part of the L.A. population. There's also those LHS Alumni that we have spread out across the country and beyond, especially during times of war, serving our country.

The CONTACT PERSON for the class is Ben Chu, telephone: (562) 693-4527

Time for More Answers from "Ask A Mexican"

More that you probably didn't know from Gustavo Arrellano, "Ask A Mexican"



Something you probably never thought about.

And getting into the Mexican food topic one more time and with a lot more substance (and fillings) here's another viewing for your ethnic enlightenment.