May 2007

I am a parent of two children that have been in the Highline School District for eight years. I am concerned with the reform math curriculum, "Investigations" (elementary school) and "Connected Mathematics (middle school), that our district has embraced in the past several years.

With all the hype lately about the importance of math and improving the math scores of our students, I am surprised that more scrutiny hasn't been given to this method of teaching.

Imagine this: You are given an equation to figure out, but not given the means to do it.

Leviticus 19:15 declares, "You shall not commit a perversion of justice: you shall not favor the poor and you shall not honor the great, with righteousness shall you judge your fellow."

From the above Biblical quote, the ancient sages of Israel knew a thing or two about political science. The greed and corruption of the wealthy is well-documented, but to "favor the poor" is also considered a perversion. Tell me this ain't true!

Not only is it true but pandering to the "victimized" masses (real or imaginary) leads to a dictatorial administrative state.

The first time I saw Sea-Tac Airport it was called Bow Lake and I was driving a 1933 Plymouth on Highway 99, a two-lane road with long stretches of nothing between Tacoma and South Park.

We lived at Star Lake and I was headed for work at Boeing.

There were some scattered restaurants like Banfield's Halfway House and The Blockhouse next to the Spanish Castle dance hall at Midway. The Ranch, Feasters, the Green Parrot, the Bluejay, and Roses Chicken were in Federal Way.

A KING-TV cameraman was arrested for obstruction after refusing multiple officer orders to move away from a SWAT incident in the High Point area. Although crews from other stations complied and filmed from other locations, this cameraman argued with officers and sergeants.

One of the pleasures of living in West Seattle is that even those who cannot grow a vegetable or flower garden can still have homegrown produce and fresh cut flowers by visiting the West Seattle Farmers Market.

Since 1999, the West Seattle Junction Association has hosted the weekly event, offered this year on Sundays, from last Sunday to Dec. 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the corner of Alaska and California.

England managed to abolish slavery 30 years before the United States and avoid a bloody civil war in the process. Still, the journey was a thorny political road spanning decades and consuming the lives of those involved. The result was a watershed moment in European history whose effects were felt as far away as Gettysburg.

But as entertainment it seems like chancy stuff, particularly for a Hollywood film, this mix of costume drama and political procedural.

Gary Coy is the son of Walt who owned and operated Coy's White Center Theatre, located on 16th S.W. next door to Olberg's Thrifty drug and later on Roxbury Street across from Gould and Ackley, attorneys. Walt also opened Coy's Highline Theatre on First Avenue South in a Quonset hut that once served as housing for American troops.

Until the family farm became agri-business, the extended family was an important unit of society. An old neighbor of ours told me about growing up on the farm in Minnesota where it was her duty to wait on her grandmother while older members of the family did the heavy chores of the farm. Her thought was, "I don't ever want to get old." But the sands of time did not respect her wish and she is no longer living. Her grandchildren are now in their peak years of employment far away from the farm chores of their ancestors.

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. -Mark Twain

I have always liked that Mark Twain quote. How many of us are absolutely, completely sure that our parents know nothing when we are teenagers? And how many of those parents are absolutely, completely aware that their children feel that way?

Charlie Chong's ironic imprint on the city of Seattle will continue to benefit residents for years to come.

His famous distrust of government ran from healthy skepticism to angry derision.