as we reckon with a culture and a politics that subordinates and abuses children, we should look everywhere we can for examples of public institutions that respect the autonomy and dignity of children, and fight like hell to protect them.

Bottom line: get involved in your community in some capacity. You never know how you might be able to help.

Speaking out as a commissioner in favor of affordable housing so these warehouse workers can afford to live closer to where they work? That’s good. Asking good questions about the next big warehouse project that’s in the pipeline right down the road from three other big *empty* warehouses…

Admittedly I’m a very small part of a large and complicated process but the larger point I’m trying to make is that even seemingly random local public service opportunities can make a huge difference given the right inflection point.

Where I live is zoned 1/3 “employment center” and 2/3 “moderate density single-family housing.” Much of the EC zone consists of warehouses, with more being built as I type this.

You can maybe understand why my eyes bugged out when I saw this: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

We’ve green-lit most of the projects (mostly housing developments and fast-food restaurants) and shot down two.

It’s not a glamorous gig and doesn’t require a huge time commitment. I went in touting my background as a teacher, good communicator, and antiracist. I’ve learned a lot.

I’m happy to serve the community in some small capacity. Typically a county planner takes us through the proposal at a public meeting; we ask questions; the developer presents; community members can speak; them we advance a recommendation to the planning commission.

Turns out there were two seats open on the commission: I applied, interviewed, and was offered one of the seats. I’ve been Comissioner Berry for about two years now.

There weren’t many folks there and most of them voiced concerns about trees being cut down (our house is up against a lovely green belt); others were worried about the “kinds of people” such housing might attract.

I was intrigued and wanted to learn more…

Way beside the point, I suppose, but using his university email address for this?!

I think it was mostly like earthquakes, volcanoes, things like that.

Your meteorology class reminded me—one of my roommates took a class called “catastrophic geology.”

(Sod enote: one of my HIGH SCHOOL musicians asked what the “lightning bolt” at the beginning of the measure was.

It was a sixteenth rest. 😑

Inwrote out the first mvt of the Koussevitzky concerto with piano accompaniment 😀

The dance class was inspired by my roommate, who was an outstanding ballet dancer. He joined SAB after a year in college, danced with Mark Morris and the Metropolitan Opera.

The calligraphy class was great: half the semester writing with pencil, ruler, etc. Homework was like “write 20 sixteenth rests.”

Second half of the class was learning Finale (in 1993, mind you)

The acoustics class was good but like every experiment/demonstration the guy did didn’t work. It was sad and funny.

I missed half of the bowling classes bc it was off campus and I had to bike but it snowed like crazy that winter. I showed up at like class 6 and the teacher was like “who are you?”

Final was open book (yess there was a textbook) and the answers were in appendix A. I got an A in the class.