Properly Subversive: Now comes common sense moderation in Marin and the Bay Area after the recall storm?

Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick

I’m not sure what the middle of the road in San Francisco looks like anymore. The socio/political landscape is so tilted toward the woke edges of the board, it’s hard to remember what the middle ground in the game looked like.

Yet, something very interesting seems to be happening in San Francisco these days, and the New York Times delved into it last week. It is worth spending a little time thinking about it, if for no other reason than to wonder whether it marks the return to common sense.

You will remember that last February voters kicked out three San Francisco school board members. A key driver in the oustings was over admissions at Lowell High school, which the New York Times writer describes as “an elite public school that for decades accepted students primarily based on high test scores and grades.”

But the old school board in its zeal to bring “social justice” to the school for Black students, changed the admission process to a lottery system. 

And that, the Times pointed out, mightily pissed off the Asian community “who felt it unfairly limited their children’s long-sought entry into one of the nation’s top-performing schools.”

Anyway, three old board members were thrown out of office and Mayor London Breed appointed three new board members. The new members all voted to return Lowell to a merit-based admissions process. 

This, of course, wasn’t the only radical decision of the old school board in need of a return to the center. But, it was a big one.

Basing admission to an elite public school on merit – not skin color or anything else unrelated to performance – seems like such a longstanding and decidedly moderate American principle. Let’s  hope this kind of common sense crops up like mushrooms after the recall storm. ONLY 

15 YEARS AGO

From the Associated Press comes this milestone reminder: “This week marks 15 years since the iPhone first went on sale and ushered in a new era: the age of the smartphone. It’s hard to imagine today how different mobile access was before that evening of June 29, 2007.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“What is exciting about this budget is the significant amount of one-time investments in community priorities such as affordable housing, homelessness, racial equity and climate change” – County Administrator Matthew Hymel.

Seems to me more appropriate to save the back-patting for the end of the fiscal year to see if this spending actually moves the needle on any of these big  social issues in Marin. Hope it does.

PERSPECTIVE

This is a great quote from Anthony Bourdain. May we live it from this day forward.  

“Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.” 

HUFFMAN EXPLODES

In case you missed it, the latest press release from Marin Rep. Jared Huffman ratchets up the rhetoric against the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Says he:

 “Today a radical and corrupt Supreme Court handed another major deliverable to the rightwing dark money machine that has worked for decades to bring us to this moment. 

After stripping women of their fundamental right to reproductive choice, inventing a new fundamental right to carry guns in public just for the heck of it, and dismantling the wall separating church and state, the Kangaroo Court is now shielding the fossil

fuel industry from direct federal regulation of planet-killing carbon pollution, effectively hijacking and rewriting the Clean Air Act for corporate polluters.”

“Corrupt,” “Kangaroo Court.” Whoa, there’s no walking that back. 

ONE MORE THING

– Today in Starbucks when I placed my order, I gave the name “Spartacus” as a joke. When they called my name, I stood up and yelled, “I am Spartacus!” Everyone looked at me, then an old man in the corner stood up and yelled, “No, I am Spartacus!” One by one, everyone in Starbucks stood up and yelled , “I am Spartacus!” 

It’s going to be a good day.

– Guess who just found out the difference between wax paper and parchment paper the hard way. 

– What words did they use for “clockwise” and “counterclockwise” before clocks?

Until next week, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always – always – question authority.

(“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Frederick is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)