Most things break

Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.

--William Stegner

Death is nothing

“Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.”

--Napoleon Bonaparte

Race & Ethnicity

Question 8 of my Census form asks me if I am of Hispanic/Latino/Spanish origin, to which I respond affirmatively.

Question 9 asks for my race: White, Black, American Indian (identify tribe), Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Other Asian (Identify race) Native Hawaiian, Guamanian, Samoan, Pacific Islander (identify race).

My birth certificate states that the race of my mother is White, that the race of my father is White. I guess that would make my race White. But White comes with many connotations and history and I have never identified as White. Toasted yes, whole wheat maybe, but not White. Latinos are an ethnicity identity and come in different colors and races. So I scribbled the most accurate race with which I could identify: Mestizo, the mixture of Indigenous and European. Maybe Mestizo will be on future forms.

It is not the critic who counts

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

--Theodore Roosevelt

Iraq War--7th anniversary

We have been at war in Iraq for the last seven years. And yet this fact has not had a discernable impact on our daily lives. But how can it not? How can we be a nation at war and not feel that in our daily lives? Perhaps that is why one reason I have been challenged by the discipline issues at school this year. How can this war of violence and terror not impact the lives of our students’ families.

New administration. But when will we see and feel the impact of a draw down?

But there is suffering in life

© Hector Lee, 2010

But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for.

--Paulo Coehlo

***********

Happy Birthday, Mariah!

We read the world wrong

© Aaron Villarreal, 2010

We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.

--Rabindranath Tagore

Good people are good

© Adam Villarreal, 2010

Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know.

--William Saroyan

The best way out

© Abraham Lee, 2010

The best way out is always through.

--Robert Frost

My failures and imperfections

© Hector Lee, 2010

My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet.

--Mahatma Gandhi

Happy Birthday Nikky!

For those difficult days

© Hector Lee, 2010

On days when life is difficult I am comforted by sights of beauty: the fading light in the western sky shines through darkened rain clouds. It gives me hope.

March 4 March

It was impressive to participate in the March 4 March. Flynn Elementary (about 100 individuals) walked along 24th Street and was joined by Starr King Elementary. We chanted back and forth. Then at 24th and Mission we met up with Fairmount ES, El Dorado ES, and San Francisco State students. What was supposed to be a sidewalk march turned to be a street march as Mission Street was closed. Initially I estimated some 10,000 people along the street, and some 12,000 ended up at the Civic Center. It was an impressive demonstration nonetheless. Now let's get to the work of changing funding for education.