Selfless Spring Break

They could be at the beach. Or a bacchanalian resort. Or queuing up for an MTV backdrop. Or just sleeping late.

But this year some 10,000 college students are spending their spring breaks – as well as their own money – to help clean up Katrina-ravaged regions in Louisiana and Mississippi. It’s all part of Campus Compact, a coalition of colleges and universities that promotes public service.

Locally, USF is represented by some 200 students.

It’s a reminder of the ultimate inter-disciplinary approach: majoring in your fellow man.

Racial Balancing Act Not Schools’ Top Priority

If anyone is entitled to speak out about the racial composition of Hillsborough County schools, it should be Sam Horton. A career educator who lived the “separate but equal” crucible, the 76-year-old president of the Hillsborough County branch of the NAACP remains an ardent “integrationist.” It is the guiding principle of a man who grew up when Plessy v. Ferguson was the law of the land.

But now he and the NAACP need a new educational lens, one that reflects societal change, and puts the onus for learning where it belongs: on the learners.

Horton has seen first hand the ironic aftermath of the 1971 federal order that desegregated Hillsborough schools and mandated 80/20, white/black ratios. When the county was freed of the order in 2001, many students returned, logically enough, to their neighborhood schools. A county choice plan has proven ineffectual. Now there are numerous schools that are predominately white or black. There are classrooms where the faces literally are all white or all black.

This is not what was envisioned for the post-Brown v. Board of Education era. And yet, this is not Plessy revisited. And, no, the schools have not been “re-segregated.”

Parents, regardless of color, choosing the nearest school for the sake of convenience and a sense of neighborhood identity is not the same thing as laws directing black students to actually bypass the nearest school if necessary – in order to attend their appropriate color-coded one.

That was segregation. And it was based no less on racial inferiority than were “colored” water fountains, rest rooms and lunch counters. It doesn’t get much more demeaning than that.

That’s hardly the context applicable to today’s racially skewed schools. Moreover, positions such as Horton’s, which prioritize racial balance over all else, are ironically racist. They are saying, in effect, that predominantly black schools and all-black classrooms can not constitute the best environments for learning.

The priority shouldn’t be to dream up more and different choice offerings in the hope of luring students away from their neighborhood schools. The goal should be to equalize the neighborhood schools in all the ways that matter: physical plant, facilities, textbooks, curricular offerings and instructional experience. If it’s de facto separate, make it de jure equal.

This is all within the purview – and wherewithal — of school districts. This isn’t social engineering and pedagogical piffle, the likes of which have bussed us full cycle since 1971. This is common sense. Educators putting students in a place to succeed.

But if they don’t measure up, it isn’t because of “re-segregation.”

It’s because of factors beyond the control – and responsibility – of any school district. The keys are parental involvement and students taking advantage of educational opportunities afforded. Also critical: an environment where academic success isn’t considered un-cool by ‘hood standards. In short, stuff that racial ratios can never remedy.

Obama’s Christian Candor

We don’t really know much about rookie Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill, except that he’s bright, charismatic and the darling of Democrats assigned to the savior watch.

But some of his comments, as excerpted from the book, “The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People,” are as sage as they are refreshing. Obama, who’s hardly shy about his Christianity, said this: “I’m not somebody who is always comfortable with language that implies I’ve got a monopoly on the truth or that my faith is automatically transferable to others. I’m a big believer in tolerance

Castro’s Consent

A federal judge finally approved an agreement allowing those 14 Cubans who had landed on an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys to come to the United States. It was the right – and humane – decision, although unconscionably late. The bridge had initially — and inexplicably — been deemed an inappropriate application of the controversial, cruelly arbitrary “wet foot, dry foot” policy. Common sense, however, finally prevailed. An abandoned bridge was a reach too far. It was still “dry” U.S. territory.

Only hurdle remaining for the Cubans, who have become pariahs on their native island: Fidel Castro has to sign off on the deal

Lafavorite Lines

Finally, the Deborah Lafave case is over. And aside from Court TV and Marion County Circuit Judge Hale Stancil, everyone seems pretty much satisfied. Or just tired of hearing about it.

Lafave, however, should have quit while she was ahead. She should have passed on the self-serving press conference. She used the forum to prattle on about being happy to be “out of the spotlight” – and then expressed a desire to write a book, one that would ostensibly put sex with a 14-year-old student into a bi-polar context.

Lafave also used the opportunity to criticize a media that “totally took it out of proportion.” She then indicated that with her previous career as a teacher forever precluded, she planned to take online courses in journalism.

Perhaps she will be back in the tabloids some day.

World Baseball Classic Postmortems

The World Baseball Classic was obviously far from perfect in its debut. For everybody but Cuba, this is the pre-season. That means timing and conditioning is an issue. That’s why there were pitch-count limits. Spring-training inconvenience and concern for injuries prompted a number of players to beg off. Sometimes at the behest of their Major League clubs. That’s why we didn’t see the best at their best.

The round-robin rules precluded the team with the best overall record, South Korea, from even making the final. There were the “Abajo, Fidel” signs in San Juan.

And yet it was interesting — and kind of refreshing in a sense.

The 2006 salaries of the players representing the USA, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela totaled $471 million. Those from Cuba about 7,200 pesos. Only Cuba made the final, where it lost to Japan.

And as for the Major Leaguers, notably the Americans, who don’t bring their “A” games until early April – well, tell that to Jorge Cantu, who played for his native Mexico. The Devil Rays’ second baseman actually performed with the skill and intensity of a Big Leaguer – and the can-do Cantu personally accounted for the runs that eliminated the U.S.

Hannity A “Journalist?”

You used to be able to say this about Sean Hannity. He is what he is: a high-profile, conservative commentator. He’s ideologically driven and successfully irks those on the other end of the spectrum. He also runs rings around his liberal foil on the Fox News Show “Hannity & Colmes.”

But what’s this with being Katherine Harris’ personal media conduit? He even plans a campaign bus tour with her in May.

Is part of that $10 million that Harris plans to spend on her Senate campaign going to Hannity? It should. He’s earning it.

Tampa City Council’s Zero-Sum Facade

In his recent address to the Downtown Development Forum, former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy extolled the merits of municipalities thinking outside the governmental box. The erstwhile three-term mayor likened it to being “public entrepreneurs.” In other words, cities have to conceptualize, envision and ultimately act like the private sector.

If you haven’t seen Pittsburgh since it was the quintessential steel – and soot – city, you haven’t seen Pittsburgh in more than a generation. It literally cleaned up its act, reversed its Rust Belt image and revitalized its downtown. Even includes a Rafael Vinoly-designed building, a convention center, that got built – and applauded.

How ironic, then, that this well-received, “public entrepreneurs” message was delivered the day after Tampa’s city council nixed a compromise that would have kept on track the Doran Jason Group’s plan to build a total of 975 condominium units downtown. The vote was 6-1 in favor of maintaining the historic designation on the facades of the J.J. Newberry and F.W. Woolworth dime-store buildings. It was, at least for now, a deal-breaker.

Some context.

It’s no state secret that Tampa has long needed a catalytic, critical mass of people living in its downtown. It’s beginning to happen as the new urbanism finally finds Tampa. Foremost priority is affordable housing. As in workforce. Not see-through condo units owned by speculators and not just accommodations for the toney Trump Tower set.

But Tampa’s evanescent history can’t be, of course, the price paid for its downtown revitalization. But that’s not the issue. It was only made to seem the issue at the city council vote. As if this were a zero-sum game. As in, history: Are you in favor of it or not? It’s the sort of argumentation that keeps giving sophistry such a bad name.

What it came down to was this. It’s not in DJG’s enlightened self interest to ransack the vestiges of a downtown’s history. Marketing 101, PR 102 and all that. The developer didn’t want the historic designation because it meant being saddled with the Byzantine, picky process that is the modus operandi of the Architectural Review Commission. DJG was willing to preserve the facades – all that remains of the stores — in question and, in a compromise reached with Mayor Pam Iorio, abide by zoning documents and periodic review by city staff. Hardly the approach of history-snubbing, pave-over-paradise philistines.

City council thought otherwise. Basically, if something were historic – but not, of course, a cigar factory — it needed to be so designated. “They should be authentic, not Disney World,” zero-summed up council member Linda Saul-Sena.

Disingenuous developer?

“Our code has a historic preservation process, and I think it’s ‘sound,'” stated city council member John Dingfelder. “The wiggle room should happen at the ARC. If that is not the case, then we need to change the process within the ARC. Our process does not differentiate between downtown or elsewhere

Campaign Contretemps

Appearances to the contrary, Katherine Harris doesn’t have an exclusive on controversy this Florida campaign season. Among others, there’s Tom Gallagher – he of questionable stock-trading ethics. Politicians, we are reminded, are always hostage to their pasts – especially when it comes to fund-raising and the mixing of business with public duties. Happens. Always will. The parties and the public will weigh and judge.

What was more surprising, however, was the self-inflicted heat now being taken by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis. Ethics will always be fair game, but it’s not an issue that resonates viscerally with most voters. But missing a Patriot Act vote – amid the ongoing war on terrorism — was an unconscionable political blunder. A gift-wrapped gaffe that will stalk Davis should he make it to the general election.

No matter how he spins it in an October debate, opting out of a closer-than-expected Patriot Act vote to play to the cameras after Gov. Jeb Bush’s State of the State speech will cost Davis. No Democrat, ironically even one who is supportive of the Patriot Act, can be seen as anything less than tough on national security. And highly symbolic votes always help. Conversely, choosing raw political expedience can only haunt.

What Davis and other sound-bitten candidates said after the governor’s speech has been old news now for a fortnight. Missing that vote, however, will peak in newsworthiness this fall.

Harris “Comes Clean”

The announcement that Katherine Harris should have made:

“My fellow Floridians:

“I’ll come right to the point. I am no longer a candidate for the United States Senate. But what I will continue to be is a United States Representative proud to serve my Congressional constituents – and honored to be in a position to do what’s right for the United States of America. And that means standing up for our security, our values, our environment and our economic well being.

“So much has been said about my campaign and my candidacy that it’s time – in fact, past time – to set some records straight.

“Of course, I was disappointed in our fund-raising — and in our political system that is a key barometer of support. And this, as you all know, was reflected in poll numbers. The reasons were obvious.

“First, it is said that I’m a “polarizing figure.” Of course I am. It can happen when you do your job and follow your conscience and call it as you see it. And what’s more, that’s not about to change.

“And second, this campaign has been buffeted by other controversies, which have made it challenging to get a positive message out. And I am, of course, answerable for that. I’m the candidate and anything that happens with fund-raising – or any other facet of the campaign – is ultimately my responsibility.

“And speaking of fund-raising, the whole MZM affair was badly mishandled. In hindsight, there was no oversight. Once again, that’s on me. But at no time was I engaged in some underhanded quid-pro-quo. If I really needed money that badly, I’d write a check. But if that project had come to Sarasota, it would have meant jobs – something I’m not about to apologize for.

“One final item. I need to do the right thing here. I think my desire to serve you in the Senate – as well as my ego – kept me in this race too long. It has hurt the party and hampered our cause. I wanted to take on the issues – but to too many I had become the overriding issue. That benefits no one.

“So, in addition to stepping down, I want to step up with an infusion of funds in support of whoever takes the baton, inherits this deficit and fights the good fight. I’m blessed with financial wherewithal, and I’m honored to commit the sum of $10 million to help even the playing field for my successor.

“Thank you and God bless the United States of America.”