I never understood how Don Roberts made the decision when to refresh his website and start on a “clean slate” so to speak. Was it ten posts? a weeks worth? a gut feel? It will always remain an Alameda mystery, like the Burrito tunnel.
Anyway, this particular post (and subsequent response) caught my attention. Have you ever noticed that when Don doesn’t agree with a response letter to something he’s already posted he will put it below the first letter, but if he does agree with it he’ll put it above the initial letter. But I digress. The first letter was from Alamedan Lon Elledge who, after a visit to Mississippi , understood why AUSD is in the financial bind that it currently is in. That’s right folks, it’s not what you would think such as items like fiscal mismanagement or me too clauses or unfunded mandates or reduced revenues from the state. No, it’s…
Summer lunch programs.
That’s right summer lunch programs are beggaring the school district and forcing them to ask for handouts from taypayers for books and chalk.
Except that, it’s not.
As the second letter writer, Michael Kusiak noted, the Summer Lunch Program is a federally funded program that helps kids not to starve during the summer. See the federal government recognizes that some kids need these lunches both during the school year and summers to supplement their diets and therefore reimburses organizations that choose to provide these services to kids in their communities.
Interestingly enough, in a 2007 report by the Alameda County Community Food Bank noted that in the 94502 zip code (Bay Farm/Harbor Bay) was one of the top five underserved areas as it had no sites to serve summer lunches to kids but the Food Bank itself received calls for service from at least 34 kids in that zip code.
I imagine given the reports about how the number of clients at our own local Food Bank has risen dramatically, there is probably an increased need for programs such as these to help out our local children.
There are two sites for the summer lunch programs in Alameda, one is at Ruby Bridges (351 Jack London Ave), the second is at Island High (290 Singleton Ave) both located on the West End.
Personally, we should be proud that our school district sponsors and makes these programs possible and be encouraging other sites to open in areas — such as Bay Farm — where there is an unmet need for this service rather than denigrating them as nothing more than “charity” that causes our taxes to be “so much higher.”
“Have you ever noticed that when Don doesn’t agree with a response letter to something he’s already posted he will put it below the first letter, but if he does agree with it he’ll put it above the initial letter.”
Today, Don Roberts has Bill Smith’s response to Barbara Thomas posted first.
Comment by AlamedaNayTiff — June 30, 2009 @ 7:22 am
The recent “story” in that Imperialist Devils’ rag EBX are the lies of jackals & apostates and will not be discussed here.
Instead, we bring you another pointless critique of a worthless web site that nobody pays attention to anyway. This bewigged Satan is the REAL enemy we face.
Comment by Iraqi Minister of Information — June 30, 2009 @ 7:34 am
Good morning Iraqi Minister of Information, I love your work chronicled here.
If you would like to get started discussing the EBX article, I referenced it briefly here. Not being the point of the initial post has never stopped commenters in the past from digressing off the subject matter.
If I wrote my blog posts to please other people, I might as well stop writing because then I wouldn’t be having any fun.
Comment by Lauren Do — June 30, 2009 @ 7:52 am
The President sends his regards for your fun, and assures you that the filthy traitor EBX article will remain in the dank hell of cyber prison, where we banish all uncomfortable facts.
Comment by Iraqi Minister of Information — June 30, 2009 @ 8:23 am
LD, you give “The Don” way too much credit. People write him letters (instead of the Ala Journal), he posts them.
Comment by Edmundo Delmundo — June 30, 2009 @ 9:47 am
Like the Alameda Sun, which appears to have honored me with banishment from it’s letters page, Roberts is selective about what he posts.
Unlike the Chronicle which gets huge volumes of letters the tradition with Alameda papers seems to always have been that if you were not libelous you eventual get your letter printed. The Sun has printed an anonymous letter by a person opposed to Measure H school parcel tax. They have also printed letters calling for the BOE and City council to be hanged and put before a firing squad. Yet when Jeff Mitchell spoke unflatteringly of the Sun Eric T. threatened him with a law suit. I believe my remark about that threat being chicken shit was the last straw for me at the Sun.
Recently my letter in rebuttal to one they printed by Regina Beck on funding AUSD was not printed and inquiries as to reason were not responded to. The only assumption I can can make is I have been banished in retribution for criticisms of the quality of their journalism on this blog and at SDR as referred to above.
That brings me to this quote: “Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.” Credited to A. J. Liebling
A certain group of people in local media should grow some cajones.
Comment by M.I. — June 30, 2009 @ 11:55 am
MI
You might also consider calling them to inquire. If your email is going to their spam filter, further e-mail inquiries will continue to have no result.
Comment by commuter — June 30, 2009 @ 2:29 pm
7. to be fair I could be thorough and eliminate that possibility with a call, but that’s obviously never been an issue before. I don’t mean to be a typical Alameda conspiracy paranoid, but why spam problems now? About now I don’t really feel like having a conversation with anybody over there anyways.
(dats how day say it in Joisey, “anyways”. Goes well wid “yoose guys”, also common for Joisey boyz, and goils).
And if I’m wrong some lurker from behind enemy lines can correct my accusation (and also print my letter).
In the case of the recent letter, personally I would take any banishment as a badge of honor, but from the standpoint of principle, having the dialogue on a specific issue skewed by arbitrary censorship would be troublesome, small minded and wrong.
I am glad to have had not just letters published in the Sun but a couple guest commentaries. One was on global warming in the summer before Katrina and the last was a criticism of NEA charter school proposal for which I got many “atta-boys” from various individuals, mostly teachers, Jeffery “Big Words” Smith not among them.
Comment by M.I. — June 30, 2009 @ 7:15 pm
“Youse guys” is also heard in northern Iowa. Go figure.
Comment by Linda Hudson — July 1, 2009 @ 12:14 am
Mark, the community is sorry to hear about your banishment and misses your ambivalence greatly.
Comment by behind enemy lines — July 1, 2009 @ 7:17 am
Hey, Mark, et al, send it again. I have no recollection of recent letters from you. You did send me a lengthy op-ed piece a while back which I ultimately did not run because it came in several iterations, none of which were deemed complete by you, and none of which felt finished, and in fact, which needed more editing work, which I am not always at liberty to give to an individual piece. I have banished, I think, maybe one person from the Sun pages? And that is one local nutbag who shall remain nameless but writes in all caps all the time, God bless him. It ain’t you, my dear! Sometimes we are overwhelmed with letters and we run what we can, and sometimes there’s a dearth of letters and we run a lot of “thank you, sponsors” and hosue ads. The pages of the Sun are indeed open. Send me letters.
BTW, the comments to Jeff M (not from me) were that he claimed we have no training or experience, yet he had not actually spoken to any of us. That made it untrue and actionable. Basic media law — you can’t print lies and then be surprised when asked to back them up. Truth is always your friend. But no worries. Sticks and stones, etc. are part of the deal. I carry no grudges. I have too full a plate for that. Please send me your letters. Please come and visit me if you want to see my diploma(s). Please come have a cup of good, very good or very bad coffee, depending where we meet. And by all means, change your email address from alamedanet.net, which never reaches me. Something about limbo and the seventh ring of hell, I think. OK, I need more coffee. It’s deadline day.
Peace, jpt
Comment by Julia Park Tracey — July 1, 2009 @ 8:01 am
*house* ads — need coffee – jpt
Comment by Julia Park Tracey — July 1, 2009 @ 8:02 am
If you are using major ISP’s for your email, chances are your sends and receives are being filtered out much more than you would imagine these days. My customers who use Comcast seem to have the most problems.
Comment by Jack B. — July 1, 2009 @ 8:11 am
Julia,
Thank you. The previous piece I wrote was published as commentary and it was about NEA Charter and I am almost certain it was submitted to you personally. I recall submitting a work in progress which like many before was it abandoned. You have always been patient with that stuff and I’m grateful for the indulgence.
There was one letter which never ran back in 2005, during tenure of the same editor as the global warming piece which did run as commentary. That letter was a bit out of bounds and I never had any question it was rejected as such even though I was not contacted about specifics.
The recent letter in question was sent to editor@alamedsun.com, as was a correction and then a third and perhaps a fourth email inquiring about it’s status.
I have no feeling about Jeff Mitchell’s comments. It doesn’t matter if it was technically actionable, the threat of action seemed a bit desperate which is what I commented on. I have had some heated exchanges with one of your partners over claims of editorial bias. He flatly denied having any influence in that sphere as a mere partner, but I frankly still don’t find that credible. I never thought of you as being responsible for the recent letter not appearing as it would be out of character for you, but I was convinced somebody else at the paper deliberately purged it.
#10 whatever
Jack B., thanks for the advisement, but if these emails failed to reach their intended destination it would be the first evidence of the failure you allude to.
Comment by M.I. — July 1, 2009 @ 10:25 pm
For the record no one sending letters to editor@alamedsun.com will get through as our domain name is alamedasun.com. Yes that’s Alameda with an A at the end.
Comment by EJK — July 2, 2009 @ 9:33 am
15. thanks for catching that EJK. The address I have used successfully in the past which I also used for my failed attempts to submit letters has the correct spelling.
Comment by M.I. — July 4, 2009 @ 12:36 pm