Tom discusses tomorrow's commencement

KOCE’s Inside OC "is a half-hour program featuring interviews, discussions and field reports with government, business and community leaders; as well as pundits, celebrities and special guests."

Unrelated:
RAGHU MATHUR'S SALARY: 38th highest

.....Here’s a list (the link immediately below) of the highest salaried community college CEOs around the country. It’s from a public radio “marketplace” story—in January, I think. The data seems to come from a report done earlier by the Chronicle of Higher Education. ("100 Miles" passed this along to us.)

Community College CEOs Ranked by Total Compensation

.....Mathur is #38. They have him down for $276,870.00.
.....Los Rios Community College District’s Chancellor Brice W. Harris is down for $370,590.00
.....LA’s Marshall E. Drummond (former state chancellor) is down for $358,937.00
.....Rancho Santiago’s soon-to-retire Edward Hernandez Jr. is down for $340,988.00
.....Santa Monica College’s Chui L. Tsang makes $331,475.00
.....City College of San Francisco’s Don Q. Griffin makes $295,004.00
.....El Camino College’s Thomas M. Fallo gets $290,405.00

Don "Spanky" Wagner is peevish

.....Amusingly, Don Wagner is relying on my judgment in his efforts to persuade voters to vote for him. See the mailer above. (Click on it to make it larger.)

.....I believe that it is reasonable to infer from Don's message that he likes being described as an "anti-union, liberal-bashing, prayer-making right-winger."

.....His reasoning (in the blue strip) is shaky. That "liberals" (I am apparently one of those) describe Don in this way hardly establishes that Don will "do a great job" for right-wingers in the State Assembly. It's one thing throwing red meat at the camera once a month at CC board meetings; it is quite another pursuing legislation where compromise is unavoidable. And, so far, he's only made promises. 

.....But talk is cheap. Really cheap. On the reverse side of Don's mailer, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt is quoted as saying, "It's time we started electing principled conservatives to office, not politicians who will say anything to get elected."

.....My guess, though, is that Don more or less means what he says and will try to live up to his promises. 

.....That's the problem with Don, mostly. And I don't see him compromising much. How effective can such a guy be (for his right-wing constituency)?

.....Plus he likes to toss red meat at his Neanderthals. He embraces demagoguery, which, of course, is always a matter of degree. So far, I give Don a "C."

.....And he's peevish.

.....I call 'im Spanky. You know why.

.....One of Don’s opponents is Democrat Melissa Fox, who, according to R. Scott Moxley, recently argued that the Republican “no tax” pledge is a serious problem (OC Democrat Asks Republicans To Drop 'No New Tax' Pledge):

....."The problem with Sacramento has been the Republicans have just said 'no' to budgets and taken a blanket pledge of no new taxes," Fox said at a UC Irvine candidate forum this week. "They focus on saying 'no' to everything."
. . .
....."I ask that if it's a Republican who goes to Sacramento [after the November election], they don't take the 'no new taxes' pledge," she said at the candidate forum. "We need somebody up there who will play the game and bring money back to the district."

Don has responded to Fox’s suggestion:

.....In reaction to her request, conservative Republican candidate Don Wagner shook his head and rolled his eyes. Later, Wagner said, "I think [the state] is still spending way too much."

.....Ah, yes. Eye rolling. That’s Don all over.
.....According to Moxley,

Wagner … delighted a minority of the crowd when he encouraged California police officers to follow Arizona's new, controversial anti-illegal immigrant policy.

.....And there’s your red meat.

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "Go now into summer"

Today is the final day of finals.

Tomorrow is commencement.

Monday, summer school begins.

But before that can happen, here's a poem about the end, a poem that imagines it is only the beginning.


First Year Teacher to His Students

by Gary J. Whitehead

Go now into summer, into the backs of cars,
into the black maws of your own changing,
onto the boardwalks of a thousand splinters,
onto the beaches of a hundred fond memories
in wait, where the sea in all its indefatigability
stammers at the invitation. Go to your vacation,

to the late morning cool of your basement rooms,
the honeysuckle evening of the first kiss, the first
dip and pivot, swivel and twist. Go to where
the clipper ships sail far upriver, where the salmon
swim in the clean, cool pools just to spawn.
Wake to what the spider unspools into a silver

dawn dripping with light. Sleep in sleeping bags,
sleep in sand, sleep at someone else's house
in a land you've never been, where the dreamers
dream in a language you only half understand.
Slip beneath the sheets, slide toward the plate,
swing beneath the bandstand where the secret

things await. Be glad, or be sad if you want,
but be, and be a part of all that marches past
like a parade, and wade through it or swim in it
or dive in it with your eyes open and your mind
open to wind, rain, long days of sun and longer
nights of city lights mixing on wet streets like paint.

Stay up so late that you forget day-of-the-week,
week-of-the-month, month-of-the-year of what
might be the best summer, the summer
best remembered by the scar, or by the taste
you'll never now forget of someone's lips,
and the trips you took---there, there, there,

where snow still slept atop some alpine peak,
or where the moon rose so low you could see
its tranquil seas...and all your life it'll be like
some familiar body that stayed with you one night,
one summer, one year, when you were young,
and how everywhere you walked, it followed.

*