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12-20-2001 Blow with the Wind Dear Political Diary, I spent my usual hour devouring the Trib. My ill omens are catching Ron Brochus' attention. I pasted the story from the Trib's web page into mine. A second story, about Jesse's Ventura's Apology to school administrators, wasn't on their site. I found it elsewhere on the web and pasted it in my page as well. Its hard to believe that Jesse ever called himself the "Education Governor." I even did Ventura the honor of sculpting him as such shortly after his election. What a joke. Mary Green called and told me that the tape of last night's meeting was in her office so I picked it up to review it. I was genuinely confused about what took place at the last two meetings vis a vis my K6 inquiries. I was pleased with the answer. Eileen was wrong. The new city wide PTA chair, Judy Seliga, called me. She had told me a few days earlier that she was certain that our administration would be cut back further. This is getting ridiculous. She also intimated that my old buddy, Mike Maxim, was a scoundrel and the cause of all our previous financial woes. Boy, when someone hates you in this town they work overtime to blacken your reputation. I don't know who had been talking to Judy but I can guess. I had threatened to write an expose of Duluth's past but never gotten around to it. I really ought to put some of my old musings on my website. It would be quite a project. I suggested that we have coffee at Bixby's and we set a date for one thirty. Right after making the appointment I got a surprise call from my old high school swimming coach Dick Rohloff. I'd seen him six or seven years earlier in Duluth when he'd been here for a business meeting. Dick said he'd been home nursing a cold but had been reading about me in the Trib. He generously told me that he knew I was in a tough position but that as far as he could tell I made a lot of sense. Dick had served on the Grand Rapids school board for eight years and had seen a whole slew of levies and referendums go down to defeat. We talked for a good hour. I told him about a few of my old swimming teammates. He had fond memories of his years teaching in Mankato. I had been in awe of Dick. He had tried out for the Minnesota Vikings and it was a shock to see a man built like a freight train swim the butterfly. Dick laughed and told me he could still swim a lap of butterfly until he had a shoulder injury a few years ago. I asked him how he got along with the teachers as a board member having been one himself. He'd done just fine even though he said he'd been a fiscal conservative. Being in business does that to a person and Dick sold Lutheran Brotherhood Insurance. I asked him if he was a conservative or a liberal and he told me he was a "pragmatist." "I blew with the wind." he joshed. I laughed and told Dick that was the best definition of a pragmatist I'd ever heard. I met Judy and we had a good conversation. She had just come from her husband's school where he'd agreed to dress up in green tights as an elf and kiss a dog in front of the kids. Who says we pay school administrators too much? We had a good talk and I agreed that our administration needed to find some way to explain how our system worked to take the mystery and suspicion out of it. I thought putting pictures and jobs descriptions of administrative employees on the district's web site might be a good start. In the evening I made a Christmas card for my Grant reading partner. I'd gone back yesterday and read with him for an hour. He was on the second Harry Potter book. He gave me a hand made Christmas card with Harry Potter on it and apologized for his artistic skills. It said Harry Potter was cool but I was cooler. Claudia agreed that it was very sweet. I had to reciprocate. I knew that Tony was a big fan of professional wrestling so I found a website with some fan pictures. He'd mentioned the "Undertaker" so when I printed out several pictures of the brut and stuck red Santa Clause hats on them. I'd made Tony promise that he would wish his teacher "Merry Christmas" before the holiday began. I also told him I'd ask him afterwards if he'd done it. You can't have bad blood going into a holiday. My card said "Oh no! one of Santa's elves forgot it was Christmas." I told Tony not to forget and to wish everyone "Merry Christmas," including "you know who." I sure hope Tony is a pragmatist.
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