Washington, DC
Harpers Ferry, WV
Potomac River
Saturday, July 7th

If you have never floated down a scenic river in an inner tube with some good friends while drinking a couple of beers, well then …, you really should. Norm loves a good float trip. He has spearheaded this trip for about eight years now. Each year the group varies in size and identity. Some are regulars, others come just once never to return. This year’s roster included about 23 members. There were many from Norm’s close group and some friends of friends. Norm and Virginia were nice enough to cart me there and back. We put in the Potomac river right near Harpers Ferry, WV.

The posse at the redezous point in Alexandria, Va

Fran, showing off some of his 7th street Dragons gang signs. They are known by their waterproof cameras worn kicked to the right of their head.

The whole river operation is run by Butts Tubes. To say they have this operation down to a fine art is an understatement. They rent out the tubes, two types, tubes for coolers, coolers, ice, water shoes, and more tubing related items. They also have buses which drop off and pick up, you and your supplies. While you are waiting for the buses they have a Blue Grass band that plays, only on Saturdays. They have thought of neatly everything.

Well the trip was awesome. The weather that day was in the 90’s but when you are on a tube in the river you do not really notice. There was plenty of tasty food, cold libations, and fellowship. The trip went well and as usual our group was one of the last off the river. When we got back to DC we went over to Fran’s condo which was having a party because its address is 777 H Street, it’s the date, 7/7/07. They had plenty of food and fun.

Another good day.

Unloading at Butts Tubes in Harpers Ferry

Norm in one of staple hilarious and ridiculous shirts.

Washington, DC
Friday, July 6th

When I first looked at the schedule for today I saw; a Smithsonian Museum, I’ve been on at least five 8th grade trips to DC, a discussion of the Washington Post series on Dick Cheney, great series but a whole discussion?, and a debate on immigration. I thought to myself boring day. Man was I wrong.

This museum blows away any of the museums I have seen in DC, ever. The National Portrait Gallery has recently re-opened after being closed for renovations for the previous six years. Our guide, Wendy Wick Reaves, a curator, and mother of St. Albans alum opened up the museum two hours before it regularly opens to give us a private tour. The museum is located in Chinatown right next to the MCI Center. Despite Mrs. Reaves extremely informative tour there is no way a person could truly view and appreciate the items in this museum in anything less than two days. We had two hours. At least ten of the SPS students want to come back on Sunday and spend the day here. Mrs. Reaves sad that during the renovation the idea was for the Portrait Gallery to basically reinvent itself. Here is an article about the renovation.

We heard of how the National Portrait Gallery managed to save the "Lansdowne Portrait" of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. Commissioned for the British Lord Lansdowne after the Revolutionary War, in recent times his descendants had loaned it to the National Portrait Gallery. When they decided to sell it, they gave the National Portrait Gallery the right of first refusal, but the $20 million price tag seemed out of reach until, almost by chance, administrators of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation saw a story about the issue in the media and came to the rescue with the $30 million grant that allowed the Portrait Gallery to purchase the painting and take it on tour all over the country. It is now back in Washington, resting comfortably, and we got a chance to see it today in all its life-sized glory

Lansdowne Portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart

The Portrait Gallery is stunning in not only its architecture but collection as well. They have combined the historical with the contemporary. In fact during the renovation the museum ditched its long standing policy of waiting ten years after a person’s death to accept a portrait to now accepting living people. Some of the best exhibitions currently on display have the living.

Two exhibits caught my fancy. In most of the ext few paragraphs the links will have a much better explanation than my own. The first was an exhibition called Portraiture Now: A Framing Memory. The artist who caught my eye was Tina Mion. Her pieces are intriguing. My favorite was called, “Harvey Girls”, you can see an image of the painting below. (Description of Harvey Girls) The other exhibit that I enjoyed was called, “Being There” by Harry Benson. The photography, both technique and topic, were amazing. Here is a link to his web site which has a repository of some of his most famous pieces. I do not know why I chose the photo of the Watts Riot in 1965 to show. I guess it was the look on the cop’s face.
There are many more exhibitions that are wonderful; The Cold War is informative as it is grand and Great Britons which is on loan from the British National Gallery Museum. I could go on for days. It is a MUST see the next time you get to DC.

Harvey Girls by Tina Mion

Watts Riots, Los Angeles, 1965

Benson said about this photo, "Prowling the streets with police sirens wailing and buildings smoldering around me, I came across this scene in the early hours of the morning."

After their afternoon of their final public speaking and econ classes the students heard from St. Albans and West Point (04) Alumni Cpt. William Felder of the 10th Mountain Division. He was a last minute sub fro the Cheney article, and a good one. He was stationed in Afghanistan for the last two years and only returned to the states a few weeks ago. He gave us a pretty comprehensive briefing of what was going in Afghanistan in general and for him and his guys specifically. They operated in the southern districts near the Afghan border of Pakistan. His stories were frank and horrifying. He spoke of the 80 Mullah he got to know rather well who had in lifetime fought off the Russians, the Northern Alliance, and the Taliban. By the way this mullah has a 34 year old wife and if the father of six month old. Cpt. Felder, all of 26 years old, spoke of his admiration for this leader and fighter who was loyal to the idea of government. Cpt, Felder went into his observations of a two year deployment that were fascinating. His thoughts confirmed some of my thoughts, dispelled even more, and gave me a ton to think about.

In the evening the SPS students settles down for a debate on immigration. The students were divided in two even groups. The format took the form of the Government Club of St. Albans. I wrote about on the June 22nd entry. The debate was quite spirited. I served on a three person judge’s panel. In the end the vote was tight but the Immigration Bill on the formally named Group 2, won 12 to 11. Speakers could score points after the proposal of each speaker. The speaker would be open to a series of questions. If the question logically followed the proposal the team of the questioner scores a point. The speaker scores a point it they offer a sound rebuttal of the questioner. There are a few other ways to score points but they are even more dry than the previous sentence so I will move on. We finished around 9:30pm so we gave the students some free time around the Cathedral neighborhood.

Cpt. Will Felder, STA "00", West Point "04"

10th Moutain Division

Washington, DC
Thursday, July 5th

What: The House Softball League game of the week.
Who: The #9 Ugly Mugs are pitted against #5 Milestones. Both teams undefeated.
Where: Anacostia Park
When: 6:30pm

What Happened? Read on.

David Ignatious speaks to SPS.

The students had econ and public speaking classes in the morning. In the afternoon we were fortunate enough to get a visit from David Ignatius, who writes an award-winning column on foreign affairs for the Washington Post. The students were certainly interested in how Mr. Ignatius got his start in journalism (we also liked his story of how he proposed to his wife), but the most buzz occurred when Mr. Ignatius talked about his successful career as an author of spy thrillers, and revealed that his most recent book, Body of Lies, has been optioned for a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe! (For fans at home: shooting is scheduled to start in September). Mr. Ignatius revealed that his first novel, Agents of Innocence, was sparked by a chance remark someone made to him: "Did you hear? Our man in the PLO has been assassinated." It turned out that the U.S. did indeed have a source inside the PLO -- no less than Arafat's chief of intelligence --and from this real fact, a novel emerged.

The new novel and soon to be Ridley Scott film

After taking some time to talk to us about his start in journalism and as a writer of fiction, Mr. Ignatius posed some hypothetical situations to the group. First: if you are Judy Miller, do you go to jail rather than reveal your source during the Grand Jury investigation of the leak regarding Valerie Plame? One SPS student gamely volunteered to play Judy Miller, and convincingly and eloquently argued why he felt he had to make the decision (as Ms. Miller) to go to jail. Another SPS student, playing the publisher of the New York Times, felt that it was important to support his reporter. (Of course, in real life, Judy Miller subsequently received a waiver from her source, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and was called as a prosecution witness at his trial.) In the second hypothetical, editors three other students role played whether or not they should publish a story about a presidential contender who had an affair twenty years ago while separated, but not divorced, from his then-wife. Opinions ranged from the view that the information should be put out there for the public to decide its relevance, to the view that it was an unacceptable intrusion into privacy, to the view that it was an unacceptable intrusion into privacy that would sell papers! After a lively debate, Mr. Ignatius revealed that the Washington Post had once been faced with just such a dilemma and had not published; however, the information subsequently became public through (where else) an internet site!

After the talk Pete prepared his game face and headed to Anacostia with a furrowed brow with only softball on is mind. Ok that whole thing is getting weird. While driving to the game field I was listening to NPROn the way to the game a piece came on about how the recent controversies surrounding the US Justice Department may affect its long term credibility. Anyway the two people they interviewed were Roscoe Howard, former Justice Department prosecutor and Stuart Gerson, frequent Supreme Court lawyer. Why is this of any importance you ask? Well SPS has heard from both people in the last three weeks. I played the piece to the students later on they thought it was “cool”. Not as cool as I did but I’m a dork.

Well I know that all of you have been on the edge of your seats wondering who won the big game. The Ugly Mugs downed the higher ranked Milestones 8 to 4. We moved to 10 and 0 and up to 7th in the rankings. Not bad for 123 teams. Pete played sparingly but was a vocal supporter of the team and more thirty supporter of “Mister’s”, softball nickname, margarita supply. Kremser called it the Ugly Mug homecoming game because there were twenty two of us there. Good game, good win, better drinks, and great pizza rolls and mini burgers.

Washington, DC
Wednesday, July 4th
Happy Birthday USA!!!!

Ah the fourth of July. Our nation’s birthday. How does a country celebrate its beginning you ask? That’s easy. We get together with friends and family and over drink, overeat, and then watch loud and colorful explosions. I love the US of A. The previous statements are not intended to be sarcastic. I truly believe the above things are really engrained into our culture. Instead of being ashamed of it be proud of it, I am.

Students and Faculty enjoy the SPS Olympics

The SPS students started the day with a late wake up call, 9am is late relatively speaking. After breakfast they participated in the second annual SPS Olympics. The group was divided into three groups; the Holy Devils, the Ivanhoes, and the Special Olympians, self named if you have not guessed. They competed in events that tested the physical and mental prowess. Some of the events were Knockout in Basketball, the Sudoku challenge, scavenger hunt/Albans trivia quest, and egg/water balloon toss. (Video of Egg Toss) The winner was …, it ended in a tie, particularly after the water balloon toss devolved into a water balloon fight. Fun was had by all. After cleaning up the SPS students headed off to movies then watched fireworks from the lawn outside the dorm, it is one of the higher vantage points in DC and great to watch the fireworks.

The view from Norm's roof

Pete left them right before the movies. I headed down Massachusetts Ave to Norm’s for some hanging out before heading to fireworks watching party. Norm has a 13th floor balcony, facing opposite the National Mall, and his rooftop is often overcrowded for fireworks watching. We did watch a storm come through DC from his roof’s vantage point. There was a tornado warning or watch…, which ever one of them is less alarming. I still think they need to get a better system to differentiate between the two. Anytime that there is mention of one of these comes there is automatically confusion. Invariably that confusion is cleared up by some blowhard who says they know definitively which is which. Unfortunately that blowhard is often me and do not know so go figure. Ultimately the National Park Service cleared the mall sometime @5pm. The people, and there is a lot of them, waited in parking garages and museums on the National Mall which were opened up for this very occasion. In the end it all worked out fine and the weather turned out to be just some rain that cooled down the city. The watch/warning/whatever was called off and the fireworks went off is a spectacular fashion.

Party at Fran's

So after grabbing a couple of beers we headed over to Fran house, whose balconies offered a perfect view of the air space above the mall and a therefore great for watching the fireworks. I have included a link to a video of the fireworks. My first foray into YouTube; let me know how it goes. The picture is not very good, I’m still not good with my new camera’s video features, but you get the idea. I can not thank the Memphis Tech Crew enough for their suggestions and information. I ended buying the Canon PowerShot SD1000, the 2 GB card, and extra battery. All aspects of the purchase have been well worth the investment.

Video Experiment
Fireworks Video Link 1 – Longer
Fireworks Video Link 2 – Shorter but bigger explosions
Random DC guy rapping outside the Metro stop in Chinatown
Irish Seisiun at Nanny O’Brien’s- really bad video but decent sound

Fran, who is a friend of Norm’s and an excellent cook, had a wonderful spread. Asian salad, potato salad, with bacon (everything is better with bacon), Asian short ribs and pork ribs, hot dogs, and get this…, homemade Krystal burgers, White Castle for the northern contingent. All was delicious. Pete ate well.

Food Spread at Fran's (Check out the homemade K Burgers)

Some of the ladies on the balcony

After the fireworks we head back to Norm condo and balcony for some post fireworks festivities. From his balcony you could see fireworks from other cities, official, and other neighborhoods, unofficial, unregulated, illegal, and therefore more fun. This of course was only interrupted by Karaoke, if you know Norm this makes perfect sense. Happy Birthday United States of America!!!!!!!!!

Norm kicking it with Karaoke at his place

Washington, DC
Tuesday, July 3rd

The SPS students headed down to Annapolis, MD for the day. Pete skipped this trip today for one next week when they visit The Naval Academy. I slept in, needed form the previous night’s Irish themed festivities. I ran errands around the neighborhood and prepped for a case study that I’m teaching next week on Hurricane Katrina. Interesting case, I’ll discuss further when I’m done teaching that particular class.

Around noon Micah, Ryser’s husband, picked me up at school and we prepared for preparing dinner later the night at Bill and Amanda’s for the gang. By prepare we mean, sitting in the Man cave at Bill and Amanda’s and watching various crap on TV. After a beer and the a viewing of the 2006 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Park, Kabyashi won, we went down to the social Safeway to shop for the meal.

Hear was the meal Micah and I planned.

Shrimp Ceviche
Grilled Parmesan Broccoli
Chicken Breast stuffed with Proscioutto, Pesto, and choice of Goat cheese or Fresh Mozzarella
Vanilla Ice Cream with fresh strawberries and peaches

It took a little time to cook but it was an enjoyable experience. If the readers are sensing that his meal was beyond Pete’s skills…, you are right. Micah has retired from the Air Force and is about to begin a one year program in French Cooking. Regular readers may recognize Ryser and Micah from the BBQ Fest in May. SO anyways Micah really knows what he is doing. From the responses of the diners, the food seemed turned out wonderfully.

The dining crew way Micah, Ryser, Bill, Amanda, Ishtari, a friend and co-worker of Ryser’s and Pete. We leisurely dined, drank wine, and generally enjoyed the unseasonably cool weather. After dessert the crew sat down to a couple of games of Scene It, a DVD game that involves movie trivia. It was quite fun. The boys beat the girls, of course, the first round. The second round Amanda and I blew a seemingly insurmountable lead to Bill and Ryser. Of course the two did not talk any trash. RIGHT.

It was a very relaxing and enjoyable day. Micah, we are glad to have you on the Erie Gang team. Bill and Amanda thanks for the use of your kichen.

Washington, DC
Monday, July 2nd

There are two more weeks left in the program. Where has the time gone? Today was a busy day. In the morning we headed down to the CATO Institute. CATO is a libertarian think tank that is headquartered in Washington, DC. The really short explanation of libertarianism if you do want to check the link is limited government, individual liberty, and free market. On some issues they are right of Republicans and on others they are left of Democrats. We met with Brink Lindsey, who is vice president of research for the CATO. He recently penned a new book that sounds pretty interesting called, The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America's Politics and Culture. The book delves into how the United States unprecedented prosperity of the latter half of this past century drastically changed American politics and culture.

Brink Lindsey of the CATO Institute

Mr. Lindsey spoke the group about what think tanks are and their role in the government and politics. He described a think tank as a cross between a university with no students and a lobbying firm with no clients. Lindsey spoke about other thinks tanks such; the Brookings Institute and the Center for American Progress. As a side note the students heard from Dan Restrepo, the Director of The Americas Project at the Center for American Progress later that evening. The School of Public Service tries to as hard as it can to balance the philosophical and political views of the speakers and outings in effort to try to balance out the curriculum. Both speakers were informative and the students continued to ask lots of questions, and good ones at that.

Dan Restepo of the Center for American Progress

After lunch the students heard from Dr. Anthony Fauci MD, of the National Institute of Health. The NIH is one of the world's foremost medical research centers, and the Federal focal point for medical research in the United States. The NIH, comprising 27 separate Institutes and Centers, is one of eight health agencies of the Public Health Service which, in turn, is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Simply described, the goal of NIH research is to acquire new knowledge to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability, from the rarest genetic disorder to the common cold. Fauci is the Director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases. The NIAID is a large component of the NIH. Dr. Fauci was on the forefront of identifying, categorizing, and on fact naming the HIV virus AIDS. He has an interesting background. Dr. Fauci has the rare combination of a doctor, scientist, and someone who can communicate with a wide variety of people with varying degrees of topic knowledge. This is the third year I have heard his presentation and I am never disappointed.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID

After a short free time SPS hosted the Washington in Ireland Program. The program is a half year program of personal and professional development that brings talented Catholic and Protestant university students from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to DC for summer internships and leadership training. I highly suggest you visit the link to the website I provided. Pay particular attention to the journal entries they are fantastic. Back to the point. We hosted this group for diner at Albans. They were lively, intelligent, and excellent conversationalists, but then again I’ve never really met anyone for Ireland, North or South who wasn’t. After diner we engaged in three rounds of old fashioned debate. We mixed up the SPS students and WIP students into twp teams of two. Three of these groups were organized and they debated topics such as capital punishment, safety vs. liberty, and whether Paris Hilton should be jailed. The last was for pure fun but actually quite lively. The teams had only 10 minutes to prep so the debates favored style and logic over factual information. The debates were raucous to say the least. Everyone had a great time.

SPS and Washington in Ireland breaking bread

The debate of Capital Punishment

Kevin, of Trintiy College in Dublin, channeling Michael Collins

After the debates I joined the SPS faculty contact with the WIP program, the WIP director, and some of the WIP students for a sip of…... Ireland’s signature export. The eclectic crew ranging in age from 58 to 21 went to a local pub, unknown to me till now, called Nanny O’Brien’s. We had excellent conversation. An Irish Seisiun was firing up in the back of the pub. Suffice to say, Good Craic, (Gaelic for Fun).

Irish Seisiun at Nanny O'Briens

Orla dazzles the crowd with traditional Irish Dance

Washington, DC
Sunday, July 1st

Pretty lazy day in our nation’s capital. It was marvelous day weather wise. I believe the high never topped 84 degrees. They catholic crew and I headed back to Holy Trinity in Georgetown for mass. The people watching was fantastic. Big Mike, your head would have been on a swivel.

After that the SPS students were let loose to wander the city with the only caveat to be back in time for dinner. I did nothing but read outside. I wandered around the Close; remember that's Albans high brow, snooty, way to say campus. I finally settled on a place underneath a tree in one of the many gardens to finish up my book. (For info on book see right hand of column) I read uninterrupted for about four hours until I met up with Chuck Crossan, resident director for St. Albans. We grilled up burgers, steaks, brats, and hot dogs. The kids ate it up like ravenous wolves.

The students settled in for a movie, Bloody Sunday, to prep for some of our guests Monday night. I was amazed to see that some of the students had no clue what the “Troubles” were about. On the other hand those who did not know were filled in by treatises of those who did. A student summary was much more succinct and efficient than one of Pete’s long winded rambling “summaries”.

I then went down the street to Bill and Amanda’s place to just hang out. Bill and I watched some movies on the plasma and ate some Ice Cream. One of the things I really enjoy about my time in DC is how easy it to catch up with the old crew.

I’m adding some photos from around the St. Albans campus

Northwest View
People relaxing in the Garden
Garden Entrance
One of my morning coffeespots in the Garden

Washington, DC
Saturday, June 30th

I think the entire SPS crew, students and faculty slept in today. When I finally woke up I helped get the gang ready to head over the Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport. I have seen this already so I passed on the outing and I rode my bike down to the Adams Morgan neighborhood. I wanted to check out this place called Tryst. It is coffee house/bar/restaurant. I can already sense the anger mounting in Tusky and Weiss at the mention of a coffee shop. Well Tusky, this one has beer on tap so even you would like it. I hung out for a couple of hours. Just basically sipped some coffee, caught up on writing, and read some. All of these tasks were interrupted from time to time for some good old fashioned people watching. It was an enjoyable place and a quick bike ride away, despite the killer hill on the way back to school. I will definitely be back.

Tryst coffee house in Adams Morgan

More views of Tryst

After I got back to school I cleaned up and met up with Mason, another friend from Rhodes. We went over
to meet some his friends of his who were having a party. Their house was near Howard University in the Shaw district of DC. Brigitte, who is from Austria, was the women who hosted the party. Is was eclectic mix of people at the party, there were musicians, DJ’s, professors, embassy staff, World Bank economists, and of course a big bear. There were at least five different nationalities represented. The food was incredible. She made pork loin and had sausages from Austria. On top of those foods she made some sort of Peruvian ceviche that was incredible. Beer and wine flowed freely and there was also some incredibly potent Sangria.

Adams Morgan street views

Some of the folks I had met before. Emily is one of Mason’s friends from the World Bank. Good Bye Wolf’ man. She participates and sponsors these crazy road rallies all over the globe to raise awareness of different global issues. The most recent was the Greaseball Challenge 2007. The Challenge is a charity biofuel road rally from Washington, DC to Costa Rica.(Route) The point of the rally, besides the obvious fun, is to promote sustainability on a shoestring using renewable fuels. Check their blog. The stories are both hilarious and entertaining. Emily’s team was called, “The Quest for the Golden Grease”. One of my favorite stories is when they hung out with Willie Nelson for a couple days in Texas. Apparently the stories of Willie are not exaggerated at all. Here are links to their photos from the cross continental odyssey.

Emily(left) with Willie and teammate Nicky (right)

Washington, DC
Friday, June 29th

Today the students were on Economics and Public Speaking classes the bulk of the morning. I have been sitting in on the econ class because, as some of you know, I did not get a lot out of my Econ class at Rhodes. To more direct I rarely attended my Econ Class. In fact one time my Dad went to look me up after class. He did not see me in attendance so he naturally asked the Professor, Dr. Inskander, if he knew where I was. Dr. I responded something to the nature of this, “Oh John Stephany! Smart boy…… I have not seen him in this my class for months. I do however often see him on a coach outside the fraternity house drinking beer on Friday afternoons. Maybe you can find him there.” Spot on. Sure enough, my pop found me in the very spot Iskander described. Needless to say, Dad and I had a pep talk. Oh well, you live you learn. Here is the irony. I am still paying for that class in the form of student loans. Natural consequences are the best ones. So that’s why I am a 36 year old trying to steal some Econ knowledge on the cheap. I digress.

The rest of the day I knocked around the school checking in on the classes and getting my notes ready for a class that I’m teaching next week. Some of you may remember my friend from Rhodes, Graham. Well he is still works at St. Albans and we ate lunch a couple of times this week in the school cafeteria. Small world. I am planning a trip out to see him and his family in a week or so.

In the afternoon the class heard from Dana Milbank from the Washington Post. The morning was spent with Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. Milbank spoke of the career path that led from an intern with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette to Wall Street Journal to the New Republic and then to his present role with the Post. His self deprecating humor was quite disarming. Milbank's stories of his time in the White House Press core were as humorous as they were informative. He discussed the niche his page two column operates as a blend of straight news with an editorial flash. The Post describes it as, “an observational column about political theater in the White House, Congress and elsewhere in the capital.” When he worked in the White House Press corps he generally thought of the most hated reported of the entire corps. He wrote a book called Smashmouth, which was a behind the scenes look at the 2000 Presidential Election. He has a new book coming out called, “Homo Politicus”. He says it will be a mock anthropology of the Washington man.(Article)

In the evening the SPS crew went to the Marine Barracks near the Capital to watch there review performance. For an idea just remember the opening sequence in Tom Cruise flick, A Few Good Men. If you want a special treat, the next time any of you see Tusky ask him to do his rendition of Jack Nicholson’s memorable speech/diatribe on the defense stand. You will wet yourself. Sometimes he’ll just leave it on my voice mail for no apparent reason. Good times, good times. Anyway, I skipped the performance for and evening of crabs and beers at great crab shack called the Quarterdeck, in Arlington. I joined Norm to celebrate the birthday celebration of Sank. Sank is one of Bill’s friends from the Air Force Academy that Norm got to know from the Dewey Beach house of years past. Did you get all that? Well the crabs were nummy and the beers were cold. Another good night.

Smashing some Blue Crabs at the Quarterdeck in Arlington

Washington, DC
Thursday, June 28th

Today was a very lazy day. The students of SPS were in class most of the day I had no teaching responsibilities. I took a long walk, about an hour and half, through the neighborhood. I got myself lost on a number of occasions but honestly that was my goal. The way I figure it for every time I got lost I also realized were some street connected. This is helpful. However in DC there are two types of directions, driving and walking/biking. I feel pretty confident getting around DC with the Metro, Buses, and walking/biking. Despite having my car here I drive infrequently. In fact since filling the tank in Richmond on the way onto town I have not gassed up once and I still have a solid half tank.

Poltics and Prose Bookstore

One of the places I stopped for a break from my walk was Politics and Prose, this phenomenal book store on Connecticut Ave. I wrote about last year at length. This was my first time getting there this year and remembered why I liked it so much. Great coffee and a better selection of books. Thank God I was on foot without a backpack because if would have definitely overbought. This is a common malady of mine. I purchase waaay to many books respective to the time I have to read them. One of these summers I am going to take the whole summer off, go up to MisterCoachEricWell’s cabin in the UP(Upper Peninsula of Michigan) with a stockpile of books and read to my hearts content. Found a great website that allows you to register books that you read. It also lets you share that list with friends and others. At one level I’m sure it turns into some sort of, "Look how many books I read!” thing which it more than a tad bit obnoxious. The website is called Good Reads.

The Hiwatha National Forest in the UP.

Today is Thursday, so that means…., UGLY MUGS softball!!!!! The mugs once again took the field, this time in Anacostia Park in DC, in hopes to keep their record unblemished. The opponent this time was Capital Punishment. Do not let the team name nor their skull and crossbones jerseys fool you, this team was made up of mostly of middle 20ish girls who liked to get their beer on, my kind of women!!! The drank hard and played like they did not care about the outcome. They were a lot of fun. The Mugs used timely hitting and an error free fielding to again come out on top 15 – 4. Next week we play another undefeated team which will prove to be a much stronger test. Kais, the team captain, scheduled this game just yesterday in the hopes of improving our strength of schedule. Yes, they have a program that does this on a weekly basis, so we can stay in the Top Ten of the House Softball League.

The Ugly Mugs with some of its younger fans.

After the game a much smaller contingent went to our sponsor bar, The Ugly Mug, for some well earned mini burgers, pizza rolls, and beer. After the Mug Billy and I went to his house to watch the end of the US – Argentina soccer match in the COPA America tourney in Venezuela. The US squad made up of mostly 2nd and 3rd teamers earning their first international caps gave a valiant effort but finally succumbed to the Argentine squad of first teamers 4 to 1. Most of the US starters where back playing for their club teams in Europe after playing World Cup qualifying matches just a short time ago.

Washington, DC
Wednesday, June 27th

I was on duty the whole day. There was not as much going today in comparison to the last few days but that was good. We actually built in some free time for the students so they could catch up on sleep. Read for upcoming cases and generally be kids. I caught up on laundry and cleaning my room. Ok I just read what I just wrote…., boring.

I thought this might a great time to highlight one of the schools that two of our students come from in Houston, called YES Prep. Yes Prep was ranked the 39th best public school in the United States last year. (Full List) (Ranking Method) To put that ranking into perspective prestigious White Station High is ranked 917th in the country. Only one TN school is ranked higher, MLK magnet school in Nashville. For the Erie readers, Collegiate Academy is ranked 235th. We have two girls from this school in our program right now. What they and their school are accomplishing is nothing short of remarkable. Both of the girls I spoke to stated that they would have been completely lost without this school. One stated it saved her AND her families lives. Two years ago she was nearly failing out of school because she was afraid to go to school and she was not working hard at all. Three years later she has met a Supreme Court Justice and the White House Chief of Staff and shared a sustentative discussion with them. (Newsweek Article)

From their web site:

“Founded in 1998, YES is a free, open-enrollment public school system that serves low-income minority students in 6th-12th grade. Their charter mandates that students must be accepted to a four-year college in order to receive their high school diploma. YES is the only school in greater Houston to make Newsweek’s list of the top 100 public schools in America. There are currently four YES campuses in Houston that serve 1,500 students”

The demographics that the school serves make the accomplishments even more remarkable.

• 80% of YES students are economically-disadvantaged
• 95% are Hispanic or African-American
• 86% are first-generation college-bound
• Most students enter YES at least one grade level behind in math and English

Here are the results of the school in its twelfth year of existence.

• 100% of YES Prep's graduating seniors (six classes) have been accepted to a four-year college or university
• YES seniors have been accepted to 194 schools nationwide, including Duke, Columbia, Cornell, Wellesley, Notre Dame, Rice, Yale, Penn, Stanford, Texas A&M University, University of Texas-Austin, and 43 other Texas schools
• 90% of YES alumni are still enrolled in four-year and two-year colleges (compared to the national retention average of 50% for all ethnic groups and 22% for low-income students) It’s 76% for just the 4-year colleges and universities
• YES graduates have received over $13 million in scholarships and financial aid
  

The students sign a contract to be at school from 7:30 to 5pm Monday through, Thursday they can leave at 4pm. They are to be at School on Saturdays from 9am till 1pm when required. This is for test prep for ACT, SAT, and standardized tests. If they are not prepared for class their or show disrespect to the YES Prep team then they have to stay after school THAT day. They must also attend mandatory summer programs. Their teachers are available nearly 24/7 for homework and school questions. Here is the kicker, they do not get their diploma until they are acepted in a four year college.

When I think of the young and talented students who waste away in bas schools around the country it saddens me. There are no easy answers and the question frustrates a lot of people A LOT smarter than me. The answers don’t come with busing, prayer in school, laptops, internet access, or throwing tons of money at the problem. It takes hard work from the kids and their families, however that family looks. It takes dedication and creative thinking for their teachers and school administers. It takes the community at large to realize that this problem is not only for people with school age kids. It takes a definitive commitment from all of above people. And do not think that for one minute that I feel like a complete hypocrite for working at school that has duckies walking around campus that serves baked Mahi Mahi with chunks of crab smothered in Hollandaise for lunch.

If you want to read about group truly getting it done check at the Web site. (YES Prep)

Here is an article from the Houston Chronicle about Yes Prep and another school, KIPP Academy. (article) A friend of mine from Rhodes is the principal of the first elementary KIPP school in Houston. Here is a Washington Post article about the school and its possible impact in DC.

Washington, DC
Tuesday, June 26th

The morning started off another case study. The case would fit into a general theme for the day of safety and security issues. The day was packed for the students because they would be engaged one way or another from 9am till 9pm. They started the morning off with a case called “Threat of Terrorism: Weighing Public Safety in Seattle”. The link is to an abstract of the case from the Kennedy School of Government. It is an interesting case because it centers on the Seattle’s decision making process as it tried to balance civic safety and the major city event of millennium celebration. The students debated the pros and cons of canceling the festivities in the name of safety and causing a major disruption and probable scare if those events were cancelled. The students did an admirable job. There was some lively debate. Because this happened when they were around 9 or 10 years old they were not familiar with the details surrounding the case. We withheld the final decisions till the second session so they would not have the benefit of hindsight. They seemed to really get into the case.

Eisenhower Executive Office Building

After lunch we took the Metro down to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB). This building houses various agencies that compose the President's Executive Office, such as the Office of the Vice President, the Office of Management and Budget, and the National Security Council and is right next to the White House. We were heading down to meet with Ms. Frances Fragos Townsend, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. She has an interesting bio and her role in the President’s sub-cabinet really did not exist until 9/11. It was odd because when she first arrived she joked, “So I hear you met with my boss (Josh Bolton) yesterday.” Spoke at length of the fuzzy lines that have developed of the last few years between homeland security, foreign policy, and counterterrorism. Ms. Townsend was an impressive speaker. She really captivated the group. I think that the girls in the group particularly found her interesting because here is this very impressive high ranking public servant who is married, the mother of two, and in my opinion quite fetching. She spoke for about twenty minutes then handled questions for the remaining forty minutes.

Frances Fragos Townsend,

Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism

After we returned to the Close the students heard from Frank Waikart, Special Advisor to the FBI’s Financial Review Group. Waikart specializes in the tracking the financial aspect that finds terrorism around the country. Long story short, if you stop the flow of money to terrorist groups, you greatly reduce their effectiveness and subsequently their global threat.

After dinner the students heard from Evan Thomas, assistant managing editor of Newsweek Magazine. He spoke of the role of the media in public service and politics. The essence of his talk and the following Q and A was the role that the media played in the start up of the current war in the gulf, The statement that seemed to resonate with the students was this, “If you are a politician, the media is NOT your friend.”

After his talk I headed just down Wisconsin to a dinner part that Meg was having. Meg is one of sister’s roommates from the University of Dayton. She is a long time DC resident and works with State Department planning visits for foreign groups to DC and the US at large. It was a very nice affair with fantastic food and interesting conversation. I was joined by teaching colleague at the H and friend McGizzle. After hanging out for few hours we visited a few of Georgetown’s infamous watering holes. We ended up at the legendary Georgetown University hangout, The Tombs.

The Tombs, of Georgetown and St. Elmo's Fire Fame

A very busy, informative, and fun day. What’s the phrase, “They’ll be time to sleep when I’m dead!”

Washington, DC
Monday, June 25th

Pete at the White House

Today was just another day in DC. Lazy morning, reviewing case studies, then an evening at the White House with Josh Bolton, White House Chief of Staff, in the Roosevelt Room. Honestly, I can not believe I’m actually getting paid to do this stuff. I first got to meet with Josh Bolton last year during our White House visit. This year I came away from the visit with the same impression, he is a very sharp guy. I can honestly tell you that he is in the top 5 of impressive people of the numerous impressive people that our group has heard from. We met in the Roosevelt Room due to the continuing renovations in the Press Room.

The Roosevelt Room

A small note, as we were waiting for Bolton to arrive Karl Rove stuck his head in and said, “Hello!” The odd thing for me is that in the last two months I have met arguably the most ingenious and devious political puppeteers of the last twenty years. I had met, and spoke with, James Carville at speaking engagement he had at Rhodes earlier in late spring. Karl Rove was the architect of the carefully placed referendum issues aimed at whipping voters in the far right of the Republican Party into a frenzy in key states in the last Presidential election. I believe him to be a genius and pure evil.

Bolton spoke with the group for about an hour. The substance of the talk was him walking us through a typical day with the President and his related duties. The students got to sit in the cabinet and sub-cabinet chairs and he related how the daily 7:30am morning went. He then answered questions about policy, social security and the approval ratings of the present administration.

After the discussion we went on a tour of the White House. Here is a treat for you dog lovers. We got to see the Bush family’s two dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley. If you were wondering the links are to each dog’s biography. That’s right I said biography. The two were frolicking in the Rose Garden. The tour guides were all low level aides who kind of get volunteered for the duty by higher up s on the staff. I think the guides we had were particularly good because the favor was called in from a high placed source. It was a great discussion, tour, and visit.

Barney in the Rose Garden

The Rose Garden

The tour group in the Rose Garden

We have been taking the DC Metro a lot this summer which has worked out well. It helps us beat the traffic and gets the kids better acquainted with the DC layout. It is a smaller group than last year which makes it really easy.

Washington, DC
Sunday, June 24th

Today was one of those days that makes me really realize how lucky I ma to have this job. The morning started out with a visit to NBC’s Washington affiliate to watch a taping of Meet the Press. The guests in the first half hour were former Presidential Candidate, Pat Buchanan and Rep. D-(IL) Luis Gutierez. They “discussed” immigration policy. In the second half hour their was a panel discussion about immigration and the presidential race which included David Broder of The Washington Post, John Harwood of The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, Gwen Ifill of PBS’ Washington Week, and syndicated columnist Roger Simon. (Transcript) (Netcast)

The debate between Gutierez and Buchanan was the immigration at large and H.R. 1645 specifically. I have provided a link to a congressional site that has a great deal of information about this legislation. (H.R. 1645) There was not as much discussion as it was talking at one another. Sadly, Buchanan was the better debater. He had more facts while Gutierez focused more on emotional arguments. They both could learn from each other. Gutierez needs more a fact driven argument while Buchanan, well it is Pat Buchanan. It would help if every you time you heard him you didn’t imagine you were hearing the theme music for Darth Vader in your head. The panel discussion was much more informative.

After the filming Tim Russert answered questions for about 45 minute. His down to earth manner really puts the students at ease. They asked a number of questions mostly the usual of who did you get started, how do you prepare, etc. They also asked him about the Scooter Libby trial where he had to testify and he actually became part of the story. The response was good but long, in essence he explained he heard that he was the who told Libby about Valerie Plame’s identity he knew it was false and he had to simple explain that and that was it. When asked about his favorite interviews he mentioned Ross Perot, all of the candidates, and more recently Colin Powell. He is one of my favorite speakers that the program hears, partly because he seems to genuinely enjoy speaking to the students.

Russert talks with the students

When we returned from Meet the Press we broke again into small groups and headed out to various museums in and around DC. Some of places visited will be the Spy Museum, National Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport (Not the one on the Mall), National Museum of the Marine Corps, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I took a group to the Holocaust Museum. They enjoyed it, as much as you enjoy a museum like that. There was a small group and we took about two and half hours to go through the museum. They read, asked questions, and we all learned a lot.

After the groups all came back to the Close I took a group to church. The are a lot of kids who wanted to go to Catholic mass so we found a church called Holy Trinity in Georgetown that had a 5:30pm service. It was a beautiful old church right in the heart of the oldest art of Georgetown. The church dates back to the 1790’s. It is located about a block away from Georgetown and therefore logically has a long association with the Jesuits. It was a nice service with a good sermon. Only a Jesuit would base a sermon Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden when explaining the life of John the Baptist.

The inside of Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown

Pete and Tim Russert

Washington, DC
Saturday, June 23rd

Today was a day to relax and get caught up on sleep. We gave the students, who have been working extremely hard, the option to sleep in, they took it. I woke up grabbed a cup of coffee and sat on a bench at “senior circle” outside of where we live and read the paper, answered e-mails, and generally enjoyed the unseasonably mild DC summer weather. (It was about 68 degrees) The students started to climb out of bed around 10ish. After and early lunch the students went to the pool and/or got ahead on their case study readings.

My morning coffee spot

I took a walk down Wisconsin Ave and met up with Bill for lunch. I gave him a break from the bit of home improvement he was engaged in. We walked over to Rocklands for some sandwiches. I had a great Cuban sandwich. The sandwich had pork loin, ham, some pickled relish, and lightly dusted with some spicy “Cuban” mustard. Fat man tested, fat man approved. We took the lunch to go and watched some little baseball at the ball across the street. We hung out at Bill’s place for a while and watched a movie.

After I headed back to Albans the whole SPS gang got cleaned up and went out for meals. We broke the crew into more manageable groups and went to different restaurants. We went to a place down Wisconsin Ave called Bourbon. Yes, I know sounds like a shady place to take high school kids. It is just a little upscale burger place. It has some fantastic entrees but the students got the variations of the burger. We sat upstairs away from the bar and the crowd and had nice conversation and a great meal.

We walked back to Albans and all jumped on the Metro and went to see the Washington Nationals take on the Cleveland Indians in inter-league play. It was perfect weather to catch a ballgame. We sat in the cheap seats and just basically relaxed and soaked of evening. The Nats play at RFK which is a bit dilapidated, see earlier blog. They are building an awesome new park in South East DC which is going to have all the bells and whistles. The best part is that the Nationals Park will have stadium views of the Capital Building and the Washington Monument.

The students hame it up for the camera

The new National Park

There were a little over 30,000 at the game so it was a nice crowd which for a nice atmosphere to watch a game. He Nats lost a heart breaker when their closer surrended a two run lead in the top of the ninth to a three run homer. Washington loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth only to run them selves into a double play as a result of poor base running. Although the home team lost a good time was has by all.

Washington outfielder Nook Logan is tagged out to end the game