Happy Thanksgiving

Recieved this graphic from a leader of a neighborhood organization. I thought it was funny. Happy holidays to you all. Hopefully you have something to be thankful for!

Do you have an Instagram account?

Sixth Ward ig

In addition to posting here at the Shedd School/Public School blog, I also post at The Sixth Ward.

Over the summer I started an Instagram (ig) profile for the The Sixth Ward blog. Feel free to follow me over there. There are normally reposts from other local & sometimes national ig profiles but often there will also be snapshots from around the South Side. Feel free to check us out.

BTW, I do have a widget in the sidebar that shows all the posts to that ig account. So even if you don't have an actual ig account you will be able to follow what's going on there.

Also if you want to send me some photos to use on our Instagram feel free to e-mail me. My e-mail address is also located in the sidebar.

Happy holidays everyone.

Tribune: Aldermen turn up heat on CPS' bond deals

Ald. Thomas by Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune

I was amazed to see that Ald. Latasha Thomas of ward 17 is leading this charge. I'm wondering if her leaving the city council at the end of her term has anything to do with this:

The Chicago City Council’s Education and Child Development Committee will hold a hearing to examine Chicago Public Schools’ borrowing practices, committee chair Ald. Latasha Thomas said Wednesday.

Eight aldermen signed a resolution calling for the hearing in the wake of a Chicago Tribune analysis of the school district’s foray into auction-rate debt. Leading the effort is 2nd Ward Ald. Bob Fioretti, who plans to run against Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the Feb. 24 mayoral election.

The Tribune found that CPS' 2003-07 issuance of $1 billion in auction-rate bonds, paired with interest-rate swaps, could cost the district $100 million more than traditional fixed-rate bonds would have.

"They were gambling with our children’s future," Fioretti said Wednesday in an interview with the Tribune.
...
Thomas said she had yet to see the resolution but was willing to explore the issue at committee level. Thomas, unlike Fioretti, typically sides with the mayor on major issues.

No hearing date has been set.

No kid hungry

[VIDEO] NOTE: The video above is a preview for the documentary Hunger Hits Home. You can watch the documentary directly from the Food Network website via the VIDEO link in the brackets.

I saw a few minutes of this documentary on the Food Network this morning. This is an ongoing concern here in these United States where we're concerned about our young people struggling with hunger.

While this blog hasn't consistently tackled this issue we have posted about it on occassion. What was shared here at one point was an appearance on C-Span's Washington Journal was actor Jeff Bridges and Bill Shore talking about hunger in America.

In my mind yeah hunger is an issue but so is health. We want to teach our young people to eat healthy and that's as important as ensuring that they have something to eat.

BTW, over the years I have been tempted to share programs from Whole Foods Market to help schools start gardens. I know that they're not the only player as far a grocery stores in this activism. Perhaps to help not only the issue of hunger but of nutrition there are ways to attack this issue as well.

In honor of Veteran's Day

In honor of Veteran's Day I wanted to discuss the history of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The 54th was one of many units of Black military forces that served during the American Civil Ward. Typically on days such as this I want to discuss the role of Blacks who served in the US military during the history of this nation.

The story of the 54th was told in the film Glory which starred Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman. This was a movie my 8th grade class watched in order to get us more in touch with Black history. Unfortunately aside from watching it in class and perhaps on TV at times over the years this film has been an afterthought.

Which is unfortunate especially since I could get in on such formats as VHS, DVD, and now I could download it via iTunes. It also opened my eyes to the role of Black troops during the Civil War one of the ending results was the ending of slavery in the United States. Black troops were certainly contributing to that cause.

Now that I think about it's time to own the 2012 film Lincoln. The first scene of the film involved President Abraham Lincoln speaking with Union soldiers especially a pair of Black Union soldiers who successfully recite the Gettysburg Address. The gist of the film involves the debate over the 13th amendment to the US Constitution to abolish slavery in the United States and certainly those Black soldiers contributed to the victory of Union forces in the Civil War.

May we honor all of our military veterans and their role in our history and honor their service to the United States of America!