To All Teachers: The Passing of the Baton !

This is my fourth installment of messages to teachers as they approach the new school year. I posted this two years ago but all of the three previous blogs have had a resounding response...so here goes...with some additions.--Bob)

In many ways teaching is a relay race as one generation of teachers passes the baton to the next. The faster the baton is passed the faster the mentor teacher can get the young protégé ‘up to speed.' 

A lot has been made by my Baby Boomer colleagues that we were the first generation ("post the Korean War," said Jimmy Dutton) that embraced teaching as a ‘lifestyle choice’. And with that push, the commitment to excellence and innova
tion in teaching evolved. But make no doubt that the children of the Baby Boom are making an impact on the lives of this new 'g-g-g-generation'.

I am very proud of Erin, Serena, Megan and Tara, Ashley, Andy, Mark—just a few of the most recent Mt. Carmel High School grads to grab the baton and take off flying down the track.

Kudos to their parents (the Mt. Carmel PE/ Health department gets special commendations!) for being their inspiration. I had the pleasure of teaching all seven of these young teachers, and each brings something every teacher must have when they walk into a classroom—compassion. Each has had to run hard and fast, sometimes facing hurdles that our generation did not have to leap.

I don’t mean to dismiss the many other young folks who have left Mt. Carmel to also become teachers—actually the problem for me is that there are just too many to list! I know. They write me on Facebook, they invite me into their classrooms (Robin and Krista), and I see them coaching (Gail, Cachi, and Dani)…etc., etc, etc.

So here’s to the runners who grab the baton and head to the finish line—even though it is more a marathon than a sprint.

And here is to their mentors still running the race: Monique, Christiana, Lee, etc, etc, etc...

p.s. I am always willing, like many, many of my retired colleagues to jump in and make a ‘guest appearance.’ All they need to do is ask. (Note: I left the last names a ‘mystery’—but ask me on FB in a message, and I’ll let you know.

This is the 4th installment of my 'Ode to Teachers" here at the Metaphor Cafe...and now you can 'Follow' me by clicking a button (on your laptop)--even Old Guys can learn a few new tricks.

To All Teachers: The Best Question a Student Ever Asked Me?

In my continuing "Back to School" series of updates from past blogs, here is one to remember as the news of Mr. Trump and Co. dominate the media. 

Teachers may feel pressed by kids. This little story can help you get by...I am reprising it from two years ago when Mr.Trump was elected....

 I remember 2008--President Obama became the first American, born with an African father from Kenya, to take the Oath of Office. Michelle Obama, a descendant of slaves, became First Lady.
"What a time it was, Oh what a time it was..." to quote Paul Simon from song "Bookends"--

There was division in my classroom. The students who were freshman, in particular, merely reflected their parents' views. Some students were joyful, wearing the iconic "HOPE" t-shirt, and some murmured to each other disdainful remarks about the newly elected President.
I noticed. All good teachers take in the soundtrack of their classroom.

One day after school the question came from a 14 year old Asian boy named Andrew:

Mr. Pacilio, can I ask you a question? 
I was writing something on the white board.
Sure, Andrew.
Are you a republican or a democrat? 
I smiled.
I am so glad you asked that. I'm an American--just like you.
The look on his face tipped his hand.
That's what I thought you would say. Thanks, Mr. Pacilio.

opinion; I always presented the facts. (Yes in those days there were facts.) And as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan remarked long ago: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."
Here is the reason I was so glad he asked me that. I never gave my

I explained the facts that drove the events we studied: 
Why were black slaves treated as they were? 
Why did ghettos become the last remnants of slavery and in the 70's transitioned into gang zones selling drugs?
Why did the Japanese find themselves rounded up and 'interned' in Manzanar?
Why did the Harlem Renaissance become so pivotal? 
Why did the 'conflict' in Vietnam escalate into an 'undeclared war' under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that later became under serious scrutiny in the Pentagon Papers? 
Why did Affirmative Action occur? 
Why were some schools so underfunded compared to others in richer suburbs as Jonathan Kozol so poignantly documented in his book "Savage Inequalities." 
(I wish I'd spent more time on Mexican immigration...sigh.) And so it goes.


So stick to the facts and research them well. These facts will stand the test of time.
That's how I see it, here, at the Metaphor Cafe.

Eisenhower’s “Greatest Generation” and AOC’s “Greenest Generation’:

When last we met, I wrote that "Superman" traveled from "a distant, doomed planet" Krypton, which exploded because its stubborn, ignorant leaders would not listen warnings of its distinguished scientists.

Fast forward to my advocacy of the Paris Accords, which limit greenhouse gas emissions. It was signed by 177 nation/states; however only a fraction of those nations have ratified the Accords (and enforcing it is still problematic). All the more reason why the USA and its congressional representatives need to step forward and show the world we will lead when it comes to this pivotal measure. 

I know there are objections like jobs and the costs of retrofitting, as well as how to make up the energy lost from coal, oil or the natural gas that comes from fracking (ans the earthquakes that result--just as the people from Oklahoma!). Many scientists argue we are at or past the tipping point so desperate times call for desperate measures. I would entertain at least three ideas to deal with the situation.

1. It's Time for a National Waterway System, like the National Highway System!

This has been on my mind for a while. A couple named "Dan and Cindy" posted this about a system that would create a National Waterway running from the Northeast and Southeast where the floods are destroying communities and divert water to fertile, but drought ridden West and Southwest. Here is what they wrote:
"All reality starts out as concept. Eisenhower was challenged with creating a national highway system. Cost conscious politicians recommended he allow the use of atomic bombs to cut through the Rocky Mountains. Instead we followed the way of the buffalo... which eventually lead to the national highway system. There should be more debate about this idea." 

I know what you are thinking: it would cost a fortune! A gentleman named "Tim" also posted on the same science and engineering webpage: "...{There could be} four major east to west pipes (huge pipes) using gravity where possible and pumping where necessary. Using the natural terrain such as rivers and streams to carry measured amounts when needed. Filling reservoirs along the way. Smaller lateral (north/south) pipes to deliver to the most drought (ridden)  states." 
Why let Mother Nature's warming trend choke us of food production and drown us in floodwaters? While we are trying to reduce emissions, let's at least begin to be pro-active in 'disaster relief' by building, and therefore employing thousands of workers who likely will be weaned off industries that are heating up the planet.

2. The Scottish Winds! 

Did you know Scotland was able to provide 106% of its renewable energy requirements for a single day last weekend according to Sophie Gallagher of the Huffington Post? I know we have wind turbines already, but enough? And do we make them in the USA? According to Russ Choma, an investigative reporter on wind power only 32% of wind power as of 2010 come from just two USA plants. Hmm. That is an industry we need to promote with government incentives combined with retraining of fossil fuel workers to the wind power industry.

3. The "Greatest Generation" needs the "Greenest Generation to step up. 

Tom Friedman, a hero of mine and author of the book Hot, Flat and Crowded, has written extensively about the Green Revolution. It should be required reading in all high school classrooms. Friedman argues: "I am not proposing that we radically alter our lifestyles. We are who we are — including a car culture. But if we want to continue to be who we are, enjoy the benefits and be able to pass them on to our children, we do need to fuel our future in a cleaner, greener way. Eisenhower rallied us with the red menace. The next president will have to rally us with a green patriotism. Hence my motto: 'Green is the new red, white and blue.'” 
This means building solar panels HERE in the USA; after all, we invented it, but Europe is building them--Germany specifically. The desert should be loaded with solar panels, but the ability to have a National Grid to transport this energy is key. The States need to be UNITED in this effort. For more on the subject: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/magazine/15green.t.html?_r=0

Anyway, it's past time for America to lead. China will follow as will India. They know they need to deal with the air pollution that is choking its people.

That's the way I see it here at "The Metaphor Cafe" 

 

 

Superman and Global Warming: they saw it coming in 1938 (the sequel)

Note: This was one of my first blogs; however, due to the changes in policy (and Presidential administrations, this is the revised version.

For all you non-Superman folks out there, this is Superman 101. It’s pretty spooky!

Superman is born Kel-El on the alien planet Krypton. His parents, Jor-El and Lara, brilliant scientists whom everyone ignores for years, become aware of Krypton’s impending destruction, and Jor-El begins constructing a spacecraft that would carry Kal-El to Earth. (Apparently the planet is overheating and is about to burst…hmm…sound familiar?)

During Krypton’s last moments, Jor-El places young Kal-El in the spacecraft and launches it. Jor-El and Lara die as the spacecraft barely escapes Krypton’s fate. ( Marlon Brando’s big cameo in the original movie). The explosion transforms planetary debris into kryptonite, a radioactive substance that is lethal to Superman. Note:The people of Krypton were portrayed as living in a cold and heartless society. Though they were masters of science (or so they thought… and then Boom!).

The foreshadowing of the 1938 writers remarkable. Like a lot of science ‘fiction’ literature, it’s become quite real. Today, despite the overwhelmingly conclusive science that global warming is man made, too many politicians (backed by fossil fuel donors)still proclaim which of the following:

A. It’s a hoax.

B. It’s just a natural cycle for Earth (a vicious cycle!).

C. Admit it, sort of, but claim it’s not man made.

D. Believe the melting ice caps will make for a good investment in real estate (hmm, who could that be?).

E. If we do something drastic, like move away from fossil fuels, then we lose too many jobs!

The answer of course is all of the above.

Here is what dominates every A Block of the national news: the wildfires and drought in the West, the ubiquitous tornadoes in the Midwest and Southeast, the flooding in the Southeast, and the storms in the Atlantic Coast? ‘Earthlings’ boil the atmosphere and get the hottest years on record, each year topping the year before, only it is growing faster and faster. Al Gore and Jor-El (Superman’s father) were warning us years ago in The Inconvenient Truth. (Note: reverse the names Al Gore and Jor-El…spooky!)

Don’t just believe me, follow this link because according to N.Y. Times’ David Wallace Wells, it’s “Time to Panic”: 

Opinion | Time to Panic

Opinion The planet is getting warmer in catastrophic ways. And fear may be the only thing that saves us. By David…www.nytimes.com

Wells quotes a familiar voice of Earth’s stewardship, “At the opening of a major United Nations conference two months later, David Attenborough, the mellifluous voice of the BBC’s “Planet Earth” and now an environmental conscience for the English-speaking world, put it even more bleakly: ‘If we don’t take action,’ he said, ‘the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.’”

So clearly the real “national emergency” is part of an international call for immediate action.

So what does America need to do besides look for another planet to eject our kids? Here is the obvious suggestion, other than personal recycling, reusing, downsizing, etc.

1. Elect a President who will reengage America in the Paris Climate Agreement, which the current President has abandoned. Accordingly, “the stated objectives of the Paris Agreement are implicitly ‘predicated upon an assumption — that member states of the United Nations, including high polluters such as China, the US, India, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Indonesia and Australia, which generate more than half the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, will somehow drive down their carbon pollution voluntarily and assiduously without any binding enforcement mechanism to measure and control CO2 emissions at any level from factory to state, and without any specific penalty gradation or fiscal pressure (for example a carbon tax) to discourage bad behavior.’” * Yes, enforcement is an issue but we have start in 2020.* (wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement)

I know what you’re thinking: we won’t agree until the other big polluters ratify and enforce. Seriously? I thought we were the leader of the free world…the one Superpower…the great inventors…visionaries…. America’s actions saved a world order tipping toward fascism perpetuated by Nazis. Who is going save this world from the willful ignorance of antiquated energy sources that will choke the earth’s inhabitants?What does America use its power for?

2. Support the Green Revolution. Some argue it is too ‘pie-in-the-sky. Some argue it will cost jobs. Some argue it is dead on arrival in the Houses of Congress. Some argue that we are just one country. My answer: so what? There is no alternative. We do what must be done or my adult children and their children will be devastated.

Again for the folks who don’t remember the saga that was Superman, the planet Krypton blows up and pieces of Kryptonite naturally land on earth, along with a space capsule cradling a small baby, soon to become Superman. In 1938, his creators saw fascism growing and perhaps wondered what the world would become. It became WWII, and its climax was the beginning of Atomic Age. 

The destruction just now peeking over the horizon is a cataclysm that not even Superman was meant to stop. After all, he can stop a speeding bullet and fly faster than a speeding locomotive and leap tall buildings with a single bound…. Ah, but that’s kids’ stuff.  

In the meantime, the clock is ticking…

To All Teachers- The Sequel: Ideas for a Winning Season!

(This is the second installment of a pep talk to teachers about how much they matter! This original post is almost 2 years to the day i am updating this)

In my last post, I made the analogy that 'The Letter' that arrives from the administration that school is about to begin and meetings are the order of the day was like the giant BALL that chases Indiana Jones. I remarked that he eluded it.

That's when I remembered that as he jumps out of its way, he is greeted by a mob of local spear pointing natives, and , man, are they restless! So he dashes into the forest as they chase him down, spears zipping past him. Then he realizes that the river holding his sea plane is just a leap off a cliff away. Apparently, the natives are not fond of water. Indy swims to the plane and seems safe...at last. Whew...until SNAKES !

I realized that after teachers face the "Opening Day" and everyone is on their best behavior, soon their 'natives' will get restless...no spears, yet! So here are a few things to mull over.

1. “You must care about whom you teach. 

      You must care about what you teach. 
      Above all, 
      Your students must care about you and what you  teach them.” 

I've read that we lose 50% of all beginning teachers by the 5th year of service. Why...besides the financial issues? Teaching is very difficult, and believe me, the ones who master it are artists. Sure some teachers love kids, and some love their curriculum--but the master teachers love both, and they get kids to 'lean in' to their class, as Sheryl Sandberg insists. Students are 'all in' not out of fear, not for the grade, not for the parents, but for themselves. Malcolm Gladwell insists it takes 10,000 hours for someone to gain mastery of a skill. Well, that's around year 7. So for the young guns--patience; for the old hands--it's always a good idea to reassess and reinvent oneself. It's what keeps you fresh. I know the transition to American Literature kept me challenged and invigorated.

2."Your ‘I Will’ is more important than your IQ”

I stole this motto from the great Chicago teacher Marva Collins. Kids need to know it's all about desire. It's about grit (Time magazine covered the 'Grit Issue' years ago) For most of the master teachers I know, nothing I am saying is 'breaking news'--but let me add this point. When I took the SAT test in 1972, my score was 880...combined..I told students this fact so they knew what I was about; being 'test'smart is not enough, effort tests one's mettle and makes one's acts memorable. I remember Dawn (Andrews) Bradbury's graduation letter, in which she remarked that she felt intimidated about being in an 'honors English' class. She concluded her letter to me that "if Mr. Pacilio could do it [with his SAT score}, then I can, too." She's still out there making a difference. 


3. Master teachers make complicated things simpler, but some teachers make complicated things... even more complicated.

I was doing well in math until the teacher put an X on the board...followed by a Y! The word problems were bad enough--'Two trains leave the stations and then they crash into each other. When? Where? How many injured? Was I on the train?! 

My daughter Anna could have been on the same train that I was. Then came Ken Matson, math guru, to save her from falling off the tracks. Ken volunteered to teach Algebra 1 her freshman year. (He usually taught the highest math levels.) He was a master of the simple explanation and the idea that less is more. Fewer homework problems, but one of each variation of the lesson. He set the foundation for Anna. 

I knew that just the two words Literary Analysis made my students shudder (and English teachers argue), but when the late, great Jack Mosher asked master teacher and writing guru Jane Schaffer (who passed several years ago) to tutor our English department, Jane knew how to break writing down to a science--literally. This was her non-negotiable doctrine:

"ALL STUDENTS CAN THINK; ALL STUDENTS CAN WRITE."

All sports coaches (see pic of three great ones--> know this. Break down the complex: the swing, a pitch, a serve, a tackle, a stroke. Simplify. The kids will say it's easy. They will say what Aly Kesian, in my American Literature class, told me, " I never could write a paper. Now I can. It's organized...I know what to write next."



It's as simple as Pi (π)...okay, some things are complicated...
And Anna graduated from Sonoma State University, summa cumme laude...she is now the Communications Director for Congressman Marc Veasey of Texas.

  

(Part 2 of my blog here at the Metaphor Cafe...)

To All Teachers: 'Opening Day' Heroes Still Making a Difference!

I know exactly how teachers feel. It's August. The 'letter' comes. Summer, as you know it, is over.

You feel like Indiana Jones trying to outrace the GIANT BALL...just remember, he makes it... and keeps his hat!

You trudge to your classroom to set up the desks. In no time, your hands have the grim of the summer months still on them. Sweat. This is the 'pre-show' prep that kids rarely see. For some of you veteran teachers, this is 'old hat' ; for the young guns, it is still 'nervous time.' But right around the corner it's "Opening Day!"

So, I thought it might say a few words of encouragement to both groups. After all, I spent '32 seasons in the big leagues'...all at Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego. I know a thing or two about how long the season is and how difficult it can be to 'manage your team.'  To paraphrase Oprah: Here's what I know for sure!

Part 1--"Teaching and Inspiring Are Not Mutually Exclusive!" Sometimes teachers have a pretty good feeling about what they have accomplished with their students; however, there are those classes, those years, when one walks to the parking lot wondering Is there anything I am saying and doing making a difference at all? 

The best answer I have for teachers is a vignette about Armin Yagazarin. Many years ago, a thirty-something man walked into my classroom wearing a beret. He was quietly looking at some posters and projects that I had placed on the "Oh Board"--more on that later. The bell had just rung and school was over. He turned to me and said, "Do you remember me?" I looked at him and I can't remember exactly if did, but when he said his first name Armin...I interrupted him and slapped my hands together and said, "Yagazarin! Of course, I remember you!" He seemed surprised but he smiled.

He told me he came back to campus to thank me. We shook hands. So you are asking yourself what's the big deal? Here it is. Armin Yagazarin was a freshman in my class at least 10 years earlier, and he was known as Mr. 88%. Why? Because it seemed no matter how hard he tried, he always finished with a B+...five times in a row. At the semester, he was Mr. 88% and that trend was continuing....

So when the last day of school came, and I called each student up to let them know what grade they earned, naturally, the alphabet ended with Mr. 88%. Armin just shouted to me, "Forget it, Mr. Pacilio. I already know my grade." I insisted that he come up anyway.

He dragged himself out of his desk, defeated. His hands glued into his pockets. His fate inevitable. I said, "Well, you had an 88.9%." He nodded. He was about to spin back to his seat. I said, "Well you should look at your report card." He did. Almost disdainfully, he pointed to the grade and said, "You made a mistake. You have the wrong grade there." I looked him right in the eye and told him, "Mr. Yagazarin, anyone else I have taught who had 88% the entire year would have just stopped trying a long time ago. I can't think of a student more deserving of an A than you."

He walked back to his desk and his body language was different.

So the young man in the beret wanted to tell me that that very moment mattered far more than I could ever imagine. It propelled him to art school and to his career as an artist. Who woulda known?
I didn't even teach art.

None of us do. We don't teach math, English, music, science, singing, dancing, history, drama, vocational skills, a foreign language, or even Speech and Debate.
We teach kids.
We are in the 'Kid Business."
And I know that the teachers getting ready for 'Opening Day" will reap their fortunes.
It might just take a while.
That much I am sure of.

p.s. If you note the date of this blog you will see it was two years exactly that I started my Bob Pacilio's Metaphor Cafe blogs and in that time over 32,000 page views have been recorded ...and 37 followers! I thought it timely to remind the 'young guns and the old gunslingers of the "Wild West Classrooms" to get a dash of inspiration. I'll be speaking at schools this year--to teachers and students so don't hesitate to call my name. www.robertpacilio.net or robertpacilio@gmail.com
p.p.s. My newest novel will be out this Fall "Meet Me at Moonlight Beach"

   Part 1 of my 'back to school' installments on my blog located at the Metaphor Cafe)

Meet Me Out in the Streets, Baby!

Meet Me Out in the Streets, Baby!

Time to hit the streets. Lots of talk these days about Americans getting along with each other. Now, I'm no Einstein or Shakespeare, but I sure know one thing--it sure is nice to take a walk and say hello to folks. Or get on my bike. Hit the golf course. Yoga it up (Update: my yoga teacher told me Sunday is National Friendship Day!). It is all about getting out there and meeting and greeting people. All kinds of folks.

Here is what I like to do. I give the 'thumbs up' to joggers, and when I get a smile on their face, there is a human touch. I say 'Morning' to the folks picking the weeds out of their garden, like the lady today. With her sunbonnet and radio, she was having a grand time. So I told her it looks great; I told her I like doing that especially when I need some alone time. Feels like I am out there in 'nature'--at least my little piece of it. She smiled and said, "Same with me." Funny how we connected and we didn't think about whom we were voting for or what music we would prefer.
Then there is the guy walkin' his chocolate lab. I stopped and let his four year old 'pup' lick me like an ice cream cone on this warm summer day. We smiled and knew, that in his case, a dog can me a person's best buddy. There are the construction guys who are bustin' their butts doing road work. I thanked them for what they were doing for the neighborhood. They both broke into smiles and thanked me for noticing. Then they laughed and said, "Wait 'til ya get the bill!" I figure that's the price we pay for a government that works, so no big deal.

I'm just a guy walkin' the streets or the fairways. I'm trying to 'work those wedding tables.' The best I can do is try to get to know my neighbors...in a larger sense. Too often we live in a world of fences. Robert Frost waxed philosophical about the danger of walls and fences made of stone and brick. My parents, Tessie and Louie, used to speak about the good ol' days back east where people knew their neighbors. But for them it wasn't a geographic limit to knowing people on their street. They knew people wherever they roamed. Maybe that is something we've lost, and with it, an understanding that we sometimes are our brother's keeper...or at least our streets can be a place where 'everybody knows your name.'

It's a lot easier to heed the wisdom of Atticus Finch as he tells his daughter, Scout, that sometimes you have to walk in someone's shoes to know what their life is like.

I bet you all have been waiting for a Springsteen reference. One of my favorite songs ends like this:
When I'm out in the street
I walk the way I want to walk
When I'm out in the street
I talk the way I want to talk
Baby, out in the street I don't feel sad or blue

Baby, out in the street I'll be waiting for you 

Our American Flag at Half Mast, again...

Our American Flag at Half Mast, again...

This was my second blog post. I am now on my 51st posting.This posting was 1 year ago. Apparently there have been so many mass killings since then that we have become numb to it; that is until Las Vegas.The question is simply this: will I be writing this again one year from today? This thought  has been circling my mind for some time now. It needed a place to land. Bob

So One Year Ago:
So I passed the fire station today. There it was, by order of the President, the American flag at half mast, again. So I looked it up. First, you all should know that just this year alone, the flag has been lowered in February, twice in March and May, in June, and three times in July. I think you all know what the causes were. Here is the saddest thing: the fire station should have raised it up on July 22nd when the President's order ended...at sunset. But, alas, the times being what they are, caused the nation's heroic fire fighters to merely keep it at half mast.

It's become, as the media likes to call it, 'the new normal.' Ubiquitous.

It's about guns; it's about anger; it's about religion; it's about poverty; it's about race; it's about mental health; it's about people who simple don't value their lives or the lives of others. The military style guns just magnify it. The media makes it 'newsworthy' (and it is, I know). Religions justify it as a jihad. Desperation and ridicule underline the causes for why men ( almost exclusively) literally jump off a cliff taking innocent bystanders and police with them. Fear and paranoia make some law enforcement officers shoot first and ask themselves the questions later.

It's not Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm or Desert Shield or any other declared war we have been fighting for the longest in history. No. This battleground is much closer to home. It's in our own streets and our schools. It may have begun on 9.11 but we, as a nation, cannot say we are close to 'mission accomplished.'

The shadow of money, power and ignorance makes it difficult to see. We all need to enlighten ourselves, to the issues, to the root causes and to each other. "For Light is what the Darkness most fears..."I heard the singer Jewel remind me.

Only then will we see the flag raised, again.

But today I read what Greg DeLuca wrote on a Social Media group called SMART that dedicates itself to meeting in the middle, drawing a sensible consensus, and above all doing so in a dignified manner. His essay is brilliant but long--so let's cut to its chase: the solution:

"We can't control everyone's mental health, nor restrict all firearms. That doesn't mean doing nothing is acceptable. An easy starting point like background checks would not place an undue burden on second amendment freedoms and could prevent many, of course not all, dangerous people from acquiring weapons they otherwise shouldn't have. Restrictions on the type weapons people could own would not prevent them from hunting or defending themselves, it simply wouldn’t allow them to own a weapon whose sole practical purpose is inflicting mass casualties. There is no legal scenario where this is necessary, and we are compiling too many examples of how permitting such weapons leads to horrific outcomes."

Bob Pacilio from the Metaphor Cafe...and the Senate floor...empty

"Hard Choices": the memoir that changed my mind about Hillary

Well, Gang, this is my first blog post--ever. (I hope I am doing this right! )

By way of introduction, my name is Bob, and for 32 years I taught English and Speech and Debate at Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego. I have been a professor at National University for 15 years--and I have been an author since 2009. More on that later...My purpose is simple. From time to time, I will 'step on to the blogging stage' and do my best to let you know what I think. That's what teachers/ authors do. I hope you like it, and sometimes learn a thing or two... and I hope I do, as well.

A wise Navy chaplain was saying mass one Sunday, and I remembered his profound words that he opened the sermon with: "The Three B's- Be sincere, Be concise and Be gone! I'll try my best at that. So here goes...

This one is entitled: "Hard Choices": her memoir that changed my mind about Hillary

Gang: I do not post my own political opinions. However, a literary review is called for now. I wish the folks who find Hillary Clinton so untrustworthy (and literally 'demonize' her) would take the time to read her memoir "Hard Choices." I did and she revealed to me her deep global knowledge and hard work ethic. Yes,she has blundered (whether naive, misleading or inaccurate), but under the circumstances, this book demonstrates her actions have been true to the American value of public service. Reading takes time...and it is not a page turner, but her understanding of geopolitical issues is unquestioned.This memoir changed my mind.
p.s. It is a lengthy and dense  book, but the book opens one's eyes regarding how much our Secretary of State must know, whether democratic or republican.