Green Party was there. Fifth district candidate Matt Reichel (MattReichel.us) won the primary and will be on the ballot for the special election April 7th. I'm not much of an electoral politics person, but I do enjoy voting Green. It's also my favorite color. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture, I was distracted by something or another. If you contact them very soon, you can get a yard sign.

Also, talking about the militarization youth of color, it breaks my heart on a personal level. Today I saw one of our former students who is now in High School. She was wearing a JROTC uniform. JROTC attracts a lot of nice kids who have been disadvantaged from the privileged high schools because of their English as a Second Language barrier. It is a stable environment which discludes troubled kids with behavior problems. Check out the JROTC entry on Wikipedia. It is very informative. While the program cuts back on "active recruiting" of it's cadets into full time military service, the results are the same. 30-50% of cadets do go on to join the Army, Air Force, Marines or Navy. It is also important to note that their goal of "teaching patriotic citizenship" does much to neutralize political citizenship.

Lastly, the requirements to become an "instructor" at one of the city's military schools is disturbing. As long as you are a retired military officer, you can do the on-line tutorial here: www.usarmyjrotc.com/jrotcRes/downloads/qualifications/Initial_Qualification.html There is a ten question quiz you can take as many times as you need to. Print out your certificate and take it to your interview. Voila!

What obviously don't need military schools. What we need are schools on urban gardening, social work, establishing local economies, etc.

One of the parent from the school I teach at saw the march- she was pretty floored by it. That was cool.