Walnut Creek PD Sgt Tom Cashion’s 5 year old daughter is fighting cancer. She has already had surgery at Kaiser and is now taking chemotherapy. She has been referred to Stanford Medical Center for follow up.

The out of pocket expenses for the family have reached crisis stages not to mention that they have 4 kids and only one income. We have put together an event to assist the family with those expenses. Could you please help us pass the word?

Also if you want to participate the family would greatly appreciate it. To purchase tickets or make a tax deductable donation please go to: http://www.ismcnorcal.com/ISMC/Events.html. Some businesses and POA’s are purchasing an entire 9 seat table for the event. We really need to sell this out, the family really needs our help.

Mike Schneider
mcschneider@comcast.net

Has political correctness run amok? Consider the secular battle cry over Yuletide expressions; ‘Christmas tree’ or ‘holiday tree’; robust ‘merry Christmas’ or neutered ‘happy holidays’? Folks are cussing, not kissing, under the mistletoe over nomenclature, caught in a wintry cultural war swirling around innocent holiday semantics.

Call this a tyranny of the minority as, tellingly, 84% of Americans are Christian and 96% celebrate Christmas. Mr. Retailer, freely call your trees whatever. That’s your merchandising right. It’s also my consumer right to take my business to a vendor unembarrassed by the word Christmas. Pointedly, what elitist would likely drag a pine to the top of their ivory tower? Heaven forbid, the act might interrupt their incessant whining and cause a dreaded momentary spell of light heartedness.

As for calling out happy holidays, Hannukah, Kwanza or Ramadan, be my guest; indulge me my ‘merry Christmas!’ I’m also continuing with ‘happy New Year.’ Following the Roman tradition isn’t affronting the Babylonian, Baha’i, Balinese, Chinese, Coptic, Islamic, Mayan, Persian or, for that matter, Sports Illustrated calendar. Graciously, then, spare the sanctimonious indignation. My cultural links, family roots, and even plain common sense, scream bah humbug! to toasting an emotionally productive, disease free, economically advantageous, environmentally conscious, gender, race, religion and ethnicity neutral passing of the winter solstice.

Amidst shrill secularism, we forget Harry Truman’s words to Pope Pius XII in 1947; “this is a Christian nation”. America was, in truth, founded on Biblical principles. The genesis of the Bill of Rights is found in the teachings inspired by Exodus, Saint Matthew, Isaaha and Saint Paul. The Ten Commandments still rest on the wall behind the sitting Supreme Court Justices. Our coins still display the motto, “In God we trust”. The President still swears his oath of office on a Bible. Congress is still convened with prayer.

Though nobody is imposing a public religion, that doesn’t exclude faith from our resplendent national tapestry.

Friends, appropriate parting sentiments from Charles Dickens ‘Christmas Carol’; “I don’t know what to do! cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath. I am as light as a feather. I am happy as an angel. I am as merry as a school boy. A merry Christmas to every-body! A happy New Year to all the world.”

Walter Ruehlig

I am amazed at the glaring differences between our city and the city five miles west. That city’s government and chamber of commerce is innovative and progressive.

The amount of events and activities for the citizens of Pittsburg is amazing, considering the current financial crises that we are experiencing. Subscribe to Pittsburg’s website and be enlightened.

Pittsburg manages using ideas, opportunities, significant citizen input (not ignored) and action to improve its environment.  The community is a bit smaller than Antioch but it is much more aggressive on improvements embracing change. If you attend a function in that city you will experience the impact of how they manage by asking any active citizen; and they are active. I applaud their Council and Chamber  for the work being done. Good job, we should all give them a hand!

The city of Antioch might think of working closer with Pittsburg’s management to discover how they make things happen while we remain stagnant and regressive. At least regressive in respect to city-sponsored, supportive events and our Chamber’s active campaigns to attract more business; example, the Wal-Mart expansion fiasco. Where is our management’s push for improvements?

I realize that our budget is not something that will not be simply solved overnight or perhaps for years. What I have not seen is any action to raise money other than a failed sales tax measure. We are now applying event charges on non-profits, which is a slap in their face since their events supplant city-sponsored withdrawals. From my perspective when funds are short we head backwards.

Why not increase events with reasonable cost for attendance, instead of taxing our citizens? That would be  giving our citizens something for their money and offer more community participation. Too much cost to manage? Ever think of volunteers or the Chamber of Commerce ? The folks to the west are good at that! 

Fred Hoskins

A contingent of Antioch leaders, representing our school, city council, business and community sectors, recently returned from a grant-funded trip to Nashville, Tennessee to see first-hand a city that has come together full-bore for career-based education. Our delegation, which included Superintendent of Schools Dr. Donald Gill and Mayor Jim Davis, toured some of Nashville’s academies and heard details of a successful blueprint from a Mayor who walks the reform talk. He stressed that a city really has three main priorities; education, safety and economic vitality and that engaging youth can affect all three. Good schools keep kids off the streets. They help real estate prices. They attract businesses, industry and the well to do.

The take away was two-fold; we realized that in many ways we are already doing things in Antioch that are ahead of the pack regionally and nationally. We also realized, though, that we can push yet further and broader. Nashville’s model is intriguing and provocative. They have a ‘wall to wall’ concept. There’s is a city-wide alliance of school, council and business partners. They offer no opt out as every student has to elect a pathway. Lest you consider that restricting, consider that this City-County of 600,000 offers an astonishing 49 academy choices. There is, then, literally a seat at the table for every student. The proof, as always, is in the pudding. Strikingly, Nashville test scores, graduation rates, college admissions and attendance all confirm a positive direction.

Obviously, Antioch is not the size of Nashville. We have unique needs and different funding mechanisms than they. Nevertheless, the trip stirred ideas. We here have, of course, come along ways on our current path of what is now called linked education and was, in previous incarnations, called vocational education, career tech and alternate pathways. We have medical, law and criminal justice, performing arts, EDGE (Environmental Design for Green Energy), business and space and science academies.

The exciting thing with these theme-based schools is that we have gone beyond just throwing into the elective mix some vocational class. Firstly, the curriculum at our Academies is rigorous. We are University of California, A-G requirement, driven. Our goal is to prepare all of our students to have the option of either transitioning to college or to entering workforce training.

Also, our curriculum is integrated. For example, a Law and Criminal Justice Academy student might study “To Kill a Mockingbird” in literature; write legal briefs or essays in composition; discuss or debate constitutional law in history; and use algebraic formulas to determine a driver’s speed by the brake marks.

Originally, our intention was to build out to where 50% of our student body could elect academies. Nashville has us thinking, though. It’s a heady venture we’ve been on with the sky the limit. Attendance is up at our academies; the Dozier Libbey Medical Academy hit 820 API last year; and the Delta Performing Arts Academy shot up an incredible 78 points. An emphasis on unstinting expectations, targeted interests and smaller learning environments is working. Of course, this is part of an overall reform movement which emphasizes parent involvement, teacher morale, aggressive staff recruitment, standardized curriculum objectives, early-on interventions, best teaching practices, teacher mentoring, pacing guides and periodic data-driven assessments,

Rigor, relevance and relationship is, after all, the paradigm of the future. This is the information age and critical thinking and collaboration skills are crucial objectives if we are to not lose out to our global competitors. We have been losing ground for decades as places like South Korea, Singapore and Finland outpace us. Thirty percent of our kids drop out. We score 17th for industrialized nations in math-science scores and ninth in overall college readiness. For those lamenting the good old days, remember that even in the ’30s and ’40s 70% of our kids didn’t graduate; in the ’60s our educational crisis bannered ‘Why Johnny Can’t Read?’; in the ’90s a Presidential Commission called us a ‘Nation at Risk’. The problems have been there; it is just higher stakes now.

This is certainly a race we can’t afford to lose – not in Antioch and not in America. The agricultural and factory-based educational system developed in the Henry Ford days, where 10-15% of the students (generally white, male and middle class) were educated for business leadership, the rest for basic citizenship, won’t work in this global, tech-driven economy. It takes a new seed to raise a new crop. Linked education has shown that it can play a major role in that break-through promise. As a unified community, committed to our youth, we can make this happen. Antioch can have parents knocking on the door to get in to our community. We can blossom into a true destination point.

Walter Ruehlig

Vice President, AUSD Board of Trustees

We all know that our State is in crisis and that our families are being affected by the impacts on education and unemployment.  I had a choice to make with my term on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors ending this year.  I could play it safe, sit tight, and run for reelection for a job that has no term limits and much more stability.  After all who is crazy enough to want to go to Sacramento?  However, I felt the stakes were too high to shrug my shoulders and give up on changes ever being made in our State government.  As a high school teacher, a mother of four daughters, and a grandmother of two, I believe that I can help bring accountability, collaboration, and our priorities to Sacramento.

I look at what I accomplished in our County government and it encourages me that significant change is possible. I came into office facing a 2.6 billion dollar unfunded liability for retiree health care and no funding plan in place. Many people thought it would be impossible to meet this challenge, however, working with our employees, we reduced our liability by more than half and have a complete funding plan in place. Employee health benefits have been significantly reduced, and retiree health coverage is no longer available to new hires.

Another goal I had was to increase accountability within the county to help break down the silo culture that has been persistent for years.  I discovered that many department directors reported directly to the Board, in effect having five “bosses” and had not had performance reviews for years.  Hiring our new County Administrator and then bringing all of our department directors under his direction has begun the shift to an integrated and much more accountable organization.

Serving for the last several years on the Contra Costa Transportation Authority has allowed me to vote for funding for the widening of Highway 4 and eBART.  I plan to continue my involvement in transportation in Sacramento to see these projects to completion.

Job creation and stability is another looming challenge we face.  I have spoken to many small business owners about the needs they have in this difficult economy and will continue to work with them through regular small business round tables to resolve their concerns.   In the County I created a student job program for our emancipating foster youth to give them work experience and to launch them towards self sufficiency. I also formed a center for Economic Opportunity in the most disadvantaged portion of my district that brings a number of different resources directly into the community.

Finally, I am committed to stop cuts to education and to bring leadership to rebuilding education in our State.  As a credentialed teacher, a parent of a high school senior, and the mother of a young teacher, I see the full range of challenges that we must address in education.  I have a passion to see children learn and succeed in life. I believe our children deserve more access to preschool, highly trained administrators, top quality teachers, and local school boards who have more control over finances.

I don’t think there are any quick fixes and I don’t underestimate the challenges of trying to impact the entrenched systems of Sacramento.  I do know that I want to take what I have learned and work hard to represent you and your family.  I would appreciate your vote on Tuesday.

Susan Bonilla

Candidate for California State Assembly, AD-11

www.susanbonilla.com

Ruehlig was misrepresented by CCT

I haven’t written heretofore about my wife’s Area 5 County Board of Education campaign precisely because Cynthia Ruehlig is a resolutely independent personality standing on her own merits. I am compelled, though, to answer a denigrating misfact. Cynthia was accused in an October 20^th Times editorial of “misrepresenting” herself as a “Nonprofit Administrator.” Cynthia’s designation is transparent. She completed a two-year study in Nonprofit Management at the California State University East Bay and filed her credential with the County Elections Office.

My wife proudly acknowledged herself as a due diligence clerk (County Child Protective Services) in a June, 2010 letter to the editor; as a working class employee on her website, www.cynthiaruehlig.com, and as a clerk in her Times recorded interview. Why tabloid journalism?

The editorial conveniently ignores the election manual, which states a candidate may elect occupation or vocation. Webster defines vocation as a calling, pursuit, passion. Cynthia pointedly defines her vocation. Former computer teacher, businesswoman, church webmaster, five-time foster parent and co-founder of the Antioch Music Foundation, Cynthia writes grants resulting in thousands of dollars for school instruments, field trips and community concerts.

Unfazed by neither fear nor favor, Cynthia is owed an apology by the Times interviewer, Daniel Borenstein.

Walter Ruehlig

We need Parsons

We have always shown a deep love for our city and for the direction that it has been going in. Times are tough, money is short and many difficult decisions have been made concerning downsizing and change. We have voiced our opinions about our concerns to Martha Parsons via the e-mail. We can honestly say that she is the only council member to write us back with full explanations of the whys and wherefores and to also let us know that if she has any other information she will get back to us. And she has done that also! That to me, speaks highly of her dedication and tenacity. That is what this city needs: a voice! that listens to the people and works for them.

Being born in Antioch with all her children living here as well, she understands how important the vitality of our community is to the residents and business men and women who work here. Martha has served the City Council well for the past 22 months and she will continue to work and serve the best interests of all of Antioch, while working to improve the quality of life for all of our families.

Martha is a determined, hard working woman who is able to be a full time representative for her community. She has proven to us that she has excellent open communication skills and is diligent, honest, professional, and direct when is comes to responding back. She listens, evaluates, discusses, then makes decisions based on what is reasonable. This is what sound government is all about.

We need a Martha Parsons downtown. Her love of our community and her passion for service during her short  tenure has brought a positive influence to our city. This has become  evident with her involvement in such projects as Keep Antioch Beautiful, which she started and had over 900 volunteers help clean up our community by coming together around Earth Day 2010. The volunteer Graffiti Abatement Program was created and implemented with Martha as Co-Chair. She assisted the Delta Blues Festival and Hapgood Theatre in remaining viable by procuring sponsorship monies. She co-chaired the 4th of July Parade, which became an all-volunteer endeavor.

Her heart is definitely in our community. Vote for Martha Parsons this November. She will serve us well and prove to be a positive change in the city of Antioch.

Sandra and Edwin Stokes