August 2, 2013 – Daily Brief

Before the fracas over the Einstein schools started, several of my friends, including one who is a trusted confidante of a City Council member, told me how wonderful the Einstein school's curriculum is. My informants, none of them Jewish, all said they wanted their children and grandchildren to attend. It's my belief that the reality of the school systems-wide opposition to any Einstein schools is because the school districts do not want to see a penny of State education funding lost to any charter school. Of course, those public policies established by local school district boards and superintendents is patently illegal in terms of their goals. I wish that the lawyers who are bringing Santa Clarita the lawsuits to force the dividing of the community into 5 separate council districts would find it in possible, using their massive store of form pleadings, to sue the local school districts for violating state law in their repeated denials and attacks on Einstein. Of course, that sort of case would be far more work for those lawyers than using form pleadings to sue on the "districts" issue. As to the City's actions against Einstein, the Santa Clarita city staff rarely does anything which is not politically motivated, so I am not surprised that Einstein finds itself having problems because the City staff members have learned that the local education bureaucrats consider Einstein a threat economically. Again, if I were running Einstein, I'd be running off to the Writs Department at L.A. Superior Court, which has the power to force local government agencies to behave, or filing a lawsuit in Federal Court under 42 USC 1983, which used to be called 'the anti-Klu Klux Klan act'. Despite things being "business as usual" in corrupt Santa Clarita politics, with respect to how the Einstein school, its students, parents and leaders are treated by Santa Clarita Valley elected officials and high level bureaucrats, the smell of anti-Semitism is much too strong. As we approach the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, Santa Clarita's Jews need to take a strong stand against this bigotry, jealousy and green which flows under the surface in Santa Clarita politics. My adult son has less than fond memories of fundamentalist-Christian-wackos' kids, living on Podd Court, who used to scream "Dirt Jew" or "Jewish Pig" at him coming to and from the bus to Valencia High School. There was also a woman assistant principal at Valencia, who had an Eastern European accent, who was unnecessarily very nasty to my son, his girlfriend and her friend, an Iranian Jew. My adult son also constantly reported that the "jocks" at Valencia High School were profoundly racist and rude in what they said to black students from Val Verde. When my daughter was about 10 years old, two girls who lived on the next street attacked my daughter while she was riding her bike, pushed her off and started punching her, spitting on her, and calling her an "Ugly Jew". Those little darlings were the daughters of an experienced cop. My neighbor Jackie, who is British, saw the whole event and broke up the fight. For her trouble, one of the little darlings punched Jackie in the jaw. Of course the girls' dad refused to believe what his daughters said and did...until he talked to Jackie. In my opinion, the Jewish and Black communities in Santa Clarita have taken this crap from the "blonde" people in Santa Clarita for far too long. As you might imagine, in my childrens' view hell would freeze over before they would subject their children to Santa Clarita's public school environment.

And now the race/ethnicity/heritage card has been played. Well done. Jennifer is back, and with a vengeance.

Todd, you may not have noticed but with respect to the Einstein charter schools the "race card" was played by others, in comments on this website, several months ago. From your point of view, the truth obviously hurts. How would you like to meet my 2 adult kids, so they could tell you about their personal experiences as students in the idyllic Santa Clarita public schools? My family's personal score: 2 dead grandparents, 11 dead aunts and uncles, 4 dead great grandparents. We take anti-Semitism seriously and identifying its existence is not "playing the race card".

Wow. Yeah, totally. Because any other upstart can just convert an old office/warehouse shell into an elementary school in a matter of weeks. Must be anti-Semitism. Invoking Goodwin's law, too. Awesome. What does this make Marc Winger? Also, did I miss something? Since when is this a Jewish school? And since when can't Jews be blonde?

Ms. Kilpatrick makes her return by spewing vile, hateful nonsense.

Angelo, from your point of view, the truth obviously hurts. How would you like to meet my 2 adult kids, so they could tell you about their personal experiences as students in the idyllic Santa Clarita public schools? My family's personal score: 2 dead grandparents, 11 dead aunts and uncles, 4 dead great grandparents. We take anti-Semitism seriously and telling the truth about it is not vile, hateful nonsense.

But who SHOULD play Nancy Reagan? Who is the very upset vet fonda (#seewhatididthere) seeing in the role? The people need to know!

Any patriotic American woman who is also a great actress, and that disqualifies Hanoi Jane!

Oh, so certain roles require an actor not only be talented but also a “patriot”. I didn’t realize that.

Yes Josh IMHO when you are portraying a former First Lady, wife of one of the most believed American Presidents, Ronald Reagan, yes she needs to be a patriot and great actress and not a traitor and overrated has been.

So Jane Fonda is responsible for everything bad in VietNam but the President who forbade our missions from going downtown bears no responsibility? Missions also weren't green lit until the AAA and Sam sites were operational to shoot down our planes. I suggest some of you, including the big bitcher, do a little study on just what the hell happened in IndoChina. Jane Fonda was a tool who was used. Naive yes but not as close to evil as Johnson, McNamara or Westmoreland. Let's get our facts straight, shall we?

Jane Fonda is responsible for amongst other things, taking POW hand written messages given to her to pass on to their families which she instead placed right into the hands of their Viet Cong torturers who used them as an excuse to commit further atrocities. Some of us who had brothers, cousins, friends, classmates, etc who served will never forget or forgive her for the added pain they endured because of her traitorous actions. You are free to believe whatever you want, those of us who lived it will never forget.

Berta, you realize that note-passing story has been debunked, right?

Josh according to Snopes, which I do not trust much, but in any event I have too many family members who suffered because of her “visit” to Hanoi and her Viet Cong propaganda radio broadcasts to ever forget or forgive her. She has done nothing to redeem herself in the many years since then and I have too many other better choices for my entertainment. I will never support Jane Fonda in any way.

Do you trust Col. Larry Carrigan, who was one of the POWs named in that story, who has said it's not true? If you don't want to support Jane Fonda don't go see her movie. Why does there need to be a loud public boycott?

Very disappointing to see you spreading false information about such a serious accusation. I don't care whether you believe snopes or not, it is well known that this is patently false and I find it distressing that you, a candidate for elected office in our city, would spread such nonsense. By the way, my father is a vietnam war veteran who doesn't even use the internet and even he knew this claim was total BS. By all means, don't support her, but don't knowingly spread false information. That is just wrong and you would be outraged if someone was doing that to you.

Don't let the facts get in the way of your self righteous rant Berta! I suggest you study real history and not the BS and populist propaganda. What was the point of inflating Jane Fondas visit? Who REALLY caused our casualties? Show me one order signed by Jane Fonda ordering Hanoi off limits. Anyone get sent in country on her orders? Continuing to hate Fonda does not make anyone more patriotic. Time to move on, as we all did in 1975 when the Vietnamese bacame our neighbors in Orange County.

Self righteous rant, wow you are a piece of work! You are welcome to believe whatever you want but I continue to believe the first person accounts of my older brother, several cousins, my friends and classmates who all served in Vietnam and my own observant teenage eyes during the Vietnam War years. Rant that jackass…

So uncalled for.

Julie, uncalled for? Right, so his opinion is fine to express but my opinion is labeled a self-righteous rant according to this guy, and you are fine with that. You sound like a very fair person… Incorrect information, maybe, depending on who you believe but it does not change the fact that I have no respect for Ms. Fonda’s actions during the course of the Viet Nam War and I did not ask for nor need your approval to express my displeasure. As a candidate I do not give up my right to my own opinions, especially those based upon my life experiences and if that means you do not vote for me, I am fine with that.

With 4 (I believe) school campuses underway, does Einstein have any staff with school administration and development experience? If not, it's not surprising they would be having problems with paperwork and procedures. And Mr Shapiro must be one very busy man!