Vs. last day of school today:
It’s hilarious to me that Bobby is wearing a Devo shirt in both pictures. Ha!
You can also see the nerves in Bobby in that first picture. Boy, was that anxiety-producing, starting junior high! But thankfully it all worked out - he even ended up liking it better than 6th grade, because he had more friends there. Unless something dramatic happens, we shouldn’t have a giant transition like this again until college, after two years of upheaval in a row. Next year will be the same as this - Theo at the elementary, Bobby at the jr high; then Theo will move over to the jr high while Bobby stays at the same school for high school. I’m looking forward to only dealing with familiar environments going forward.
Something is afoot at Theo’s current school, though. His principal has been “on leave”, missing the last weeks of school, and I got a notice from the after school clubs coordinator that since the PTA vote was invalidated (huh?) there may be no clubs next year. There’s a community meeting about all this tomorrow night that I’m going to try to go to. It doesn’t really affect us, but I’d like to know what mishigas Theo is walking into next year. He still doesn’t want to go back to Mount Washington. Dammit. Also, their embattled principal is stepping down. There’s trouble in LAUSD elementaries, apparently. I’m glad Theo only has one more year.
We went for our traditional Baskin Robbins treat after school, and now we sit around in days-old underwear with unbrushed teeth for days until their first camp starts on Monday. As usual, I switched off my weekly alarm with glee today. I am very much looking forward to not getting up at 7 for a while. It’s damned well uncivilized.
In the meantime, Los Angeles became a major flashpoint in the battle against authoritarianism over the weekend while we were blissfully out in the hot desert. It was surreal and guilt-inducing to be so far away while just a couple of miles south of us in downtown LA violent protests broke out over ICE raids. The National guard was called in (against the governor’s wishes, which is illegal), then Marines deployed from, ironically, the exact desert city we were in (Twentynine Palms). Everyone outside of LA thinks we’re all living in chaos, but of course we’re not - it’s just the area around the detention center downtown and a stretch of the 101 freeway. So I want to emphasize that all this calling in of troops is stupid and unnecessary and just Drump trying to swing his (tiny) dick around, while also acknowledging that the people of LA, myself included, are furious about these bullshit deportations and just want our Latino friends and neighbors left alone and we really don’t give a shit if they’re here legally or not. So what’s happening here is very heavy - it’s been very difficult to focus on the gravity of the kids finishing another year of school and the work ahead of me regarding my event at this point; I just want to be in the streets with my fist in the air. I’ll get that chance this Saturday at the long-planned No Kings march, and, honestly, it’s probably going to be the most danger I’ve ever been in at a protest. I don’t know what to expect, but I’m ready for anything. My entire youth spent studying and obsessing on the horrors of the holocaust will simply not allow me to stand by while people are being rounded up and sent who-knows-where. It’s so true that whatever you wish people had done in 1930s Germany, you should be doing now. I have faith in our city, though. We’re huge, we’re diverse, and we’re not taking anyone’s shit. Viva La Raza!
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