Whaaaat?

The shameless face of bigotry rears its ugly head:

"I agree with the guy on the Ford advertisements speaking in Spanish, and some of the furniture stores do the same. I won't buy from any of them, either. If you want to speak Spanish, move back to Mexico. Also, I have never seen so many whiners about where they're going to have the graduation. If they hadn't acted so rude and out of order last year, maybe they would have listened to them. Also, Ned Cantwell's (columns) are very good."

This is just straight-up prejudice. FYI, amigo, Spanish was spoken in New Mexico long before English. I notice Mr. Herron didn't add his two cents to this rant.

50 Relatives

One reason I woke up yesterday and got my blog on was the barely veiled contempt some people have for large families. That really pisses me off.

When you start talking about someone's family, you are crossing a line. That's just common sense and basic courtesy.

"Well, why do they all have to come?" "Can't you leave some at home?"

To even ask those questions is to remove all doubt as to who you really are: a slack-jawed yokel.

Gary Herron's Rants and Raves

The following rant was in yesterday's Observer.

"If you agree with the folks who believe, in error, that they have a constitutional right to invite 50 relatives to little Johnny's high school graduation, then you should go to the Web site they've setup on blogspot and type to your heart's content. If you are among those of us who are glad that we are finally able to hold graduation in our own city, forget about the site. All opposing points of view are being promptly deleted. So much for inviting public comment. The funny thing about it is how many of the posts there are all about rights, equality, public debate, and amber waves of grain. The good news is that little Johnny is almost a graduate. At least he will know what 'hypocrite' means."

Here are a few points little Johnny noticed right away:

• Now, I looked in the Constitution and I can't find any mention of high school graduations, Rio Rancho, or The Pit. So the graduates who have 50 guests may not have a right stipulated in the Constitution, neither are they prohibited from having a seat for each guest.
• The ranter has the bad manners of not including a link to "the Web site they've setup on blogspot..." So I had to look it up, myself. It's Back To The Pit.
• Now, right off the bat, the first post says

  Add your name and/or comments to this thread. If you want to go BACK TO THE PIT click on "COMMENTS" below and write in the space provided.

• Further down another post says

  If you are against the move to return to THE PIT, email echarles1234@aol.com with your comments.
  Thank you

• Off to the right side there's a statement of purpose that says:

  Please join us in moving the graduation ceremony back to The Pit. Sign the Petition by adding a comment to the open thread.

• The bloggers don't claim that their site is "open for public debate." It seems to me that they want to OPEN UP a debate. After all, the RRHS administration pretty much made this decision without public input. Calling the bloggers hypocrites isn't really accurate.
• The ranter seems to be saying, "Your opinions were unimportant and unwelcome when RRHS Principal Vonancken made his decision to move the graduation to Rio Rancho, so what? Get over it. But if I can't comment on your blog, you're not being fair! I hate you, you're mean! Why won't you let me talk?"
  

Here's the thing...

Here's a situation which, on the surface, appears to be a simple change of venue. But just below the surface lies a power play that requires the sacrifice of many for the benefit of the few.


Rio Rancho High School, home of the Rams, New Mexico State 5A Basketball Champs, has the largest graduating class in the state. Normally, their graduation ceremony would take place in The PIT, the world-famous University of New Mexico athletic arena.


But not this year.

The venue was changed suddenly, sometime in early March, to the Santa Ana Star Center, a spanking new corporate partner to the Rio Rancho casino of the same name.

Here's a situation that disproportionately affects large families. Is it an "unintended consequence" that most of the large families who will have to pare down there numbers to 6, are Hispanic? The arrogance and thoughtlessness surrounding this questionable decision are up for discussion.

What do you think of Gary Herron?

The following OpEd piece appeared in the Rio Rancho Observer over the weekend:

Psst, buddy. Who needs 4 tickets?

What’s the best whine to serve this spring?
How about “Why can’t Rio Rancho have graduation at The Pit?”
Could this be any more tiring? Or how about that e-mail that keeps getting longer and longer every day, with pleas to Superintendent Dr. Sue Cleveland to change the venue from Santa Ana Star Center, mysteriously tied in to Santa Ana Star Casino for effect, yet the original sender remains anonymous.
And the lengthening e-mail contains a lot of misinformation, like “four ways to enter The Pit and “the whole two ways to get (to Santa Ana Star Center) on a two-lane road with only one lane going in and only one lane going out.” (There are four ways, the four directions, to get there, too, just like The Pit.) And hinting that the Star Center is tied into the Santa Ana Star Casino is an underhanded way to convince others the board is up to no good. (I can guarantee you there won’t be any one-armed bandits lurking at the Star Center. I’m not so sure if there’ll be any scalpers, though.)
And challenging the media to do stories on your plight, then chastising any of them that (God forbid) balance such a story. I’ll forget your reference to “Mr. VonDucan,” which I believe you should spell as “Mr. VonDuncan” and, again, underhanded and nasty at best.)
Yep, now that’s the way to take a stand. And I’m involved in this: Two of my recent stories about the move of the ceremonies from The Pit to the Star Center are attached, as are several other media accounts.
As my favorite fictional detective, Adrian Monk, would say, “Here’s the thing.”
The “thing” is, for years we’ve heard people complaining about RRPS’s inability to stage graduation ceremonies in Rio Rancho.
Now that we’ve got a gorgeous venue, it became a no-brainer: Have the ceremonies there.
I usually think the high school football stadium would be a great place, but you know Mother Nature would pick that May day for a heavy rainstorm … or think about last year’s hellacious wind before graduation at The Pit.
People really don’t know the proper way to protest in Rio Rancho.
Sending anonymous e-mails and calling Rants & Raves isn’t the way to get things done.
At Monday’s school board meeting, more than the usual number (none) or people who wished to speak in the “public comment” session signed up. I figured the bulk, if not all, of them would complain about graduation at the Star Center. Wrong. Only one man stood up to request moving it back to The Pit.
My advice to those using e-mails to try to get their point(s) across is to use factual information.
Or asking for a vote. Let me play devil’s advocate here.
How would you hold this election? One vote per parent of a senior? One vote per family? One vote per graduate? Only registered voters eligible? Online? Who pays for it?
People say they want to vote on everything, but that’s why you vote (well, a few hundred of you vote) to place five people on the school board – to make those decisions for you.
You don’t get to vote every time a decision needs to be made, ranging from dress code to sex education to identification cards to school names to graduation venues.
Here’s an illustration.
A couple years ago, one woman was so incensed about something happening at Independence High that she called me to rant about the situation and said she was going to run for the school board.
By golly, she’d make some changes.
“What district do you live in, ma’am?” I asked.
Guess what? She didn’t know.
I told her if she lived in one of three districts, there wouldn’t be another election for almost four years. She’d have to move into one of the two that had its representatives coming up for new terms in 2007.
Needless to say, I haven’t heard from her since. And four of the five board members who have been on the board since 2003 are still there, and not many of you voted at the last board election.
By my figures, there’s no way there were 14,000 attendees last year to see the Class of 2006 receive its diplomas, which occurred during some horrible conduct by the audience.
Let’s say The Pit holds 18,000 for a basketball game. Almost half of the west side isn’t available for seating, so let’s knock off, say, 7,000 seats right there. That leaves 11,000.
Now, take the number of children under the age of 10 that attended – that should have stayed home or with a babysitter if they were too young -- and there were a lot.
I think that number gets you closer to the seating available at the Star Center.
And it’ll be great to keep graduation here. Gas prices keep rising, the traffic keeps getting worse, and not only do we keep the Star Center and its throng of local employees busy, the gross receipts taxes stay in Rio Rancho.
I’ve heard that if the RRHS Class of 2007 ceremonies are successful, other West Side schools may follow suit.
And that, too, bodes well for the city.
If you’re a CableOne subscriber, you’ll be able to see the ceremonies live on channel 15, says Edit House’s Kim Smith.
Batch up some popcorn your “extra” guests that couldn’t secure tickets and leave them at home on the couch to watch it. (They’ll be closer to the fridge and the bathroom.)
For those who don’t have cable, Smith said the ceremonies being broadcast on channel 15 would be shown on a big screen at the Performing Arts Center that day.
Free. Without a ticket. And the PAC has comfy seats.

Gary Herron covers sports and education for The Observer. His kids graduated from Johnson Gym (RR’s first graduation) and The Pit and he was there to see them. He would have been more comfortable, however, at the Santa Ana Star Center

Had a bad reaction to Mike and Genie Ryan?

This column appeared in the Albuquerque Journal on March 25th:

Graduation Gripes? Get Over It

By Mike and Genie Ryan
For the Journal
COMMON SENSE: Maybe the whole world has forgotten how to prioritize— or at least our little corner of the world.
Rio Rancho's school community gets riled up pretty easily, and the people who want to disagree with the school district are not afraid to speak up— or to keep speaking up.
Our question is, why is the graduation locale so important that the gripes have continued for weeks? It's kind of like when uniforms were the issue: The conversation went on and on and on; obviously, some people were outraged. We were really afraid the world would come to an end if the district required its students to wear uniforms.
We would be applauding the community for getting involved and voicing opinions if we ever saw this much passion for dropout rates, test scores or curriculum decisions.
Hundreds of people show up at a board of education meeting if uniforms are being discussed; very few show up to discuss the curriculum.
Probably a discussion of where to hold graduation would also draw a big crowd. Does anyone else see a problem with this picture? Where are our priorities?
Today's children are going to face a tough world, and they are going to face a lot of challenges. In order to face the world and succeed, children are going to need a lot of tools, and one of the most important is a good education.
Parents need to be involved, and children need to see their parents involved. If parents don't care about what their children are learning, how can the children learn what is important? Children learn by example, and if parents show them that education is important, the children will begin to "get it." If parents show them that the location for graduation is the only thing that gets them riled up about schools, then children will learn that education is secondary to the peripheral stuff.
When the district decided to hold graduation at the Santa Ana Star Center this year, it made this the first year that a Rio Rancho High School class would graduate in its own hometown.
Seating will be limited, which is what has upset some parents. Since both of us come from areas where limited seating was the norm, and we believe that celebrating high school graduation can include more than the ceremony, we don't see what the big deal is.
We also don't understand why people are still talking and griping about this development or why they don't seem to want to let it go. Hey folks, the decision has been made; we didn't get a vote. Let's not worry about it, and let's concentrate on making graduation special for this year's graduates.
Maybe if things don't go the way everyone wants, someone could call a special session to get what they want. At least that's one way to get lots of publicity.
Although we haven't mentioned it, we realize that Independence High School has held graduation ceremonies in Rio Rancho, so this is not the first time anyone has graduated here. We're glad you all could be the first, and we're not ignoring you, but RRHS involves more students and families, and issues involving RRHS are often louder and last longer.

Common Sense appears each week in the Sunday Rio Rancho Journal. You can e-mail the authors, Mike and Genie Ryan, at ryan@abqjournal.com.