For the better

Regarding the news story “Durham fighters trades the streets for the ring” (nando.com/3bm, DN, Jan. 20):

Good luck to you, Mr. Bailey. So glad you made the decision to change your life for the better. Keep on keeping on!

The mellow meow

I greatly enjoyed Kelvin De’Marcus Allen’s Jan. 10 column “Chip away at bad habits all year long” (N&O, Jan. 10) Like Allen, I struggle with keeping even the simplest resolutions.

As an example of one who has solved this dilemma, check out my cat, Brooke. She eats when she’s hungry, sleeps when she’s sleepy and spends time just hunkering down on the deck railing and meditating. The wind blows, the leaves fall, the birds fly by and occasionally a group of young deer pick their way silently through the woods behind the house. Brooke just observes.

Brooke lets time flow by her like a river in which she is only mildly interested. She has wrestled her mind to a draw. She isn’t trying to save money or lose weight. She doesn’t feel guilty about doing or not doing. For Brooke, the “resolutionary” war has reached a permanent armistice, and it’s peace in the valley from here on out.

Something about that mindset is mighty appealing!

Legal segregation

Regarding the news story “Board delays ‘negative’ charter schools report” (N&O, Jan. 7): An agency files its report on charter schools with the state board; those on the board who want more charter schools suppress it. Surprised? Hardly.

Why were charter schools invented? Forget the blah-blah about innovation and better ways to teach. If that was the point, there might be a handful of such schools. Those things can be done in existing schools and lack only support in money and time. They should be done by professionals experienced in teaching, not amateur advocates and people hoping to make a buck.

No, charter schools were invented for a simple reason: The “good” people wanted to insulate their kids against contact with the kids of the riff-raff. They wanted segregation by legal means.

The result was predictable. We have nearly all white and nearly all nonwhite charter schools.

Controlled for ethnicity and economic status, students in charter schools do no better than those in real public schools. No data show clear superiority for charter schools. Yet their number continues to expand, as part of the contract between the GOP politicians and those with white privilege who vote for them.

To remain legal, that contract must remain unspoken. The facts must be suppressed.