Change The LAUSD

Thanksgiving is over. The leftovers are gone. Is it time to resume the War on Christmas?

Nothing says ‘peace on Earth’ like a Black Friday stampede.

👉 Read my article here: https://change.hopp.to/WarOnChristmas

When cruelty becomes a strategy, the vulnerable suffer. I wrote about how disabled students and hungry families were used as leverage during the shutdown.

Read the article on MEDIUM.

In my 43 years of attending concerts, this performance by Limp Bizkit at Woodstock 99 was the most intense I've ever experienced.

Holding down the low end of the performance was bassist Sam Rivers. He is gone too soon.

Read my tribute here: https://change.hopp.to/SamRivers 

Parents were completely shut out of the decision-making process when the LAUSD Board secretly voted to extend Superintendent Carvalho’s contract. If we want transparency and accountability, it’s time to replace the incumbents — but where are the challengers?

Elections are coming, and silence is not an option.

Read the article on MEDIUM.

Five years ago, I was reflecting on how to feel thankful as the COVID crisis was keeping our extended family apart.

Read the article on MEDIUM.

Seeing this picture, I was reminded of an article I wrote early in Trump’s first term as President, which started with the following paragraph:

“Donald Trump is a master of branding. He took a “small loan of a million dollars”, bought some gold spray paint, and turned the Trump name into something synonymous with how poor people think rich people live.”

As I went back and read the article. It contained a bit of foreshadowing for what lay ahead in the Trump presidency:

“but a virus only needs to take root in one host to start an epidemic.”

How did he end up back in the White House, and will any of it be left by the end of his term?

👉 Read the full article here: https://change.hopp.to/7th

A memory from my Scouting days and Chris Cornell’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction are reminders that suicide does not occur in a vacuum.

Read the article on MEDIUM.

As a father of two daughters with severe autism, I’ve seen how policy decisions ripple through real lives.

During the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, students with disabilities and families relying on food assistance were used as political pawns. I wrote this article to shed light on how cruelty has become a strategy—and why we must speak out when the most vulnerable are targeted.

If you care about IDEA, SNAP, and protecting the rights of our children, I hope you’ll read and share.

🔗 https://change.hopp.to/Cruel 

LAUSD’s decision to stall a PTSA-nominated committee member—whose only “conflict” may be her husband’s candidacy—raises serious questions about ethics, transparency, and gender bias.

Read the article on MEDIUM.

We now live in a country where a man in a giraffe costume can be shot at and then arrested for the crime of criticizing the actions of the government. 

 👉 More of my thoughts on the state of the First Amendment: https://change.hopp.to/1A

Can democracy survive in a country where free speech is no longer tolerated?