Les AuCoin Blog

When I reached my sophomore in high school, I forswore the clarinet for varsity basketball. It made a sense to a teenage boy teeming with teresterone. The townies, after all, stood and worshipped your manhood when you hit a high shot from the backcourt, not a high C from the reeds.

All these years later, though, I wonder what I was thinking. Did I expect to make the NBA? Competitive sports taught me a lot about myself and life (and I did make honorable mention all-state), but that era lasted for only three years, whereas I could have spent the rest of my life making like Artie Shaw, man, blowing on that licorice stick! 

As a collector and lover of music, I want to make some of my own again.

Not long ago, I noticed a clarinet in a store and secretly pulled it from its case. I hoped, by some alchemy, that my fingers would remember where to go. Alas, they awkwardly fumbled with the contraption as it were a collection of pipes and values from a submarine. 

My desire for musical expression—all expression, actually—has grown keener with the quickening of the river’s current. But I also have a lot of other boxes to check before I’m done, so I guess I’ll never experience the sweet pleasure of jamming in a pick up jazz session.

On the other hand …

I just returned from lecturing at Syracuse University’s National Security Studies Program for field grade and general staff military officers and their counterparts in intelligence agencies.

During the gig, I met Tom Ricks, author of Fiasco and The Gamble (about the US in Iraq). He called the invasion our “single worst military and foreign policy disaster,” even worse than Vietnam for the consequences that will flow from it.

Tellingly, Ricks is widely respected in the military community. I was struck by the two men he named who “could have blocked the war but didn’t”—Tony Blair of the U.K. and Colin Powell—who, he rightly said, will have to live with their moral failure for the rest of their lives.

Ricks characterization of Blair’s unswerving support was especially good. Blair did it not as a matter of belief but out of a desire to permanently forge the “special relationship” between the UK and an otherwise almost completely isolated US.  

For this, lives are slaughtered.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Pam Knowles for a long time, and it is my honor to support her in the upcoming school board election on May 19th. I am asking for you all to do the same.

“Pam has worked for families and children for over 30 years. She began as a high school social studies teacher and was a founding member and the Chair of the Oregon Child Care Commission where she successfully lobbied for parental and family leave as well as statewide childcare resource and referral. She was the President of the Buckman Elementary PTA. A strong supporter of arts education she led the charge developing an Arts Education Plan for Portland Public Schools and was a founder of Davinci Arts Middle School.” 

Most recently Pam has brought more resources to PPS through her work on the Right Brain Initiative which brings more arts into the schools, and the Nike School Innovation Fund which focuses on summer kindergarten academies for at risk students and principal professional development. She is also on the Mayor and County Chair’s Education Strategic Task Force, which is focusing on cutting the 42% drop out rate in half by 2011. 

I am certainly not alone in our support for Pam. She has been endorsed by a long list of current and former elected officials including Governor Barbara Roberts and Mayor Vera Katz. 

I was very please to hear The Oregonian, Service Employees International Union local 503, and Willamette Week had all thrown their support behind Pam Knowles’ candidacy for Portland School Board as well.

Pam Knowles would make the Portland School Board more effective, focused and gutsy,” states The Oregonian editorial. The Oregonian rightly pinpoints Pam as the most qualified candidate in the race. The Willamette Week publication notes that Pam is “knowledgeable about schools and dedicated to making them better…[and] the more appropriate successor to Hennings.

SEIU (Service Employees International Union) local 503, which represents the custodial and food service workers for Portland Public Schools, has thrown their support behind Pam as well.

The Election for Portland Public Schools Board is May 19th, and ballots were mailed out on Friday May 1st. 

For more information about Pam Knowles campaign and candidacy, or to contribute, please visit her website at www.pamknowles.com or call her campaign at 503-753-2869.

… But (a hardy few) readers have asked why I’ve not been blogging actively. Answer: I’m up to a lot of (national political) mischief while trying to finish some writing projects.

You shouldn’t hold your breath on any of the foregoing bearing fruit.

Pierre, South Dakota

“Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men?
“It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again;

“When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums,
“There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes …”

—Do You Hear The People? (Les Miserables)

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