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Aug

28

Detroit’s #1 on poverty list, Cleveland remains poor too though drops (or rises?) to #4

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Ironically, I just met a couple with two kids who moved here from Detroit, for work in commercial real estate, while another family I know is in the process of moving from here to Detroit for a job in a hospital there.

Here’s the press release from the U.S. Census Bureau. It has a link to a pdf with the poverty etc. info.

Oh! And I can’t forget:

Hattip to Democratic primary candidate for Ohio’s 10th Congressional district, Rosemary Palmer‘s campaign for the news that the numbers are out. Read more here about how her opponent, Dennis Kucinich, is literally in DisneyWorld today as this news reaches his constituents.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:09 pm August 28th, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off 

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Aug

28

How I know I’m strong

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Far be it from me to disabuse people of the tears they shed on the first full-day of Kindergarten. As I exited my children’s elementary school today, coincidentally with numerous parents of five and six year olds (and a tiny number of “young fives” who have until Sept. 30 to stop being four), several friends of mine looked anxious, with that expression that makes you ask, “Are you okay????“

To which every single one of them (in truth, three) replied, “Oh, yeah. It’s the first day of Kindergarten.”

For more on the effect of that first day, whether it’s your first child (my friend from social work school, Heather) or your fourth (the Cleveland Clinic doc I see for my breast MRIs), read Chas Rich’s ode to the event here.

I’m not known for raining on people’s parades even if I can always come up with a good, apposite story for why something others see as ducky isn’t really ducky.

But, now that I know firsthand where the word “nitpicky” comes from, all bets are off when it comes to putting an arm around those parents. What would do them far more good than comfort is a dose of reality akin to what I’ve experienced during this first full week of school:

Forget about that glowy, “Ooooo – Kindergarten. They’re all so cute.” I have seen the nits and they are us – ON us that is. And there isn’t one cute thing about them.

As I wrote in a comment to Chas, “Yeah, trust me – when you get the first note home that there’s a lice infestation, and you pick up the phone to hear the health clinic volunteer tell you to come get your child who’s got lice? That warm fuzzy new school year feeling dies like the nits in the pesticide I’ve had to put on my kids’ head.

I’ve scratched my head twice in the last 15 words and I am writing this entry whilst taking a break from nitpicking through my daughter’s gorgeous tufts of enviably and never bottle-produced red hair.

You know how in the alien and prison movies there’s almost always some scene connected to shaving heads to prevent lice?

I think my daughter would look a damn sight better than even Sigourney Weaver, Britney Spears or Demi Moore.

Ugh.

The nurse’s office ruled my youngest child 100% nit-free and he returned to class today. Me? I’ve returned home with my fair-haired angel and the nits they couldn’t grab. We’ll be sitting outside in the sun in a few minutes, me, her, the nits and the louse comb.

And then, we’ll continue to do the laundry – in hot water – dried in hot heat, in attempts to kill whatever might be in linens and bedding. Throw pillows on couches and furniture might look like lovely accessories, but to the parent of a child with head lice, they are evil. They must be either washed, dry-cleaned or bagged up in a garbage bag, tied with a twisty and left for two weeks to sit until whatever might be on them dies.

I had to cancel volunteering in my son’s classroom, visiting an equipment shop to check out something that I’d promised my husband I’d look at (for weeks now) and I’ve moved the one business call I had to make to later today (thank you).

Sigh.

One teacher empathized by telling me about how she and her family of five would sit in their backyard deck chairs and leisurely comb through each other’s scalps in search of the buggers. Funny – I ‘ve never seen group nitpicking as a way to squeeze in family quality time. But the idea did make me smile.

And, honestly – my daughter and I probably haven’t spent so much one on one time together, in this close proximity, since breastfeeding. She even had the courage to tell me yesterday afternoon while she sat in a chair as bathed in sunshine as I could get her that she thought it was fun.

The nurses do an amazing job, looking through 1100 heads of squirmy four to eleven year olds. And the kids deserve commendation too – they have to sit for all those hours and have hairs yanked from their flesh. Even spouses who might come home, make dinner, usher a child into their room and put the linens back on deserve special mention.

But let me tell you who the real champion is.

Me.

The parent who never thought she could even find the insects and then spends literally hours upon hours washing the hair, fumigating the hair, rinsing the hair, and then examining every %&$@^^%$@# last hair shaft on her child’s head.

She is the one who has proven herself stronger than any insecticide, or the insect able to escape death by shampoo.

The next time anyone every tries to tell you that you’re nitpicking?

You tell them, “Nits trivial? I think nit. I mean, not.”

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:18 pm August 28th, 2007 in Politics | 5 Comments 

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Aug

28

NYT reviews Matt Bai’s The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics

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Based on my experience and knowledge as they related to the title, it seems overstated and unnecessarily (if incorrectly) bloated, but I haven’t read the book yet. And I certainly didn’t write the book, or do its research. So, I’ll have to see.

Here’s the New York Times’ review, by Michiko Kakutani, “Democrats Face Online Diagnoses, But No Cure Yet.”

More about Matt Bai here. This piece by him got a lot of play in the blogs (and an exchange of emails with me).

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:18 am August 28th, 2007 in Politics | 2 Comments 

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Aug

28

Remains of the Day, 8-27-07

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When each of my kids went through their, “Are there ghosts, Mommy?” phase, we told them, “Not in Ohio. They’re against the law. And Mommy and Daddy are both lawyers.” Don’t you just bet that made them feel safe? Not.
Well, today, I wish I could have used the same logic in convincing them that there isn’t such a thing as head lice. But, alas, when I was finally face to gloved hand with one of the doped up critters, thanks to the pesticide I literally had to put on my child’s head (don’t ask), I knew I was all-grown up.

1. I’m not sure this is any different than Joe Finley opening his statement today at the Akron Democratic Mayoral Debate by thanking God. It’s over my head, or under my radar, it doesn’t enamor them to me, but for some people? It’s important. That’s about it.

2. Another story on whether the Midwest matters when it comes to presidential campaigning. My main thing: we’re voters. If you’re in it to win, then you need us eventually. So you need to see us. End of story.

3. Interesting statement from Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy of the Interfaith Alliance re: AG Alberto Gonzalez’s resignation.

Does your scalp feel itchy?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:01 am August 28th, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off 

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