Cruise Covid

I just heard that my father-in-law, a 90 year old knight of St. John of Matla (hospitaler) and his wife caught covid on a cruise. I am worrried about them. If you are able, please, pray for Harry and Nora.

My first candidate forum.

The League of Women Voters held a candidate forum tonight. It was my first time to go to one of those. It was fun but, wow, the other candidates are not serious people. The house is burning down and they want to paint the walls. They kept talking about music and dance and community involvement while 80% of the students leave the 8th grade unable to read and write English. I just kept hammering away on student achievement.

The Campaign

It is pretty difficult. I have threee opponesnts. One of them is an incumbent who is much loved by the community but is part of the reason the school district is broke and the kids cant read. One of them runs just because he is Vietnamese and gets the votes of many in the Vietnamese community, keeping them from voting for a conservative. He has run before and won, but he has refused to take office, which means the board appoints someone to fill his seat. Of course, the the board has a majority backed by the teacher's union. My third opponent is the wife of a San Jose City Councilman. I don't know much about her, but he is a race-Marxist. I also hear that the teacher's union has pleged $30,000 and 200 phone bank hours to defeat me. All I want to do is teach kids to read and write English.

And I have no money nor time. And I don't know anyone in east San Jose to donate money or hours. And I work full-time and have family and church responsibilities. People are pulling me in many directions. I met with a guy from a charter school a couple of days ago. He said, "Really? You have no organization backing you?" I'm thousands of dollars in debt because of this campaign. I wish I had never agreed to run. All I want is for kids to learn how to read and write English.

My Grandfathers

My father's father died when he was 43, I think. He was a lead and zinc miner in and around Commerce, Oklahoma. He died of silicosis of the lungs back in the late 1930's, or at least before WWII. His legal name was Clarence but everyone called him Bill.

My mother's father was a preacher (And an artilleryman in WWI). He served as a pastor in East St. Louis, Illinois. and as a missionarry to Mexico and, at the end of his life, a pastor in the central valley of California. His name was Clovis Cagle, in the United Pentecostal Denomination. That is a Christian denomination that denies the Trinity. His brother was the superintendant of the California district and, sometime in the 1950s, he visted my grandfather's church and put him out because he thought my grandfather was a Trinitarian. Isn't it funny that I, my grandfather's grandson am an Orthodox Christian who hangs all of life, even all of existence on the relationships between the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

Well, now I am running for school board in east San Jose and am trying to get in touch with the pastor of the largest church in east San Jose to get his permission to put flyes on the cars in his church's parking lot. I hope he recognizes the threat my oponents pose to the salvation of the kids in his church. I hope we can work together to save them.