{"id":1068,"date":"2020-07-02T22:15:21","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T22:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/?p=1068"},"modified":"2021-04-16T09:31:48","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T09:31:48","slug":"letter-from-our-administrator-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/letter-from-our-administrator-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep Focus 7: Letter from our Administrator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear readers,<\/p>\n<p>It has been a very sad few weeks. We have seen the power of the freedom of expression and protest in action, and in the middle of a pandemic no less. But we have also seen abuse by the authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of sharing some personal thoughts like I normally do, I want to give voice to others.<\/p>\n<p>Lucinda is a young woman in Los Angeles who wanted to protest against the violence of a senseless act of apathy that caused an untimely death of George Floyd.<\/p>\n<p>She was met with gas by the police during a peaceful protest while in Portland, Oregon, and came home hurting. An authoritarian aftertaste that reminds me of the deadly student protests of 1968.<\/p>\n<p>A dear mutual friend, Paul Tifford Jr., was touched by her experience and wrote a poem. He very graciously is letting me share it with you.<\/p>\n<p>Current Affairs<br \/>\n-For Lucinda Fasce Drake<br \/>\nAfter the doubts,<br \/>\nthat\u2019s when the violence begins.<br \/>\nOne must be certain<br \/>\nto call on the gas.<br \/>\nAlas, the innocents get caught<br \/>\nin the fray, tangled<br \/>\nin the curtain of rights<br \/>\nand an idealistic display.<br \/>\nWe cannot sustain<br \/>\na state of peaceful complaint.<br \/>\nWhatever this currently is,<br \/>\npeace ain\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you, Paul. And thank you, Lucinda.<\/p>\n<p>Deborah Wexler<br \/>\nAVD Administrator<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h5>Paul Tifford Jr. is a writer, actor, singer, and hula-hoop expert. He had his first poem published at the age of 19. As an actor, he appeared as the magical Fortune Cookie Man on the Emmy-winning TV show <em>Mr. Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood<\/em>. As a tenor for the Gay Men\u2019s Chorus of Los Angeles, he performed with LeAnn Rimes and Melissa Manchester. He is the El Paso City, Texas State, and Southwest Region Hula-Hoop Champion, ranked 5th in the World Finals.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear readers, It has been a very sad few weeks. We have seen the power of the freedom of expression and protest in action, and in the middle of a pandemic no less. But we have also seen abuse by the authorities. Instead of sharing some personal thoughts like I normally do, I want to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[242,14,12],"tags":[227,17,20,243,16],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1312,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions\/1312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/AVD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}