Quick Takes for April

I've been running off at the mouth lately, so I'm going to try to exert some self-discipline and keep things short:

-- Here's a followup to an earlier post on the Tea Party supporters. John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine, says that while there was something genuine about the initial tea party organizing, the movement has not been well-served by its association with Washington insiders and folks like Sarah Palin: "Hangers-on weaken brew with passing time."

-- A commenter on the earlier Tea Party post lamented the attention that the movement has received, noting that "no subject will disappear from the front page until a new hot topic can replace it. Otherwise, the media powers that be keep stirring the same ol' same ol' pot. Since the West Virginia explosion and Tiger's return to golf and the passage of the health reform bill, the Haiti earthquake situation is yesterday's news." Well, here's a lovely essay on the people of Haiti, "Resilience beneath the rubble," written by a Portland nurse and edited by yours truly.

-- The most moving piece of journalism that appeared in The Oregonian this week was the real-as-it-gets story, above, about the homeless students who attend Portland's Community Transitional School and the big-hearted bus driver who makes the rounds each morning to motels and shelters to pick the kids up and take them to school. one of the few safe and stable places in their young lives. Reporter Tom Hallman Jr., a Pulitzer Prize winner for feature writing, and photographer Torsten Kjellstrand combine their talents to put you, the reader, aboard the yellow school bus with driver Penny Scrivner and her young passengers as they ride to one of the few safe and stable places in their lives. Our friend, Cheryl Bickle, is the longtime principal of Community Transitional School. She's not quoted in this story but that's entirely appropriate. Tom and Torsten have rightly focused on the kids and their bond with Penny.

Photograph by Torsten Kjellstrand, The Oregonian