[img]1|left|Ari Noonan||no_popup[/img]This very morning, you may recall, we were talking about parents and teachers marching across the community waving “Save Our Schools” banners

Gov. Retread says his aging pockets are empty, and so are everyone else’s in Sacramento. .

When the camera pans back to Culver City, the same marching teachers and parents are wringing their hands.

They are fretting that schools will close; worse, teachers will join the long-term unemployed. And still worse, favored programs will be chopped.

Soon we will see educationally orphaned children, outfitted in raggedy clothes, the only pair they can afford, being taught on random, dusty, abandoned street corners where tumbleweeds are blowing down the street with gowned men teachers wearing scraggly beards, unable to afford 99-cent razors, and women teachers wearing the same stinky, fraying housecoats two months running.

At the height of this gathering crisis, who should gallop into town on a three-legged mule but a genuinely worthy group, “Safe Routes to School.”

I recently received a solicitation from them to beg one of the major bag ladies of our age, U.S. Sen. Barbie Boxer (D-CA) for her considerable influence.

Safe Routes wants Itty Bitty Barbie to champion funding for them. That is like asking a drunk if he wants to drink. Itty scatters greenbacks everywhere.

Why do you need funding to encourage your children to ride their bicycles to school?

I am betting Safe Routes gets the funding it wants, or close to it.

And you wonder why schools can’t get the funding they genuinely need.

Here is what the release from Deb Hubsmith said:

Californians: Sign on to Ask Sen. Boxer to Sustain Bicycling and Walking Funding

Join our organizational sign-on letter

We invite all California organizations that support walking and bicycling to sign on to an organizational letter to Senator Boxer in support of dedicated funding for bicycling and walking.

As you heard from us last week, Senator Boxer is in a critical position as leader of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to preserve dedicated funding for bicycling and walking. But, she is negotiating with other Senators who want to eliminate dedicated funding for Safe Routes to School, Transportation Enhancements and Recreational Trails.

We need to show Senator Boxer how important bicycling and walking is to Californians and ask her not to give up on bicycling and walking funding.

We had a great turnout on our grassroots call-to-action last week. Senator Boxer heard you, but we still don't have any guarantees that dedicated funding for bicycling and walking will be included in the transportation bill.

So, we ask for your help once again:

1. Please sign your organization on to our California letter to Senator Boxer in support of dedicated funding for bicycling and walking. The deadline is Thursday.

2. Continue to email Senator Boxer to let her know of your personal support for bicycling and walking funding.

3. Pass this alert on to other individuals and organizations you know in California to encourage them to sign the letter or to email Senator Boxer.