"If not me, then who?"

James' new mantra began on Sunday evening at a First Book party. He met a fellow science teacher who recently graduated from college, trained through Teach for America and began working at a local high school last fall. During the first week of classes, his computer was stolen while he was standing just outside his classroom in the hallway trying to stop a fight.

This teacher keeps showing up each day - just like James. He plans on continuing next year, too. He often is not supported by his principal, by other teachers, or by his students. Many mornings (maybe most mornings) he doesn't want to get out of bed and do his job - but he does. He told James his mantra- some days he repeats it over and over and over and over - just to keep going.

"Because - unfortunately," he told us,"If not me, then no one."

From the parade to the pot

If you show up at NOLA's St. Patrick's Day parade - you have to be prepared to catch cabbages, carrots, onions, garlic, potatoes, and anything else that could be used in a stew. Five cabbages and approx. 17 bags of baby carrots made their way home with us. Since we live in the Irish Channel, we are on the St. Patrick's Day parade route. Cabbages are still strewn about in the streets, in various fields and parking lots, speared on wrought iron fence posts - all waiting for a passerby to claim them. Stories circulate about parades past - and everyone seems to know the same friend who had a stray cabbage fly through their living room window. Amazingly, St. Patrick's Day has yet to come - the real party is supposed to be tomorrow.