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Posted By: Last night, I gave it some thought about DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee firing 750 educators and aides at once, just months after terminating 100 or so educators already. And then I started thinking about something Jim Collins wrote about in his book, “Good to Great.”
I can’t remember verbatim or give it justice if I try to paraphrase what he wrote, but I can sum up what I got out of it pretty easily. When taking over a leadership position, eliminate the personnel early and build with a strong foundation of personnel than to allow the deadweight stay on, potentially acting as an anchor while you try to guide the ship in the right direction.
Collins goes into great detail explaining the science behind it. And it’s a pretty compelling if not convincing argument to lay people off early rather than later if you’re serious about resurrecting a company [or department or government or school system]. He even spares you the bad karma by explaining how letting people go early gives them the opportunities to find someone else that may be where they’re supposed to be, as opposed to remaining in a position in which is inevitable they’re going to lose.
I’ve really been giving the Fenty-Rhee ticket the benefit of the doubt about their plans on the pucblic school system. Perhaps since I don’t have any kids I can’t understand the full impact of some of these decisions. But does it really take kids in school to feel that 
When my family was stationed in Bremerhaven, Germany, there was only one English-speaking channel for us to watch. And it was produced by the military at that. No advertisement was allowed other than a ton of PSAs and community announcements.
In anacostia stands the Big Chair. Marietta Georgia has the Big Chicken. Across the country there’s a bunch of big stuff. And in Australia, there’s the Big Boot. As part of the DC Environmental Film Festival, you can learn the story of this huge Wellington boot built to attract tourists in a small town called Tully.
Starting today until March 22, the DC Environmental Film Festival will be presenting a number of environmental-related films at various locations throughout DC. Many of these films are free, some premiering here in DC. To learn more about the schedule, the locations and of course, the films, visit 
The other day Torrie and I took a stroll through the National Museum of Art. Afterwards, I confessed that I’m just not into paintings of 16th century Europeans. Though some of the pieces were interesting, it was more so because of the painting techniques or the realism in the paintings. I still couldn’t really relate to many of the artists, the stories they were telling nor the people in the paintings. The only black person we saw was holding an umbrella for some woman and it wasn’t Rihanna.
When I first read about 
