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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Guest Opinion: AHS incident was not a crime ... Chris Honoré: A political potpourri revisited ... SOU dorm rooms flooded after student breaks sprinkler head ... Guest Opinion: AHS incident was not a crime ... Chris Honoré: A political potpourri revisited ... SOU dorm rooms flooded after student breaks sprinkler head ... LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the Editor, March 25 Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Mar. 25, 2015 at 12:01 AM Posted Mar. 25, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Plaza Project underway You must be aware of the relatively new online phenomenon of private fundraising for various public and private causes. National and local governments worldwide are often unable or unwilling to address the needs and concerns of their citizenry. In Ashland, our city government, for whatever reasons, has only taken insufficiently small steps to continue to improve its downtown Plaza and to address the concerns of many here who feel it needs major additional improvements. It's not necessary for us to wait any longer for the city to take the initiative: The Ashland Plaza Restoration Project, now on Facebook and with an official website, is a grassroots citizens' effort to fill a void for a major public works improvement that the City Council majority has so far been unable to fill. Our drive has the official support and backing of a city councilwoman, Carol Voisin, and many members of the community, after only two weeks of first emerging online to voice our concerns and our project. To date we have raised $6,900 in pledges toward our initial goal of $35,000 to replace gray pavers with colored pavers, as initially specified by the Historic Commission and shown to the public and press. Other improvement fundraising efforts are envisioned and outlined on our Facebook pages. We must give credit for the initial inspiration for this project to Roy Sutton, of Ashland, who made the first public pledge to improve the Plaza, last summer. Here is a quote from Mr. Sutton last year, regarding the Plaza redesign uproar, when making his generous pledge to help restore it: "We could forgive ... and unite together as a total community ..." Our project's focus is a positive, proactive public effort to improve the Plaza. It's the only chance we have of restoring our downtown historic Plaza. The time for recriminations is over; let's all work together to rebuild our Plaza. We hope the entire city will catch our positive spirit and join us in this community restoration project. David Sherr, The Ashland Plaza Restoration Project 'Subversive in Suburbia' “We teach our children how to question where their truth comes from — but our government keeps asking them to die …” A fundraiser for our local peace choir, “Subversive in Suburbia” explores through poetry and song the challenges and necessity of teaching peace. The show is an updated version of one presented here six years ago. It moves from the Vietnam era to the present, highlighting from a teacher’s point of view, our tragic addiction to war, fed by our immense capacity for apathy and distraction. All public educators, including myself, ostensibly commit to teaching democratic principles and the virtues of critical thinking. Unfortunately and frightfully, however, we’ve seen our nation veer away from our cherished values, and as a citizenry, we’re failing miserably in distinguishing between fact and fiction. For example, a large segment of our population still believes that Saddam Hussein engineered the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that our president is secretly a Muslim who was born in Kenya. Similarly, we’re still confused about evolution and global warming. The most important issues of our time are also the most controversial and therefore tend to be avoided in our schools. They should not be. No issue today is more relevant to meaningful education than the examination of our war addiction. “Subversive in Suburbia” takes a close look at our wars and how our nation, founded on the ideal of human equality, has hypocritically become so “exceptional” — so able to aggressively dominate the planet with impunity and deception. Exposing the deceit that feeds our wars is not for the timid. Any citizen, especially a teacher, risks accusations of being “unpatriotic,” or worse yet, a “conspiracy theory” lunatic. Yet should we just passively accept fact-defying government explanations about “magic bullets” that kill presidents and “magic towers” that disintegrate into dust and initiate wars? Our show promises to be provocative. Fortunately, others are helping with this performance. My wife and longtime teaching colleague, Donna, and two close friends, Michael Bianca and Zoe Alowan, will be reading and singing with me. Our Rogue Valley Peace Choir ensemble will begin the show with a few songs. Doors open at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at the Ashland Community Center, 59 Winburn Way. Admission is free, but donations to help support our peace choir will gladly be accepted. I hope we’ll have a full house of open, inquisitive minds. Ron Hertz, Ashland DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Mar. 25, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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