{"id":1068,"date":"2013-05-08T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T06:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/?p=1068"},"modified":"2013-05-10T14:04:16","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T08:04:16","slug":"now-thats-a-gentleman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/?p=1068","title":{"rendered":"Now that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a gentleman!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a great feeling, reading the letter by a true gentleman. And maybe a scholar too, who wrote articulately, in a balanced manner and laid the blame at the altar of politicians.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me explain:<\/p>\n

The letter writer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s identify is still a secret, but we do know that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a wrestler from Rio Grande High School in Albuquerque who was in the middle of an exam at the time the court case he was involved in was taking place. That made it impossible for him to attend the court hearing; his attorney read the letter for him.<\/p>\n

To review: Several weeks ago, a champion high school wrestler named Nick Chavez, it is alleged, took money from a smaller wrestling teammate in the high school cafeteria. When the victim asked for the money back, which he needed to pay for a school exam, he earned a slap in the face, observed by a school security guard. That earned the bully a suspension that essentially would have made the bigger, stronger wrestler ineligible for the state wrestling tournament, coming up that weekend.<\/p>\n

But not to worry: There are always politicians around to jump in.<\/p>\n

Art de la Cruz, a Bernalillo County commissioner; State Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque; and Analee Maestas, an APS board member, all used their considerable clout to make sure things were handled fairly and correctly. Chavez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family took the matter to court, where District Court Judge Clay Campbell reversed the school district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s action, allowing Chavez to compete in the wrestling tournament, which he won.<\/p>\n

End of story.<\/p>\n

Not quite.<\/p>\n

The victim said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d received phone calls and tweets from people who told him he should lie about what happened. Why? Rio Grande High School has a good chance to win state. Why ruin that chance? The senator, commissioner and school board member assured the public they got involved simply to make sure there was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153due process.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

But for whom?<\/p>\n

Partisans continued to downplay the incident, which resulted in the younger wrestler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lunch tray being flipped over, calling it boys-will-be-boys-type horseplay.<\/p>\n

But quite lucidly, the victim asked in his letter, read in court last week, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When is it OK to call a robbery, assault and battery \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchorseplay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and get a judge to block the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s policies?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

He goes on, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am still wondering how politicians, and people who want us young people to respect them were so quickly willing to throw out everything they teach us about honor, integrity, character, and especially all this stuff they keep saying about how they oppose bullying \u00e2\u20ac\u201d when all of those principles become inconvenient.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The letter writer wishes future success to Chavez, adding he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s glad Chavez was allowed to compete in the state tournament, and that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proud to be a Raven.<\/p>\n

Now that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s showing real class!<\/p>\n

What isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t classy is the meddling of the elected officials who insist they simply wanted fairness to all sides. When was the last time you called a judge and implored, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Please conduct a fair trial?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Or when did someone stop a referee before an important West-East basketball game to remind him to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153be sure all your calls are fair and balanced\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n

A few years back, Jane Quintana, a Highlands University secretary, emailed an item on that tiny word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hers was the first of many submissions I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve received. Got one again yesterday.
\nThe email refers to the many uses of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d even when this preposition (sometimes adverb) has nothing to do with direction. For example, we may say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Push the ladder up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d meaning a direction, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the same for, say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He shut up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t refer to direction at all.<\/p>\n

The many uses of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d tend more to denote concluding actions, some kind of finality, than vertical motion.<\/p>\n

In a column responding to Jane Quintana\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s submission, I quoted an example of other uses of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d including, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stop up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153open up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wrap up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153speak up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153heat up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

These uses don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allude to things rising, except perhaps temperatures. And just out of curiosity, Judee Williams set out to compile a list of such terms. She added expressions like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ante up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to start a poker game, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfess up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to admit guilt and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153seal up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to cover.<\/p>\n

Her count of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d expressions came close to a hundred. And also out of curiosity, I compiled my own list without referring to Judee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. Mine totals 127. Does anybody else care to join the competition? Judee, of course, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know at the time I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be trying to top her list, so if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up to adding to it, that would be great.<\/p>\n

All who have lots of free time are welcome to write up their own lists. So, why not join up? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up to you.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n

One person in town who apparently didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really need a last name was my aunt Manuelita, my mom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s younger sister and soul-mate. Manuelita died a few days ago at the age of 98. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been cared for in Colorado by her daughters, Olivia and Ernestina. A large number of her relatives and friends, and especially members of the local Catholic Daughters of America, were at Immaculate Conception Church to send her off.<\/p>\n

She was well-enough known in town to get by without needing a last name, but in case you missed it, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lucero.<\/p>\n

Love you and miss you, Tia!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a great feeling, reading the letter by a true gentleman. And maybe a scholar too, who wrote articulately, in a balanced manner and laid the blame at the altar of politicians. Let me explain: The letter writer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s identify is still a secret, but we do know that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a wrestler from Rio Grande […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1069,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions\/1069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}