happy birthday tj!

true, it's friday the 13th. but it can't be all that bad since it's also mr. jefferson's birthday.

and maybe the wapo was readying for his birthday when, on wednesday, john kelley wrote a little column about tj. apparently some guy named mark (no, not that mark) who works as a dc public library photo archivist (sounds fun, right?) recently found signed document by tj from 1805. well some other peeps signed it too - it's signed by a bunch of 19th century ballers who all pledged a bunch of money to "educate the city's youth."

in a nutshell, tj is the founder of the dc public school system. but, just like today, his plan didn't work out so well:

"After the first year, the schools were running a deficit. Within
five years, the system had collapsed. Jefferson didn't give up. Instead, he
turned his attention to his next venture: the somewhat more successful
University of Virginia."

and to think, over 200 years later we still haven't gotten it right. but maybe fenty will be the one to sort it all out. maybe by the time dc has a respectable public school system they'll actually have a vote in congress. no, probably not.

and don't forget tomorrow from 3-5pm a bunch of uva acapella groups are coming up and singing at the jefferson memorial. and they're collecting money for accessUVA (come on you know you want to support the commercials w/ sean patrick thomas). sounds like a win-win to me. well except for the heinous weather report.