For some masochistic reason, I'm on this SFUSD call about the Lowell high school lottery thing.

Like every time I've dipped my toe in local politics, it's this heartbreaking spectacle of earnest citizenry, clunky process, and a few hellbent zealots.

This is great. Parents are putting their eighth-graders on who are studying to get in now, and fervently don't want the competitive exam to go away lest all their hard work 'go up in smoke'.

Angry caller: YOU'RE SHOVING THIS DOWN OUR THROATS IN THREE DAYS WHEN THERE HAVE BEEN A BUNCH OF PROPOSALS TO RETAIN MERIT-BASED ADMISSION

Angry caller 2: MERIT IS NOT A DIRTY WORD!

And.....he's canceled.

Ok. Normal people over. The crazies have showed up.

'This myth of merit.'

'Policies designed by segregationists'.

There's an entire and very vocal segment of the American polity that simply cannot accept differential outcomes in any selective process: "Just because they didn't get in doesn't mean they don't deserve Lowell."

Well...yes, that's kind of how competitive anything works.

Well, that answers my question about how to pronounce 'Latinx': latin-eks, apparently.

Hahaha....

One of the board members has a hot mic moment and is overheard saying "I'm hearing a lot of racist people..." to someone on her end, after the 'anti' faction is heard.

(Nothing racist has been said in the call AFAICT.)

One of the board members is rocking a flamboyant, elaborately-folded pocket square which started the meeting perky and is now wilted like a flower, and it's this visual synecdoche for the whole mood.

OH! VP of the board at the end of the sham debate just comes out and says she hopes the new lottery policy lasts longer than the year and will work to make it so.

The COVID thing is just a MacGuffin: the goal is to destroy Lowell as a San Francisco institution.