Appalling Judgment on the Part of Members of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education in Paying $10,000 to Deborah Keys Write to Facilitate the Special Work Session of Tuesday, 19 May 2026

On 24 June 2025, directors of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education participated in a retreat facilitated by private consultant Deborah Keys Write. 

The retreat was a disaster.

That observation conveys much as to the lack of integrity and judgment on the part of members of this iteration of the MPS Board of Education, which is once again paying $10,000 to Keys Write to facilitate the Special Work Session of Tuesday, 19 May 2026.

Remember as you ponder this exercise of poor judgment, my account of the calamitous meeting of almost a year ago. 

There is No Hope for the Minneapolis Public Schools  >>>>>

 

24 June 2025 Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education Retreat Strongly Indicates That There is No Hope for The District Under the Current Leadership of Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams and the Current Board Membership

 

District Transformation Through the Lens of Governing

 

Meeting under the above moniker, the members of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education met from 9:00 AM until 3:45 PM on 24 June 2025 with the expressed purpose of establishing the features of governing, as opposed to managing (considered the purview of the superintendent and administration) the school district, while also clarifying the meaning of “Transformation.”

 

These long meetings are typically termed “retreat” but always ensue either at the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) or in some other building of the district;  this retreat was held on the fifth floor of the Davis Center.

 

This congregation of the Board mercilessly did not bring back the buffoonish Betty Webb, who led two previous retreats and other meetings to great waste of public expenditure, so these slow-learner members seem to have finally realized that Webb’s facilitations had led to no increase in effectiveness as a Board.

 

And yet, such facilitators never increase effectiveness, so that the lack of difference in outcomes leaves the three to five community members who submit themselves to these tortuous hours hanging  to the meager hope of a particular facilitator being less personally offensive and more apt at organizing the meeting than others.

 

The facilitator at the 24 June meeting was Deborah Keys White;  she indeed did not manifest the goofy verbalisms or the silly mannerisms of Webb (nor did she have Board members playing with Legos, as did one previous facilitator [Paula Forbes]).  But neither did Keys Write bring any training in key subject area expertise to her role that would give her chance to guide the Board in defining academic goals;  the best that her university training could offer would be the prospect of conveying insights as to managerial and organizational efficiency.

 

Keys Write’s university degrees and certifications are given below   >>>>>

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

>>>>> 

 

  

Deborah Keys Write  >>>>>       Educational Background

 

B.A., Management and Organizational Development

 

with endorsement for Hospitality Management Services

(Spring Arbor University, Michigan, 2010-2011)

 

A.A. Associate Arts Degree

(Spring Arbor University, Michigan, 2007-2010)

 

 

<<<<< 

Note, then that Deborah Keys Write lacks academic subject area credentials.

>>>>> 

  

……………………………………………………………………………………………… 

 

Greta Callahan arrived an hour and one-half into the meeting. 

 

Joyner Emerick attended virtually, appearing on screen throughout the Retreat. 

 

All other meetings were present physically from beginning to end. 

 

Thus the Board members attending were as follows:

 

Abdi Abdul

Adriana Cerrillo

Sharon El-Amin

Collin Beachy

Lori Norvell

Kim Ellison

Lisa Skjefte

Joyner Emerick

Greta Callahan

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

 

Keys Write opened the meeting by posing a series of questions to prod members to think about themselves in their role on the Board  >>>>>

 

1)  How engaged to you think you are?

 

Most members rated themselves as being fairly to very engaged in their roles on the MPS Board of Education.

 

2)  Agreements

 

Members agreed broadly that they wanted to reach their goal of providing a “high quality, anti-racist, culturally responsive education for every Minneapolis student,” so that “all students---  regardless of their background, ZIP code or individual needs”---  will be prepared “for future success.”

 

Board members also agreed that they wanted to fulfill the aims of their Strategic Plan for

 

>>>>>    Academic achievement

>>>>>    Student well-being

>>>>>    Effective staff

>>>>>    School and district climate

 

 

3)  Retreat Objectives

 

Facilitator Keys Write led Board members to consider as objectives

 

>>>>>    Clarification of the meaning of Transformation

>>>>>    Clear communication of certain specific directions for Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams and staff.

 

4)  Retreat Outcomes

 

Similarly, Keys Write communicated to Board members that at the end of the meeting they would have arrived at the definition of Transformation and specified certain directions for the superintendent.

 

5)  Keys Write stated that communication styles make a person a better communicator, and she offered a classification of Board member communication styles as follows  >>>>>

 

Analyzer   (wants abundant information before coming to a decision)

 

Abdi Abdul

Lori Norvell

Lisa Sayles-Adams

Lisa Skjefte

 

Doer          (wants to move quickly toward decisions)

 

Greta Callahan

Adriana Cerrillo

Sharon El-Amin

Kim Ellison

 

Promoter   (wants to move Board members collectively toward agreement on specific goals)

 

Collin Beachy

Joyner Emerick

 

 

Board members generally accepted these characterizations of their communication styles, offered a few nuances, and gave examples of variously wanting abundant information, eagerness to act on prevailing issues, and wanting to facilitate group agreement on immediate and long-term issues.

 

The doers, especially, but also the analyzers and the promoters, indicated that their learning styles could result in great frustration pertinent to unresolved issues.

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Keys Write next offered for Board member consideration, as they approached the matter of  Transformation, six conditions pertinent to the topic  >>>>>

 

Six Conditions for Transformation

 

1)  Policies

 

>>>>>    The specific decisions that would have to made in the course of Transformation, consistent with official district policies as recorded in the official manual.

 

2)  Practices

 

>>>>>    Moving forward with a Transformation process on the basis of policy decisions and consistent with official regulations in the Policy Manual.

 

3)  Resource Flows

 

>>>>>    Identifying the resources for funding the Transformation effort.

 

4)  Power Dynamics

 

>>>>>    Considering the political and constituent forces that will respond to Transformation.

 

5)  Relationships & Connections

 

>>>>>    Building and drawing upon human relationships necessary to achieve Transformation. 

 

6)  Mental Models

 

>>>>>    Establishing the intellectual aegis for the Transformation process.

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Keys Write put up a visual on the screen at the front of the room that showed two fish facing each other in a body of water.

 

One fish to another, “How’s the water?’

 

Answer:  “What’s water?”

 

This visual was drawn from the website of FSG (Financial Services Group) to metaphorically advance that entity’s “The Water Systems of Change” for reimaging social change with careful attention to an awareness of the human and institutional environment in which change is sought.

 

Keys Write then accordingly led a fifteen minute discussion in which Board members spoke to their understanding of the environment---  central office staff, building administrators, teachers, students, and community---  in which Transformation would be achieved.

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

The definition of Transformation was first broached at 11:50 AM---  approaching three hours into the Retreat.

 

Lori Norvell candidly replied that she did not know what Transformation meant as a current process at the Minneapolis Public Schools. 

 

Others shared a few thoughts on Transformation  >>>>>

 

>>>>>   Sharon El-Amin reviewed a three-year period in which the matter of building closing or repurposing at first seemed on the cusp of vigorous discussion before fading as a topic at the forefront of Board attention.

 

>>>>>   Joyner Emerick stated her conviction that district curriculum and pedagogy must be transformed to meet the needs of students in the year 2025 and beyond for all students, that particular emphasis should be given to nonwhite students, and that inclusivity for special education students should be a prime consideration.

 

>>>>>   Greta Callahan emphasized that a vigorous effort must be made to recruit and maintain students, and that energetic marketing to bring back students who have departed the district and attract new students to the district can overcome what otherwise appears to be discouraging demographics forecasting a lower birthrate and a reduced student population pool over the next decade.

  

After such initial comments, members of the Board gathered in pairs to discuss in more detail the components of Transformation.

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

The groups of reference and their comments are given as follows Transformation  >>>>>

 

MPS Board of Education Member Comments on Transformation

 

1)  Abdul Abdi

      Adriana Cerrillo

 

Close the Opportunity Gap with targeted investment.  Dismantle systems that promote White Supremacy.

 

2)  Lori Norvell

      Kim Ellison

 

Deliver high quality education producing productive, contributing, empathetic citizens.

 

3)  Collin Beachy

      Sharon El-Amin

 

Make the Minneapolis Public Schools a destination school district.

 

Ensure that financial policy allows for capturing resources to be invested in student academic success.

 

Reimagine schools, considering specific school student populations.

 

4)  Lisa Sayles-Adams

      Lisa Skjefte

 

Dismantle White Supremacy, elevate cultural relevance, and grow human communities.

 

 

5)  Greta Callahan

      Joyner Emerick

 

Make the Minneapolis Public Schools a destination school district.

 

Assure transparency, inclusion, and equity of access.

 

Build community trust.

 

Audit current curriculum and pedagogical practices for ability to provide an education relevant to the futures of students.

 

All students find should have a pathway to success

 

As to the matter of an audit, in addition matters pertinent to academics,  

 

>>>>>   Emerick stressed that the administration should also evaluate building usage for possible closings and repurposing;

 

>>>>>   Callahan argued for reversing the Comprehensive District Design (CDD), with particular emphasis on bringing back open enrollment (implying a reversal of emphasis on neighborhood schools).

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Near the end of the retreat, Keys Write raised four topics upon which she asked that Board members and Sayles-Adams focus  >>>>>       

 

Four Key Areas of Focus

 

1)  Physical Space Safety

 

2)  Community Engagement

 

3)  Priority-Based Budgeting

 

4)  Spanish Dual-Language Program

 

Seemingly for the sake of time, Keys Write ultimately asked Board members and Sayles-Adams to focus on the first two areas of focus:  Physical Space Saftety and Community Engagement/

 

Board members gathered again in their groups and, after twenty-five minutes reported back to the public assemblage.

 

Keys Write compiled the answers on large canvass paper, provided as follows  >>>>>

 

1)  Physical Space Safety

 

Recommend schools for closure, with cost entailed and physical analysis.

 

Identify buildings most amenable to the provision of special education services.

 

Assess the Impact that building closing or repurposing would have on academic programming.

 

Identify Innovation Zones for experimenting with new approaches in implementing the academic program.

 

Assess the Impact that building closing or repurposing would have on the provision of Early Childhood Education;  assess the appropriateness of current space used for the provision of Early Childhood Education.

 

2)  Community Engagement

 

Continue to strengthen the Dual Language program.

 

Go door-knocking as part of the marketing campaign.

 

Emphasize and follow through with the lowering of class sizes.

 

Conduct marketing near charter schools in order to bring back students or to attract them to MPS

Before they exercise other options.

 

Emphasize and follow through with the provision of strong Music & Art programs.

 

Emphasize, market, and follow through with a return to flexible open enrollment (over neighborhood schools).

 

Seek community input by various means.

 

Bring back area meetings (as opposed to gatherings at the Davis Center).

 

Start conversations across city, asking the question, “Are we considering policies and practices that are most important?”

 

Give attention to special education as a key MPS priority.

 

Review academic pathways for students interested in particular programs and future careers.

             

Increase K-8 models over stand-alone preK-5 schools.

 

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Facilitator Deborah Keys Write brought the retreat to a close at 3:45 PM, fifteen minutes after the projected time to conclude the retreat.

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

This Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education retreat of 24 June 2025 focused member attention on the need to define Transformation and to specify policies and procedures to be worked out in detail and implemented by the Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams administration.

 

But MPS Board of Education members clearly have not arrived at a consensus as to the meaning

of Transformation;

 

and little consensual specification characterized the retreat as to policies that should be followed in academic programming, building usage, or spending priorities.

 

For reasons that I will detail in a looming article, this retreat of Tuesday, 25 June 2025, demonstrated the ineptitude of this hapless group of Board members and lack of hope for any academic progress or any improvement in safety concerns under the leadership of Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams.

 

The Minneapolis Public Schools as a district has fallen into greater hopelessness than I have witnessed in my eleven years of intensive investigation into the inner workings of this iteration of the locally centralized school district.

 

As long as Lisa Sayles-Adams continues as superintendent, and then until another leader can provide better direction for this group of intellectually challenged and monumentally ineffective Board members, the condition will abide whereby  >>>>>

 

>>>>>      there is no hope for the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

Long-Term Absences on the Part of Directors of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education--- The Irresponsibility of the Board in Not Securing a Resignation from the Long-Absent Adriana Cerrillo

Adriana Cerrilo, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education Director for District 4, has been absent for many months in succession without the issue being address by this Board, for whom Collin Beachy serves as chair. 

Cerrillo has continue to be paid since, unless an absent Board member resigns, the practice is for her or him to continue to receive monthly payments based on the $20,000 in annual salary paid to directors other than the Chair and Vice-Chair (who receive $22,000 annually).  No attendance expectations for receiving payment were made when the Board established the salary figures given above.

The case of Cerrillo is unusual:

In 2011 MPS Board of Education member Lydia Lee resigned and a new member (long-time Director Kim Ellison) was appointed, as was true for the cases of Josh Pauly (resigned 2022) and Faheema Feerayarre (resigned 2024).  Cerrillo has not resigned, leaving District 4 residents without representation for many months, including the entirety of calendric year 2026 thus far.

Matters related to resignation or declaring a vacancy from school boards are governed by Minnesota state law and by individual boards of education.

The MPS Board of Education has nothing in the board policy manual pertinent to the director absence issue.  This seems strange, given that the Policy Committee frequently revises or authors policies on matters that would seem to have no more importance than the issue of reference, which involves representation for members of the public, especially when the absent director represents a particular district, such as District 4.

Long-term absence would best draw upon precedent, as memorably in the cases of Lee, Pauly, and  Feerayarre.  In the case of Adriana Cerrillo, discussions to secure her resignation must ensue, since she herself as acted irresponsibly in not resigning.

The public deserves action on the matter of many months of absence on the part of MPS District 4 Director Adriana Cerrillo.

 

The Recommended Stance of the United States with Regard to China, with Particular Reference to the Status of Taiwan

An article reprinted in the Star Tribune, written by Will Weissert and Aamer Madhani in the 14 May 2026 issue of New York Times, bore the title, ”Xi Warns Trump That China, U.S. Could Clash Over Taiwan,” New York Times, May 14, 2026.  Sometimes Star Tribune staff members rewrite the title, but in this case my assumption is that the title of the New York Times article was similar and in any case was consonant with the views of Xi that appeared in the article.

 

The article noted that Foreign Minister spokesperson, Mao Ning asserted that “The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” saying that if properly handled, bilateral relations will be stable but that if not potential clashes and conflicts could occur.

 

Xi asserts China’s ever increasing international power while also saying that China and the United States could avoid the “Thucydides Trap” (leading to war between a rising great power and a waning great power) by supporting the mutual advance of both the United States and China.  Thus, Xi effectively proclaimed the likelihood that China would soon overtake the United States as the preeminent world power while suggesting that such a reality need not lead to war.

 

Trump more simply and fawningly told Xi, “You are a great leader.”

 

On the Taiwan issue, Trump said little;  Marco Rubio reviewed the U.S. position favoring the status quo and said that an attack by China on Taiwan would be “a terrible mistake.”

 

A standard summative statement among journalists, including Weissert and Madhani, conveys that China “claims Taiwan as part of its territory.”

 

..........................................................................

 

Given mastery of sophisticated surveillance technology contemporary China is the most powerful totalitarian state in history, more powerful than either Stalin’s Russia of Hitler’s Germany.

 

China has used that power to imprison two million Uyghurs of the province Xinjiang and to remove 500,000 Uyghur children from their families to place them in boarding schools to be converted culturally into Han Chinese;  thus, the regime of Xi Jinping is guilty of cultural genocide as defined by international law.

 

The Xi regime has similarly sought to sinicize Tibet;  and has reneged on the 1997 agreement to pursue a fifty-year policy of “one country, two systems” of liberality toward Hong Kong, carrying out instead severely repressive policies in that former beacon of liberal capitalism.

 

United States policy should frankly state opposition to Xi regime policies in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, letting Xi Jinping know that the U. S. seeks among the democratic nations of the world and in the International Court of Justice (in Hague) condemnation of China’s Uyghur policy as cultural genocide.  And among those democratic nations of the world (including especially Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Australia) the United Sates seeks condemnation of Xi regime policies in Tibet and Hong Kong.

 

And as to the now common journalistic statement that “China claims Taiwan as part of its territory,” United States foreign policy experts should make clear that China has absolutely no basis for such a claim.  No government that has governed all of China has exercised control of Taiwan since 1895, when Taiwan came under Japanese control until 1945.  The People’s Republic of China has never controlled Taiwan.  Taiwan came under Guomindang (Kuomintang) control in the late 1940s after the latter lost the 1945-1949 Chinese Civil War and retreated to Taiwan;  then, in a remarkable series of events dating from 1987, the Taiwanese people developed a multiparty democracy, one of the world’s most successful economies, and progressive social policies that have advanced health care, transportation, women’s rights, and policies regarding gender identity that constitute an international model.

 

United States policy should state frankly that the long-prevailing one China policy is outdated:

 

Taiwan is an independent nation and the Taiwanese people have the right to declare official independence.  Such a declaration would be supported militarily as necessary by the United States and the aforementioned coalition including especially Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

 

The United States thus should let the Xi Jinping regime know clearly that on matters of trade, finance, and economics China and the U.S. can pursue a thriving relationship, but that on matters of international law the Xi regime has been greatly culpable.  The United States and allies will oppose oppressive totalitarian policies and firmly support Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, including an official declaration of independence.

 

Disastrous Academic Proficiency at Edison High School Minneapolis Public Schools

Assessing the Effectiveness of Principal Eryn Warne

 

Academic Proficiency Rates at Edison High School, 2014-2025

Edison High School

Reading

 

2014  2015  2016  2017  2018 

 

33%   22%    25%    18%    20% 

 

2019  2021  2022  2023 2024

 

36%   56%  36%    39%  48%

 

(132) (179)  (154)  (151) (201)

 

2025

 

44.3%

 

Math

 

2014   2015  2016  2017  2018 

 

 21%    22%    27%   16%   17%  

 

(130) (134)  (144)  (187) (186)

 

2019  2021  2022  2023 2024

 

 16%  38%   6%      16%     7%

 

(165)  (13)  (83)     (43)     (5)

 

2025

 

12.6%   

 

Science

 

2014  2015  2016  2017  2018 

 

 12%   29%    17%    8%    12%   

 

(95)  (80)     (94)  (124)  (186)  

 

2019  2021  2022  2023 2024

 

21%   36%   26%   8%     28%

 

(153)   (9)   (121) (148)    (30)

 

 

 

 

Comments on Slavenka Drakulic’s >How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed<

Slavenka Drakulic, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed (New York, Harper Perennial, 1991)

 

Introduction      The Trivial is Political

 

While in the West of the early 1990s after the disintegration of both the eastern European Communist Soviet regimes, the focus was on dramatic events such as the dismantling of the wall and cheering people in the streets at the news that long-abhorred leaders had been arrested, in the towns and cities of Eastern Europe, memories persisted of shortages, unkempt urban centers, and bureaucracies abusive and unresponsive to citizen needs, along with suspicion that lives were not really going to of a sudden be all that different.

 

Chapter I            You Can’t Drink You Coffee Alone

 

Drakulic describes the suicide of journalist friend Tanja, who during the late years of the Yugoslav regime lost her job as a journalist for offending the government, remembering how abandoned Tanja had felt and the summative sentence that she had uttered:  “You can’t drink your coffee alone.

 

Chapter II           Pizza in Warsaw, Torte in Prague

 

The author remembers her chagrin when once she landed in Warsaw during the late 1980s and exclaimed to friend, “Let’s go have a pizza”;  and another time how guilty she felt for a similar comment she made to a friend in Prague that she was craving a torte;  thereby remembering that spending in time in New York had made her insensitive to the shortages in the eastern European countries.

 

Chapter III          Make-Up and Other Critical Questions

 

Drakulic describes the home material goods and chemical solutions that women used during the days of the East European regimes, not (mercifully for GMD) just pertinent to make-up but to matters also of personal hygiene and grooming.

 

Chapter IV         I Think of Ulrike This Night in November

 

In this chapter we are taken to Iowa City (familiar turf for Barbara and me) in autumn 1988, where a young woman from East Berlin seems lost, not at home in the American Midwest but also not pining for return to her homeland any time soon.

 

Chapter V           On Doing Laundry

 

Drakulic describes the lengths her grandmother went to during the days of Yugoslav communism to get clothes bright-white---  boiling, scraping, starching---  never trusting washing machines (water not hot enough) or dryers (lack of fresh air) in the aftermath of the death of Tito. 

 

Chapter VI         A Doll That Grew Old

 

The author describes getting a factory-made doll after having to make do with rag and paper dolls, but then growing disenchanted with the technically advanced (simulating bodily functions, displaying emotional expressions) by comparison to the dolls that she herself made of whatever materials were available. 

 

Chapter VII        Forward to the Past

 

In this chapter we are given a history of the rough toilet paper known as Golub produced by the Yugoslave communist regime, including the days when lapses in production would necessitate innovating with newspaper and rags, and those immediately post-Tito days when imported toilet paper was expensive and the government-produced product not all that much better than Golub.

 

Chapter VIII       A Chat with My Censor

 

The author describes with touches of both humor and irritation the unsubtle ways in which Yugoslav journalist’s meetings with (often politico-emotionally pathetic) censors---  the case of focus being her own---   communicated that articles were crossing the line of political acceptability.   

 

Chapter IX          The Strange Ability of Apartments to Divide and Multiply

 

Drakulic describes efforts to create private spaces by partitioning;  or to gain a little bigger apartment by illegal trading of residences;  produced abodes that seemed ever shrinking or expanding slightly as if following arithmetic processes of continual division and multiplication.

 

Chapter X           Our Little Stasi

 

Stasi is the post office in Croatia, which served all manner of purposes (banking, telecommunications) in addition to mailing but where clerks, even in the immediately post-Communist years, manifested a surly in attitude and served as spies for the government.

 

Chapter XI          The Language of Soup

 

Drakulic describes the extraordinary efforts people in Prague would expend in attempts to make whatever ingredients were available in economies of shortage tasty in assemblage into soup.

 

Chapter XII        The Communist Eye, or What did I See in New York?

 

The author relates how she and another friend who grew up in Eastern Europe reacted to poverty and particularly beggars on the streets of New York City, in a fascinating account of how communist values that they imbibed have had some positive effect on how they perceive inequality in both impoverished and affluent nations. 

 

Chapter XIII       A Letter from the United States---  The Critical Theory Approach

 

In this chapter, the matter of feminism as Western academic ideology is contrasted with the issues (securing means of dealing with menstrual flow, maneuvering to achieve the best circumstances for themselves as women and for their families in a societies that demonstrate little respect for either, overcoming the attitudes of men whom they love to obtain a more equitable division of household labor) that actually matter to women, including feminists in eastern European societies.

 

Chapter XIV       Some Doubts About Fur Coats                       

 

This is a riveting chapter in which Drakula and another friend from eastern Europe just cannot act upon their environmentalist and ecological principals, succumbing to the purchase of cheap fur coats in western street markets, remembering the shabby coats that were winter gear in the communist societies.

 

Chapter XV        The Sun, Like an Empty Red Ball

 

Drakulic records the curious lack of joy among the people and evident on the streets of European cities when first given the opportunity to vote in free elections---  dutifully doing so, but with long-internalized doubts that voting makes much of difference.

 

Chapter XVI       My First Midnight Mass

 

The author describes growing up in Yugoslavia under Tito’s version of anti-church communist rhetoric, observing her bureaucratic functionary father enforce the prohibitions despite the Orthodox inclinations of her mother (who dutifully followed her husband’s house rules);  but then in the post communist era Drakulic (now moved to Croatia, where similar strictures had prevailed) only went to church with her grandmother out of interest and familial sensibility, not herself believing but existing somewhere in the midst of opposition to freedom of religion and nonbelief on her own part.    

 

Chapter XVII      On the Quality of Wall Paint in Eastern Europe

 

Drakulic reviews the terrible quality of paint on the buildings whether in Zagreb, Prague, or East Berlin during communist rule and the noble efforts of the populaces to enhance the appeal of such with surreptitious, dark-of-night ad hoc painting and graffiti.

 

Chapter XVIII     The Day When They Say War Will Begin

 

In this chapter we get another examination of the muted joy, despite the elation of the Western world at communism’s demise, in eastern European people, understanding correctly that war among the Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian populations almost certainly loomed.  

 

Chapter XIX       How We Survived Communism

 

Despite the title of the book, the author recalls how she regreted that title even as the work went to press, actually feeling that survival entailed constant fear and inconvenience and that laughs were all too few.

 

Chapter XX        Epilogue

 

Similarly, sending the paperback version of the book into print in 1993, Drakulic can muster little sentiment of joy for the fall of the communist states when the aftermath presents new challenges and ongoing reminders of the price paid for the suppressions of the communist era, including those nationalistic impulses that now made violence and death matters of overt rather than covert fear.