{"id":1637,"date":"2008-02-12T22:11:59","date_gmt":"2008-02-12T21:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/02\/12\/good-byes-to-dr-d\/"},"modified":"2008-02-13T09:34:16","modified_gmt":"2008-02-13T08:34:16","slug":"good-byes-to-dr-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/02\/12\/good-byes-to-dr-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Byes to Dr. D…"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is not often that you read familiar names in local news reports. Even less so if the locale itself is one you haven’t lived in for over 6 years. <\/p>\n

This is why, when I first came upon a mention, in the SF Chronicle<\/a>, of a slain college teacher living in Oakland, CA, it did not register much: random acts of violence and the senseless killing of innocent, beloved community members is unfortunately too common an occurrence in Oakland these days, to raise one’s attention…<\/p>\n

And then today, while parsing Californian news again, I glanced upon the name of that teacher and realized that, against all odds, I knew him<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Not only did I know Dr. Dennis, but I also personally kept a very fond memory of these two semesters I studied with him. In fact, it was he who gave me a taste for Political Science, to the point of making it my college major the following semester, when I had originally just thought of it as a quick requirement to cross off my list before transferring with a science major. <\/p>\n

Out of the very few classes I took at CCSF, “Dr. D” was easily the most striking professor: both as an incredibly smart, witty and engaging teacher and at the same time, obviously dedicated toward helping all<\/em> students and making sure everybody got their fair chance in the end. I remember his fits of calculated zaniness in the middle of the most serious dissections of US Federal Institution and Constitutional Law. I remember that one time where, upon learning of my odd place of birth, he surprised us all by giving a quick but thorough geo-political recap of that tiny Indian Ocean island most wouldn’t even know where to put on a map, all in impeccable French. More so, I remember how astounded I was, when he concluded by throwing in a couple cheerful comments in perfect Seychellois Creole<\/em>… I even remember that house of his in Oakland, where he traditionally invited his students for a semester-capping potluck dinner…<\/p>\n

I still can’t believe now that his name, of all people, would add itself onto that seemingly unending list of tiresome injustices that is Oakland’s violent crimes reports. <\/p>\n

He truly was a good man, in deeds and in inspiration for others. I know he will be missed by a lot.<\/p>\n

Good bye Dr. D: may you rest in peace, Oh Zany One…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is not often that you read familiar names in local news reports. Even less so if the locale itself is one you haven’t lived in for over 6 years. This is why, when I first came upon a mention, in the SF Chronicle, of a slain college teacher living in Oakland, CA, it did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-our-fucked-up-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}