Idea for new TV situation comedy show:
Rahm is no Raymond so how about Everybody hates Rahm? First episode reveals how Rahm's poll numbers tumbling over his Walker-like assault on teachers and their union. Then comes NATO follies when he turns tourist Mecca, Chicago into a war zone. Other episodes taken from Daniel Klaidman’s new book Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency, show Rahm blocking A.G. Holder's attempt to hold trials for Guantanamo captives in civilian courts and then imagining the Holders, the Obama's and Valerie Jarrett all conspiring against him. He seems to have big problems with people of color (especially black women) and once again his foul mouth gets him into trouble and he gets the boot as Chief of Staff. There's more -- lots more. Like him telling CTU Pres. Karen Lewis, "F^%k You" as he heads into contract negotiations. Is this show ready for prime time or what?
Why teachers will vote yes
The revelation came to me after interviewing a group of young, white, women, suburban-raised and schooled, teachers in the crowd at Grant Park. From what I could tell, many of them had only been teaching for a few years and none of them probably even knew anyone who belonged to a union, say 5 years ago. Now here they stood in the park, fists in the air singing along with thousands of other teachers, the old IWW tune, Solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong.
As we marched down Michigan Ave. and then up Adams St. past CPS headquarters, they chanted strike, strike, strike until union march monitors waved for them to cool the chant. After all, the union doesn't want to risk a strike unless there's no other option. But these young teachers had had enough and were ready to put it all on the line for the future of their profession.
I asked my friends, "what do you think the mayor would have to do to turn these teachers, who went into the profession for the love of teaching, into union militants? After a short review of Rahm's war on unions and on the teaching profession, I think they got it.
Thank You Mike! This is exactly what we need to be doing. Taking the time to explain to people what is really going on and what we are fighting for. We are fighting for our profession! We are fighting for our students! We are fighting for our communities and neighborhoods! We are fighting for the right to have people in our profession and in education to make decisions, not corporations! We are fighting for the right to say no to a "One size fits all" prescription for public education! And I know this sounds dramatic but I believe we are fighting for democracy of the people, by the people, for the people. We all need to invest our time into explaining this to our neighbors and friends. The other side has spent an awful lot of money demonizing us. Pointing out where we may have gone wrong or the bad teachers we may have instead all the great things we have accomplished. They hold us to standard that no one else is held to. Our profession is not allowed to have any dead weight, we are not allowed to make mistakes, and we are expected to rid ourselves of all problems but are any other profession held to this same utopian expectation...NO! So yes, you will find problems but you will find that anywhere, Hospitals, Business, Doctors, Lawyers, Politicians, Wall Street, etc... They all have dead weight, unethical people and have made mistakes. However, none of them is facing the crippling pressure that we are. Some of those organizations may have bad press but none is facing the attack and actual dismantling of our profession. Our job is to educate every single child in the United States. Every decade the mandates are added, while none is taken away, whatever problem society cannot solve, we mandate schools to teach, fix, and then blame them when they do not succeed in record time and say “No Excuses” you are the problem. We deem them failures, bash them and put them on the chopping block. It is as if they are coming in, breaking us up, tearing us apart and selling us off to the highest bidder regardless of credentials. If Teachers don’t fight, who will? Unfortunately, people are falling for the relentless media barrage on our profession and since we don’t have the money, the only thing we have is our Union and our rights. We know the truth, understand what is at stake and know this fight is more important than anyone can imagine.
ReplyDeleteTeacher, School Counselor, Parent
Thank you! Amen!
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