Rahm says NATO is a peace group

Studs Terkel

Yesterday was Studs Terkel's 100th birthday. I'm certain if Studs were alive today he would get a chuckle listening to this mayor's bombast as much as he did listening to the last one's. I don't know what could possibly top Rahm's latest description of NATO, the world's largest war machine ever on the face of the earth, as an an organization working for peace.

You see, according to the mayor, the reason he brought the NATO summit to Chicago is so the WINDY city could be the historic scene of the Chicago Accords -- the agreement to put an end to war --as we know it.

The Sun-Times' Fran Spielman writes:

As the NATO summit draws near, Emanuel has become increasingly defensive about an event that many Chicagoans view as a giant headache... But after the U.S. Secret Service disclosed plans to close three major expressways, lakefront museums and countless roads to protect President Barack Obama and other world leaders, the mayor acknowledged that it was a whole lot more than a “minor inconvenience.”

Rahm

So, it seems Rahm has changed course (or at least his PR team has). Now he is trying to placate Chicagoans by telling them their sacrifices are for the good of world peace.

“NATO will be now deciding how to de-emphasize its involvement, its footprint in Afghanistan and how to wind down its presence. It will be known as the ‘Chicago Accords,’ basically,” the mayor said.

“That’s significant. Something that started post-9/11 will now become de-emphasized and the NATO kind of presence as it dealt with Afghanistan will now be on the downward slop — not an upward slope. And that is going to be agreed to here.”

Translation: NATO countries, having exhausted most of their citizens' collective wealth and millions of young lives on wars and invasions since the end of WWII, are now redesigning warfare for the 21st Century. While the giant NATO war machine will still suck up great gobs of the world's GNP, and continue non-stop warring on any weaker nations with oil in their ground, it will now do so more efficiently with advanced drone technology, troops contracted through private mercenary companies like Blackwater, and advanced counter-insurgency tactics, ie. intelligence gathering through spying, assassination and torture.

Oh yes. I almost forgot. The NATO Summit will also be good for tourism (if there are any tourists who want to come to a city under virtual martial law, with its schools being closed along with its mental and health clinics, and it poor being evicted and put on the streets by sheriff's officers).

Welcome to Chicago! We miss you Studs. 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Missing Studs Terkel on Labor Day

What would he say today about Obama, his chosen Democratic president, who came into office fortified with a Democratic House and Senate?  “He would be so appalled and disappointed,” said Sydney Lewis, the woman Studs called his “amanuensis,” the transcriber and adviser on many of his books. Lewis, 58, is as furious at this administration as Studs would have been, saying, “I want Obama to take off his [bleeping] Jimmy Carter sweater and have some [bleeps]!” -- Carol Marin, Sun-Times

Charles Blow

But how do we expect to entice the best and brightest to become teachers when we keep tearing the profession down? -- New York Times

Ben Joravsky

The minimum wage is currently $8.25 an hour, for you folks keeping track at home. In short, teachers get less than minimum wage while the Rickettses may get less than $200 million. -- Chicago Reader

Anonymous Skinner teacher

One teacher at Skinner, who asked not to be named, said she voted against the longer school day but said many of the staff probably felt pressured to agree to the change. 

“The preference of the principal was known, there were some strong voices against [voting no], so it doesn’t take a lot to get to 50 percent,” the teacher said. “We’re a staff of 15 people, so it doesn’t take that much, especially with a lot of new staff members who are eager not to lose their jobs.” -- Sun-Times

Quotables

Arne's biggest fan

Margaret Spellings rolled into Chicago yesterday, to endorse Arne Duncan as her successor. While George Bush called himself, "The Decider," Spellings simply wants to be remembered as “the practical implementer of the law” (NCLB). Whatever has she been smoking? Spellings would do well do get out of town and back to Texas soon after Jan. 20th before the law catches up with her.

Clout Street says:

Duncan, who appeared embarrassed as he stood along side Spellings, downplayed her comments and continued to refuse to say whether he is interested in the job if Obama offers it to him.

I’m quoted in Alfie Kohn’s upcoming Nation piece, “Beware of the School Reformers.” Alfie needed a succinct summary of Arne Duncan’s Renaissance 2010 initiative. So I gave him one:

Just as the test-crazy nightmare of Paige’s Houston served as a national model (when it should have been a cautionary tale) in 2001, so Duncan would bring to Washington an agenda based on “Renaissance 2010,” which Chicago education activist Michael Klonsky describes as a blend of “more standardized testing, closing neighborhood schools, militarization, and the privatization of school management.”

Did I leave anything out?

Religion Dept.

Dan Terkell, Studs’ son, changed the spelling of his surname during the McCarthy era when Studs “never met a petition he didn’t like.” At last week’s N.Y. tribute to Studs, Dan says, referring to Wisconsin’s fascist Senator Joe McCarthy:

“I honestly don’t know whether there is a heaven or hell. But I would guess that tail Gunner Joe and my father are not in the same place.”

Michelle Rhee, D. C. schools chancellor, in The Atlantic

"As a teacher in this system, you have to be willing to take personal responsibility for ensuring your children are successful despite obstacles. You can’t say, 'My students didn't get any breakfast today,' or No one put them to bed last night,' or 'Their electricity got cut off in the house, so they couldn’t do their homework.'"

You can’t?

So long Studs

Nice morning at the Old Town School

A few dozen of us stayed after class for what's called Second Session. We strummed, fiddled and sang the Woodie Guthrie dust bowl anthem, So Long, It's Been Good To Know You, to honor the passing of Studs Terkel.

This dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home, And I got to be driftin' along."

We followed that up with Green Day's Good Riddance, sung to Bush in advance of the big celebration tomorrow. Somehow the party won't be as good without Studs.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

Studs dead at 96

Author-radio host-actor-activist and Chicago symbol Louis "Studs" Terkel died today at his Chicago home at age 96. At his bedside was a copy of his latest book, "P.S. Further Thoughts From a Lifetime of Listening," scheduled for a November release.

Here is a piece Studs wrote The Kappan in April, 2006. I re-published it on my old SmallTalk blog:

A Small Space of Sanity

By Studs Terkel

Schoolchildren should learn all they can about the people who stood up for humanity against the war-makers and the powerful. I’m talking about the abolitionists and the suffragettes, the Wobblies and labor organizers, the freedom riders and civil rights marchers, and the antiwar activists. Students should learn about Burr Tillstrom, one of the geniuses of early television, who created the Kuklapolitans and the show “Kukla, Fran, and Ollie.” They were puppets, little rags that came to life in Burr’s hands: Ollie was the one-toothed dragon; Buelah Witch, the outspoken and independent feminist who always refused to ride her broom sidesaddle; and Kukla, the round-headed enigma. And they became the inspiration for Jim Henson’s Muppets. The Kuklapolitans lived in our world, but they created a small space of sanity within it — humane, tender, gentle, filled with humor and good will.

Burr Tillstrom graduated from Senn High School in Chicago, a place the current mayor wants to transform into a military academy, the exact opposite of the world Burr Tillstrom imagined. There’s a lot to do to realize Tillstrom’s vision, and opposing the militarization of our schools is a part of it. If there’s one thing students need to know about patriotism, it’s that the only way to love our country is to care about the humanity of the people who live in it.