It has been a fairly quiet summer, or so I thought. I just realized that protests at the Wisconsin state capital have continued for a long time. I thought they had been shut down long ago by Governor Walker and his austerity plan for unions. They just haven’t been getting the national coverage they got when the “Ed” show managed to showcase them on MSNBC. I watched daily on Big Eddie’s show to see what was going to happen. Of course what happened was the same thing that happened here in Michigan. Unions took a giant hit with Republican legislatures and governors. Here, in Michigan, we became a “right to work” state which loosely translates into a “right to work for less” state.
As an art teacher, I saw the pinch of what all of this means immediately last fall when I had to have my union dues taken out of my bank account and not out of my paycheck. They can take money for other things including charities, but union dues, not so much. It really annoys me and I do my own form of protest for this. It was set up this way to really try to break the union by hitting them in the pocketbook. Who knows? Perhaps some teachers have opted to not pay their union dues, thinking that they aren’t getting anything for their money. However, I am not willing to go back to the dark ages of no representation other than who you know and how popular you personally are with them. It is sad really as this past school year was the most stressful that I have witnessed in all of my years of teaching.
The stress was caused by all of the legislation going on at the state level. Most interestingly is the way teacher evaluations are configured. All teachers at my school have a portion of their evaluation tied to a group of student test scores in reading and math. This means I have a mentor class that I see for 35 minutes each day that I must nurture so they can perform on a standardized test. If they improve, I get more points on my evaluation and get to breathe for another year. If they don’t, well, in time it means I’m a lousy art teacher I guess. This group is not handpicked by me or any of the other teachers. Although, if an administrator was so inclined I suppose they could give a teacher a tough load just for fun, to drive them crazy, or to try and get them to retire. So, we have our own little hell here in Michigan. What I didn’t know was that Wisconsin union workers have continued to protest.
I want to share a couple video links here so people can become more aware of what is still going on in Wisconsin. We, as teachers, and other union members, have really taken a hit in the past few years. We have had changes made to our pensions, pay, union rights, and insurance all because of the Republican power at the state level. I’m calling it like it is as there is no way this would have happened to this extent under Democrats. Often I say there is no difference between the two parties anymore but this is really not true. The right wing agenda is about privatization of everything and spreading the word of God as they take away programs for the poor, women, and disenfranchised.
We must be diligent in understanding what is going on across our nation. We cannot sit back and idly play through the summer months without being more aware of what is happening to unions, the middle class, and the poor. I am not saying to skip any vacations. I just want people to be aware of what is happening.
Here is a video from Wood TV8 about the protest that took place at the Capital building today.
I’m sure most people won’t know much about the protest here in Michigan today. The best printed press I could find on it was from San Antonio. Yes, I know that’s not a Michigan newspaper. Surprise, surprise! Here is a link with many pictures.
In our own local Sturgis Journal there is an article about possible budget cuts here at Sturgis that amount to a bit over a million dollars. I can’t get to the piece online but it includes shutting down the pool which would be sad.
I was over at Modern Schooland clicked on one of his links to theNYC Educator blog. Holy smokes but that blog had a video with Ronald Reagan supporting unions….in Poland! I had to laugh. This isn’t the Ronald Reagan that killed the air traffic controllers’ union, is it? All of the Repubs like to talk about dear Ronnie, but they never mention this Ronnie.
And here is more…
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Those words were spoken by none other than Ronald Reagan. If governors like Walker, Snyder and the other Repubs love Reagan so much, why don’t they follow his advice and protect unions?
I like this video here on labor in the United States. This interview is with Elaine Bernard, the head of the trade union program at Harvard Law school.
Moving on over to the SkyDancing blogI came across another video post from Real News. Something is up and it’s not to help the American worker. This professor says the objective is to move the tax burden to labor. He talks about parasites and hosts. Watch this video and think about that war I wrote about on the American people. When the parasites are done destroying our country, don’t worry, they’ll just move on to another country!
I grew up in a teacher household. My parents were both teachers. I think they were amazing, especially when you think back to the time when they were growing up. My parents were born in 1909 and 1911. Dad grew up in a very large family. It really is amazing that so many of his family received a great education. Mom grew up in a smaller family that was more prosperous, but she also was fortunate to have received a great education. They met at Central, fell in love during the depression and raised a huge family together. They were hard working farm people. Mom went back to teaching when I was young in the late fifties. Dad joined her when we had farm difficulties and they both were hired by Kingston Public Schools in the “thumb” of Michigan in the early sixties. We used to summer back up north in Leelanau county on our old farm where dad continued farming and working for Jimmy Johnson as a mechanic over in Empire. Mom and Dad both worked so hard. We needed that income in the summer when dad worked the other jobs and farmed. We lived a simple life. We only went on one big vacation when I was growing up. We went out west and saw my brother, Jim, in California. That was a big deal! My brothers and I picked cherries and strawberries in the summer. We all worked for the common good of the family. My parents were both proud members of the NEA, MEA and of course KEA. When they first started teaching salaries were very low. I don’t know how they managed really. After my dad died, I went up to clean his house and organize it. One paper I came across sure explained a lot for me about our Christmas times. Dad and mom had built a huge pole barn and they had a loan that evidently was written as a yearly note. The note came due just before Christmas each year. It was over a thousand dollars. I don’t remember the exact amount but I remember thinking about their pay and how hard they worked all year long. If dad hadn’t worked the farm in the summer and also worked as a mechanic, they wouldn’t have been able to pay that bill. I remember when mom made “Egg ala Goldenrod”. As a kid I remember it stuck to the roof of my mouth and it was awful. It was eggplant fried in egg and it was something cheap because they could grow it. Looking back I knew times were tough when we were eating that! We used to go to my aunt and uncle’s place and get some free clothing. Of course they had a large family and their children got first dibs. The clothing was donated from church. I remember a brown and black pin striped jumper that I wore for my school pictures that came from that room at my aunt’s place. Around the time I became a sixth grader things got better. Mom became involved in getting a union in Kingston. I know she worked on negotiations. When I was in high school we were living over in Cass City. I remember a lot was going on with the Reese teachers. One day our family drove over to Reese. I must have been a junior in school. We went over to support the teachers. The teachers were on strike. They were the Reese 44. In the end, they all lost their jobs even though they had been a part of the community for years. They were thrown out like yesterday’s paper. They took a stand and lost. I remember how my parents felt for those teachers. They felt a kinship and solidarity with them. You may have to scroll down the page a bit but check out the video from the past president of the Reese union. He went on to work for the MEA but he never taught again! http://www.mea.org/voice/june08/reese44.html Recently, all that my parents and teachers all over the country have fought for over the years has been summarily dismissed by politicians who have been hell bent on destroying the teachers’ unions. Some young teachers today have no idea how it was back in the days before unions. Teachers were completely at will. If some school board member had a kid graduating from college and they needed a job, a teacher could be let go to make room for the kid. Teachers could be let go because a superintendent or principal had a personality conflict with them. I really never thought I’d be a teacher. I saw everything my parents went through and even the Reese 44. My mom loved teaching and she even had that teacher voice. She could be yelling at us kids one moment and then answer the phone ever so sweetly the next. Any teacher knows all about that. My dad had to deal with a lot of rough boys that were coming in from Teen Ranch. It was kind of a place for wayward boys. They called my dad “Cotton Top” because of his white hair. He was given many of those hard to handle students I think because he could handle them. It probably helped that he had ten boys of his own. Dad taught math and science and mom taught English and home economics. Dad also coached junior high and my mother headed up the Future Homemakers of America. I’m not sure FHA is even around any more. My parents were dedicated teachers. Mom would work on her lesson plans for the year throughout the summer months. When I decided to become an art major my mom encouraged me to get my teaching certificate I think so I would have a “marketable skill” to go with my degree. After graduation I first taught at Fowler, Michigan. I loved teaching in Fowler. I remember the excitement of my first teaching job. I left Fowler to follow my husband to Oklahoma. In Oklahoma I wanted to develop my art which was pottery so that’s what I worked on. I made pottery and went to art shows. I took courses out at Southwestern Oklahoma State University with Montee Hoke, a fellow potter from MSU. A few years later my husband left me in Oklahoma with my two month old baby, Josh. I continued working and selling pottery to support us. I saved up my money so I could move back to Michigan to be close to my parents. I wanted my son to know his grandparents. I continued making my living off my artwork in Michigan. When my son was in kindergarten, I took my pottery wheel and clay in to school to demonstrate. I had a blast! I loved working with the kids and I started thinking about going back to teaching. I’d been out for quite a few years so this was not an easy decision. I had to go back to school to get my certificate updated. I wasn’t sure how I could do that. The thought of taking classes after so many years away from it boggled my mind. My parents helped me and even loaned me the money that I needed for school. My parents always believed in me and encouraged me. I am so thankful that I listened to their wise counsel. I went to Central Michigan University when Josh was in second grade. He started school at Glen Lake and then went to Mt. Pleasant and back up to Glen Lake at the end of the winter term. These were both public schools. That was a lot for a kid but it was an adventure for both of us! Josh became friends with his first “black” friend, Kyle. This was my son’s first real exposure to diversity. It was a great learning experience, even if the school year was disrupted a couple of times. His teachers at Glen Lake knew what I was doing so they knew he would be coming back and they were supportive. I taught the next year at Manistee and then the following year we moved to Sturgis. I’ve been teaching at Sturgis since August of 1993. I can’t believe how time has just flown by. I love teaching art. I think about teaching all the time. I’m constantly researching things online and looking up things in my countless books because I always want to do more. When I’m shopping I see things through my teacher’s eyes and think about how I can use something I’ve seen in a lesson plan. Working with young people is both challenging and exciting. I love middle school students because they are so energetic and full of ideas. Being in a union has helped me in many ways to become a better teacher. I fully believe in a great public school system. It is the great leveler of our society. If you can get a good education, you have the potential to go far. Unions are more than just there for bargaining rights that deal with salary and benefits. There is solidarity to working towards a common goal in education. The teachers that I know first have an obligation to their students. The goal is to provide students with the best possible education. Many teachers work hard to improve their teaching ability by taking courses, attending professional development seminars and even by doing research on their own. Teachers have to stay updated on material. Most have embraced the computer technology age and were among the first to get computers and learn how to use them. We all work with our administrations to try and design curriculum that is both challenging and exciting. While some people may feel it is “us” against “them” at my school it really isn’t. We are all interested in the best interest of the students. Administrators and teachers work side by side on planning and coming up with strategies to improve the school and the school climate. The teacher unions across this country have bargained to restrict class size, accommodate students with special needs and even promoting curriculum that benefits all children. While teaching I have learned to respect all workers, union and non-union. I feel a kinship with all workers that strive to earn a fair, living wage. In my mind, our country was built by unions and the middle class grew out of unions. I saw how my parents were better off after teachers became unionized. I wouldn’t want to be summarily dismissed like those teachers who were called the Reese 44. They were in the early stages of union formation. What they lost, the rest of us gained. They took a stand and the rest of us benefited from their bravery. Today we have brave union workers standing up for all union workers. They have been protesting in Wisconsin and many other states. Most people don’t realize how difficult it is to take a stand. I can write on my blog, but these people are the real heroes. They faithfully show up to do the tough work and to take the abuse for the rest of us. The rest of us sit here not wanting to make any waves, hoping that our jobs are secure and knowing that the wave of teacher bashing is knocking at our door. Most people that know me know how dedicated I am to my profession. I am a proud NEA member. I wear my red blouse today as a badge of honor. The real heroes though are marching on the capital buildings and they wear what is truly a red badge of courage. They have a target on their backs and most of us hope that target doesn’t move our way. However, it is moving our way! It is moving like a wave across this nation by a group of politicians that have decided that we, the teachers of America, are the problem. I will wear my red today and I will be proud of my profession and my union because I truly know that I give everything I can to my students. I live to teach, not just teach to live. Politicians may think they know me, but they don’t know the half of who I really am and what my dedication and profession is all about. I believe in sharing knowledge and helping people get the best education possible. It doesn’t matter to me if you are poor, wealthy or somewhere in between. I want to spark the imagination of all my students and I go to school and make my classroom a “home away from home” for your child. I stay after to help students that need more time or just to give them a place to go. My dedication and commitment would not be questioned by people that know me. The people that question my integrity are paper pushers that live in a world of political corruption where money for war is never questioned, but money for education is always questioned. The cousins to these people have invaded our states where tax breaks for big companies is more important than the education of our children. Under President Bush we were asked to do more with less. We have done that. Now we have more politicians asking us to do more with less. I’ve always believed in the goodness of people. Some people think I can be naïve because I really want the best to come out of people. I certainly don’t want to see the worse side of a person. I know these politicians can do better. I know that the standard they want me to live at as a teacher is one that they are not expecting of themselves. Many politicians, especially in Washington D.C. are millionaires. As a single teacher my standard of living is pretty simple. I drive an old car and live in a little house. There is no glitz and no glamour. My life is one of dedication to my profession. I would like to ask these politicians to ask themselves a simple question that President Kennedy challenged us with a long time ago. I would say, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country?” I ask this question because destroying the middle class and the education of the middle class and the poor by not funding education properly is destroying our country. If we want a prosperous society, then we must fully fund education, save the middle class, and give a hand of kindness to the poor and struggling in this country. We don’t need to prop up business with huge tax incentives, pander to the wealthy with lavish tax cuts, spend unheard of amounts of money on endless war and of course we don’t need to spend a couple billion dollars on the next election. We need a society that is more interested in the content of our character than in the size of the pocketbook or wallet that we carry. Workers of this country need to unite today in solidarity. If you can do this one little thing, it might start a chain reaction. As Gandhi said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Wear your red proudly today and show your patriotism for your country and for all working Americans. Our local union president has asked us to wear red for the rest of the Tuesdays until school is out. It’s nice to have my Tuesday outfit ready to go for the rest of the school year. I will wear my red and be proud to be a National Education Association member!
Now that I have your attention, wear red on March 22nd!
I was sent an email by a guy named Jonathan. He asked me if I could write something for March 22nd. They want to have a blog day in support of teachers. He included these links and his own.
On Tuesday, March 22, teachers in NYC will wear red in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are under attack in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and elsewhere. We also stand with teachers in places like Idaho, California, and Texas who are facing massive layoffs. We would like to take this stand on the web as well. We encourage you to publish a piece on March 22 entitled “Why Teachers Like Me Support Unions.” In this piece, please explain your own reasons for being a proud union member and/or supporter. Including personal stories can make this a very powerful piece. It would be great to also explain how being a union member supports and enables you to be the kind of teacher that you are. We want these posts to focus not only on our rights, but also on what it takes to be a great teacher for students, and how unions support that.
I am a member of the National Education Association. While red is definitely not my color, I’ll see what I can do for a good cause. I will be working to get a post ready for Tuesday so please check back with me. I’m not sure what I’m going to write, but I have a lot of thoughts on the subject.
Here in Michigan we are that sleepy old state that no one is paying attention to while everything seems to be going on in Wisconsin. However, it seems like a coordinated battle plan has been drawn by many of the Republican governors in some very key political states all at the same time. I don’t think this is a coincidence. The main battles are taking place in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and Florida but of course there is also New Jersey as well as other states that I’m not watching as closely as my own. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/11/us-usa-unions-states-idUSTRE7295QI20110311
One of the things I find really interesting is how close these states have been in recent national political elections. It seems that all of these governors are hell bent on destroying unions, teachers’ unions especially. The NEA is the biggest of all. It is the largest professional organization and labor union in the United States. Republicans have criticized it for years as being a big supporter of the Democratic Party. In Michigan the MEA has supported more Democrats but has also supported a few Republicans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUpO1QFMDtM
Here is more showcasing the sneaky underhanded tactics being used by these governors to push through their ideology much like Wisconsin’s Governor Walker pushed through his plan in the dead of night.
The obvious goal is about taking away the financial support to the Democratic Party and to create an environment where business can have whatever they want. A few years ago at our school everyone read a book entitled, Whatever It Takes. Of course that book was about educating students. These governors are using techniques that embody that spirit of whatever it takes to destroy the middle class. John Edwards always said he wanted to be the voice for the voiceless. Well, we know John has been permanently derailed because of the choices he made with Rielle Hunter and the fact that the Democratic Party, much like the Republicans, really don’t care about the poor and the voiceless. However, I must mention here that Newt Gingrich can double down on being bad to his many wives and still gets respect from the Republican Party. The reason I mention John here is no one is speaking for the voiceless, the poor and the disenfranchised. President Obama is working as hard as the Republicans at thinking up new ways to screw the poor and the middle class. Just keep this tidbit in your mind as you read on because no politician is really speaking for the disenfranchised today. All we hear from politicians is how we have to have a “shared sacrifice”. I don’t want to get too sidetracked from things but I wonder why these politicians in the following post aren’t sacrificing. They want everyone else to sacrifice. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/08/wisconsin-state-senate-republicans_n_833058.html
The first time I heard about farm subsidies is back in the seventies when I was young. I was watching the Johnny Carson show. Johnny had John Wayne on his show. John Wayne was laughing about how the government pays him not to farm. Now that’s class warfare! The current Republican governors all seem to want to give massive tax breaks to corporations; you know those entities that the Supreme Court fully recognizes for their “corporate personhood”. It seems to me that for years I’ve heard Republicans chastising Democrats for creating “class warfare”. The Democrats are always pointing out the massive divide between the rich and the poor. Unfortunately, this only seems to happen around election time, but it’s enough to get the Republicans crying for mercy. However, truthfully the Republicans have declared a sort of war on the middle class and the poor in this country. The class warfare of today is created through governmental policies that cater to the whims of the wealthy and big corporations while slashing everything from education to any assistance to the poor or disenfranchised. I have always believed the one thing that can help to elevate a society is a good education. It is getting harder and harder to obtain that education when policies are in place to ensure that it fails. Budget cuts to education are designed really to keep the poor and middle class where they belong, dumb and uneducated. If enough people were truly educated in this country, they might do something about the sorry state of our democracy. We hear all about how education is broken but truthfully if you want a good education in this country you better fix poverty. I know right now there will be some narrow minded person sitting here reading this and thinking how the poor will always be with us. That’s uncreative, small minded thinking in my book. The great leveler in society is education because it opens many doors that would be otherwise closed.
If you will remember back to when President Bush was in office you will remember that we had all of those color coded alerts about potential terrorism in our country. We were constantly kept in a state of fear and panic at the thought that a terrorist might be living next door to us. These terror alerts were manipulating us during the 2004 election. Whenever John Kerry would go up in the polls, a new terror alert would be announced and like the sheep we are we would do whatever we were alerted to do. Today the constant drumbeat has been about those lousy pubic unions and how they are screwing up our society. Yes, it’s the lousy teachers that suck the blood and life from our society. Even though some of them may give hope to the hopeless, they are the new enemy of the poor. If it wasn’t for those greedy teachers, the poor would have money. Sometimes you know the enemy of your enemy is your friend. Those Republicans have called for a moratorium on spending for anything that will help you or me. However, if there is some new subsidy or tax break they can give to corporations and the wealthy they’ll get right on it because they still pretend to believe in Reaganomics where that “trickle down” theory was invented. Truthfully, our society is becoming one of the wealthy and everyone else that are left to “attend” to the wealthy. I’ve never been able to figure out why enough isn’t enough for the wealthy. How many billions do you need? That trickle down theory just doesn’t work because the richer someone at the top gets, the richer they want to be. They don’t let it trickle down and the only way you are going to get it to trickle down is through government policies that ensure that it does. Our “desperate times” are created by policies designed to make the rich get richer and screw the poor. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Unfortunately, we don’t truly know how desperate we all are until we get a Republican governor to show us! I’ll leave you with the desperate people in Wisconsin that have done everything they can to make our country wake up to what’s really going on. This clip includes Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddow show.
If you have been reading my blog for awhile you will not be surprised by some of the things I find online and become interested in. Today I discovered a website called the National Priorities Project. I, for one, resent so much of my tax dollars being spent on these two stupid wars that the government seems to want to perpetuate into eternity. This website has some interesting tools. One of the tools allows you to put in what you paid in federal taxes so you can see how your money was appropriated. I must confess. It did not make me happy, especially what went into education. If you go to this page and put in what you paid, you will see what I’m talking about.
China is flexing their muscle with us and what are we doing? It seems we will go after entitlement programs and the unions. That’s a nice little combination that will have an effect on the regular “Joe”, you know the normal people like you and me. It will not have any measurable effect on the wealthy. In fact they have been assured that their money is safe and secure from the grubby hands of the American taxpayer through the continuation of the Bush tax cuts and the changes made to the so called “death” tax. The changes President Obama agreed to are significant. http://www.sbnonline.com/2011/03/how-the-2010-tax-relief-act-could-impact-your-estate/?full=1
Yesterday I was listening to the replaying of Tom Hartman’s radio show I believe from Friday. He said Mike Huckabee wants people to work until they are 75. Tom laughed and said that a brick layer couldn’t work until he’s 75 and that perhaps the only people that could would be a preacher or a priest. Mike, of course, is a preacher, not just an ex-governor or Fox talk show host. These conservatives seem to have absolutely no heart. They can take from the American people anything and everything without batting an eye.
Last night I came across an old video of Senator Teddy Kennedy fighting for an increase in the minimum wage. It is well worth watching because it only showcases the lack of representation that we currently have in Congress. Who is standing up for the workers of America? Can’t you imagine Teddy talking about unions right now?
Teddy was frustrated in his quest to raise the minimum wage. He noted tax breaks were given to wealthy corporations and he asked a couple of important question. He said, “What is the price? How much more do you want?”
These are the same types of questions the American people should be asking their elected officials right now. What is the price and how much more do you want? These same elected officials will go back to the well of the American people to select more young men and women to fight their wars. Few of them will suggest to their own children that they should join the military during these trying times. Most of their children will go into business and make a bundle just like their parents. So where are these elected officials in Washington D.C.? I know where the 14 senate Democrats are in Wisconsin. They’re taking a stand. It cannot be easy for them. They are heroes to many people. Governor Walker on the other hand continues to look for any way possible to destroy their credibility.
It appears the Senate GOP leader in Wisconsin has issued arrest warrants for them. After all they must be criminals for taking a stand! Let’s keep on squeezing them until they say, “Uncle!” Personally, with all of the bullying that has been in the news the last several months and the deaths of young people that have committed suicide in the news; I find it interesting that the governor of a state can act like such a “bully” to his constituents. People wonder why these young kids “bully” people. Is their really any wonder about this when bullying is constantly happening in politics on a grand scale? Politics today is full of bullies and the worse offender is the “gang” of Republican governors that have the “mindset” to destroy American unions. We don’t have any super major politicians stepping up to speak for unions but Michael Moore went to Wisconsin this weekend and rallied the union protestors with a rousing speech which you can see at TPM. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/michael-moore-rallies-thousands-in-madison-america-is-not-broke.php
We may have some chickens in Washington D.C. but thankfully Wisconsin has 14 senators that soar like the American eagle and are standing up for workers’ rights in a courageous way that we should all be thankful for across this nation. Michael Moore wanted one fact repeated by someone in the main stream media. He went on to say, “Four hundred obscenely wealthy individuals in the United States of America now have more, cash, stock and property than the assets of 155 million American people combined.” He continued to talk about Wall Street and the banks running our country and the death of democracy. We have all felt like there is nothing we can do about it but these brave 14 senators have made us realize that there is something we can do about it. Michael Moore went on to talk about what he learned in his economics class in high school. Watching Michael had to be uplifting for the Wisconsin crowd because it was uplifting to me here in Michigan. He went on to tell people that the wealthy control the message because they control the media and he is right.
Many have said this will be decided by the message that is put out by the media. If we rely on the mainstream media for this message, we will lose. This is why bloggers everywhere have to get this message out and get those common “Joes” thinking about what is really going on in this country. The American people, the common people that go to work every day and keep this country moving, have to step up and take back their country and take back their democracy from the extremely wealthy. All I ask you to do is spread the word and get people talking about what is really happening in this country. The message Michael ended with is, “We have had it!” We have had it. I’m fed up with how the American worker has been turned into the “scapegoat” for everything that is wrong in this country. We are the United States of America as Michael said not the Corporate States of America! If you do anything else watch Michael and spread the word. Remember, Michael is always portrayed by the “corporate media” as a man that is a bit of a nut and outside the box of the American people but truthfully Michael is one of us. He grew up in Michigan and still is doing what he can for the community he lives in up in Traverse City. He is one of the founders for the Traverse City Film Festival which has done a lot for the tourism industry up in Traverse City. http://www.traversecityfilmfest.org/
Even though right wing nuts tried to destroy what he was doing with the film festival most finally realized what a great thing it is for Traverse City. At the end of his speech Michael finally reminds the crowd that it is one person, one vote and that’s what we should remember. If we want to take back our country, we have to get organized and we must vote.
Those right wing pundits must not have been coddled enough by their school teachers. Let’s take Rush Limbaugh who couldn’t seemingly tackle college and dropped out after two semesters. Glenn Beck’s post high school education consisted of taking a theology class at Yale that he ended up dropping. Were they worried about mind control or were they just not that good at schooling? Why am I bothering with this? I’m bothering with this because these are the two big guys that push the right wing media agenda. I even have family members that listen to their bullshit and truthfully these two guys don’t know much about anything!
Even Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker couldn’t quite “cut” getting that little old college degree. He dropped out! My sister loves the statement, “To know something is to know nothing, and to know nothing is to know something.” It really says a lot. These guys don’t know much about anything, but they all know how to manipulate their audiences and make tons of money doing it. These guys have nothing in common with the average working “Joe” but many of those average working “Joes” think these guys know what’s going on with everything from politics to religion. I include Governor Walker in on all of this because he is so over the top with the right wing agenda, that he supports pharmacist not filling prescriptions for contraceptives because of religious or moral grounds.
Well, Rush and Glenn both have come from troubled personal lives. They both wrap themselves in religious metaphors and both have been married more than once, Rush too many times to bother counting!
In my opinion, Glenn Beck is simply dishonest as this video shows:
Rush always tends to add “fuel to the fire” with his outrageous “OxyCotin” laced tirades. Here is Rush saying teachers feel entitled to be “freeloaders”.
Here again is Glenn Beck feeding his special form of “hatred” to his fellow countrymen.
From my point of view, there are bad guys all around that have done much to destroy private sector unions and the right for people to belong to any union. Now the right ring of the Republican Party is going after the public sector unions. Even President Obama has done much damage to the teacher’s unions. Here in Michigan we have signed onto legislation that ties evaluations to student test scores that really is rather senseless. This opinion piece is well worth reading and basically says what I’ve been thinking about.
So what can you do? I think everyone needs to get educated about the subject matter as eventually the bargaining rights of all Americans could be in jeopardy. We, the working people of America, need to stand together or everyone will lose all bargaining rights.
So, stand together or FALL together!
If you do nothing else today, read this bit and definitely watch the Jon Stewart video placed here from last night! By the way the “liberal’ pundit, Jon Stewart, has a college degree! Imagine that!
I will leave you with this last bit from Paul Krugman:
You don’t have to love unions, you don’t have to believe that their policy positions are always right, to recognize that they’re among the few influential players in our political system representing the interests of middle- and working-class Americans, as opposed to the wealthy. Indeed, if America has become more oligarchic and less democratic over the last 30 years — which it has — that’s to an important extent due to the decline of private-sector unions.
And now Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to get rid of public-sector unions, too.
There’s a bitter irony here. The fiscal crisis in Wisconsin, as in other states, was largely caused by the increasing power of America’s oligarchy. After all, it was superwealthy players, not the general public, who pushed for financial deregulation and thereby set the stage for the economic crisis of 2008-9, a crisis whose aftermath is the main reason for the current budget crunch. And now the political right is trying to exploit that very crisis, using it to remove one of the few remaining checks on oligarchic influence.
So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t.
I just had to come back in here and post Rachel Maddow’s video. It is long but so thorough. It is a “must see” video!You must watch the whole thing and by the way Rachel is a Standford grad.
I’ve been watching the protesting going on in Madison, Wisconsin with great concern. Many believe, just as I do, that Madison is a test case for the rest of us. I believe there has been a constant push to divide workers in our country and around the world. All people that work for someone else need to pay attention to what is happening in Madison.
Unions have become the target of business and we, the American people, have been duped by the corporate propaganda machine. Unions have been blamed for everything from the current economic condition to why businesses are choosing to manufacture goods in other countries. However, what most people should be thinking about is how workers are being treated around the globe. We were lead to believe that NAFTA and opening up normal trade relations with China would help raise the standard of living around the world. http://articles.cnn.com/2000-10-10/politics/clinton.pntr_1_wto-membership-china-global-trade-regime?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS
What is really happening is a growing divide between the very wealthy and the rest of us. We, the American people, the real laborers of our country, have not understood how we should all be banding together in solidarity. We should be insisting on good and fair working conditions and benefits for everyone from the person that sweeps the floor in the factory to teachers, doctors, waitresses and anyone else that is an employee in this country. Instead we sit back thinking only of ourselves and our particular circumstance.
Some look at teachers and think they deserve this. Part of this is because this whole past year there has been systematic propaganda put out by the corporate media about how bad teachers are because the American student is so poorly educated. We have heard the drumbeat from the president on down through Michele Rhea in Washington D.C. and the video, “Waiting for Superman.” If you are to believe the corporate media, then you would have to think that your own child is getting a poor education. I’m not saying that all students are getting a great education. What I am saying is that the corporate run media has been pushing hard for the demise of the teacher’s unions for the past several years. This should come as no surprise for anyone that can think back over the last few years and especially this past year. The corporate run media wants people to think this group in Madison is just a bunch of cry baby teachers that don’t care about anything but their cushy jobs with summers off. The corporate run Republicans have been taking our government from the federal level on down to the state level and privatizing anything they can get their hands on. This is another area that we have been lead to believe is a better choice. Private companies can do a better job than the government, or so we have been told. This is just another way that politicians have been rewarding those companies that have been giving charitably to their campaign coffers.
Looking around the world this year there have been protests all over the globe.While the banks have been rewarded because they were too big to fail, the citizens of the world have been taken down a notch through the decimation of benefits, pensions, health care, and college education.I remember distinctly this video of students protesting in England and some of them shouting, “Off with their heads.” This video doesn’t play the sound but it did happen.This was in reference to Prince Phillip and his wife.Unions have been protesting around Europe as well.
As a country we need to stop pitting the old with pensions against the young, the union employees against those non union workers, as well as government workers pitted against private employed workers. The workers of the world need to unite in solidarity or they will continue to lose benefits and wages while the wealthy will continue to rake in the money, get all the tax breaks and the CEO of these big corporations will continue to receive unbelievable bonuses. The truth is what is happening in Madison, Wisconsin is the destruction of bargaining. If unions across this county cannot have true bargaining rights, you won’t have them either. If they lose benefits, you will surely lose benefits as well. If they have no strength, neither will you!
If you are my age or older you will remember the saying, “As the Dow Goes, so Goes the Country.” Today as a worker and a teacher I can honestly say I believe as Madison goes, so goes the country. If they lose, so will we! There is a concerted effort by the Republican governors across this country to destroy union’s rights to collectively bargain. Here is a piece from Ohio. http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/02/overhaul_of_states_collective.html
I want to play a video from last week that really explains what is going on in Madison. It really is about busting the union and nothing else. It’s a longer video but you should watch the whole thing and listen to John Nichols at the end when he talks about what is happening around the world.
Ed Schultz has done a great job of covering Madison this whole past week. His show is on at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time on MSNBC and he has been spending time there. I found this video of Ed talking to the teachers just before his show the other night. It really is good. Ed understands what’s really going on. It is as he says about what is morally right and fair.
As a teacher I want to add some information that most people don’t realize. Young teachers here in Michigan have to take classes for the rest of their lives. The cost of this comes out of their pockets. I’m currently taking courses and it’s not cheap. The teacher qualifications and licensing has changed drastically over the last twenty years. Teachers used to get a life certificate. I have a continuing certificate. I don’t have to renew my certificate any more. I’m taking my courses to reach a higher level of pay and expertise, not because I have to do so. Younger teachers have to take courses in order to keep their license updated. They also have to pay for renewing that license. I’ve been taking courses throughout the school year, so I don’t have a lot of “free” time. Many teachers take courses in the summer time as well. Curriculum planning is also done in the summer time. I think some people just don’t have a clue how much planning goes into creating a good classroom atmosphere and education for the children of our country. I know what my commitment is as a teacher. I give my all to my students. I know other teachers that do the same. We are dedicated professionals that care about the well being of our students. We go out of our way to do our best to help students reach their full potential. We even buy things to bring into our classrooms and donate for good causes that will likely benefit some of our students and their families. We are not the enemy. We, the American workers, should all stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Madison, Wisconsin.
