The fact that you provided a false email address might lead one to think that the actual domain is NYCSA.ORG, and that you are not a “teacher.”

In any case, I can’t make heads or tails of what you are saving. Rummer gloves? Aborns?

Whatever one might want to conclude about the politics of Joel Klein and Michael Bloomberg, it would seem pretty obvious that neither man is affiliated with the NYCSA.

Umm, Klein prosecuted antitrust cases for President Clinton; Bloomberg would literally don rummer gloves to support aborns; so how are they far-right?

Most people have no idea of the forces and machinations behind the charter school onslaught and interested parties, for excellent reasons, do not want them to know. I, myself, was shocked to not long ago learn of the place of the Walton Family Foundation, for example, in the charter school campaign. Of course, after I learned of it the role of such foundations the presences of union hating law firms such as Jackson, Lewis and sleaze ball maneuvers such as opposing the Race To the Top funds make perfect sense. How could they do otherwise?

But there are problems. The first is that such information is simply not readily available – even to educators who are directly affected by its absence. I know. I was one of them. And I was reading all I could about this stuff. The second is that the larger picture — the key place of teacher unions in the unremitting and insidious war against unionism across the nation — needs to be spelled out everywhere every chance we get or make before it is too late. In short, people need to see that the war against teachers is a war by stealth against workers everywhere. As you know, the teacher unions are the last large unions standing. As you also know, there are forces, ruthless forces with limitless funds and limitless access to all forms of media, who want nothing less than to eviscerate the entire idea of people standing together in dignity and decency – that is, unionism. There is no greater example in the USA of such forces than Wal-Mart. They will sell you the cheapest underwear on earth in exchange for your witting or unwitting support of child labor wherever it is currently cheapest. They will enlist you in a war against common decency and the most fundamental human rights and make you think you are patriotic, even somehow heroic, for doing so.

But most people have no idea and can have idea of such connections and their horrible implications. The American press is, by and large, a sad terrible joke. Therefore we can depend on no one but ourselves to get the word out.

The dots need to be connected. They are not. We must do all we can, one person at a time, to see that they are. We must educate outside of the classroom as well — beginning with ourselves.

I’m going to do my bit by emailing this to every one I knows and making photocopies for every teacher in my school.

Again, good work Leo. Bold and inspiring. Keep it coming.

Patrick Walsh
Chapter Leader