But it shouldn’t in this case. Except for any administrative and personnel costs, I would suggest that the US taxpayer foot not a dime for our veterans. Instead, nearly all of it should come from the industries that profit from war and keep us on a perpetual war footing.

Our servicemen and women may believe to have altruistic reasons for being in the armed services. However, what we cannot escape from is the fact that these everyday Americans serve an empire, built on capitalist principles.  They’re not in Iraq protecting the farmlands of Iowa from imaginary terrorists. They’re not in over 800-1000 military bases (outposts) all over the world to keep the peace and bring Jeffersonian Democracy to the world. And they’re not in our laboratories developing our own WMDs or spyware to protect the homeland.  Their very actions do not serve the average US citizen.  Many would argue that we create more enemies just by our very presence abroad (e.g. Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula).

To quote General Butler, “war is a racket”. There is nothing new to war profiteering. During the US Civil War war profiteering flourished under Secretary of War Cameron. Hearst sold newspapers by faking Spanish atrocities before the Spanish-American War of 1898. The Nye Committee of 1934 clearly established that the war industries helped to manipulate public opinion in order for the US to enter WW1. Today all we have to say is Halliburton and we know we’re talking about no-bid contracts in Iraq, reconstruction corruption, not to mention gang rape of servicewomen, and everything else that ties lobbying for war in order to reap tremendous profits.

The Center for Corporate Policy has listed the top 10 war profiteers of 2004:

1.        Aegis Defence Services
2.        BearingPoint, Inc.
3.        Bechtel
4.        BKSH and Associates
5.        CACI International and Titan Corporation
6.        Custer Battles
7.        Halliburton
8.        Lockheed Martin
9.        Loral Satellite
10.      QUALCOMM

Obviously, there is a lot of money to be made in war. What these industries need are the warm bodies to keep their profit margins high. Therefore, in the spirit of sharing the sacrifices needed to pay down our national debt, I would suggest that a hefty tax be place on all war industries and products to pay for the needs and welfare of those whose jobs it is to guarantee their profits.  Think of these soldiers as shareholders for our largest industries and let these industries give back something to show how valued they are.

First of all, no-one at this stage can say whether Obamaʼs a shoe-in or a long shot. Those who do are usually just those pundits who have their 5 minutes of air time fame with mainstream media like NPR or Fox (going from corporate center to corporate far right). Whether heʼll even be the nominee is only a guess. For those who want the Democratic Party to succeed in November 2012, having a strong nominee is essential.

One canʼt say whether Naderʼs strategy will work or not. Does he think moving Obama to the center (from the right) with strong philosophical and policy position challenges, but not electoral challenges, will beat whoever the Republicans nominate? Who knows now who thatʼll be. Weʼve seen examples where the Anointed One either falls flat along the trail or fails in his attempt: Howard Dean for the Democrats comes first to mind.  If one looks at history, especially all national elections since 1968, some patterns do emerge (yet not a prophecy for whatʼs yet to come).

In nearly all cases, when an incumbent president or vice president runs and is seriously challenged from within, he loses. (Humphrey, 1968, yet one could argue that Robert Kennedy could have pulled it off; Ford, 1976; Carter, 1980, Bush, 1992; Gore, 2000, but the election was recognized as stolen by many). In all other cases when the incumbent was not seriously challenged from within, he won.

So what Nader is doing is risky for the party he wants to win in 2012. He chose a hybrid approach to challenging the president, and quite innovative in this approach. How successful will these challenges be? Will it expose Obamaʼs faults to his partyʼs most loyal voters? Will these voters be turned off by being forced to recognize how his positions have not reflected their desires, hopes, and needs? Will it move him back to the center-right, rather than the far right, thus garnering support from Democratic voters who only see the ʻDʼ as the redeeming factor for any nominee? Will a willingness to accept liberals’ challenges expose him as being as unprincipled later as all his years as president leading up to the Primaries have shown him to be?

With so many variables one cannot yet write a computer program that will predict the next future president. Maybe Billie Beane of the Oakland Aʼs could have created one to determine the ʻwinningʼ team but like the title of the movie about him, “Moneyball”, itʼs not usually policies but who with the money selects the next CEO of the US. The challenges that we refer to as the Primary season only selects the individual.

But playing to their base is what they do. Fox appeals to conservatives and hate groups. Keith, Ed, Rachel, et al. cater to bourgeois liberals.

There is a nascent movement growing to fight for public education, to reverse the attacks on teachers, calls for equity in funding and an end to high stakes tests that do absolutely nothing to help students learn and, in fact, force the dumbing down of curriculum in order to make AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) rather than face the fate of takeover by a private corporation. There’s a lot of money to be made in privatizing what was once public education and in the creation of never-ending tests to assess how well one can do a bubble test in school.

This past week we saw in Washington a 2-day conference organized by the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action committee followed by an assembly of extremely worn out but motivated educators deciding on what comes next. Some of the best minds in education were workshop leaders and keynote/rally speakers. This includes Diane Ravitch who turned 180 degrees from her position in the first Bush administration to oppose No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. As an educational historian she sees how we have always been in an educational crisis and the latest attempts to address the present issues are far removed from the realities facing education today. She recognizes that poverty plays a crucial role in a child’s education. The Department of Education under Arne Duncan, as supported by President Obama, sees the problem as being caused by bad teachers and evaluating them based on student performance is their remedy.

Another great mind in the field to address the conference and the rally was Jonathan Kozoll. With his seminal work on class difference and disparities of funding based on residence he electrified the crowd as only a 60’s intellectual could.  Savage Inequalities ranks up there with Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

So what does the media focus on, including the Ed Shultz show? Matt Damon ripping into a Libertarian reporter and cameraman from Reason TV. It’s a great piece of theatre, but is that what the demo was all about?  Lots of great signs and posters expressed the mood of the angry crowd: calling for the firing of Duncan, end to high stakes testing, strong union support, no to tax dollars going to private charter schools, etc. 

It was great to have Matt, introduced by his mother who is an activist teacher. He did help to bring out the media and various outlets did substantial coverage, including that of Lawrence O’Donnell from MSNBC. In this give and take with the reporter he really nailed it on the head. But Ed and all others in the media: Even though the news division has long been considered a form of entertainment, how about for once look to cover important trends of national importance by those on the front lines, not just what will bring in viewers and not a gotcha piece with a famous actor as the protagonist. I was far more impressed with the impassioned speech by John Kuhn,  school superintendent of a very small district in Texas.

This resolution comes at a very important time for education policy-making in Maryland. Gov. Martin O’Malley must appoint a new state schools superintendent, now that Nancy Grasmick is retiring. Perhaps the governor will take the hint from Baltimore City that we need to reverse course immediately.

Ms. Grasmick was a strong proponent of Race to the Top, which has been more appropriately labeled “Race to the Bottom” and even “Rat Race to the Top.” The entire focus of President Barack Obama’s educational policy is to replace public schools with charter and non-union schools; bust the teachers unions by stripping teachers of collective bargaining rights; rely on extremely nebulous, faulty and often fraudulent data to assess school and student performances; tie teacher salaries to standardized test scores; and ignore economic reality in order to shift blame for apparent failures.

The politics around blaming teachers is simple. If you’re not going to go after the legitimate targets for educational “failures,” then look for scapegoats. This approach is clearly bipartisan, as President Obama, the Democrat, chants a similar mantra to the likes of Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin — that all should share the sacrifices. In education, shifting the responsibility almost entirely onto the professional teaching class is their way of sharing sacrifices.

Our national focus on education is to turn it into a business with no input from its workers. Teachers are laborers, and students are the commodities. But consider this: The state with the highest state test scores, Massachusetts, is the most unionized state for teachers.

Conversely, South Carolina, the most anti-union state in the country, shows the worst performance among its students but nary a peep from the “reformers.” Yet it is somehow the unions’ fault that students aren’t performing well? Who is manufacturing failed “products?”

The data that back up the notion that students’ failures are the fault of teachers are easily debunked. Diane Ravitch, the lightning rod for exposing the fraudulence of No Child Left Behind and its permutation, Race to the Top, posits that the success of Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of the D.C. public schools, may be based on widespread fraud. Unfortunately, Ms. Rhee, one of the heroes of the Superman syndrome and one of Mr. Obama’s educational champions, is not alone.

Who is favored? Race to the Top certainly does not favor the student. It favors test makers and new assessment tools and their enormously expensive software, professional development gurus, young Teach for America recruits who quickly see greener pastures after toughing it out for two years, and six-figure principals of non-union chartered schools.

Merit pay — tying test scores to teacher salaries, a major part of the new Baltimore City teachers contract — is one of its “selling factors” that guarantees those with the most needs will be those who are least served. Hey, who wants to teach students who will likely bring down a school’s scores and have a direct impact on one’s paycheck?

Governor O’Malley, your former colleagues from the Baltimore City Council have sent you a message. Look for a state superintendent who does not see teachers as the problem, or pit teacher against teacher with wild schemes of merit pay for only a select group, or endlessly test students only to prove how well they can do on taking multiple choice tests. This is not education. The business model does not work — and replacing the superintendent with one who recognizes this will turn Maryland into the educational powerhouse it used to be.

When we march in Washington this summer for our schools, let Marylanders know that we are in the business of teaching and that pedagogy should not be based on the corporate bottom line.

•  This article was first published by the Baltimore Sun.

The tax code today, given to us by both the Democrats and Republicans, in Congress and in the White House, favors the filthy rich and the corporations. It is ironic that the last time the wealthy had to pay their fair share was during the Eisenhower administration, where the tax rate on the highest earners was 91%. Today, it is they who have complete control over who pays for their lifestyle.

The last time the Democratic Party had a spine was during the Johnson administration. Whether one approves of their policies or not, their control of the White House and Congress pushed through their legislative agenda. Now, inferring from Reich, the agenda that today’s administration promotes is that of the Republicans’. These days, you can always trust a Democratic candidate (when elected) to carry out the campaign promises of the Republican Party.

What we have today in the Democratic Party is the near surgical removal of a spine, or perhaps it has simply morphed into an amorphous waxlike centerpiece with the GOP stamp of approval on it. Mr. Reich has called for economic policies that would restore the relevancy of his party but fails to see that that is impossible for a variety of reasons.

First of all, maintaining power is both party’s ultimate goal. We see how Dennis Kucinich folded on the public option in order to save the Obama administration and then he went on to fund raise for his party. Principles be damned. Party comes first.

Secondly, what Reich fails to point out is that the guiding principles of the Democratic Party is a capitalist agenda. Whether one goes to extremes with the GOP or a milder form of pain and inequality among the Democrats, the basic foundation of our economic system is sacrosanct. We see this perfectly played out in Wisconsin. Of course, Obama gives lip service to the striking and threatened teachers in Wisconsin. He needs organized labor’s money for his re-election and the election of his party. But his take on the situation is no different than that of Governor Walker’s. For both of them, seemingly on ‘opposite’ sides, believe in the euphemism of ‘shared’ responsibilities. What they truly believe in is ‘one-sided’ responsibility. We all know that the teachers didn’t cause the problems in that state or any other. In fact, teachers have already bared the brunt of this collapse by giving up raises, for years in some jurisdictions, and taken on more economic responsibility for health care and pensions. When Gov. Walker erased a surplus with a deficit by granting tax breaks to corporations, we saw no outcry from the White House or any leading Democrat on the Hill.

One would not expect that. This present administration has long followed the mantra of shared responsibility (as long as the pillars of capitalism aren’t touched). Matt Taibbi asks, “Why isn’t Wall Street in Jail?”  The obvious answer is that Wall Street owns Congress, the White House, and the Judicial Branch of government. To think otherwise is naive to an extreme.

A radical transformation of the Democratic Party is necessary for it to be relevant. But then it would no longer be able to extol the virtues of free trade, fiscal irresponsibility (on the backs of workers), and economic unaccountability (without consequences). I’m sorry but that is not, and can never be, the Democratic Party.

We unfortunately have two capitalist/corporate parties which are also two wings of the same bird of prey. They should merge as they would represent only a minority of those eligible to vote. What’s missing is either a bona fide Socialist Party that isn’t some wacko Stalinist or Trotskyite sect that chases away those not committed to their doctrine, or a Labor Party to represent the millions of service workers, blue collar and white collar professionals, like teachers and nurses, without the confines of an existing party that successfully pretends to be on their side.

Just looking at my system for a moment we see that a major hit will go to the media science, in other words, the librarians.  Maybe George Bush couldn’t stand up to them as he went after the librarians who campaigned to protect internet use at their sites, but apparently our ‘Democratic’ state has no qualms about victimizing these great public servants. Libraries?? Ever teach in a high school that didn’t have a functioning library? I taught in three in Baltimore that shared an invisible library.  Interesting how these two municipalities rank the lowest in the state on the high stakes tests.  Could there be some correlation?

The problem with rioting is that it is often too random and the victims of the system are often those affected by this action.  I suggest that any rioting be done with care and precision.  Avoid commercial districts. Unless it’s a corporate headquarters that’s responsible for outsourcing jobs, going after such a  business district could turn low income retail workers against their own children’s advocates in the long run.

The outrage of the assassination of Dr. King brought destruction to the inner cities of the US. As Arne Duncan saw Katrina as a good thing for New Orleans’s public schools (it helped to wipe them out and charter schools took its place) perhaps such a mindset might have seen the burning of our cities in some similarly warped way.  So let’s avoid this in a future scenario of urban outrage.

Clearly, every state house that cuts funding for schools rather than increase the income tax of the highest salaried citizen or its corporations are a reasonable target of citizen ire. As we see in Madison, Governor Walker eliminated a budget surplus earlier this year by eliminating  certain corporate taxes. This was the main cause of their deficit, not teachers’ salaries or pensions.

 Every Congress person’s office should also take notice of the justifiable anger of the citizenry. It is these politicians who have wasted trillions of dollars on illegal wars and corporate and bank bailouts with no strings attached. Sure they’ll  throw a few bones for some pet projects that might hire a few, but the system has crashed and those in the driver’s seat ought to be held accountable.

Ravitch’s outburst might have been rhetorical. Maybe not. But the anger is justifiable and we are taking our cues from our democratic-seeking comrades everywhere from Yemen to Wisconsin.  This is our year: 2011. It will not be forgotten. “Remember, Remember…”

We’re not talking about second amendment advocates, creationists vs. rational scientific explanations, nor doves vs. hawks on a war and peace issue.  The ‘movement’ away from sanity, accountability, responsibility, humility, and reasonable arguments is being led by a variety of MBA-type wonks who never spent a day in front of a classroom yet use everything made up at their disposal to denigrate public education.

Could it only be in public school where they teach when writing a paragraph the topic sentence is followed by support statements? You would think so since so many with the ‘Superman Syndrome’ think that if you make a bold statement, nothing that follows has to be supportive and if it is, it’s made up.

The list of topics demagogued to death include charter schools vs. public education, evaluating teachers based on student performance, the evils of the unions, and how it’s better to use inexperienced and less paid Teach For America neophytes rather than tenured professionals with advanced degrees.

Support for public education is with so many other campaign promises that President Obama has rejected, reneged, reversed himself on, or misrepresented his position in order to win the Presidency. (For example we can include closing Gitmo, supporting card check, supporting a public option, opposing consolidation of the media, opposing the excessive human and civil liberties attacks of his predecessor, etc.) Now we see in his education platform that it is based on the advice of so many illustrious educators like Arne Duncan, Bill Gates and Oprah.

It is they who have the mic spewing illogic, union/teacher bashing hysteria, and a fistful of data made up faster than could come from a slide rule.  As they used to say regarding computer programming, “Garbage in, garbage out.”

Their ‘supermen’ cheered the firing of an entire staff in a high school in Rhode Island for low test scores. Missing from the narrative that made its way through main stream media is that the students were majority English Language Learners, or that it was the only high school in the poorest city in RI. Poverty’s data has no weight when dealing with test scores.  So what that it was a highly dedicated and professional staff.  They couldn’t work the “miracles” that the private schools often do or charter schools pretend to. The numbers said it all. Apples trump oranges all the time.

There are many voices out there, even if they’re sailing against the wind. The June issue of the ISR (International Socialist Review) devotes an entire edition to exposing the real reasons why our students are being commodified and why charter schools are winning the grants but failing to produce what they promise.  In the NEA Today, January 21, 2011 edition it prints a teacher’s response to Oprah. Where else do we get to see real criticism of Oprah and her sham knowledge of pedagogy? After all, Oprah doesn’t have the mic, she owns it.

So what’s to be done?
 How about  teachers getting off their asses and doing something. How about teachers’ unions stop groveling for crumbs from Race To The Top and organize with other unions to stand up to the bureaucrats and corporatists who do not have every students’ interest in mind, only those who fit their corporate models of success. In other words, students who can help to increase the bottom line of the testing company, the charter school, the think tank; any corporation that sees students as a commodity and not a living learner.  If only teachers could strike!

We see how immigrants in 2009 were able to shut down cities (especially in California) with massive demonstrations, echoed all over the country. If only teachers could be so organized to shut down city after city demanding that this country return to its values of supporting public education!

So what will be done?

We teachers are not asleep. We’re just merely exhausted. We’re beaten down. But we’re not on our knees.  We are organizing. This July 30 we’ll be marching in DC with the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action. Join its Facebook page (with the same name) and get involved.

We certainly don’t have any friends in the White House. In his State of the Union Address he heaped praises on teachers. Yet in the next breath he pushed his Race To The Top as a model for educational excellence. Right. Destroy public schools. Promote privately run, tax paid charters. Increase the profit margin for testing companies…..

But everyone knows a teacher. Maybe you’re married to one or one lives on your block. Maybe you tried to talk your kids out of being one but damn it they had the calling and just wouldn’t listen to you. Let’s remember that in the US we have a long history of struggling for what’s in the public interest: union rights, civil rights, suffrage, public education. Join this march in July and begin to take back public education from the ‘Billionaire Boys Club’. ¹ Teachers need some kryptonite and here’s a beginning.

1. The Death and Life of the Great American School System, Chapter 10, Diane Ravitch, 2010

Really?

Come next Friday, Saturday and Sunday all churches, synagogues, and mosques will be doing their usual brotherhood sermons, extolling the virtues of peace and love and welcoming the stranger into one’s home, unless they’re undocumented, of course. Our Christian Senators didn’t seem to like that part of ‘his’ teachings when it came to the Dream Act.

According to icasualties.org the “Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In U.S. War And Occupation Of Iraq” stands at 4,748. No doubt every church in America come Christmas morning, evening mass, along with the synagogues and mosques, will be praying for the safety of the thousands more yet to be killed. Perhaps many of those same churches (to refer to all the houses of worship) are leaders in the invisible anti-war movement. They’ve marched against the war, held vigils for the dead Iraqis and other civilians murdered, and pressured their members of Congress to stop funding the slaughter or to set a ‘reasonable’ time table to end the ongoing murder of people who are only defending themselves against the new Roman Empire (that’s in its final stages). Some may even be calling for an end of total occupation, but that’s certainly not a majority of them.

I’d like them to do something more than just their usual prayers for these soldiers. I’d like all of them, especially those who profess a belief in their pacifist son of God to do a little bit extra praying this time. They always say they pray for the innocents of war. So let’s go a step further. Let’s hear them pray that no bullet from any army issued rifle hits their target. Let them pray that not a single IED goes off. Let them pray that any civilian running away from any occupying soldier makes it home safely, regardless of whatever they did. Let them pray that the air transport systems that carry monsters of death and destruction never leave the airfield in the US or its bases in Europe and elsewhere, as if someone poured molasses in the engines. It’s not going to be The Day the Earth Stood Still but let’s see if our religious institutions actually have the courage to call for a real end of war, chastise (or excommunicate?) the policy makers of war, and not just do the convenient patriotic calls reminding all that God is on the side of America.

Many twisted Christians will say that Islam is a war-like religion. Some Muslims are seeing the occupation as a Crusade against Islam. (Damn that Bush for saying that, too. Really hurt the narrative of promoting freedom.) Tikunniks will say everyone’s at fault, including the Palestinians who fight against their oppressors. I wish they would all just shut the hell up and admit that they have no beliefs in the sanctity of universal life or they be true to their beliefs and really stop promoting the wars they ‘wish’ would end with half-assed prayers, as if praying to a concept has as much value as crossing one’s fingers when the lottery numbers come up.

And in case there is a supreme deity out there, I have my ticket for the Mega Millions this Friday. I’m crossing my fingers because I know I’m going to win.

I would recommend a joint press release saying the following:

We of the XXX are proud to have been outed by Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League as anti-Israel. Although we support the right of all Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace in a unified nation which guarantees basic human rights for all with one person-one vote, we do so with the full belief that Israel has become a pariah nation.  Because of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as Israel was created, the racist laws against non-Jewish citizens, and  the subjugation of the Palestinian people in open prison camps like Gaza and similar to the pogroms our ancestors experienced, we are anti-Israel.

The ADL thinks it speaks for all Jews. Israel thinks it acts on behalf of all Jews.  We Jews and non-Jews alike can only say, “Speak for yourselves.”

The ADL has been up front in its denial of the Armenian genocide by the Turks between 1915 and 1923, where 1.5 million were murdered.  Turkey was (hopefully not now) a major military ally of Israel.  Foxman has over the years created a sense of anti-Semitism worldwide simply by saying over and over again how rampant it is and equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. This is akin to the Big Lie as well as a self-fulfilling prophesy.  We see even how recently they joined the Islamophobes in opposing the Muslim center near Ground Zero.  A center for tolerance is certainly not in his or their interest. How ironic that the ADL has joined with the Wiesenthal Center to construct a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, atop an Islamic cemetery. Chutzpah used to be described as a young man killing his parents and asking for leniency because he’s an orphan.  Foxman has changed that example.

It is laudable for any group to speak out on behalf of oppressed minorities throughout the world, as the ADL had spoken out relentlessly against the oppression of Jews in the Soviet Union. But when such groups do so, yet support repressive regimes like in military-ruled Turkey and apartheid South Africa or openly oppose others’ oppression like the Palestinians, they completely negate their effectiveness and credibility.

I am Jewish and anti-Zionist but not head of any pro-Palestinian group.  Will you make an exception of me, Abe, and condemn my fight for human rights too? Call me a self-hating Jew while you’re at it.  It fits your profiling.

Both sides of the contract negotiations were of the same coin of the Obama/Duncan business model for education. They are focusing on the October 28 re-vote by clarifying the contract, not radically changing it. Both sides still support the Race to the Top philosophy of pitting state education departments against each other and teacher against teacher for limited salary increases. Remaining in the likely future contract, and a point of major contention, is the method of evaluating the staff. In spite of the potential of huge salary increases for ‘model’ and ‘lead’ teachers, (even in a state that is financially hurting as much as everywhere else) up to 50% of students’ test scores will be the evaluative criteria for what makes a ‘successful’ teacher.

As Tom Proveaux, a 33 year veteran said, “Our kids come to school hungry, they come to school broken in many ways, and when we’re dealing with that it is not reflected in a test score. If we have to go back to ratification with the same thing, we’ll just vote it down again.”

There is a major disconnect between teachers’ union officials who have been out of the classroom for years, even decades, and rank and file teachers. Race to the Top, merit pay, tying salaries to student achievement and other initiatives only hurt the trade union movement and education. They so often go along with the powers of the school administration and think just being at the table means they have a serious role in determining what’s best for their members.

One of the more odious aspects of the rejected contract is the right of a majority of a school to redefine the contract for that particular school. It sounds like autonomy but in reality it plays very much into the hands of the school administration. It is the principal that usually determines the faculty make-up and has the power to hire and transfer teachers that do not fit their perceived model of what makes a school successful. It is not hard then to imagine a principal creating a school of mostly energetic, young, poorly paid new teachers giving them a false sense of ownership of a school and manipulating them to go against the better judgment and experience of more veteran teachers.

There is a group think among principals who buy the data driven, business model of education that unfortunately the union leadership either also shares, or is too impotent to really challenge. In the Prince George’s County Educators’ Association (PGCEA) you have the President serving on a merit pay committee which has been optioned to 2 schools that in the past have either rejected it or not even have had a vote on it.

The victory this past Friday was stunning for its rarity and its unusual show of force. Whether it be contracts or elections, the history of voting in the BTU is usually one of poor turn-out where only the leadership supporters make it to the polls. Unless the contract is rejected again and the real interests of rank and file teachers are brought to the table, Friday’s victory will be short lived.

No, school superintendents. President Obama has it wrong to say that the single most important factor determining whether a student succeeds is not skin color, zip code, or parents’ income. In fact, one who sends their kids to Sidwell Friends and has gone and taught at prestigious and private universities is in no position whatsoever to cast aside these enormous factors in determining the success of our children. His elitism goes beyond the pale as it is used as a basis to further engage in teacher-bashing.

Implicit in this manifesto was an attack on teachers’ unions, being a major stumbling block against ridding our schools of bad teachers. A basic duty of a union is to protect the worker from unfair labor practices and to see that a fair process is at work in the firing of a bad teacher. Teachers have seen over and over again that they are often targeted by principals who are petty, vindictive, not one of their ‘pets’, and are inefficient in carrying out their own duties, and with little or no feedback from those he or she supervises. There is often very little professional collegiality between principal and teacher. The relationship is often not collaborative but combative. As a result, it is often very difficult to find good principals from the ranks of teachers and many now do not come from public school education but the field of business.

Mr. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, does not understand the philosophy or history of public education and it’s a shame that superintendents fall in line with his thinking. Schools are not a place to produce successful students. Schools are places where successful education and learning take place. Lucy and Ethel might have been held accountable for how many chocolate candies they could wrap but teachers do not see their job as wrapping up their students for the job market beyond high school.

Income matters. Funding for schools matters. Open enrollment matters.

Students come with an enormous set of issues that impact their ability to learn. Can they count on a steady diet of healthy food all the way up to the end of the month when food stamps have been exhausted? Are they secure in their own home every night, especially in light of the epidemic of home foreclosures and homelessness? Do they have parents at home supervising their behavior? Or, are the parents delinquent in their duties or working like dogs on the night shift just to be able to keep a roof over their heads?

Are the English Language Learners getting enough academic training before taking high stakes tests or is there a plan to simply push them out into night school or GED programs, and thus, no longer count for lower scores? Are parents savvy enough to advocate for their children for that lottery slot for that charter school that more likely than not will not be any better performing than their own neighborhood school? Elementary school teachers do see the students for the whole day, but are they to be held accountable for what does or doesn’t go on in the home? What about high school teachers? At best, they might see them for only one period a day.

The manifesto claims that business in America wouldn’t survive if it didn’t make personnel decisions based on performance. It is an absolutely correct statement. But why apply it to education? What is the basis for evaluating a teacher? Offering merit pay to the ‘exceptional’ teacher and a pink slip to another should never be dependent on how their students perform, based on present criteria. Is a high school teacher who keeps a particular student in class through fantastic teaching of music and mentoring more or less an asset to a school? Should a mediocre math teacher of that same student get the credit because that student was motivated to stay in school and did fairly well in the High School Assessment? Perhaps the music teacher was able to show the connection between math and music. But it is the math teacher whose job performance is based on that student’s test result.

Counselors, including mental health personnel, ought to be working with students to prevent suicide or gang involvement. The former, however, is inundated with schedule changes from Day 1. For every student that succeeds in staying in school and staying alive, the English teacher gets credit or not for his or her performance. The student as a person is apparently irrelevant. What’s clearly missing in the business model approach to education is the professional collaboration that is essential for ‘producing’ a high quality student.

The superintendents’ manifesto made some obvious claims. Yes, of course you need the best technology available and a restructuring of class time. That costs money. My county, like so many, has issued furloughs for most employees this year. Our schools’ computers are no longer under warranty. Paper is doled out. Outside teacher-training and workshops have been all but eliminated. This is occurring all over. School districts are considering 4 days a week to save money or shutting down in May. How can we improve the quality of our teachers when we have so few resources?

Much of the problem of funding is political. Clearly, our nation’s leaders’ priorities are on endless wars of aggression and corporate bailouts. Our president cheers when a city shuts down its schools. Our pundits wage verbal war on our teachers and blockbuster movies like “Waiting for Superman” provide the proverbial billy clubs that are wielded by corporate thugs who see big dollars in testing.

What is a teacher’s job? Is it our job to train widget producers (or chocolate candy wrappers) or is it to produce creative-thinking, problem-solving young adults that would excel in business as well as the arts? All the performance tests that are being promoted and actually in use do virtually nothing to expand or highlight the creative side of the student. Art is not even tested; nor music, physical education, foreign languages, etc. In the state of Maryland, for the High School Assessments, writing has been eliminated altogether. Is it that the costs of grading them too high or too many of the wealthier communities not passing at the high levels expected? Except for algebra which requires calculations, all tests are random bubble sheets. The odds of bubbling in “This school sucks” resulting in a high school diploma is probably as high as blind bubbling which could have the same result. Sorry, but my field is not math or probability.

Success in education is not always quantitative and assigned a dollar figure. Being an educator used to have meaning. It used to be an honorable profession. Mr. Duncan and his cohorts have ruined it for us. An old episode of The Twilight Zone was about putting an old, venerated professor out to pasture. He didn’t know what he made of his life and was ready to shoot himself. But he saw the images of his former students who did remarkable, as well as mundane, achievements in life who remembered his passion for the arts and the classics. This shook him out of his malaise and he saw what his value truly was and was ready to pass the baton to a younger group of educators.

Are teachers being asked to pass the baton or are we just simply expendable?

What this means is that teachers will be stressed out even more with testing, evaluating the tests, and workshops on how to administer and evaluate the tests.  Perhaps equipping each school in Maryland with a full bar would go a long way in improving the data.  Happy teacher. Happy student.

What’s missing?  In the funny sign at the church it says CH_ _ CH; the answer is UR.  (Not something I particularly endorse but I love word play.)

In the soon to be well-endowed schools what’s missing is the student. His and her real needs are not in the equation. Testing the student does not make him or her achieve. Evaluating and reforming the test only increases the speed of the wheel in the rat cage.

Here’s what I’d like to see happen in our schools with the additional $22 million.

1.  Hire more teachers, even if it means bringing in portable facilities.

2. Shrink class sizes with these new teachers.  One of our luckier Spanish teachers only has 47 in his class.  He got off easy.

3.  Restock the book room with new books and enough for the students to take home, not  by sharing a class set that’s short a dozen or so.

4.  Make sure all schools have a working library. I’ve taught in 3 high schools in Baltimore that didn’t even have one.  Put A People’s History of the US into the History curriculum.

5.  No more unrealistic quotas for reams of paper per quarter. No more waiting years for a simple lock to a closet and basic school supplies. Regular update of computer warranties.  You know this list is endless. 

6.  Fix the damn leaky faucet in my faculty bathroom that’s been leaking for more than the 2 1/2 years I’ve  been here and don’t say that it’s contracted to a company in Louisiana that went out of business.   

7.  Put AC in every school so when it comes time for the dreaded state assessments in May the students are not taking it in a pool of sweat. And, if the school fails the tests, don’t fire the teachers; get rid of the tests. Come up with assessments that are a combination of realism, rigor, and humanity.    

8.  Wire our schools so using computers and the internet is not based on who signed up first for the one computer room and will hog it for a whole week.

To all the youngins out there in colleges in training to be teachers. Re-evaluate your life’s goals. Do you want to be of a profession that sees you simply as a purveyor of data? Do you want to be evaluated for your ability to teach your students, reach your students, inspire your students, or to get their raw numbers higher than your colleagues, ‘cause one of you is gonna get furloughed, and your mortgage is higher than theirs?

It is a race to the top and the rats are winning.

Much can be said about the DREAM Act. Those of us who are advocates want to see our documented and undocumented students be able to succeed in their new American life. We would love to see them go to college and become productive citizens of the US. For so many, the DREAM Act addresses these concerns for residents who often have been here all their lives but, due to their immigration status, live in our shadows and underground, not enjoying the full privileges that all of us take advantage of when we can. Those of us in Secondary Education are additionally faced with the ethical question of why we should be promoting graduation when state laws restrict undocumented students from even entering college, or require them to pay out-of-state tuition if accepted.

For many, the belief is that the DREAM Act addresses these concerns. Furthermore, it provides for a path to citizenship once an undocumented student completes their education. Unfortunately, the DREAM Act does not provide college education at all. That is a ruse. During the first six years, the bill calls for immigrants to be granted “conditional” status, if they graduate from a two-year community college, complete at least two years towards a 4-year degree, or serve two years in the U.S. military. After the six year period, an immigrant who has met at least one of these three conditions would be eligible to apply for legal permanent resident status. The Act only provides certain benefits to those who go to college. There is nothing in the bill that provides federal (Pell) or state grants and the cost of college is often out of reach for most of our students. This may be a technicality, but we often confuse access to something as equal to a right of having something.

For example, in July the United Nations passed a Bolivian sponsored resolution that safe and clean drinking water is a human right. The US abstained from supporting this measure, along with other industrial (capitalist) countries. Why? Because the US and others wanted access to safe and clean drinking water to be included in the language. If it were so, then the argument would be that safe and clean water is available, as long as it can be paid for. The privatization of water resources is far more important to the US (much like public education) than its availability to the public.

So the question regarding the passage of the DREAM Act is Cui bono? Who is the big winner in its passage? Who helped to write the DREAM Act, first of all? None other than the Pentagon. The DREAM Act is a military recruitment bill. Even though non-citizens and undocumented residents already can join the military, this bill provides the carrot of possible citizenship; this is not a guaranteed proviso.

What is the harm in all of this? Regardless of whether one supports an imperial foreign policy or not, the bill gives an overwhelming advantage to military recruitment. The military provides some things now that the hope of a college education will provide much later in life: three square meals, shelter, guaranteed (physical) health care while in the service, ‘promises’ of college grants through the Montgomery Bill, etc.

A young high school graduate in today’s economy has very few options, whether they be citizens or not. College tuition without outright grants is very difficult to obtain. It is no surprise that many do join the military when times are tough. That’s why it’s called a poverty draft.

What would make the DREAM Act acceptable? As much as I would like to take the military completely out of the bill, that is unrealistic. Many of our students actually do want to join the military. For many, it carries on a family tradition. For others, military recruitment in the schools (low-income schools only) and pervasive ROTC programs do unfortunately work to get their numbers up. Removing the military from our schools is another issue. What is missing in the DREAM Act are two fundamental pieces.

First would be to provide federal (Pell) grants to undocumented students to complete their education, whether at a 2-year community college or 4-year college or university. Second, there should be a community service component, as an alternative to military service. Already in many states, Maryland included, community service hours are required for graduation. How much easier would it be to get students to complete this requirement throughout their school career rather than wait until the last minute, if they knew that such service could be part of their lives after high school? It would no longer be a drudge but part of what they’re learning about citizenship.

As it stands, the DREAM Act is a military recruitment program. As our military engages in endless wars of imperial design, more likely than not, our vanquished look so much like our very students for whom we wish a better life, and a life that complements America’s greatness, not its ugliness.

On May 2 a fundraiser was held for the IDF in Pikesville, Maryland. I hope the Maryland State Police or Homeland Security identified all those in attendance.

I’d like to suggest that the jolly fellows from Fox be included. They really do scare me when they say that Muslims are bad apples.

Why stop there? The Republican legislature of Arizona is terrorizing the Hispanic population, citizens, documented and not, with its plan to stop people on the streets and threatening arrests and massive disruptions in their lives if they don’t have their papers. Maybe if we just declare Arizona a whites-only state, then those of color would feel safer just if they relocate, or be voluntarily ethnically cleansed.

Others suggested for stripping of their citizenship for terrorizing the American public:

• Governor Christie for scaring the shit out of teachers in New Jersey with layoffs and school closings.
• Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, for cheering on the closing of the Rhode Island school for failure to meet his standards of excellence.
• Nancy Pelosi, for liking Lieberman’s idea and just for being Pelosi.
• President Goldman and Vice President Sachs for destroying the lives of millions of Americans and the country of Greece.

It’s easy to make fun of Lieberman and his Nazi-like proposals. He’s an easy mark. Yet in all seriousness, although it’s improbable that his bill would pass, there are a lot of nutjobs like him running around trying to reshape the image of America in so many different colored lenses, as seen through the eyes of the Gestapo, the KKK, or the church of your choice. Teapartyers are either waxing or waning, depending on what part of the country you’re in. In Indiana, they failed to affect the Republican primary yet in Utah they helped to defeat Sen. Bennett, making him look like a liberal. Some really scary ass people!

We see how this administration is clearly continuing the path of the past Bush administration, or Clinton’s, or even a continuum from Reagan. Will his choice for Supreme Court guarantee a far right wing court for decades? Looks like his top choice, Kagan, will fit the bill for the neo-conservative lock on the court. 

Shane Kadidal of the Institute for Public Accuracy notes that the government is supporting a case in the Supreme Court that calls those who write letters in support of Hamas be labeled terrorists. By logical extension, that writer should be stripped of his or her citizenship.

Satire aside, Sen. Lieberman and those other sick motherfuckers are the real terrorists. They shouldn’t be stripped of their citizenship, however, but they should be outed for what they are.

Kansas City, Missouri is closing half of its schools due to similarly poor performing schools.

In all these cases, the teachers are either the scapegoats, or at the mercy, and the financial mercy, of their principals or their school districts. With public sentiment against teachers in general, there is little chance that they can fight this in the public arena. We all hear people say when told that an individual is a teacher, “I give you a lot of credit. I could never do that.” And, oh, by the way, ʻItʼs your fault that the schools are in such poor shape.”

Why are things so bad for teachers and other educational professionals? We have one of the best higher educational system in the world but our K-12 lags far behind others in spending. What is the culture that creates a broken system yet blames its victims or those fighting overwhelming odds against them to change it?

In a large part, itʼs the unions to blame. Not because they are perceived as always coming to the defense of poor teachers or demand too many days off or whatever else the public sees as to why they are an obstruction to their childʼs education. The problem with the unions is that they keep endorsing, and working for, the very legislators that keep their school systems in shambles.

Nearly a trillion dollars has been allocated for two illegal wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly a trillion dollars is allocated for a bloated military budget, without debate, and almost unanimously. And, nearly a trillion dollars is spent bailing out banks and Wall Street investment houses that have only themselves in mind and are not required to be held accountable for how the money is spent. Soon they will be bailing out the health insurance industry to who knows how many billions. Money certainly doesnʼt solve all problems but with the schools we need more teachers for smaller classes, school buildings for the 21st century, (including toilet paper in all the bathrooms); schools with libraries that have books, computers and librarians; computers available for all students; etc. Both parties are complicit in denying the needed funds. They are much to blame for our schoolsʼ demise yet itʼs the teachers who are the first to be blamed.

Nearly $70 billion is allocated to the Department of Education, a trifling number compared to what we throw away on the military and our imperial ambitions abroad. Ten times that much has gone to the banks. This $70 billion isnʼt just for K-12 but for all aspects of federal money to education. We have a Congress, both Democrat and Republican, and presidents, of both parties, that stand behind No Child Left Behind. Sounds good but sees education in simple numbers. What was made up in excessive testing of language and math skills was lost in the skills taught for the humanities; those subjects that truly rounds out an individual in their earliest stages of education. “Because the law demanded progress only in reading and math, schools were incentivized to show gains only on those subjects. Hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in test-preparation materials. Meanwhile, there was no incentive to teach the arts, science, history, literature, geography, civics, foreign languages or physical education.”

We see with the politics of education that teachers are easy targets. They are often contractually bound not to fight for real reform. A teachersʼ strike often results in a quick decertification of the union. Our elected officials prefer the slow death of unions, through charter schools.

Our leaders also believe in the creation of a numbers-crunching principal class as a way of reducing the role, and to deny the experience, of a teaching staff. How many principals out there have minimal teaching experience yet stand in ʻprofessionalʼ judgment of teachers experienced enough to have theoretically been their grade school teachers? They come from all fields and not necessarily from the field of education. With foundations like Gatesʼ and others churning out charter school principals with insulting salaries we see the role of the teacher being reduced to peonage status. Teachers need to take over their schools and set the priorities. It is the teachers, and usually those who have been at the same school for years, who know what works and what doesnʼt. Principals come and go with the wind. Their short term investment does not serve the long term goals of the schools. Principals should be there to help manage the resources.

Whatʼs missing is a political will to make a difference. We have weak unions that froth at the mouth every time thereʼs a challenger to the Democratic Party from the outside, and doesnʼt believe an ʻoutsideʼ even exists as a possibility for real change. Would a teachersʼ union ever endorse a candidate from another party that says reverse the budget for education and the military? Regardless of whether that candidate could win, the union is unlikely to back it, if it is not a Democrat.

Lastly, teachers need to be the vanguard of a new political party. Whether it be a Labor Party or something else, it must break away from the established party that has neither the principles or backbone to stand up for whatʼs needed in our schools today. The teachers unions, like many, have been under the thumb of the Democratic Party for so long it thinks itʼs part of the hand.

I for one am not at all upset that Obama has sold out the Left. Hell, he’s a Democrat. What person in their right mind would think that he wouldn’t be beholden to corporate interests first and foremost? Oh, 99% of Democrats, maybe. That’s why lesser evilism is the prevailing electoral philosophy in America. Yet some say that he was/is different. He’s smart. He’s a decent family man. He showed us hope. Well, he showed us hope like Reagan showed us that it was ‘morning in America’. In reality it was “Mourning” in America.

 In Baltimore during the last mayoral administration the slogan seen all over the city was the word, “Believe” in white letters on a black background. Like “Hope,” it was an empty slogan. “Hope” or “Believe” tell us that we’re on the bottom and we can only move in one direction.

Let’s pretend that the magic crystal ball does predict a one term president. What could he do (without being impeached) that would really make a difference?

He could scrap his health care plan completely, start all over, and go with Single Payer, which is supported by nearly 2/3 of all Americans. Hey, Michael Douglas in The American President scrapped his gun control bill in the end for a real working plan. People seemed to cheer him on for that ‘bold’ move, as bold a move could ever be made in Hollywood! Have a full fledged campaign, like it was an election, equating the pharmaceutical company and the health insurance industry to the likes of Al Qaeda. Who would dare to take Big Pharma’s and the insurance companies’ side? Learn from the right on how to mobilize your base. President Obama, the first community organizer, seemed to have forgotten how to do it once the election was over. Or maybe that he had no intention of disrupting the profiteering of the largest legal extortion racket in America: the health insurance industry.

On other issues, give up on the weasel-like pronouncements that the US opposes the expansion of the settlements in occupied Palestine. Come out and say that all the settlements are illegal and ought to be dismantled, according to international law. If AIPAC hasn’t hired the Aryan Nation by this time to take him out then continue to campaign for the full restitution of rights and the Right of Return for all Palestinians forced into exile by the formation of the State of Israel.

End the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. The war in Iraq has already ended in 2003 when they captured (and later on hanged Hussein), and when Obama was still a State Senator of Illinois. Bring the invading armies home.

Full fledged house cleaning of the military, weeding out right wing neo-Nazis, Christian zealots, etc., who are using their military training for a white, Christian jihad here in the states. That should include high ranking officers, as well as the soldier in the field.

Reverse our age old policy of exploiting Latin America and welcome Chavez, Morales, and others as equal partners. Bring back CITGO gas stations, as we seem to be losing them to BP all over Baltimore. End the embargo on Cuba with the stroke of a pen.

Expand Secret Service protection and then grant a full pardon and restitution to Leonard Peltier. Watch out for pissed off FBI agents! Show the world that political prisoners in the US is part of our history but stops now. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now pressed President Clinton back in 2000 for a pardon but was rebuffed. Ah, President Clinton. The best Republican president the Democrats ever had!

Nationalize the utility industry, including water. Nothing that affects the lives of all Americans should ever be in private hands and for profit.

Demand of his Attorney General Eric Holder to hold full investigations on every known war crime committed; including those of Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 and even himself, as he has already committed war crimes with illegal detention, rendition, torture (yes, it still continues at Gitmo), etc. Show the American public that no one really is above the law.

The irony in all of this is that many on the left hoped that some of this would happen with an Obama administration. Too bad many have been punked by him: The ones who thought he was anti-war even though he ran on expanding it in Afghanistan and not ending the occupation of Iraq. Running against the health insurance industry but then giving them sweetheart deals to curry their support for a health care plan that omits the one plan supported by a vast majority (Single Payer). Showing signs of recognizing that Palestinians have been treated unfairly and then turning a blind eye as Israel engaged in a brutal invasion of Gaza.

It’s no fun being punked. Maybe we would have had a gradual Medicare system for all, like Ralph Nader suggests, if McCain had won. Congress would have been so enraged that such a health care system probably would have sailed through Congress forcing McCain to threaten to veto the only reasonable health care reform possible. With either candidate, though, the empire would continue unabated.

But if there were to be real change, real hope, than maybe a president not afraid of losing the next election would be so bold as to actually do what’s right.

Wait a minute. I am talking about Democrats and Republicans, aren’t I? Oh, never mind.

Fool me once shame on you.
You fool me you can’t get fooled again.
– GWB

Spoken like the true idiot that he is.

So we expect a whole lot more out of the Obama administration. One bumper sticker even said, “Elect Intellect”. Kind of turns around the old Adlai Stevenson quip when one supporter said to him, “…All thinking people are for you.” His response was, “That’s not enough. I need a majority.”

The question to be raised is how does having someone new who’s smarter than a fifth grader make a difference in solving the problems we’re facing? Eight years has been a long time for our collective brain to atrophy. Can Obama restore that? Will it make a difference? When has the American public ever truly grappled with real solutions? We complain about the problems all the time. We’ve always expected our elected leaders to surround themselves with the ‘best and the brightest.’ That often gives the public the excuse to be the acquiescent sheep they are so carefully trained to be.

We see the Obama economic team made up of the very types of people who brought us to the brink of Depression. Being smart just isn’t enough. Missing from the team, and even his cabinet, are the very people who most truly represent those most hurt by this economic crisis: Labor and Consumers. Conspicuously absent? Not a word is mentioned of them, even by organized Labor itself. But that should be no surprise.

The leadership of the CIO sold out the UAW and the labor movement in 1936 when UAW wanted to start their own political party for labor and farmers. It was either support Roosevelt and the New Deal or funds for organizing auto workers would be withheld.¹ Since then, Labor has been under the thumb of the Democratic Party for so long now that they think they’re part of the hand. It is no wonder there hasn’t been a peep out of organized labor over the exclusion of Labor in Obama’s economic powerhouse team.

The Obama administration’s exclusion of Labor clearly shows that the Democratic Party sees Labor’s leaders as their loyal lieutenants. They see Labor’s role as having no value, except to call out their armies during election time. They also know that if they were to have a real independent labor voice on their team their entire economic plan to revitalize Wall Street and the banking houses could crash.

Will the rank and file union members ever wake up to the stranglehold the Democrats have over them?

What’s truly needed now are real alternative political parties. The Greens are out. In states like Maryland they can’t even organize a sock drawer, let alone a political party. Other state Green Parties are stronger but overall very weak and getting weaker. If one just goes by raw numbers, their recent showing in Louisiana had been the margin that helped to defeat the corrupt Congressman Jefferson. Too often, though, the GP is reluctant to crow about how it can make an electoral difference or even try to. If only the Party could have had some bragging rights in 2000, then 2004 might not have been so disastrous for them!

Libertarians have a very specific message, but with little money and no good organizers they might just as well duke it out with disenfranchised voters who might argue for staying home, still leaving the field wide open for the two main rivals.

Shouldn’t this be the time that Labor finally breaks from under the yoke of the Democrats, who are so hell-bent on being Wall Street’s electoral arm?

It is still inconceivable that rank and file union members don’t do to their union bosses what Terry Malone did to Johnny Friendly² and throw them all in the water.

The support the Labor movement gives to the Democratic Party is contrary to the needs of labor. When, since 1947, has any serious Democratic candidate, let alone the party’s platform, ever called for the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act, one of the most anti-labor pieces of legislation? It was the Reform Party candidate, Ross Perot, that Texan Ferengi, who in 1992 railed against NAFTA, our generation’s most anti-labor treaty. Bill Clinton and his Democratic Party pushed it through once elected with continuing backing from Democrats and Republicans alike. And, the one issue that often ties up all union contractual activities is not just outsourcing, bad working conditions or bad bosses, or even wages. It is health care and the need to keep what coverage they can. If health care was taken off the table, with a national health care plan along the lines of Single Payer in place, then unions could focus on real labor issues. Yet it is taking forever for the Democrats in Congress to sign on to any real health care plan independent of the health insurance industry.

A Labor Party would have very broad appeal. It would be a party for working families, regardless of their past political affiliations. And what difference does it make if it does hurt one party or another? If only it speaks for its members, why be apprehensive about whether or not its strength would hurt another’s whose interests are clearly not theirs to begin with? A Labor Party not afraid to stand up to the Democratic and Republican Parties would honor the labor heroes who struggled or died fighting for the basic rights of workers in America.

1. “Who made the New Deal?” Lance Selfa, 11/20/08, Dissident Voice.
2. On the Waterfront, 1954

Clearly in the beginning it was strong. Congress knew what millions of Americans and people throughout the world knew, that the war was base of lies and fraudulent testimony; only Congress went along with it to prove how ‘tough’ they could be in an election year.

But what has happened? When was the last time we’ve seen a real demonstration? And I don’t mean Spring fairs with Frisbee throwing and chants of Kumbaya? Why no shutting down of the entrance to the Pentagon (other than for the obvious security hurdles)? Why no shutting down of major routes going into DC? So many ‘why no….’ Lessons should be learned from the pro-immigration movement in their previous May Day shut-downs.

Unfortunately, the peace movement itself is a major player in the war. Let’s take an example from Baltimore. For years, there’s been a peace vigil every Friday at rush hour at a particular site. The organizer told the Baltimore Sun that he knows that this will not affect the end of the war. The only purpose it serves then is to satisfy egos and justify doing something or anything. But where is this vigil? It’s in front of the Homewood Friends Meeting House (Quaker) in the most liberal section of the city. It is also just blocks away from Johns Hopkins University, a right wing school but in a very ‘progressive’ neighborhood. The only radical thing they’re calling for is to honk for peace. No calls for wholesale impeachment of Congress, including most Democrats. No calls for war crimes trials against all responsible from the Bush/Clinton/Bush administrations. Why aren’t they in the working class sections of the city, or in the inner city, or in the staunch conservative sections of the County doing a regular vigil? Aren’t they the people one must attract to build a grassroots movement against the war? Not in an area where opposition to the war already ranges in the ’80s to ’90s percent.

Although this vigil, and so many like it throughout the country, may appear to be part of an anti-war movement it is also contributing to the war effort. Here’s how. In a ‘democracy’ like ours, the ‘voices’ of all people are encouraged. When the war parties can point to a constant vigil that remains polite and pathetically innocuous, the war advocates can say, “See. We are a country that encourages peaceful demonstrations. Aren’t we a great nation worthy of emulation throughout the world?!” In reality, because the movement with these vigils is so ‘peaceful’, they give credence to an overall system that engages in massive crimes against humanity. To this day, not a single elected Congress member or Senator from Maryland calls for immediate withdraw, impeachment, and trials. That includes Congressman Cummings, past chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, who claims to be against the war but hasn’t been shy about voting for whatever the Pentagon has wanted. And unlike the defeated Democrat Congressman Wynn of Maryland, Cummings does not even support impeachment. This long-standing vigil has had no practical effect in all its years.

One can counter and say it was the peace demos against the Viet Nam War and the Civil Rights marches that helped to end the war and bring certain levels of legal equality to all Americans. The reality is is that it was the military rank and file in revolt that was the major impetus to ending the war and the water hosing of innocent black children and the unleashing of dogs on bystanders by Bull Conner that galvanized the nation in support of civil rights. It was the brutal murders in Mississippi and Kent and Jackson State that woke up the nation as well as middle class body bags returning home. Singing Kumbaya might relieve tensions and put people in a better consciousness, but it’s the violence that people react to that affects change. And yes, there are counter examples. Ghandi, people power in the Philippines, and standing up to the tank in Tiananmen Square are notable for a non-violent approach to standing up against oppression. But even they would not have been effective for radical change if they were not reacting to violence by the British, the Marcos regime, and the Chinese authorities, respectively.

We should not deny that both methods have affected change. Relying on just one approach, though, in our fight to end this war is simply not enough. Disobedience, civil or otherwise, needs to be part of the movement. When the electoral and legislative process fails to end the war, what options do we have left? Changing the Party and face in the Executive Branch will only be cosmetic. The wars will go on, occupation of Iraq will remain permanent, and we will still maintain military bases all over the world.

These are mistakes.

In today’s media, and even in many leftist and ‘progressive’ outlets, we are seeing a very disturbing accounting of America’s mood on the war. The majority of Americans believe the war to be a mistake. The first definition of that term, using www.dictionary.com, is “an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.”

That would describe the 3 scenarios above. But why do so many see the war as a ‘mistake’? It is because we are losing. With over 3500 troops dead, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis murdered, towns like Fallujah wiped out, and corporate profiteering on Viagra, to say that this is a mistake is deadly wrong.

Mistakes are usually miscalculations. Yes, many mistakes were made in this war. “We will be greeted with flowers as liberators.” IED’s have replaced the bouquets. “The insurgents are in their last throes.” Vive la résistance! “They hate us for our freedom.” Yeah, like they strap bombs onto themselves and detonate in the middle of a group of mercenaries yelling “Death to shopping malls and KFC. Allah is great.” No, this war is not a mistake. It may have been poorly planned, but it was an illegal war of aggression from the beginning. The purpose was clearly world domination through control of natural resources essential for an industrial world power. If the economic forces have total control of oil, then that pushes our economic rivals, notably China and Russia, into a second tiered position in relation to us. In the Middle East, only Iran stands against our imperial designs, so naturally, they are the next ‘conquest’. The mistakes will be that Iran will not go peacefully into that Wall Street night.

If Iran is attacked, or invaded, people all over the world will rise up against American aggression, from Venezuela to Indonesia. We would be lucky if we are labeled just a ‘pariah nation’. Through the neo-cons own reasoning, we will be giving justification to attack American interests anywhere in the world. Perhaps the biggest mistake in language use is ‘opposition party’.

Fortunately, that term has fallen by the waste side, even by many Democrats. There is no viable opposition party in America. The Green Party is still way too small and ineffective to change either electoral outcomes or policy. However, to many, they are becoming the only
alternative to those who once thought they were ‘left’ enough to be Democrats. The continuing ‘mistake’ is the belief that the Democratic Party is fundamentally different than the Republicans. As Greens often run on how similar the two parties are, this claim is gaining credibility. Madam Speaker Pelosi, Congressman ‘Kowtow” Conyers, and all others in leadership have given ample reason for reasonable people to see their mistake in relying on them for progressive and anti-war, anti-fascist leadership.

Mistakes do happen. What’s important is knowing the difference between a mistake and poorly organized mass murder supported by both parties.

For many wavering Party loyalists, the recent Congressional capitulation to the President?s war plans is the final straw. As David Vest said regarding the evil in choosing one party over the other, it is like being “asked to choose between the village idiot and someone who’s consistently outsmarted by him.”

What choices do Democrats have now? Those who put Party loyalty over principle will clearly stay with their party hoping against hope that the Democrats will redeem themselves. But like waiting for the mythical messiah, or Godot, that will never happen. The alternative choices are simple. Register Green Party, Socialist, Independent, or tear up one?s voter registration card. Forming another party is way too burdensome and expensive, although strong arguments can be made that this country is ripe for such a move.

Missing from the calculus would be that leaving the Democratic Party would give us a right wing in control of all. That’s already here, thanks in large part to the Democrats. Remember when the strongest (but still wrong) argument for not voting for Ralph Nader in 2000 was that a Republican win would give us a right wing Supreme Court? Nader was probably finishing off his “The Seventeen Traditions” when the Democrats gave us Alito and Roberts without a filibuster. We can thank the Democrats for elevating Condi Rice to Secretary of State, rather than turning her over to The Hague for War Crimes. And to most establishment Democrats, Colin Powell still stirs admiration in their hearts and they wish he were one of them. He is. He just has an “R” next to his name.

On issues as labor (secretive free trade agreements lauded by the Chamber of Commerce), immigration, and refusing to support real universal health care with a Single Payer system, the Democrats have no argument left for why progressive should be in their corner. There is no corner in a circle and the Democrats have gone full circle to embrace the tenets of Republicanism.

How ironic that some think the savior of the Democratic Party is someone like Al Gore. Many people foolishly are wishing for him to enter the race. Michael Moore is one of them, as he implied it on Real Time with Bill Maher. The one person least deserving of the presidency is Gore. Not only did he not fight for the theft of his election in 2000, but he never lifted a finger to fight the disenfranchisement of thousands of black Floridians. He wrote an excellent environmental book before becoming VP, (Earth in the Balance), and produced an Academy Award movie on the environment (An Inconvenient Truth) after he left office. Too bad when he had real power as Vice President he was an environmental bastard. As one who has been part of the problem for decades, it is galling that he questions what is wrong with our politics today.

Cindy Sheehan has been known as the Peace Mom. She helped to establish an atmosphere where attacking the war, from its conception to its operations, is only an act of treason to the Fox network and their toadies, like Rudy Guliani. Perhaps she can be a trend setter in the political arena. Leaving the Democratic Party certainly is hard for many, but how can one look at oneself in the mirror if they don’t?