and a little tidbit from the AFL-CIO:
This from AFL-CIO Political Communications Director Eddie Vale who’s on the ground in Madison, Wis.
As we speak, Gov. Scott Walker & the Senate R’s are literally having the windows of the capital welded shut to keep people from passing food into the building to the people inside.
Our attorneys are collecting affidavits from the people who witnessed this, along with people who have been illegally denied access to a public, government, building.
We will be filing for a TRO [temporary restraining order] to open the Capitol.
It is a sad for democracy when Governor Walker and his R Senate allies are locking the people of Wisconsin out of theirown state capitol.
E2 – ya, me too, I was wondering what in the hell Fire Code they are breaking not only by sealing the windows but by bringing welding torches in such close proximity to people and therefore endangering them by a second count – oh, and if the windows are made to open then I presume the internal air circulation/cleaning system is not meant to handle the load thusly endangering the lives and health of the people inside on a third count?
Where is the Fire Department now? And the Health Department? and – ?
very cool jere, thank you. the matrix is one of my favorite geekgasms, a beauty*full association. happy to share the shows, happier you enjoyed them. you reminded me of an ‘old school’ aphorism “don’t rock the boat, sink the fucker!” 🙂 rawk on brotha!
Stormi, I always picture a mixture of Edgar Allen Poe with the scene in ‘The Matrix’ where Neo decides to go for the ride.. underneath the bridge, looking down the street.., when I see your name.
Thanks for the links.
This added to my arsenal.
(..I’m here to blow this fucker up!..)
I won’t stop until I’m dead. ..And even then.. (Death is an illusion)
Jere
Welding the windows shut? If the state is so broke, exactly how much money is that wasting? And more importantly, what about the fire safety laws? Egress from windows is an essential part of fire safety codes both for escape and to allow firefighters entrance to rescue and deal with a fire. And talk about synchronicities, isn’t this the 100 year anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory where the workers dies due to inadequate escape routes and barred doors?
On the other hand, they can always break the windows I suppose, unless they are made of reinforced glass, in which case they are extremely difficult to break.
ok for real this time this is it then i’m out, but to clarify “cultural workers” – i use it in this sense; http://www.edrev.info/reviews/rev28.htm
buenos noches!
and lastly, with much gratitude … changing educational paradigms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
ok i lied, i thought of one more but first … the danger of a single story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
this week a student in class wondered what the poem was that was read in the movie Patch Adams, because she loved it. it’s one by Neruda, sonnet 17. i found Taylor and his wife reciting it, beauty-fully, in both original language and English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKjzEHqPHQs&feature=related
i teach and work with teachers. much of the conversation this year has been about how devalued we are, not considered to be of a certain calibre professionally, hence “anybody can teach”. since NCLB, there have been many attempts to get rid of teacher education programs altogether, in addition to the increase in privatization of textbooks and curricular programs, way too many of which are not authored or researched by actual expertise in the field of education itself. WHY? is what i ask. who knows the actual learner best but the one or few people that actually know the significance of creating a connection with another human (learning to) BEing in order to gain a smidgen of understanding of who they are and the where/why/how/what they come from and live and know that they bring into the classroom every day? yet who is the least valued when it comes to voicing choices, and given the least power when it comes to assessment and evaluation? i do agree that teachers need to be more active but need to know in the first place (hopefully through their preparation) two foremost things; EDUCATION IS NEVER NEUTRAL and that EDUCATION IS ALWAYS A POLITICAL ACT. i can thank a teacher for that knowledge.
it is not easy to be the cultural workers of any culture, much less the ones we are living today. especially if you really love education and honestly care about the Beings you’re guiding along and yourself in praxis, within a system that is still structured as a top down institution of socialization. one conversation i’ve made more prominent this semester is that teachers should be expected to have the same kind of professional development as doctors and lawyers because there is so much more than we require now to be a 21st century educator considering the complexity of the multiple roles necessary to truly address each individual’s story. which reminds me of another video that i’ll post next so this doesn’t get held up in moderation…
and i will stop there before i doth go on about the entire other debate about the achievement gap and the last frontiers of public education and all the inherent problematizing and possibilities of (NOT) waiting for some kind of Übermensch… 😉
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/28/134134735/Op-Ed-Rage-Simmering-Among-American-Teachers
I have to say, been there, done that, heard this message for 100 years, or at least as long as I’ve been teaching. And now it just pisses me off. Everyone agrees, yet there is never any change. Everyone agrees we don’t get paid enough or the respect or the resources to do our job…yet our society replicates this over and over, year after year.
But I’m also mad at teachers, at us…I’m mad at our mantra, the “I’m so good, I’m better than any other profession because I’m in it for the right reasons” mantra..such a good soul to accept this lack of money, accept this lack of respect from society for the good of the children, for the good of our students. We make ourselves feel good as martyrs. Each and every school year, and all the workshops in between, is filled with this message, this self pep-talk.
You guys, we have to see that it’s this mantra that keeps us in place, keeps us from standing up, from organizing and demanding the professional respect and salary that we deserve. It keeps us passive and feeling good from the inside, so we don’t have to be respected and compensated on the outside.
I wouldn’t trade my job for the world. I love teaching, I love education. But we have a love/hate relationship. And we have to start seeing what we’re doing, how we’re lying to ourselves, convincing ourselves and how this “great goodness” that we have contributes to the very conditions we complain about.
Agghhhh–thank you for letting me express that.
One of my all time favourite quotes:
“It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and our air force has to have a bake-sale to buy a bomber.”
Robert Fulghum
I love Taylor Mali, and I love the revolution in Madison even more. I am a teacher and I say the solution is to put all of those Republicans in Madison in a low income, inner city school where the teachers have to bring toilet paper, kleenex, deodorant, sanitary napkins, and liquid soap to school-or there won’t be any. I want them to work at a school where free breakfast and lunch are the only guaranteed meals, and where funds have been slashed so much that there are no supplies, the computers don’t work, absenteeism is high among the faculty and staff and subs don’t want to come because the children are a “handful”. At a school that is the dumping ground for every other school. And I want them there for two weeks. As teachers. The low men and women on the educational totem pole. No, they should be there a month. They need to be there long enough to get a paycheck.
Holy crap. Welding the windows shut.
I dearly hope someone got some video of that…….
..my dad used to say that same thing, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, Teach.” Along with, “I’m in the business to make money, not friends.” He was a Viet Nam Draftee ruined child.
I took the opposite, and have learned from it: “I’m in the business of making friends, fuck money.”
..though I do respect its energetic capacity, I will never get down on my knees in front of it.
..no matter how much it feather’s.
We Require Those who are willing to treat our children as human beings. WE NEED THIS. Those who realize children are only unjaded versions of ourselves. Those folks who lend a concept to the young one who is struggling with identity issues, in a world where the false is status quo.
We Need Teachers.
..All of us have ‘something’ to bring to the table. Let’s have a pot-luck!
..and enjoy eachother!
Jere
..that was a REALLY cool rant!
Thanks, Amanda! As a teacher, Mali’s poem sums up my day, and every day. Some days are good, others can be horrible, but every day I strive to make that difference known.
As to Wisconsin, when is Walker going to burn down the Capitol, a la Reichstag? Have they no shame? We know they have neither morals or ethics, nor intelligence, but what ever happened to shame?
Rockin’ video.
I hope thats not Union Welders working on those windows in Wisconsin. May a snowstorm wreak havoc with their efforts. Either in the courts or without.