Blog

Thursday, March 31, 2011

It started with the principal’s morning announcement that a 16-yr-old student in our academy had been shot and killed Sunday night. Counselors were made available, but those close to the boy have struggled the whole week, today wearing R.I.P. Steven with his vibrant, smiling face emblazoned on red sweatshirts. It was unclear how kids were processing his death, but the halls felt different.

My ESOL students, removed from the American community were dealing with their own horror. A bunch of them had been waiting at the bus stop Monday morning when a little boy tried crossing a busy, 6-lane street (no crossing guard) and was killed in a gruesome accident.

Another student, also in this 3rd period class was again absent. A bright, Nepali boy, he was badly beaten on the bus on his way home from school last December. This is pretty common, as American students see the ESOL students as easy targets, banking them and then stealing their MP3s, cell phones, etc. He is among a handful of male Nepalis who simply cannot take the threats, harassment, and fear anymore and are functioning with very short fuses. They’re great hand-to-hand fighters, but Americans don’t fight one-on-one, so if you dare to defend yourself, you’re taking on 3 to 6 other guys. He needs counseling, a safe ride to and from school…and lots of support.

One of those males lost it at my door today. He was not allowed to enter (I was doing federally-mandated testing) but took the rejection personally. No doubt there was body language from the latino on my side of the door, but when another Nepali let the boy in, he attacked with rapid-fire, landing a bevy of hits to the latino’s face. By that time, I was up and across the room and clutching him from behind, so he couldn’t throw any more punches. (The last time I did this, it was a much bigger kid who flipped me head over heels, with me falling sprawled out on the floor, joining three other latinos fighting for an advantage from their prone position. Meanwhile, their target, who was just trying to protect his face, was getting kicked from the lone man standing. Four-on-one, not good!)

But, back to today. This kid, with incredible adrenaline driving him, was smaller, and I was able to keep him in one hold for awhile, and when he broke that, I was able to again restrain him with another hold using my legs. (It’s a shame we’re not taught wrestling in the Educ. curriculum.) Two school police officers finally arrived and relieved me of “control”. After about 10 min. of explaining, I was able to get back to testing while the two combatants hung out in my room, in their different camps…peacefully!!!

In these situations, I’ve learned it’s important to be cool…I did my best to hide my shaking (we were struggling on the floor a long time), and I avoided rubbing my head which took a hit from a desk as we were going down. And, I don’t know why -- if it’s the rush of emotion or what -- but I had to fight back tears as I was explaining what had happened to the two police officers. I totally understood why the Nepali went off, and I was incredibly proud of the latino who chose not to fight back (even after getting hit hard in the face). Instead, he focused on dodging the repeated lunges and punches. This kid had just had a terrible experience with the federal test…the ‘listening’ portion…not understanding anything and I’m sure feeling totally stupid! So, I have one student at his wit’s end due to the daily verbal and physical threats and another struggling with his sense of self after suffering complete humiliation. Ugh!!! This is not what childhood…or adolescence is supposed to be about!

And, was that enough for a day? A week?

Less than an hour later, a developmentally-delayed Kenyan, a very big kid, who has been beaten, kicked, and pushed down many, many times because he’s always smiling…and when the Americans tell him to stop, he just smiles more, unable to verbalize anything….with the Americans interpreting his silence and smile as an Insult!, thus beating, kicking him all the more. After dealing with this reality for the past 4 or 5 months, this very sweet kid has begun acting out, and with his size, can do a lot of damage quickly.

Anyway, as I was trying to explain the roots of the earlier fight to my science class, two girls jumped up and ran across the room screaming. I looked at the boy who was sitting next to them, and he looked possessed: eyes wide-open, fists clenched and shaking, unblinking eyes, red and watering like in intense anger….a scene!!! “Had he been laughed at, made fun of? Did the discussion trigger something?” Then, I realized he couldn’t understand any of the conversation and was having a seizure. The most intense part lasted about 5 minutes. Despite the wide-open eyes, he saw nothing, heard nothing; he just sat there and shook.

As soon as I had realized what was happening, I asked a student to run across the hall and have a teacher call a nurse while I stood next to him rubbing his back…not sure if he was about to explode or not. Again, the wait. It took more than 10 minutes for the nurse to arrive!!! She was alone in the clinic and couldn’t leave until the assistant came back. So, with my earlier lesson plan that centered on nutrition morphed from an explanation of the school’s layers of racial oppression to first aid and seizures!!!

To top it off (granted it’s only Thursday), as I was driving home, I passed a cop car blocking off a street with yellow crime-tape sealing the entry to an apartment project behind him. This killing added to another one in a shopping center parking lot on Tuesday, on top of the little boy’s death Monday…all of them within a half-mile radius of each other.

This has not been a normal week re/ murders, but it has been entirely normal regarding violence. It’s epidemic, and these kids have no tools to defend themselves or process the context.

The information needed, the thinking required, the empathy plumbed…cannot be wrung out of standardized test prep. I wish we could wait for a superman…like that might be a possibility…but instead opportunist right-wing politicians attack teachers’ laziness, incompetence, and greed….while the center (Obama, Duncan, and Democrats in general) hide behind the authority of their podiums and comfort themselves with finely-crafted visits to the hinterlands seemingly ignorant and uncaring about the realities of inner-city America. As if a 3-year funding stream of “Race to the Top” can make any kind of difference…when school systems nationally are laying-off tens of thousands of teachers!!! Part of me wonders if the ‘big’ bourgeoisie is preferring to write-off the inner-city as a rotten core of superfluous workers. And, instead of investing in its development, is comfortable sitting back letting the young males kill each other off…avoiding the high costs of incarceration!

Yes, we have teachers who are tired, burned-out, and shouldn’t be in the classroom, but I am heartened daily to see the efforts many more of my peers who come back day after day trying something new to reach their students. More often than not disappointments outnumber achievements, but when things click, they’re injected with a new dose of hope with dreams….perhaps not unlike our hopes for the O’s who open this Saturday!!! [A new teacher across the hall celebrated her last period class that totally got into new census statistics and the concept of affirmative action].

We could be better in so many ways….but the problems are soooo huge!!! From the isolation of our classrooms (lacking technology, heat [for three weeks my classroom hovered between 58 and 62], and AC [with room temps going over 100 in May, June, August, and September]) to the implosion of the inner-cities, there’s no quick fix. But, if there are solutions…or improvements to be made, teachers have to be a part of the process! There are too many things wrong, too many players that have to be engaged. The ‘reformers’ have be more than the billionaire grant-givers who know nothing of these realities…and don’t bother to research them! And, there is no Superman!

This entry was written by Tom Smith, a Progressive City Councilor from Ward 3 in the late 80s and again in the late 90s, and a two term member of the Vermont House from 1991-1994. He is currently a teacher in Baltimore, MD.

In an amendement offeredby Health Care Committee Chair Mark Larson (D-Burlington), the term "single payer health care" was excised from the H.202, the single payer health care bill, in part (according to vt Digger) to make it "more palatable to Republicans."

How did that work out? Was it successful, despite the long track record of Democrats watering down health care reform in order to get Republican buy in? Well, the streak remains unbroken, as no Republican voted for the bill as it passed third reading in the house early this morning.

How big a majority is needed before abandoning the idea that you lead with retreat? If the Republicans were down to one member in the house, would we still be watering down legislation to try (and fail) to get that one vote?

Join Progressives and concerned Vermonters of every political stripe this Tuesday at noon at the Statehouse in Montpelier, to rally in solidarity with the Wisconsin workers!

Mass demonstrations, sit-ins and civil disobedience have so far prevented Gov. Walker from muscling through a “budget repair bill” that would strip public sector workers of the right to bargain collectively over anything other than wages.

Walker’s bill would also end the automatic payment of union dues and compel unions to hold votes each year to recertify their status as bargaining units. The legislation would also force public employees to pay more for their health insurance costs, and contribute more of their paychecks toward their pensions.

The stakes in Walker’s war on labor are clear to both sides. If he wins, he’ll set an example for Republican governors and legislatures out to break public-sector unions in Ohio and Iowa. He’ll also make it easier for Democratic governors, like Peter Shumlin and Andrew Cuomo of New York, to appear more reasonable as they press their demands that public sector workers suffer cuts in wages, pensions and jobs.

The difference is that Democrats will leave public-sector unions mostly intact—not because they’re pro-worker, but because they want labor’s fundraising and get-out-the-vote operations at election time.

In Wisconsin, the unions see themselves as fighting on behalf of the entire working class. And nonunion workers, professionals, and students understand that the organized working class has the power to hold the line against employers and politicians who are determined to carry out a permanent and deep cuts in public services, education and the standard of living of working people.

A Transformative Moment?

The new labor movement that is arising is from the beginning a political movement. It does not focus solely on the usual issues—working conditions, wages, and benefits—but rather on the political and programmatic issues usually take up by political parties: the right of workers to bargaining collectively, state budget priorities, and the tax system which funds the budget. The new labor movement, because it has begun in the public sector must find a political voice. This has tremendous implications for the traditional relations between organized labor and the Democratic Party, especially since the Democrats, from Barack Obama to state governors like Shumlin and Cuomo, are also demanding that public employees give up jobs, wages and benefits.

Today we in the labor movement are at a turning point. American employers, the two political parties, and government at all levels have decided that the time has come to move against what is the last bulwark of American unionism: the public employee unions. In Vermont, while only 11.8 % of all workers are in unions, in the public sector, unions represent 45.9 % of all workers, and the number is even higher among teachers.

America’s political and economic elites are looking for the final solution to their labor problem—and we are not getting on the trains and going to the camps. Public employees are fighting back, nowhere so dramatically as in Madison, Wisconsin.

When large numbers of workers go into motion, political consciousness grows and changes rapidly. Workers who today simply fight to defend union rights will, if we succeed in resisting the right’s attempt to destroy our unions, go on to fight to expand not only our rights, but to improve our working conditions and standard of living. Most importantly, we will fight to expand our power. What is today primarily a political fight in Wisconsin, that is to defend the right of public employees to have a labor union, bargain collectively and enjoy the right to strike, will inevitably become a struggle for better conditions, higher wages, and health and pension benefits.

A revitalized labor movement will challenge the old political relationship between the unions and the Democratic Party. Unions will fight at first to force the Democratic Party to give up its conservative budget, tax and labor policies, and failing to do that, will seek another vehicle. Whether we will build the power to put forward a national political alternative remains to be seen. In Vermont, with the Progressive Party, we can set a powerful example. Today, with the Democrats lowering taxes on the rich, cutting budgets, and laying off public employees, we may be in for the kind of confrontation between workers and a pro-business Democratic party that can produce a potent political alternative. The task at the moment is to build the fight to defend public services and public employees unions and their rights, but this leads directly to political confrontation.

In December, when I first heard about a possible contract between the city of Burlington and Lockheed as part of our Carbon War room I was shocked, disappointed, scared, and appalled. My mind raced with questions. Why would we associated with a multi-billion dollar company that profits from war and destruction? (Lockheed gets 85% of its revenue from the Department of Defense.) Why would a Progressive invite such a company into our city or state? What justification could there be for this collaboration? As much as this seemed like a no-brainer to me, I started to dig deeper and do some research. I wrote to Mayor Kiss, I attended public forums, and I opened my mind to the possibility that maybe there was a positive benefit to this idea. After two months of searching I have found no possible benefit to this collaboration and stand even more firmly against this contract.

Some have suggested those who oppose this oppose public-private solutions and collaboration. For me this couldn’t be further from the truth. I believe such collaborations are necessary for both the public and the private sector. By joining together we can create mutual goals and work to hold each other accountable. But this only works when the two parties each bring something to the table and when they are each responsive to the other. Lockheed can give us money; Burlington can help them with their reputation in a tiny way. The relationship is inherently unbalanced and the reality is Lockheed doesn’t need Burlington and we have no leverage to hold them accountable to promises they make.

The most compelling argument I could find for this collaboration is the climate crisis is too urgent for us not to attack it from every possible angle. I have been extremely active in the climate change movement for as long as I can remember and actively participated in 350’s 10/10/10 celebration. Many, many Burlingtonians and Vermonters have made sacrifices, done without, challenged thinking, and given time and money to combat global climate change. Lockheed is possibly the number one contributor to climate destruction and in no way could be considered a leader in climate solutions. At the same time they are proposing to help us with sustainability in Burlington they are working to bring F-35’s to Burlington, which I've been strongly opposing. These fighter jets use 2,000-4,000 gallons of fuel an hour! Any good they could do on the community level would be wiped away in an hour or less of flying this fleet. Inviting Lockheed to join our movement and place their name and logo on our movement minimizes all we have accomplished.

The most worrisome part of this contract is the idea that representatives of Lockheed would be in our local schools and working with our children. Like many, I’ve fought to remove military recruiters from our schools. I am deeply concerned by the way we normalize violence and war and desensitize our young to the horror our military perpetrates, especially on the young, women, and the elderly. Welcoming one of the leaders of the military industrial complex into our schools goes against all I, and many others, believe. I do not want young Vermonters to see the Lockheed logo on TV and have a positive thought about what that business might have done in their school.

Lockheed Martin is the worst of the worse and I guarantee there is nothing Burlington can offer them that they can’t get elsewhere. They are using our positive location, pro-active citizenry, and good name to try and greenwash the negative perceptions of their company. Obviously they value what we have already accomplished but I can find no plausible reason we (Vermonters, Burlingtonians, Progressives) should enter a contract with them, welcome them, or assist them in any way.

So two months later I find myself still shocked, disappointed, scared, and appalled but also educated, angry and motivated to fight this contract. I hope others will join me and the many who are speaking out on Monday, February 7 at 7:00PM for a Burlington City Council Meeting. We must show Mayor Kiss and the City Council that we are committed to addressing the climate crisis but we will not sell out to Lockheed Martin to accomplish this. We deserve so much better than this and we must oppose this contract.