General Discussion

Omaha Steve

(99,645 posts) Mon Oct 1, 2012, 06:51 PM Oct 2012

I'm a lifelong Democrat and Michelle Rhee doesn't speak for me!

Take action at link.

http://signon.org/sign/im-a-lifelong-democrat?source=s.icn.tw&r_by=475598

By Matt Farmer (Contact)

To be delivered to: Michelle Rhee

Michelle Rhee, your recent op-ed in The Washington Post shows that you are tremendously out of step with Democrats who believe in equity and justice. Please stop trying to speak for us.

Chicago's teachers, like teachers across this country, work hard to promote equal opportunity for all children, regardless of their background. Yet for too long, the schools that serve our city's neediest children have been forced to deal with conditions that wealthy people like Mayor Emanuel would never tolerate for their own kids. Chicago's teachers believe that all students deserve a full curriculum, including art, music and science. All students deserve fully-stocked, fully-staffed libraries, where they can develop a love of reading. All students deserve to be safe at school and to have nurses and social workers assist them with their day-to-day struggles. Students deserve to be taught in buildings that are properly heated, cooled, and ventilated, so kids can focus on learning instead of fending off illness.

These are basic things that students and teachers in many Chicago communities have been denied for too long and which powerful local officials refused to address seriously until teachers went on strike in September. And that's why the Chicago community stood two to one with the teachers over the politicians, despite the hardship the strike caused. No one in Chicago wanted a strike, but teachers could no longer afford to tolerate these injustices to their students.

Yet shockingly, Michelle Rhee claims that by taking a stand for equity, members of the Chicago Teachers Union and, presumably, the parents and students who supported them are alienating themselves from the Democratic Party. Either Rhee doesn't know what this strike was about, or she has a vastly different idea than the rest of us about what it means to be a Democrat.

Equity and justice are core Democratic values. Indeed, they are core American values. If Michelle Rhee claims the party is moving away from these values, then she is out of touch with Democrats like us.

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