"The Square", Casinos' UFT friends and the On-Going Mendacity of de Blasio

*What "The Square" conjures for teacher union activists *More disturbing gestures by Bill de Blasio *Why I am voting left instead of for de Blasio

An important political documentary is in the theaters, "The Square," Jehane Noujaim's documentary on the democracy protests in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. Noujaim, who nine years ago filmed the "Control Room," chronicles the activities of activists at Tahrir square and the twists and turns in political alignments and the changes in government.  The film is a powerful inspiration on the worth of pro-democracy activism.  I heartily recommend it to activists. It also gives viewers serious pause to the US' policy of giving a billion-plus each year to the Egytian regime. Of the gas and bullets lobbed at protests, of the vehicles running over protestors, I could not help but think that our tax dollars paid for these vicious crimes against our Occupy counterparts in Cairo.

Yet, in the latter part of the film it alludes to members of the Egyptian pro-democracy movement that went over to support the government of Mohammed Morsi. Critics charged that this move gave cover to repressors of democracy.

I could not help but think of the collaborators from the teachers movement, worse, Randi Weingarten, Dennis Van Roekel and Michael Mulgrew, who support the teacher evaluation programs and toxic Common Core State Standards experience that are destroying the teaching profession and American education. (Cravenly, they have accepted money from Bill Gates and other neo-liberal aggressive proponents of corporatized education. Read here and here.) Just as suffer from tanks or trucks literally running over protestors, American teachers suffer from evaluation systems that put complete blame for the state on American education without recognizing the impact of a depressed economic system that has high under-employment and record level income disparity for the industrialized world. As teachers are driven out of the profession out of revulsion and despair, the Weingartens, Van Roekels and Mulgrews of the teachers unions are at fault.

Is it any wonder that teachers are leaving the profession, in disgust and despair, that teachers are looking for alternatives to teaching, not because of the students, not because of the craft of teaching itself, but because of the totallized destruction of the profession, because of the degradation of the esteem of the educator?  The universal acceptance of every questionable tenet of the education "reform" privatization movement on the part of the political class (excepting Letitia James, New York City's soon to be public advocate) and the news media (especially embittering when compassionate liberals like WNYC's Brian Lehrer commit to a black-out of the real reformers of education, those going against the grain of the corporatizing of education) are features that foster further alienation from the standard politics and media.

VOTE NO ON NYC BALLOT QUESTION 1 ON CASINO GAMBLING IN NEW YORK CITY
So, we speak of betrayal of principle. It is very disturbing when we read of fresh, new ways in which the supposed leaders of the teachers unions promote another toxic development. The United Federation of Teachers have generously promoted Las Vegas style casino gambling in New York City to the tune of spending $250,000 from its political action funds to support a referendum on gambling. This has never happened with a free, open discussion by the members. And this advocacy is an expression of callous disregard for the toxic nature of gambling. As an occasional practice, gambling is not so offensive, but for too many it is an addictive undertaking depleting people of their resources. For far, far too many, addictive, problem gambling will cause the sapping of individual or family finances, the spending down of retirement savings, straining their credit lines, the withdrawal of an individual from quality family time in order to spend time with the gambling habit. As an example, in spite of politicians' claim that gambling saved Atlantic City, the reality is grimmer. In a survey by the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, 22 percent of respondents said that gambling was the cause of their homelessness. An early 2000s survey of gambling research indicates that the introduction of legitimate, state-sanctioned gambling locations generally is followed by a doubling of problem gamblers according to a number of measures.