Explicable School Massacres—Violence is American as Apple Pie
The tragedy at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School last week was particularly appalling, as most of its victims were between the ages of 5 and 10. AFL-CIO Boss Richard Trumka lamented the “inexplicable horror” of the massacre, while President Obama called for “meaningful action” to stop the seemingly endless wave of violence (e.g., Milwaukee Sihk temple and California’s Oikos University massacres earlier this year).
Even though the shooter’s motives are not yet known, there is much that is explicable about the incident, contrary to Trumka’s claims to the contrary. For example, it is probably safe to generalize that a person who walks into an elementary school and slaughters twenty young children is disturbed, if not insane. Apparently, there is some indication that family members
Chicago Teachers Tell the Rich to Back Off
Chicago Teachers Tell the Rich to Back Off
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is calling for a march and protest on December 18 to “Tell the Fat Cats: Get Your Paws Off Our Public Schools.”
While I could make many of the same criticisms of this that I have of the Occupy Movement (see here and here), I would rather call this a step in the right direction. (Plus, I really like their graphic for the protest).
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| (From the CTU website) |
Certainly this is a reformist demand that lacks a meaningful critique of capitalism or public education’s role in bolstering it. Yet a mainstream craft union is unlikely to ever do this anyway. At least the CTU is placing some of the responsibility for their district’s crumbling infrastructure and their members’ declining working conditions directly on the backs of the rich—who have been tripping all over themselves and Chicago’s children in the race to convert CPS school