I don’t even have anything to say in response. I’m so angry at him and sad for our country.
November cannot come soon enough.
A View From the Schoolhouse
I don’t even have anything to say in response. I’m so angry at him and sad for our country.
November cannot come soon enough.
Rod Paige has called the NEA a "Terrorist Organization." He would have you believe that the rank and file of the union membership — teachers, of course — are all in favor of NCLB, but it’s only the union that is against it.
This is just more outrageous behavior from the man responsible for some very questionable data reporting on the so-called "Houston Miracle." This administration just doesn’t trust and doesn’t like teachers — especially public school ones.
But Paige’s statements go way too far for me. Calling the largest teachers’ union a terrorist organization is an unforgivable insult to the profession. Rod Paige should resign, and I’m telling the President myself.
Here’s my letter:
Dear President Bush,
As a teacher (and UFT member), I am outraged by Secretary Paige’s statement calling the NEA a "terrorist organization." For the Secretary of Education to have such blatant disrespect for the largest union of teachers is an insult to those of us who work hard every day for our nation’s children.
An apology from Mr. Paige is not enough, as he has shown a powerful disrespect for teachers with his comments. Rod Paige should resign from his position as Secretary of Education, as he has shown himself unwilling to work with one of the largest organizations acting as a force for good in the lives of America’s children.
Yours truly,
Chris Lehmann
Beacon High School
New York City, NY
Pathetic.
The man’s ego knows no bounds. He has lost the backing of the progressives who spoke out for him in 2000. He is losing the support of the groups he founded — as Public Citizen backs away from him. Matt Gross says it well, when he writes:
Not content with having destroyed, in 2000, the reputation he had built up over a lifetime as a trusted champion of progressive causes, Ralph Nader is once again embarking on one of the greatest ego quests in American history.
While most progressives have turned away from the mirror long enough to look at the Bush administration and realize that defeating Dubya is the only priority in 2004, old Ralph is still transfixed by his own gaze. (Look how beautiful and righteous I am!)
And what’s so sad is this just reminds me of my PIRG days. So many of the upper echelon of the PIRG staffers had the same sort of self-righteous arrogance that Nader showed on Meet the Press today. There really were only two sides to every argument, the PIRG side and all the wrong people. I didn’t always agree with the exact PIRG line, and it was for that reason that my time at PIRG was short-lived. I managed to redefine my own activism into education, choosing teaching as my grass-roots activism, but I also saw a ton of 22 year olds look at PIRG and think, "Well, if this is the activist life — and if this is how progressives act — I’ll just go to law school instead." Clearly, PIRG isn’t the only model, just as Nader is not the only progressive out there, but they were one of the organizations that hired young people. Just as Nader’s prominence in presidental politics gives him a very powerful voice in the progressive movement. Both Nader and the PIRGs wanted such loyalty from their supporters that dissent wasn’t really part of the equation.
I don’t know… when the Nation, when members of the party you were claiming to help to build (why did you abandon the Greens, Ralph?), when so many people who should be your supporters beg you not to run, and you choose not to listen to any of them, why should any of us listen to you?
By the way: The Nation’s Open Letter to Nader is a must read.