Today I am thankful that I am a political activist.
I started my activism due to abuses that I personally witnessed in the public school system.
Yep, I had a teacher set me in his lap and grab my crotch. I saw many of my classmates sexually abused by my fourth grade teacher. His name was Mr. Kogan. I don't think he has ever won parole.
He threatened me and told me not to tell my parents. I did what my daddy said to do. He said that "do not tell" was a secret code for "tell". So, I told my Native American step-father what the teacher tried to do to me. The school did not want to help, so my daddy went to see the teacher and threatened to scalp him.
That teacher never touched me again.
That stuck with me.
*****
When I was older and had kids, I witnessed absurd things happening to children of color. I once saw my neighbor's young son dangled by the ankles by a white teacher.
When I interrupted her, said hi to the boy and mentioned having lunch with his mother, the teacher put him down.
The mother didn't want to touch the teacher. She feared her retaliation.
I remember.
Worse, my daughter was nine at the time. She saw it. She remembers.
My daughter is a 24 year old paralegal who fights for the civil rights of the downtrodden.
I successfully fought tax hike initiatives for this school district.
Why fund bad behavior?
That teacher and her superiors have no clue what that act has cost them.
******
Well, it has almost been fifteen years since I witnessed all of those abuses. These teachers were young back then. They acted like jerks.
That teacher...the one in the anecdote....she is now one of my neighbors.
Yep, I am not so nice to her when I see her in public. I know what she is.
Maybe I'll tell you what happened when I reported her*. It's sick.
******
These teachers have a retirement account that took massive hits during the recession of 2008.
The unions are trying to renegotiate their contacts to get more money to make up the difference. They are actually trying to get bond measures on the ballots that will go to fund these accounts.
They do not have a prayer.
Do you know why?
The children who were mistreated two decades ago are the voting taxpayers of today.
Behave or be bitten!
*****
I could go on and on about the abuses in the local public school system. The schools were getting $400 perks for every kid they put on Ritalin (even though it was illegal for a teacher to recommend it). They were kicking kids out for small infractions (like having caffeine while walking home from school) and billing the parents for summer school.
I even had one teacher steal an antique necklace that I had given to my daughter with the hypnotic suggestion that wearing the necklace would make her concentrate!
OOOH.....and you know what? Every time a teacher begs me to vote for a tax hike, I tell that damn story.
That story has been in the papers. The teachers apologize. They tell me not to let one bad apple decide my vote.
NO...it was several bad apples that made me the anti-tax curmudgeon that I am today.
*****
*I was 29. I had two children. I put my bass guitars and saxophones away to raise my family.
I had auburn curly hair. I had Irish translucent skin. At the time, my eyes were brown.
When I was a bass/sax player, everyone thought I was mulatto.
When I went to the school district with my complaints about how white teachers were abusing the children of color, the head of elementary education told me that it was none of my business because I was not black. Her name was Ms. M. Ray. Ms. Mary R. went on to describe the various shades of black that would determine my ability to complain. I'm not joking. She was judging people based on their skin color. She also told me that I had no business living in a predominately black neighborhood. That woman was a true b!tch.
Feeling the need to justify my address, I told her that I was an orphan (true). I told her that I was raised to respect minority culture (true because I was a jazz musician raised by a Native American man). I told her that I was raised to believe that my father was black (also true but the person that told me that was blind and senile). She said that I must've chosen to live in the area due to my questions about my ethnicity!
Did I tell you that this woman was a b!tch? I can't believe she pulled in six figures of taxpayer money for her stupidity! UGH!!!
How dare that stupid Ph.D. in education ask me about my heritage? Ooooh.....I knew those children abused in her schools. I babysat some of them. They were angels! I knew their mothers. I knew their fathers. How dare that over-educated snot get all racist on me?
I'll never forgive her for that.
I'll never forgive her for making my daughter want to be a civil rights attorney!
I hope she rots in hell.
*****
That's okay....almost every activist I know has a story to tell about the abusive public school system.
The public schools are creating their own enemy.
They'll never win a tax hike so long as they act like racist, elitist, snobbish butt potatoes.
It only takes one snobby, uneducated representative of a company to put a bad taste in every one's mouth.
If you want to win tax hikes, don't hire jerks!
*****
My worst memory was talking to a young black boy on the elementary school grounds. George W. Bush had just won his first term to office and this eight year old boy asked me if he could be president some day.
Yes, he could do anything he put his mind to doing. He was smart. He was a leader. He could do it!
I was reprimanded by a white assistant principal for telling the boy to study hard and believe in himself because (to quote her) "everyone knows that there will never be a black president in our lifetime."
Oooooh...it would only be eight years before that cracker b!tch would be proven wrong.
*****
In a nutshell....the abused students of today become the taxpayers of tomorrow.
If you want the dough, play fair or pay the price.
Sorry, teachers, but your unions screwed up by letting some of your cohorts act like buffoons.
Maybe you can salvage your reputation with the next generation of taxpayers by actually giving a crap about your students and not protecting molesters and abusers.
Love ya,
S.