PHOTO/BOB SIMPSON
CHICAGO — “Unreal. I am heartbroken and speechless. It is abhorrent to put a child and family through this!” says Nellie Cotton. In trying to get proper nursing care at school for her son, who was recently diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, Nellie’s efforts were answered by threats from the Chicago Public Schools administration and an investigation of her and her family by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Nellie (a member of Chicago’s Badass Moms group) takes being a responsible parent to heart, organizing petition drives and protests to express her views on school policy. Why is this conscientious mother under attack? What toes has she stepped on that would warrant this venomous response by CPS? The truth is Nellie is part of a huge movement for democracy taking shape in Chicago and across the country – a movement that is coming up hard against powerful corporate interests.
Voices of opposition are getting louder and more persistent. People are protesting the practice of starving our public schools of funds, then denouncing these same schools as failures, so they can then be replaced by profit making charter companies. Teachers and parents stand together at every meeting of Chicago’s appointed school board to oppose this policy. Parents stage sit-ins and even erected a tent city to protest their opposition to “turn-arounds” (a euphemism for putting a school on the chopping block). Even principal’s are speaking out.
“Every time these officials misinform the public about the impact of their policies, we need to follow them with a press conference of our own to set the record straight,” said Principal Tony Lavariere in response to a budget that pulls resources from the classrooms and tries to cut teachers pensions, only to turn over $20 million to Supes Academy. This is the same for-profit business that the CEO of CPS, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, previously worked for.
Protesting such corruption runs smack into a wall of resistance erected by Mayor Emanuel’s administration. This is why a recent Chicago Sun-Times poll found that only 29% of voters would vote for him today. It is bad enough that we can’t exercise any democracy in this city. On top of that, teachers and principals are threatened with being fired, and outspoken parents like Nellie Cotton are in peril.
But Chicago leaders do not stand-alone. From Benton Harbor, MI, where Rev. Pinkney is under attack for opposing a legal dictatorship and the privatizing of his town, to those getting arrested as part of the Moral Monday movement sweeping the South – the upsurge for democracy is swelling. What these assaults tell us is that even our voices can no longer be tolerated.
It is definitely time to choose a side. One side strives for a new world, where people are educated and cared for in a cooperative society. The other side demands our last drop of blood to transfuse their dying system. If we choose what is in our best interests, we’ll take the side of humanity every time.
