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I had the honor and pleasure of riding on a bus full of spirited teachers and support staff on their mission to rally for education at the state Capitol last Monday.

I am not a teacher. I raised two sons who attended public schools, have a grandson who graduated from a public school and is in his second year at a state college. I believe in public education.

I come from a working class, union family who never had the money to send any of us to a private school. Charter schools werent even thought of back then. My parents paid their taxes and knew that some of that money went to support public schools where their five kids would be given the best education available.

I believe that unions are good and that the unions for teachers are designed to help them get the full range of benefits and safe working conditions that they should have. That is why I supported Sarah Fortney when she ran for Polk County School Board. She believes this as well, as evidenced by her never-ending support for the teachers and support staff in Polk County schools.

I cant begin to tell you how emotional it was as the crowds from other school districts parted and allowed the mass of Polk County teachers and support staff, chanting We Are Polk, enter the building. These are the same teachers who were bullied and threatened for their jobs, and yet they made their signs and they boarded those buses at 6:30 in the morning and were delivered to the parking lot at the civic center in Tallahassee. Polk County was, literally, the star of the show in Tallahassee and it was inspiring.

Sadly, it was for something should never have happened.

And Im not talking about the letter that Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd sent out after hours in what was perceived as a threat to the staff. That was unfortunate, a bad call on her part, poor planning at best.

Im talking about the past 20-plus years in the Legislature that have been controlled by the Republican oligarchs. I keep hearing, even from those who are supportive of public education, that this is not a political issue. Rev. Al Sharpton said is wasnt political, that it was a moral issue.

Yes, morals play an important part in this issue, but we cant legislate morals although many try.

This is a political issue. We can legislate how we should fund our schools, how to make sure that our teachers have the best, up-to-date tools and equipment necessary to teach our children.

We can legislate budgets that direct our taxpayer dollars to public schools rather than divert our money to charters and private schools who are not held to the same standards as a public school. Charter schools, where the teachers arent as regulated, arent expected to have the same level of education, nor are they even expected to be committed, full-time employees. Charter schools that can be set up in a strip mall almost overnight and given thousands of dollars that could have helped a struggling public school; and then may shut down in a few short months.

This is a political issue when our schools, our teachers salaries and pensions, our students access to quality teaching tools and everyones safety are all controlled by the Legislature. And just a reminder here, the Legislature has been in control by the Republican Party for over 20 years.

You can say that politicians created this problem but look at who has had the power in Tallahassee for over 20 years. Democratic lawmakers can submit all the great bills they need to, but if the majority leader doesnt get them to the floor for a vote, it goes nowhere.

Im suggesting this: Please stop wrapping this around all politicians. They are not all the same.

And please stop saying this is not a political issue. It is absolutely a political issue. Teachers and parents, if you want to have the same old, same old, and be treated the same old way in 2021, go ahead and vote to keep the Legislature controlled by the same Grand Old Party that pushed you to your historic Take on Tallahassee day.

But if you want something different, you may want to consider voting for the Democrat on the ballot in November. And even better, find a teacher who wants to run for office. We have several running now. We could use a few more in Tallahassee.

Or you can join the new statewide Democratic Public Education Caucus of Florida. Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DPECF/ or http://dempubed-fl.org (under construction).

Karen Cooper Welzel is chairwoman of the Polk County Democratic Executive Committee. She lives in Winter Haven.

Excerpt from:
Polk Perspective: Support teachers, support schools and support Democrats - The Ledger

Al Sharpton said Friday on MSNBC that President Donald Trump loses his temper because he is covering up for his lack of knowledge.

The panel was discussing reports on Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnigs new book, A Very Stable Genius, which has an account of whenformer Secretary of State Rex Tillersonallegedly called President Donald Trump a moron.

Sharpton said, I think youve got to always go back to who Donald Trump is as a person. Donald Trump always wanted to be in the circles of influence and was always rejected. Always seen as this outer-borough guy whose daddy had money. You know, with Roy Cohnthey were not considered respectable.

He added, I think a lot of the bombast including this encounter we just talked about is that he rejects getting into those kinds of conversations because he really does not understand the policy or the strategy that youre talking about it. So rather than sit there and try and learn, he overrules everybody with bombast and with anger, so he doesnt have to engage in the conversation, so you dont know that hes really not a moron, which Tillerson found out and assessed and said.

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Originally posted here:
Al Sharpton: Trumps Bombast Is an Attempt to Cover Up His Ignorance - Breitbart

As in most of Crown Heights, strollers, tricycles, balls and scooters fill the lobby of the apartment building where I live with my family. Children are constantly going in and out of one anothers apartments, little girls huddle together with snacks as they block staircases and wild dodgeball games take place in the courtyard on a Shabbat afternoon.

Crown Heights recently in the news because of violent anti-Semitic attacks is home to followers of the Chabad Lubavitch movement. They have lived in the neighborhood since the early 1940s. Like most buildings here, ours is occupied by black and Jewish occupants.

Families are, in general, neighborly and respectful to one another, and some have even become close. Last summer, tragedy struck a black family in our building when their son was murdered in an altercation at a bodega a few blocks away; Jewish families organized a meal train so that the grieving mother and children wouldnt have to worry about dinner for a few weeks.

The media dont cover black and Jewish coexistence much, but it is a feature of life in Crown Heights for many residents. A friend who grew up a few blocks away from where I live enjoyed a warm relationship with her next-door neighbor, an older single black woman. She recalls her mother sending the kids over with fresh challah and chicken before Shabbat, her neighbor attending their childhood gymnastics performances and bat mitzvahs, and gift exchanges during the holidays.

To be sure, there is also fear and resentment, too. Acts of anti-Semitism have become part of everyday life for Jews in Brooklyn, with viral videos of each incident quickly becoming old news as fresh footage arrives to replace it.

Crown Heights highlights from the last few months include a rock hurled at a bus carrying elementary-school girls; a window at their school smashed with a gun on a Friday night; a homeless man from a Bronx shelter entering the central community synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway and yelling that he would shoot up the place and kill everyone; a 33-year-old woman slapping three Jewish women and yelling F--k you Jews; and a group of black teenagers attacking a Chabad man with a chair.

While crime has always been a part of life here, these attacks arent typical muggings, but intentional anti-Semitic acts.

This month, documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz asked black Crown Heights residents why they thought the attacks were taking place. The responses often reflected classic anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews as domineering exploiters. Said one resident: It seems like Jewish people own all the buildings out here, and they own everything, and theyre not sharing nothing. It seems like they own all the property, and we dont. They dont even try to help us. Another echoed this theme, saying, They own everything down here. Theyre coming over here and taking over but theyre not bringing it back to us. See, theyre kicking us out.

At the same time, racist attitudes about African-Americans persist in the Jewish community. Many Jewish residents remember the mob murder of Yankel Rosenbaum during the 1991 Crown Heights riots, the incitement by black leaders like Al Sharpton and the chanting of death to the Jews in the streets. Others defend their use of slurs or holding of racist viewpoints by citing violent crimes committed in the neighborhood by blacks.

In the last few years, three families in the neighborhoods Chabad community have adopted nonwhite children and written publicly about it. Im one of those adoptive mothers, and Ive spoken to Jewish women about my experience, the foster-care crisis and the need to rid ourselves of bias as we raise the next generation of Jewish children. The young women I speak to, mostly under 40, are responsive to this message.

These communal shifts in attitude have made the recent onslaught of attacks on Jews by blacks all the more traumatic. Chabad mothers social-media groups are filled with recommendations on where to get pepper spray, how to find self-defense classes and expressions of anxiety and sadness about feeling unsafe.

The progress that I see around me will be threatened if anti-Semitic attacks continue in Crown Heights.

Malka Groden is deputy director of development at the Manhattan Institute. This column was adapted from City Journal.

See the article here:
Crown Heights blacks, Jews share real community thats now under threat - New York Post

Baytya Ungar-Sargon, the opinion editor at Forward, writes:

I missed the @NRO piece that let someone call Jews locusts, and then claimed hassidic men dont work & rely on welfare. Now theyve allowed Kevin Williamson to call the Jews getting beaten and killed stupid for objecting to the piece. Truly abominable.

This is a lie and a slander. There is no reasonable reading of the piece in questionwhich is, ironically enough, about the willful misrepresentation of a news reportthat bears that interpretation.

Bethany Mandel, leaning on the shift key, writes:

This is absolute bullshit. Im sorry. This is infuriating. A LOT of people who defend NR and Kevin from cancel culture bullshit criticized the piece. IT ALLOWED AN ANONYMOUS BIGOT TO CALL JEWS WHO WERE THE TARGET OF A MASSACRE LOCUSTS.

Ive written probably 50 times about Al Sharpton calling Jews bloodsuckers and worse. At no point did I insert a parenthetical reading (And I very strongly object to this characterization!). I dont write for morons.

Some people have ugly and stupid views about things; sometimes, those views are of public interest and are written about in news stories. This is not allowing someone to say something but reporting that it has been said.

Mandel is being ridiculous and dishonest. Which, ironically enough, is precisely the sort of thing I was writing about.

See the rest here:
As If They Were Working To Prove My Point . . . - National Review

This column as its name clearly indicates has always attempted to say, In Plain Language, exactly what I feel ought to be said. Without much sugar-coating, often with harsh bluntness, with no small amount of criticism expected from those whose minds and souls have been numbed into confusion from an overdose of political correctness.The Almighty in a generous attempt to always keep us on our toes and give long-suffering, unpaid columnists like myself fodder for future columns has blessed us with a seemingly unending series of crises to worry, write and obsess about. So lets shine the spotlight on three current issues:1) Oh, Soleimani! With a little help from its friends (read: Israel), the United States sent this demonic mass-murderer to a well-deserved spot in Hell. Only similar lovers of evil could bemoan the brilliantly executed execution, or mourn the loss of this monster, who not only orchestrated the murder of hundreds of Americans, but was a touchstone for terror throughout the world.And yet, to the shock and amazement of even cynics like myself, cries of Was is it necessary? Was there justification? ring out from various Western do-gooders, who would coddle the criminals and vilify the victims. True, many of these are beleaguered Democrats, hopelessly infected with Trump Deranged Syndrome, who will never bring themselves to acknowledge any positive action by the president. As America prospers and the Republicans not only promise, but deliver, they are watching their chances for re-taking the White House crumble into oblivion.But other voices, unconnected to US politics, are also in need of some basic education: There are bad, evil people in this world whose barbaric behavior can never be tolerated. They are beyond rehabilitation, beyond redemption, and no amount of money even the $150 billion criminally bestowed upon them by Barack Obama can retard or remove their relentless desire to destroy the decent, democratic way of life that we know to be superior. Iran and its protgs of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis will not stop until we stop them.2) The War Against the Jews. Just as nature and the stock market have their cycles, so does antisemitism. After some three generations of laying low, this seemingly eternal malady is starting to again lift its ugly head. Even in places where kosher Chinese restaurants and Shomer-Shabbat Little Leagues abound, observant Jews are starting to wonder if they can continue to walk with yarmulke held high let alone wear an I Love Israel T-shirt in public.Contrary to what some self-serving Dems would have you believe, the core of these increasingly brazen acts of hate does not derive from white supremacists though there is no shortage of these low-life scum that must be eradicated. The majority of assaults on Jews are coming from two main sources: the black community (euphemistically referred to as people of color) and Muslims. Take these two groups out of the equation and we could pretty much let our collective peyos flail in the wind with nary a second thought.Of course, this is not to say that all or even most of the Afro-American or Muslim communities are engaged in or supportive of antisemitic behavior. But until and unless the attackers are weeded out and called out by the leaders of these segments of society - including national figures like Obama, Al Sharpton, and local Imams the problem will only accelerate, and bring down not only the Jewish neighborhoods, but the host country itself. Hate , like fire, rarely stays within precise boundaries.3) Which brings us to the final crisis the dreaded A-Word. Should Jews in America, the UK and Europe as a whole, finally start to consider aliyah in earnest?I have closely followed the acrimonious debate going on between well-meaning advocates of emigration to Israel and staunch defenders of the American Way. As one prominent American rabbi wrote, Israeli Jews dont leave Israel because of terror attacks; just as American Jews shouldnt leave America because of antisemitic crimes. Counters an Israeli rabbi: If we mistakenly failed to cry out in 1933 for aliyah, should we repeat our error, until it is once again too late?Both sides, I believe, have merit. We must, of course, be our brothers keepers and appeal to our Western family to put safety first and come home. But the essence of our push for aliyah must always be, as my wife Susie says, an aliyah of no ifs, ands or buts.Not, Id make aliyah if I could find a well-paying job in my field; not Id make aliyah, and where would I live, considering the high cost of housing? Not Id make aliyah, but how can I leave my parents/kids behind? While coming to Israel to evade and avoid danger is certainly justified indeed, the majority of our immigrants came to Israel to escape oppression or poverty it is eminently preferable to make aliyah for positive reasons; that sends a message that Israel is a heaven, and not only a haven.I CANNOT end without adding a word of thanks to Alex Trebek for clarifying, once and for all, that Israel is our ancient homeland. Until he so proclaimed it, we were in Jeopardy of not knowing the truth ourselves. The writer is director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Raanana; jocmtv@netvision.net.il

Read this article:
Crisis and clarity - to make Aliyah or not - The Jerusalem Post