Walking the Walk, MLK Style

I've read a few pieces today concerning Martin Luther King, Jr. One that struck me was by Paul Krugman, who asserted that King would be disappointed if he were alive today. Despite the huge strides we've made in race relations in the past half century, including electing a black president, Krugman believes King would be appalled at the class system that has emerged in its place. I agree.

King would also, I believe, be disappointed in the performance of the first black president. Obama channeled King in 2007 when he said, "If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I’ll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself — I’ll walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States of America."

The difference, of course, is that King actually put on those shoes and stood up for unionism, fairness, and the American worker. He was in Memphis, Tennessee on April 3, 1968 to fight for union rights despite the fact that his life was being threatened. He made his last speech that day, his famous "I've Been To the Mountaintop" speech that presaged his death. He was assassinated the next day.

Meanwhile, Obama is still looking for his shoes. I hope he finds them, because he will never fill those that Dr. King left behind.

If you haven't already, head on over to NYC Educator's blog to read his excellent piece on King and the current state of education in America.

Adding Insult to....Insult

After whining that the Assembly bill to restrict charter schools was "...an insult to parents and children and Dr. King and his legacy", Mike Bloomberg approved of the bill by signing off on the NY Race to the Top Application.

In related news, Bloomberg kept his promise to switch department heads for three weeks, swapping, for example, the deputy commissioners of the Parks and Education departments. The idea behind the switch is for city officials to learn about things they know little of. The mayor himself offered to work for the Department of Human Services in an effort to learn what it's like to be human. Aides quickly dissuaded him by informing hizzoner that it would involve working with actual poor people.

Besmirching Dr. King

One of the reasons Dr. Martin Luther King accomplished so much was that he spoke right to the hearts of the American people and appealed to their hopes and aspirations. I can't remember a cynical word ever proceeding from his lips. That's why it is so disturbing that Mayor Bloomberg chose today of all days to invoke the name of King to help him push his slimy agenda of creating charter schools and making a grab for the RttT funds.

In describing a bill in the legislature that would take charters largely out of city hands, Bloomberg said, "Dr. King told us that a right delayed is a right denied and this bill would continue to deny those children the quality school options that they deserve. The bill is really an insult to parents and children and Dr. King and his legacy."

The only insult is that Bloomberg would think that he could co-opt Dr. King's heartfelt words and use them for his own political ends. Exactly whose rights would be delayed or denied under this bill? The "right" of Bloomberg's rich pals to open charter schools for fun and profit? The "right" of people like Eva Moskowitz to earn 400K a year off charter schools while siphoning off space and resources from public schools? The "right" of the mayor and chancellor to close down neighborhood schools that serve the most needy of our children so they can push their small school/charter school agenda down our throats?

Here are some real rights that Mayor Bloomberg has delayed and denied to New York City school children:

• The right to a reasonable class size that gives them an opportunity to learn.
• The right to benefit from the proceeds of the CFE lawsuit that was supposed to help level the playing field.
• The right to attend an effective public school no matter what neighborhood they come from.

Instead, Bloomberg has increased class sizes, cut the school budget even as the CFE money came in, and closed or attempted to close neighborhood schools like Jamaica HS rather then work to improve them.

It's disgusting that the richest man in New York thinks he can invoke the legacy of one of history's greatest champions of the downtrodden for the sake of political expediency. As Dr. King also said, "A lie cannot live." If that is so, surely Bloomberg's own legacy will soon be on life support.