Shut It Down

Disenfranchising children!

STOP SCHOOL REFORM: THOUGHTS FROM the LIFE OF A"BAD" TEACHER

Shut It Down

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57 Years

I was eleven when a 16-year-old man molested me. I told my mother and we took it through the court system. I wish we hadn’t. I felt so small in a large courtroom with my braids tightly wound. I entered the unreality that was adult trauma. That was 57 years ago.

When I was 16, the hormonal curiosities fell upon me, weighted like my molester’s sweaty frame entrapping me. Sex, a dirty, unwanted, urgent aversion consigned me to frivolous behavior of fever-pressed imperatives to shake free sexual negativity. I tried to erase foul, obscene, indecent thoughts from my soul. That was 51 years ago.­­

In my twenties, countless men delighted in my frenzy with orgies, binges, and debauchery. Quite suddenly, my mania ceased to drive me to the edge. I felt despondent and depressed, to the point of suicide attempts and isolation. That was 46 years ago.

Six years later, I enjoyed the company of my son’s father to be, who respected me as I respected him, and I became pregnant. That was 40 years ago.

Motherhood taught me self-importance, appreciation, and strength to persevere in my trials as a single mother. Sexuality no longer seizes my attention. That is now.

For the past 57 years, I relive the moment of my violation when I was eleven. Every time the news focuses on a new sexual abuse, I relive the moment. Every time the abusers get away, I relive the stark helplessness I felt when I was eleven. EVERY TIME!

I will not say that I relived this foulness 57 times; it is more like a multiple of 57, probably more than one per year. The judicial system does not appreciate this. It perceives that th­­­­e crime is over. The crime is NEVER OVER!

What did my violator get for a sentence? Probation. 57 years ago.

View story at Medium.com

Merry Xmas

Plastic wreathes
In windows hung
Comically urging
Yuletide dung.

Tinfoil garlands
In garish array
Brassily shouting
“Have a nice day”.

Winking dwarf light bulbs
Vulgarly strung,
Convulsing in spectra
Carelessly slung.

Modest mute manger
Enduring the blaze,
Buried in corner’s
Obscured hushed haze.

 

“We’re all going to say ‘Merry Christmas’ again!”

          -Donald Trump 2016

How Peace Works

All hail to the peacemakers:

Their presence so strong.

Their outreach encourages

Wise sense in our throng.

 

The schools for the peacemakers:

Utterly serene

Universal, inclusive,

Structurally clean.

 

We get from the peacemakers:

Goodwill, synchronized,

Harmony, tranquility

Composed, equitized.

 

We give to the peacemakers:

Agreed assurance

Unity, purposeful oaths

Pledge reassurance.

 

We all become peacemakers:

Enduringly kind.

Evolved, inevitable.

A product of mind.

America Is Getting Bamboozled With Betsy Devos! She Is All In On The True Agenda: Cradle To Grave Workforces Of Tomorrow

Rebel? We’ve been rebelling for years. Nothing short of a full-blown revolution will do. There will be many casualties, and some of us will survive. This is more than who will survive with a revolution!

Exceptional Delaware

It’s real easy to play Monday morning quarterback after your team just took a huge hit.  Donald Trump promised (and fooled) many citizens into thinking he could get rid of Common Core.  So much so that his pick for Secretary of Education is now backtracking on her years of actions financially supporting Common Core.  She sits on Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education.  This foundation LOVES Common Core and all that comes with it.  DeVos, through the Betsy and Steve DeVos Foundation, poured millions of dollars into pro-Common Core candidates.

On some Betsy DeVos Question and Answer website that sprung out of nowhere, she denounces Common Core.  This website was created on 8/16/16, but her picture was just added this month.  This isn’t some long-time website that shows the DeVos denunciation of Common Core.  This website was created specifically for the possibility of a Trump win.  Why would anyone put…

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From Books not Bombs to Books not Bullets

Taking to the streets is democratic! Viva la revolution!

A Voice

From Books not Bombs to Books not Bullets

Daniel Lichtenstein-Boris

Fifteen years ago, thousands of high school and college students at hundreds of campuses across the country went on strike—walking out of class against the looming war in Iraq, in a movement called Books not Bombs.

President George W. Bush, falsely declaring that the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a terrorist threat and was building weapons of mass destruction.  He set his sights on invasion and occupation, to finish a war his father had started.  The US we were still shocked and scared, l reeling from the attacks of September 11^th, planned and executed by Osama Bin Laden, a member of the Saudi royal family (U.S. troops had been stationed in Saudi Arabia since the first Gulf War), and the U.S. media dutifully repeated Bush’s lies of Iraqi’s weapons of mass destruction, whipping the public into hysteria and…

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No Service Here

by Kathy Powers

April 30, 2018

Where will we go

To get our food stamps?

Where will we go?

Follow the rules.

 

Where can we go to?

Where is the person

Who tells us if we live or die?

 

When did this happen?

We got no notice.

Why did this happen?

We need some answers.

 

Is there an answer

In our new chaos

That tells us if we’ll live or die?

 

Where do we go?

How will we get there?

We have no bus fare?

How can we go?

 

Pushed to the edge of

Chicago’s west side

Six miles across the city

 

Where does the truth lie?

How can we live?

How will we die?

Tell us why!

 

Tell us where!

Tell us how!

Tell us why!

Tell us why!

The State of Illinois moves the site of the Department of Human Services office in Uptown from the far northeast side to the far northwest side. This make State human services inaccessible to many beneficiaries.