Saturday, February 7, 2015

Louie, I Think This is the Start of a Beautiful Friendship - Will Mulgrew Join the Resistance or Vichy?

Just watched Casablanca for the umpteenth time and was reminded of the contrast between the Vichy "seat at the table" mentality of the Claude Rains Col. Renault character and the Paul Henreid Victor Laszlo resistance fighter. And then there's Bogart, Rick - clearly a former resistance fighter - almost definitely a commie at one time (who else fought in the Spanish civil war?), now turned selfish cynic. Laszlo inspires them both to join the resistance -- he welcomes Rick back to the fight - "this time I know we will win."
Before getting into the war with ed deform and how the UFT plays the Vichy role -- Mulgrew/Randi as Louie Renault? -- they're shocked, just shocked that Cuomo is anti-teacher/union/public education -- take a look at the final scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kiNJcDG4E0



Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator captured the mood in his post on Saturday:
Mulgrew stands before the DA and bloviates for an hour. His talk is disorganized, frenetic. He comes back to things he hasn't finished. He sneers. He raises eyebrows. He speaks of how it's time to fight, how that's what he was taught when he grew up. He radiates the machismo that failed to surface anywhere during the six years we went without a contract, the machismo that evinced itself nowhere as the union said we'd happily wait another seven years for the raises everyone else got years ago. We all voted for it because it was better than nothing, because they said they weren't gonna do better and we believed them. Mulgrew shouts the determination to stop Cuomo that was nowhere to be found when Zephyr Teachout rose like a David but failed to garner sufficient force, that time, to slay the Goliath propped up by the dollars of our enemies. We know who the enemy is. Why didn't we know last summer, when we could have maybe done something about it?.... NYC Educator:  Entropy
Basically, all you have to do is watch Casablanca and read Arthur's piece to get which way the wind is blowing.

While we are surprised that Rick comes back to the fight and Louie abandons Vichy and joins him in the resistance, we would be shocked, just shocked, to see the leaders of the UFT/NYSUT/AFT do the same.

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Next: The UFT calls on school chapters to take action, but will it part with COPE and other money to help them?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Vichy France (Mulgrew) never did fight back and stood with the enemy until overrun by the Allies.

reality-based educator said...

Nahh, you're wrong about Mulgrew/Weingarten being the Renault/Claude Rains character.

Renault/Claude Rains had wit and charm.