Julie Strikes Back

What matters is leadership. What matters is vision. What matters is the philosophy by which one will govern and represent the membership. I believe in a union that is member led and member driven. When I, or a candidate from MORE caucus, become president of the union, you will not have to attend a DA and sit idly and listen. The DA will be yours. When we take over leadership of our union, we will organize, support and build fighting chapters at the school level with elected district representatives who are trained organizers.  When we run the union, leadership and staffers will make salaries equivalent to the teachers we represent — there will be no extra perks, no double pensions.  When we lead our union, you will not go more than three years without a contract, at least not without organized job actions and a fight.

When Unity’s stranglehold of the leadership of our union ends, the members will have representation that believes in solidarity with other unions and in the power of our collective action. You will have a union that educates, mobilizes, and organizes our members and the public and who organically partners with parents and young people. You will have a leadership that truly understands that our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions, that a harm to one is a harm to us all, and that we must stand side by side with deep roots in the communities we serve to fight for social, racial and economic justice in our schools, in our city and across the country.

 ----Julie Cavanagh responding to Unity Caucus attacks at MORE blog.

The attacks on Julie as being unqualified to run the UFT remind me of the Republican/Pallin attacks and derision of Obama for being a "community organizer" given Julie's work in the community around her school, the basics of grassroots organizing.---- ed notes

In the midst of dealing with a sick child and getting ready for a few days of breathing room from working as a full-time teacher, mother, chapter leader, presidential candidate, school and neighborhood organizer, best friend and supporter to too many people to count, Julie Cavanagh found the time to respond to the Unity hack/slug attacks while Mulgrew hides under the table.

Listen, I actually happen to like Mulgrew from what I see of him, but if he had to face a debate with Julie and answer tough questions about UFT policy he just wouldn't hold up. And she would. So it is funny how the Unity people claim she would cave while backing Mulgrew's refusal to debate.

Duck, Mulgrew, duck.

So I don't blame Mulgrew for ducking. That doesn't make him a bad person and maybe it means he is smart to not want to debate Julie, knowing full well her capabilities and his weaknesses. (Randi was willing to debate the late Michelle Malkin representing PAC, a tiny caucus, in 2001).

Mulgrew bears responsibility for Unity attacks

But then the Unity attacks on her qualifications in such a coordinated manner means he must bear responsibility for them and that means he is condoning them while the anonymity of the commentors provide cover for people who are clearly amongst the leadership, allowing Mulgrew to say, "who me?" It happened to Kit Wainer in the 2007 campaign when thousands of teachers received an mailing at home attacking Kit. Randi claimed she didn't know. Sure. Can we expect a similar mailing with the same type of attack on Julie this time?

I'm not speaking for MORE here but let's challenge any of the Unity hacks/slugs or anyone else in Unity to debate any people in MORE in a public arena. Watch them duck this one too. Let any of the commentors on the MORE, ICE, and Ed Notes blogs come forward and stand up for what you say you believe. How about Emil and Camen debating Gloria on what exactly happened with the UFT governance committee instead of using the DA to beat Gloria up? No guts, no glory.

New Action, inaction
And watch New Action in all this. They will probably issue some inane statement about keeping the election process clean. Then watch some of them go over and schmooze with Julie after the election and commiserate. I try to tell Julie and other MOREs that New Action is worse than Unity. They know they can never contend for power and have no intention of doing so but will do Unity's bidding in making sure a CORE-like caucus will not get traction in NYC. They really are despicable. Just look at their leaflet taking credit for the sun shining and making it look like they are criticizing Unity while burying the fact they are running Mulgrew at the top of their ticket -- and don't think Unity people are not helping them get their stuff into schools -- Leroy Barr killed a potential lower level debate between MORE and Unity over including New Action -- they like 2 against 1.

Attack on Julie will come back to bite Unity and New Action after the election

One of the major miscalculations on the part of Unity is their basic ignorance of Julie's stature in and beyond NYC. And all the people she has worked with. They live in their insular box. All they are worried about is the election results this time. As more teachers get to know Julie over the coming years, these attacks will resonate with them.

You know my interest is not in the election but in building a core group of activists with a wide reach and the election was seen as a way to do that. The very fact that Julie has chosen to work with MORE, given her wide range of options, is a sign of change that is a real threat to Unity. Thus these attacks.

That is the only way to challenge Unity and if MORE stops doing this after the election only to come back in 3 years it is wasting its time. The attacks on Julie and her response will go far and wide for a long time. If it were up to me I would put it out as a leaflet to stuff in the boxes. (I will put together a pdf for anyone who wants to share with their staff.)

You can read Julie's response at the MORE blog and at ICE where James Eterno, the ICE-TJC 2010 Presidential candidate and an avid Julie supporter along with his wife Camille (which given their long activism should mean something -- would they be willing to turn the UFT over to someone unqualified?) added this comment:

As John Kerry found out in the 2004 presidential campaign, mud sticks so you better fight back fast and that is what MORE Presidential candidate Julie Cavanagh is doing.  She will not be "swift-boated" by Unity. Here is her response on the ICEUFT blog to the viscous Unity attacks on her fitness to lead the UFT .  It will also be on the MORE blog.

http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/more-presidential-candidate-julie.html

Please read and comment but don't forget we still need to work hard on the ground game to get out the vote as ballots will be mailed as soon as we come back to school.

James

And a MUST READ is NYC Educator:

Is UFT's Delegate Assembly a Forum for Candidates' Debate?

Should Working Mothers With Sick Babies Attend the DA?

 If you don't get to MORE or ICE, Julie's entire statement is below:

Cavanagh Defends Her Record and Asks Mulgrew to Debate His

25 Mar

By Julie Cavanagh

Wow. While having breakfast with my husband and almost nine month old son (who is finally on the mend after more than a week of a fever ranging 102-104 every day, during the same time my best friend’s 18 month old daughter was in the hospital, who by the way, is also a teacher and a single mother of two young children), I picked up my phone to see a mention on Twitter from Arthur Goldstein (teacher and chapter leader in Queens). I frankly couldn’t believe what I was reading. Usually a mention from Arthur has me in stitches. Not this time.

Now instead of relaxing while my baby takes a nap, I am writing this in response to comments on the ICE and MORE blogs attacking my commitment as a unionist and chapter leader and questioning my worthiness as a candidate for UFT President. All of this because I, and the caucus I represent, had the nerve to insist that Michael Mulgrew engage in a forum or debate with me so that our members can be fully informed and engaged when it comes to their voting choices in the upcoming election.

First let me say that I do not feel I need to defend my role as a chapter leader. Nearly every UFT member in our school, signed my petition for UFT President, and many of my colleagues are actually running in this election with MORE.

Second, I certainly do not need to defend my attendance at Delegate Assemblies. While I do attend, often, DAs are not a democratic forum. As I am sure the commenters on the ICE and MORE blogs know, and as all Unity folks know, the room is not even large enough for all of the CLs and delegates to be seated and when you do go and sit, you listen to Mulgrew practice his stand up routine for an hour or so, after which you *might* have the chance to ask a question or bring a resolution to the floor if Mulgrew recognizes you. Regardless, it is an effort in futility because it really doesn’t matter what you say, ask or bring to the floor; the ruling Unity caucus will disagree with it or vote it down, since they control the DA. If the UFT leadership actually held Delegate Assemblies each month that were informative and provided fair and ample time for discourse and discussion, I would be there in a New York Minute. As this is not the case, I attend as many Delegate Assemblies as I can, but sometimes other events such as a childcare issue, my son being ill or an important meeting in my community to bring a new partner into Red Hook to service children and families with disabilities will take precedence. I do not need to go to the delegate assembly to prove who I am or that I am committed to my union; I act every day in a way that highlights why I should be president of the UFT.

I am a mother and a teacher. I have been a teacher for thirteen years, and have been working with children with special needs and their families for even longer. I have stayed in the same community and school since moving to NYC in 2001, because I am committed to the process of leading school change and improvement from the school level. I became chapter leader at the request of my colleagues a few years ago and have worked hard with them, our parents, and our principal to make sure our children and our teachers have the best learning and working conditions possible. I fought for my school during the dictatorship that my union handed to the mayor, during a co-location of a charter school in my building that my union didn’t adequately help fight (which is difficult since the UFT leadership chose to co-locate its own charter), while our class sizes rise steadily and our budgets are slashed, while teacher’s choice was eliminated and insultingly reinstated to cover no more than a few boxes of pencils, while ATR’s rotate in and out of my building- some of whom  have approached me on the brink of tears desperate for someone to listen to their struggle, during a time of a tidal wave of assaults on our children, our schools, and our profession.

Throughout this time, I not only worked in my own school community, I worked with parents and union members across the city and the country to fight back. You can find links to some of my work here, but I will list a few highlights: I co-wrote/edited/produced/and narrated a film that stood up to corporate education reform, a film that has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people in every state and on every continent (except Antarctica); I have appeared on several TV and radio programs and written several articles where I have spoken out forcefully against corporate education reform and for the schools our children deserve – and I was invited or asked in every single case to participate, so while those in Unity caucus pretend to not know who I am or what I have done (but yet ”know”, falsely, that I am not at DAs) apparently the national media does; I have also worked with other union members in the city and nationally – I helped organize a conference, and attended and facilitated, in Chicago in the summer of 2011 with other teacher union members; I helped lead the solidarity efforts with Verizon workers at the end of that same summer. I have sued, with a parent and a student, Mayor Bloomberg for the right to protest school closings and co-locations on his block and successfully organized and co-led that protest. I was the only teacher petitioner in the effort to stop and overturn the appointment of Cathy Black and also recently the only teacher on record to join with parents in sounding the alarm of student and teacher data privacy issues regarding SLC/inBloom data systems (Randi Weingarten, by the way, sits on inBloom’s advisory board). I say all of this not because I think anything that I am or that I do is so special, I share this information to highlight the outlandishness of the attacks from people whose usual line is there should be no attacks on union folks because we are under attack from outside forces and therefore need ‘unity’. I also share this because these are the things the president of a union should do.

Beyond of all of this, if Unity caucus can attack me for the number of times I went to the DA (this year I believe I have been to four DAs), the number of grievances I have filed (none), the number of UFT trainings or committees I have attended (none), then I wonder why they nominated Randi Weingarten as their presidential candidate, since she never attended a DA as a chapter leader, was never a chapter leader, and therefore never filed a grievance, attended the trainings, etc.

I personally do not think any of those things are what makes someone qualified to run our union. What matters is leadership. What matters is vision. What matters is the philosophy by which one will govern and represent the membership. I believe in a union that is member led and member driven. When I, or a candidate from MORE caucus, become president of the union, you will not have to attend a DA and sit idly and listen. The DA will be yours. When we take over leadership of our union, we will organize, support and build fighting chapters at the school level with elected district representatives who are trained organizers.  When we run the union, leadership and staffers will make salaries equivalent to the teachers we represent — there will be no extra perks, no double pensions.  When we lead our union, you will not go more than three years without a contract, at least not without organized job actions and a fight.

When Unity’s stranglehold of the leadership of our union ends, the members will have representation that believes in solidarity with other unions and in the power of our collective action. You will have a union that educates, mobilizes, and organizes our members and the public and who organically partners with parents and young people. You will have a leadership that truly understands that our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions, that a harm to one is a harm to us all, and that we must stand side by side with deep roots in the communities we serve to fight for social, racial and economic justice in our schools, in our city and across the country.

I am more than ready to share who I am with the members of the UFT and I am happy to answer their questions. In fact, that is precisely the reason I sent the email below to Michael Mulgrew. I believe a union membership with a less than 30% voter turnout needs to be engaged and exposed to open discourse and conversation between the two people who seek to represent them.

Mr. Mulgrew, I am still waiting for a response.

***

Sent: Mar 14, 2013 8:01 PM

Michael,
I hope this email finds you well.

While we have differences and disagreements concerning education policy and union democracy, we both are committed to our union and the children we serve. In that spirit, we should be able to engage in an open conversation during election season so we can ensure our fellow members are informed and engaged.

To this point you have ignored outreach regarding your participation in a debate or question and answer town hall with me. I would like to directly and formally ask you to participate in such an event.

I believe that our members deserve the opportunity to ask questions of their presidential candidates and I strongly believe this kind of open and honest discourse strengthens our union: an educated and engaged membership that is listened to and participates makes us stronger.

There is precedent for an event such as this between presidential candidates during election season.  As you know, Randi has participated in presidential debates in the past: one in 1999 and again in 2001.

I am open to a debate format with a third party moderator or a town hall question and answer event with the membership. My only specific asks are that the event be filmed and/or livestreamed so that we can maximize member participation, that the date, which I am open to any, be agreed to a few days in advance, so that I can secure child care and that the date be as close to April 3rd as possible, so that we provide a fair amount of time for members during the election timeframe.

I look forward to your response.
In solidarity,
Julie Cavanagh

Unity Slugs Attack Julie Cavanagh as Candidate After She Misses DA Due to Sick Child

There is no little irony in these Unity Caucus attacks on parents of young children as somehow not being qualified to serve in high union positions.

I have to say I am disgusted by the petty and personal attacks against a young mother on this forum ---There are few as poised and articulate as Julie Cavanagh. It's pretty hard to get pro-teacher pieces published in the Daily News. Julie's done that. It's pretty hard to be brilliant and articulate enough to narrate a film. Julie's done that too. I've met Julie, and I knew right away how smart she was. I'm very sorry some small-minded individuals have decided to target her. --- Arthur Goldstein on ICE blog.


... she's running for the grueling, time consuming position of UFT president. That's pretty much being on call 24-7. Maybe she shouldn't be pursuing this right now. Seriously, I hope everything is ok with her baby, but, how often does that happen? And, would it be a valid excuse to blow off the mayor with?----- Unity Hack comments on ICE blog.

Get rid of it --- Bloomberg to pregnant employees.

Arthur is responding to some of the comments Unity slugs are leaving on the ICE blog so typical of the attacks made on women for eons.

Given such major stories as new Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer with a young child less than 3 months younger than Jack (On the same day "Yahoo!" announced her hiring - Mayer revealed that she was pregnant. Mayer gave birth to a baby boy on September 30, 2012) ----

-----these Unity hacks are beyond boundaries when it comes to defending their perks and positions from the MORE threat. (Note the silence of the New Action lambs -- and one day I'll get into the male dominance thing in New Action.)

Of course the Unity hack then engaged in a personal attack on Arthur:
Arthur, stop being a wordy blowhard.

Arthur responded: Frankly, your inability to engage in civil discussion suggests you are not a teacher remotely like me.

Then a hack asked: Has MORE's candidate, Brian Jones, been attending the DAs?

Brian is not a delegate or chapter leader and is on child care and study leave.

That's 2 Unity attacks on MORE candidates who are parents of young children. By the way, these are the same 2 candidates who narrated the movie that has gone around the world with a defense of teacher unions that Unity has not come close to.

There is no little irony in these Unity Caucus attacks on parents of young children as somehow not being qualified to serve in high union positions. I have a number of reports of teachers returning from child care leave to find a new principal immediately attacking them while the UFT dithers and covers up for the principals --- you know with a young child you can't serve in the brave new world of 24-7 teaching the ed deformers have imposed with the assistance of the UFT. (Yes, ed deform is anti woman and mothers.)

Remember Bloomberg's attacks on women working for him who became pregnant ("get rid of it") and the subsequent law suits? One should be shocked that in today's world we would hear people saying these things, triggered by Julie's not attending the recent Delegate Assembly due to her child running a high fever. (The fever has come down).

Here is Arthur's full statement with a great defense:

I have to say I am disgusted by the petty and personal attacks against a young mother on this forum. It's not all that hard to attend the DA. It's pretty hard to get pro-teacher pieces published in the Daily News. Julie's done that. It's pretty hard to be brilliant and articulate enough to narrate a film. Julie's done that too. I've met Julie, and I knew right away how smart she was. I'm very sorry some small-minded individuals have decided to target her. There are many chapter leaders who can go to the DA and cheer as we partner up with Bill Gates and set up teachers to be vilified in the pages of the NY Post. There are many who can rationalize things like mayoral control or the unconscionable fashion in which we treat ATR teachers. Personally, I'd prefer they stop attending the DA altogether and wake up to precisely what this new junk science evaluation system will mean for working teachers. There are few as poised and articulate as Julie Cavanagh. There are some things that can't be learned, that can't be taught, and innate brilliance is one of them. I'm not seeing much of that here. Shame on all of you anonymous cowards who attack her.  

Shame indeed!

Julie missed her advertized appearance at Karen Lewis' speech at NYCORE last week too and MOREs rose to cover for her and at no point did I hear anyone say, "Maybe we should not have chosen her for our presidential candidate."

But maybe that is one of the many differences between Unity and NYCORE.

Jeff A responded to Unity questions on Julie's qualifications:

1. Will someone make or second a motion to have the Delegate Assembly attendance rate of all chapter leaders and delegates freely available to all the members?

2. Why is it important to register at the Labor Day Parade?

3. Amount of grievances filed is a reflection of what exactly? an inept administration, a lack of cooperation amongst the admin and uft, or genuine problems. Remember, being correct and being what the leadership thinks is winnable are two entirely different things.

4. Trained by the UFT means what exactly? It would be eye-opening to see what members thought of their “representation” at these hearings.

5. What does any of this have to do with being able to run a Union? Is this your litmus test?

If it means that much to you, “anonymous”, could you tell us Randi's record on those issues while she was actually a teacher?

Ah, yes, the same Unity slug supported Randi with her 6 months of teaching and never having been a chapter leader.

Well, there is a lot more to this debate on the ICE blog triggered by a couple of incidents. The challenge to Mulgrew to show the guts even Randi did who debated twice. And the issue of Gloria Brandman's voting against the UFT governance report but it being issued as being unanimous. James published Gloria's request to Carmen Alvarez and Emil Pietromonico to NOT hold the final meeting on elementary Open School Night which the refused to do. But we see attacks on Gloria at the DA and on the blogs and not on the UFT leadership for ignoring the elementary schools. But I'll tackle the UFT support for mayoral control separately (Oh, did New Action which claims to oppose mayoral control get up and say ANYTHING at the DA?)

One of the Unity hacks puts attendance at DAs as somehow indicative of qualifications, which prompted responses from ICE followers:

After going to many nonsensical, windy DAs and witnessing not very much happen, ever, I've taken to reading your sharp reports. It takes much less time than driving to Manhattan, and saves me over 20 bucks on parking each month. I want to thank you, James Eterno, from the bottom of my heart, for attending these things and giving such a clear picture of what happens, so that I don't have to.

And this

Unity Hacks!!!

Why should anyone go to the DA? I read these reports every month and it's basically the same nightmare over and over again:

Mulgrew talks and talks and talks and talks and talks saying how great he and UFT are. He must be in love with the sound of his voice or is repeating his subliminal messages learned during his sleep recorded messages.

After an hour of listening to his nonsense, then we are treated to Leroy Barr announcing the dates for the next time we can hear Mulgrew preach to his faithful how great he is.

After Barr, the Unity Gang all raise their cards so they can tell Mulgrew how great he is prior to asking their embarrassingly ignorant questions. This resembles more of a CULT than a Union Meeting.

Then there is a new motion period. At this time some delegate from some weird left wing organization raises a motion to support Fidel Castro or Raul Castro. Then, the Unity Gang, once again raises their cards to say how our union leadership is not fooled by the radicals within or ranks.

People in the schools would not believe what goes on. After this, the regular motions follow and they are usually things like supporting daylight savings. You have to respect the people who can sit through this farce every month and sustain the ability to not commit suicide.

Going after Julie and anyone else that does not attend the CULT like meetings shows that some of the Unity Flatterers here are in need of skilled professionals that may successfully reverse brain washing. 

 -------

And I'll close with this red-baiting comment from the Unity slug:

Bizarre. Simply bizarre that someone from MORE would compare their own union's delegate assembly to a cult. Then again you have some MORE people running for UFT leadership who proudly proclaim that they're communist. Weird lot of you. With a bizarre take on the world.-- Unity Caucus Slug on ICE blog

-----

So after the Unity Caucus slugs turned down a resolution at the UFT delegate assembly calling for a debate between the only 2 presidential candidates - yes Virginia, Mulgrew heads both the New Action and Unity slates -- and don't think Unity hasn't been using its people to make sure New Action election materials are showing up in as many schools as possible to sow confusion in the ranks --- the slugs started showing up on the ICE blog attacking Julie, who was home with a sick child, for not attending the DA. And red-baiting McCarthyism too. But we don't expect anything less from them.

Panel Rejects Moratorium Proposal

I did a short piece accompanied by a 12 minute video. Maybe this is the model for print journalism.

The Wave, March 22, 2013: http://www.rockawave.com/news/2013-03-22/Columnists/School_Scope.html

School Scope

Panel Rejects Moratorium Proposal 

 

By Norm Scott

At a sometimes raucous March 11th meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, the Mayor Bloomberg-controlled Panel rejected the efforts of Queens PEP rep Dmytro Fedkowskyj and Manhattan PEP rep Patrick Sullivan both of whom called for a moratorium on school closures, phase-outs, and co-location proposals. Fedkowsky, appointed by Borough President Helen Marshall, has increasingly become an opponent of many of the Mayor’s policies as they have ravaged more and more neighborhood schools. He joined Sullivan in presenting the resolution which was supported by most of the hundreds of attendees, many of whom used their two minutes of speaking time to support the moratoriums.

Over the past five years Rockaway has seen both its large comprehensive high schools either closed or in the process of being phased out.

Fedkowskyj questioned the DOE’s process of communicating to parents the rationale for phasing out schools and the process for providing support they claim to have given schools before and after the phase out process. “This month’s agenda is excessive and out of control after 11 years of mayoral control…Too many of our school communities are being targeted year after year by the Mayor. He steamrolls past parents without providing specific targeted support for struggling school communities,” said Fedkowskyj in introducing the moratorium resolution.

Melvin Hydleburg, one of the two student reps in the Panel, a student at Lehman HS in the Bronx, which has repeatedly been threatened with closing during his entire tenure there and was pulled off the closing schools list a few weeks before the March 11th vote, spoke about the negative impact on the high school experience for thousands of students going through the school closing process over the Bloomberg era. “There are students here tonight that could be home doing homework…I know how they feel and it sucks…It’s about the students and how they are affected.”

In the end, the PEP voted down the call for a moratorium by a vote of 8-3 with the Brooklyn rep abstaining. At the end of the long meeting that began at 6 p.m. and ended around 11 p.m. they voted to close another 22 schools despite the pleas of parents, students, teachers and a slew of politicians. Video link

I think I remember putting in that people were calling Marty Markowitz a clown when his rep abstained. I prefer "piece of crap."

Fighting School Closings, Chicago Style

Do you know what Unity Caucus people are going to say? "You see, if only the CTU had not been so militant and struck. This is retaliation. We know how to deal. We know we have to be good boys and girls and they will let us live a little longer.

Karen Lewis would say they want to kill us sooner or later. Our only chance is to fight them on all fronts sooner and with all guns blazing.

In reality, if CORE had not won the election, the Chicago Teachers Union would be a bare bones shell by now. And what irony that the very people who led the CTU down the road to extinction are now saying that CORE did not do enough. The proverbial guy who kills his parents and pleads mercy on the grounds he's an orphan.

	Closings Update
Dear CTU member, You probably heard yesterday that the school district plans to close, co-locate and turnaround 70 schools this year. Your sisters and brothers in the CTU will stand tall with you during these difficult times. You have newly won rights in this situation, and our field staff will help you assert them, should the need arise. The CTU will continue to fight any and all school closings or other actions that displace our members and harm the education of our students. We are planning a mass rally on March 27th, we are developing legal challenges to these closings, we will continue to pursue legislative action, and we will continue working with our members and community to build a mass movement to stop this massive privatization drive. Rahm Emanuel and his handpicked Board of Education are attempting the largest mass school closing in the history of the nation—but the mayor is more vulnerable now than ever, thanks to the strength we have all built together with parents, students and community. We have the momentum, for the first time: Thousands of people came out to public hearings to reject school closings over the last month. The public knows CPS is lying about the budget and underutilization because they are: expanding charters inflating the deficit creating $1 billion more in liability, by CTU estimates, if they actually do what they promise (hardly likely) and install air conditioning, provide sufficient security, and adequate social supports to the receiving schools, and they will increase class size, not decrease it. Rahm hopes to project strength with these closings because he is actually weaker now than ever. Black aldermen and legislators are finally waking up to the realization that this will have a devastating impact on their communities. The newspapers are actually covering the educationally damaging and discriminatory impact these closings will have on Black students, special needs students, and low-income communities. Our members are united like never before. We held a packed House of Delegates meeting on school closings just last week. 250 people have agreed to be arrested on March 27th and schools are ready to take the next steps. Everyone knows the closings will increase the violence and harm the academic opportunities for our children. CPS has even adopted military planning strategies for these closings. They mean to make war on our neighborhood schools. It seems that Rahm is more committed to a high “body count” of school closings than helping our communities survive and thrive. What can we do? Know your rights – in the event that the school does close you should be aware of what your rights are. The March 27th Rally is essential. It is one of best chances to show how strong and powerful we are. If we flood the streets with thousands, surround City Hall, take hundreds of arrests and express a booming rejection of these harmful, undemocratic policies, we have a fighting chance. Take home all your parent phone numbers over the break and get them to come out on the 27th and to a future meeting to fight the school closing. Come to the Bank of America action tomorrow, Saturday 3/22/13, to make them give $36 million back to CPS for rip off loans since 2008 -- this money, if returned, could keep all our schools open and then some. The training and action is from 10am to 12:30pm tomorrow at 2229 S. Halsted. We must prepare for a big confrontation. Power concedes nothing without a fight; it never did and it never will. The future of our public schools and the well-being of our students are in jeopardy. This is a critical battle and your union is with you 100%. Please contact Lupe Coyle if you would like to schedule a meeting with members from your school during Spring break to meet with an organizer or field representative. We will get back in touch with you as soon as possible to schedule a day and time. Here is the Ravitch post with Karen Lewis' response Karen Lewis on Chicago School Closings by dianerav The mass closing of public schools in Chicago should be the lead story on every news channel tonight. It is not. The fact is that a dozen years of No Child Left Behind and three-plus years of Race to the Top has persuaded the American public that closing schools is "reform." It is not. It is a dereliction of responsibility. It is an abdication of any oath of office that a public official in this country takes. It is a betrayal of any commitment to equality of educational opportunity. It is a capitulation to corporate interests. I wish I could be in Chicago on March 27 to stand with the teachers, parents, and students who have been abandoned by Rahm Emanuel and all those who carry out his shameful orders to close neighborhood public schools. Here is the statement of Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union: CHICAGO –The Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said the following at a news conference regarding proposed school closings: “We are standing here today in the beautiful Mahaila Jackson elementary school in our city’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. This school was named for one of the greatest gospel singers in our nation’s history, a woman who sang at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral, a woman who was instrumental in our Civil Rights struggle. Unfortunately, we are gathered here today not to talk about this pioneer or even about how this school does an outstanding job of providing a great learning community for some of our special needs students. We are standing here because this school, along with scores of others, has been targeted for closure by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Public School district.... “Closing 50 of our neighborhood schools is outrageous and no society that claims to care anything about its children can sit back and allow this to happen to them. There is no way people of conscious will stand by and allow these people to shut down nearly a third of our school district without putting up a fight. Most of these campuses are in the Black community. Since 2001 88% of students impacted by CPS School Actions are African-American. And this is by design. “Closing 50 schools is not grand or glorious. This is nothing to celebrate or marvel. “These actions unnecessarily expose our students to gang violence, turf wars and peer-to-peer conflict. Some of our students have been seriously injured as a result of school closings. One died. Putting thousands of small children in harm’s way is not laudatory. “There is no safety plan. There is no transportation plan. The city has already raised CTA fares and now they expect parents to put their five-year-old on a crowded city bus in order for them to get to school, when they used to be able to walk to a school in their neighborhood. The way this is being done is an insult and it is disrespectful. “The CTU is the bargaining unit for 30,000 of the district’s employees SEIU and Unite HERE represent thousands more. Yet CPS did not feel obligated to brief any of us in advance of today’s announcements. Instead, they called a few aldermen last night and then summoned principals this morning at 6:00 a.m. to spring the news on them. They had no consideration for their employees or our students—at all. They have no regard for our parents. They do not care about the children of their employees, many of whom also attend our public schools. “I also find it extremely cowardly for the Mayor’s administration to announce these actions while he is vacationing out of town. They are also making this announcement days before people are headed into spring break. CPS has spun our entire district into utter chaos, a management model perfected on Clark Street where they are headquartered. “This city cannot destroy that many schools at one time; and, we contend that no school should be closed in the city of Chicago. These actions will not only put our students’ safety and academics careers at risk but also further destabilize our neighborhoods. “This is why we intend to rally, united and strong, on Wednesday, March 27 to send a signal that we are sick and tired of being bullied and betrayed. Some of us are going to put our bodies on the line—because a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And when we declare the victory, some of us will sit back and sing the lines of one of Mahaila Jackson’s songs—How I Got Over. “Rahm Emanuel has become the ‘murder mayor.’ He is murdering public services. Murdering our ability to maintain public sector jobs and now he has set his sights on our public schools. But we have news for him: We don’t intend to die. This is not Detroit. We are the city of big shoulders and so we intend to put up a fight. We don’t know if we can win, but if you don’t fight, you will never win at all. “The people of this city can no longer sit back and allow this mayor, his school board and his corporate cronies to run rough-shod over democracy. They’ve turned their backs on affordable housing; turned their backs on job creation; and, now they’re turning their backs on our students, their families and our schools. We are tired of playing their school reform games. But who are the winners and losers? Who made the rules? And what do they keep telling the losers to keep them playing their games? “We do not have a utilization crisis. What we have is a credibility crisis. CPS continues to peddle half-truths, lies and misinformation in order to justify its campaign to wipe out our schools and carry out this corporate-driven school reform nonsense. CPS continues to peddle an ‘underutilization myth’ and ‘billion dollar deficit lie’ as justification for their actions. When research and the facts prove them wrong they simply reconfigure their talking points in order to further perpetrate their sham and to keep us playing their school reform games. “For the past several weeks there has been a resounding cry against school actions from parents, students, educators and community stakeholders. The Mayor and the CEO have ignored these petitions for justice at these hearings and apparently have not listened to single word that was said. Parents have been direct, loud and clear. Students have been loud and clear. Principals have been loud and clear. Teachers, paraprofessionals and school clinicians have been loud and clear: DO NOT CLOSE OUR SCHOOLS! GIVE US THE RESOURCES WE NEED, RIGHT NOW, TO SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS AND GIVE THEM THE EDUCATION THEY DESERVE. “Enough with the lies and public deception: School closings will not save money and taxpayers will not see costs benefits in two years. Why? Because vibrant school communities will be quickly transformed into abandon buildings, neighborhood eyesores and public safety hazards. “This is the mayor’s 25% solution. Yet, who will be held accountable when one of our students is harmed as a result of these policy decisions? And, who will be the ones to ensure justice is served?” ### The Chicago Teachers Union represents 30,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public Schools, and by extension, the more than 400,000 students and families they serve. The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third largest teachers local in the United States and the largest local union in Illinois. For more information please visit CTU’s website at http://www.ctunet.com.

Change the Stakes Open Letter to Walcott

Change the Stakes – an organization of parents and educators committed to replacing such tests with more meaningful forms of assessment – urges you to publicly pledge that scores from this year’s state English Language Arts (ELA) and math tests will not be used to penalize students, teachers or schools. The upcoming testing cycle represents an unprecedented grand experiment: the exams, and the standards on which they are based, are new and untested.  --- Letter to Walcott from CTS

----how excited I was to hear that NYC parents are mobilizing to take action against the testing-madness.... we don't want classrooms or schools to be "data-driven," we want them to be child-driven, learning-driven and data-informed. Good luck and let us know in Chicago how we can be supportive..... 
In cahoots, Bill (Ayers)

When people ask where is GEM at now I respond there are 2 branches: one is involved with MORE and the other has morphed into Change the Stakes, which is a true parent/educator/statistician (Fred Smith) grassroots partnership organization here in NYC, including elementary through college teachers and even principals. CTS works with other testing groups like Parent Voices and Time Out From Testing (TOFT), all of which were involved in organizing the great Pearson pineapple protest last May. Look for more action especially around the opt-out movement coming up. Imagine the day when thousands of parents refuse to have their kids take the tests being used to strangle public education?

One of the wonderful things for me to witness has been the excitement of the parents who formerly felt isolated and unempowered feeling the power of being part of an organized group like CTS with people with amazing talents.

The parents in CTS have taken the lead and put together this letter to Walcott. As a member of the listserve I was a non-participant in the process but able to watch it come together as a listserve lurker of the remarkable group of people involved. While GEM can take credit for doing an amazing number of things in the 2 years it was most active, the work of Change the Stakes is as high on the list as producing The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman.

Here is Diane Ravitch's post followed by the letter itself followed by an email received from Bill Ayers in Chicago.

Parents in NYC called on Chancellor Dennis Walcott to pledge not to use this year’s tests to punish students, teachers, or schools. 

Change the Stakes (www.changethestakes.org), an activist group comprised of parents, teachers and teacher educators – argues that this year’s tests are so fundamentally flawed that the scores should not be used. Here’s our letter to the Chancellor:

OPEN LETTER TO CHANCELLOR WALCOTT
By Change the Stakes
March 20, 2013

Dear Chancellor Walcott,

In four weeks, public school children across New York City will begin two weeks of intensive, high-stakes standardized testing. Change the Stakes – an organization of parents and educators committed to replacing such tests with more meaningful forms of assessment – urges you to publicly pledge that scores from this year’s state English Language Arts (ELA) and math tests will not be used to penalize students, teachers or schools. The upcoming testing cycle represents an unprecedented grand experiment: the exams, and the standards on which they are based, are new and untested.

Educators, parents and students alike are painfully aware that this is a “transitional year” in the state testing program. Two years ago, New York State adopted its own version of the new national education standards known as the “Common Core” and this year’s tests are the first to be aligned with them. Not only are the standards new and unproven, the heart of the program – the curriculum – is still being developed. Teachers haven’t been given sufficient time to transition students to the new learning standards, yet children are being tested on them next month anyway.

You yourself acknowledge the serious challenges inherent in using scores from the looming April 2013 exams to assess student performance – and presumably, by extension, the performance of teachers and schools. In a recent letter to parents, you state:

“In past years, decisions about summer school were made based on estimates of each student’s performance level on the State tests: 1, 2, 3, or 4. This year, because the tests are new, we cannot predict how the State will determine performance levels.”

If the purpose of your letter was to reassure parents, you did not succeed. As far as we can tell, the letter has had the opposite effect by setting off alarms among parents who weren’t already focused on the sweeping changes taking place. Another Department of Education (DOE) document developed for parents, Tips for Talking with Your Elementary School Child about the Common Core Standards & Changing State Tests, is even more disturbing: it says that young children should be told to expect school work and tests to be more difficult this year and that feelings of struggle, anxiety and nervousness are common reactions. These new pressures are likely to be particularly onerous for English Language Learners.

In short, the DOE has acknowledged the harmful nature of the abrupt transition to the Common Core – in a year when schools and families also endured a devastating hurricane, a bus strike and a mass elementary school shooting in a nearby community – and yet offers only platitudes about how to help children, parents and educators cope.

Given the poorly managed phase-in of the Common Core and the experimental nature of this year’s assessments, we call for you to immediately and publicly announce that:

§ All student promotion decisions will be made on the basis of a range of indicators, including a review of a substantive portfolio of work representative of a child’s academic progress throughout the year. 

§ Teachers will not be evaluated on the results of this year’s tests as the scores are not comparable to last year’s.

§ School Progress Reports, which are almost entirely based on student test scores, will be either suspended or significantly changed to incorporate additional evidence of student achievement. No schools will be closed using this year’s test scores.

§ Parents have a right to opt their children out of the tests, as Deputy Chancellor Shael Polakow-Suransky has publicly stated, and the DOE will put in writing procedures about how to do so. 

It is unacceptable for city students, teachers and schools to be judged by the results of these new exams, which are unpredictable by your own admission, especially when other means of assessment already exist. 

The time has come for the DOE to finally acknowledge and respond to the growing concerns among public school parents about high-stakes testing. The current direction of policies and practices MUST change.

Sincerely,
The Members of Change the Stakes
http://www.changethestakes.org

Ayers' email:

You may know that Chicago Public Schools will announce any minute the schools they plan to close--it will be the largest school closing plan in history, and it represents an all-out assault on public education following a long and systematic pattern of abandonment and Jim Crow education. There will be a lot of talk of budgets and deficits to cover  this draconian and entirely unjustified move, but none of it the least bit convincing once you look at the evidence. Stay tuned and stay close.

We've also been in crazy-land over at Lane Tech H.S. The CPS chief banned the graphic memoir of the Iranian revolution, Persepolis, on the grounds that it was too graphic...and student demonstrations and parental outrage continue apace. A call to the Lab School, where our mayor sends his kids, turned up several copies in the library, a couple of them in French, and the book listed on one syllabus as required reading. Jim Crow curriculum at work---the mayor's kids get real literature, the "masses" get test-prep.

All of this is prelude to telling you how excited I was to hear that NYC parents are mobilizing to take action against the testing-madness. Reading about the dazzling boycott being organized is encouraging---another important indication that we are not alone and that a coherent resistance to the destruction of public education is coming together. Your boycott is such a clear and morally justified response to the education malpractice our children face in New York and Chicago and throughout the country. I hope parents can organize large numbers of families to participate in every school, and that you seize this moment to change the framework of the conversation---we don't want classrooms or schools to be "data-driven," we want them to be child-driven, learning-driven and data-informed.

Good luck and let us know in Chicago how we can be supportive. 
In cahoots, Bill
 

MORE Pre-Break Happy Hour Downtown Thurs. 3/21 Manhattan (near W. Village Chelsea)

Come on out and bring friends and co-workers. Wonderful sangria, drinks and tapas are available at this great Spanish bar/ restaurant.

Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE)

Downtown Happy Hour

 

Want to learn MORE about MORE?

Meet some of the candidates running in the UFT election?

Meet other teachers in the area?

Build a stronger chapter?

Need a drink before Spring Break?

 

Join MORE at our first Downtown Happy Hour!

Thursday, March 21st @ 5PM

La Nacional Tapas Bar

(reservation made for back of bar)

(239 West 14th Street between 7th & 8th Ave

--

Video: PEP Rejected Call for Moratorium on School Closings, Phaseouts and Colocations

I finally had a chance to put this together from the March 11 PEP meeting. Given there is another one tonight focused on giving away entire swaths of the school system to Eva Moskowitz, it will be another busy night.

At the PEP, Queens Rep Dmytro Fedkowskisj and Mahattan's Patrick Sullivan presented the moratorium resolution. This video has their statements and their reading of the reso which lost by a vote of 8-3 with the Bronx rep joining them and the Brooklyn rep appointed by the spineless Marty Markowitz abstaining -- you can hear some audience members erupting in catcalls calling Markowitz a clown.

http://youtu.be/_W3k-QcznS0



By the way, did you hear of the new PEP rule: Eva gets equal opportunity to choose a member of the PEP along with the borough presidents.

New PEP member, David Brown, represented Success Network in co-location suits

http://www.paulweiss.com/professionals/partners-and-counsel/david-w-brown.aspx

David also maintains an active pro bono practice. Recently, he has represented Success Academy Charter Schools in cases where plaintiffs sought to prevent the co-location of charter schools in school buildings owned by the New York City Department of Education. Also on the Board of Harlem Link Charter School, which hasn't exactly received stellar school grades/test scores despite a high attrition rate taking out low scoring kids.

By the way, the founder of Harlem link is the well-known ed deformer who went under the monicker of Kitchen Sink, who given some of the stories about Harlem Link has been rather quiet of late.

MORE Releases New Election Video Ad

MOVEMENT OF RANK AND FILE EDUCATORS, NEW CAUCUS OF THE UFT, CHALLENGES MULGREW'S LEADERSHIP, ISSUES VIDEO AD

For Immediate Release

Press Contact- James Eterno 

media@morecaucus.org 

New York, NY, March 19, 2013: The Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) is running in April's United Federation of Teachers officers' election. MORE is challenging the governing Unity caucus of President Michael Mulgrew. Unity has ruled the UFT for more than 50 years.

MORE believes that Unity co-signed on to government policies which are leading to the deterioration of our student's learning conditions; Mayoral control, privatization of schools, over reliance on high stakes exams, and evaluation schemes based on testing which does not take into account our children's socio-economic conditions, are just some of the harmful polices that Unity caucus has agreed to.

MORE's UFT Presidential candidate Julie Cavanagh states;

“For more than fifty years, one caucus and one caucus only, has led the UFT. In the last ten years, in a departure from the roots of our union's founding, the leadership has failed to organize and mobilize the membership at the time we have needed their leadership the most. The tidal wave of unprecedented attacks on our profession, our schools and our children will not stop with a new mayor. It is time for change. It is time we demand MORE from our union.” MORE believes that a democratic, member-driven union will better address the needs of students, parents, educators, and the communities we serve. 

The ballots will be mailed under American Arbitration Association letterhead on April 3, 2013. Voting begins immediately from that point until April 24, 2013.

Here is the link to our new commercial 

http://youtu.be/mN5cSbD4TTw

Help us take our 2nd video viral. Share on your social media, blogs, and email to all your friends and family. Ask your UFT colleagues to check it out and share it too! The ballots will be sent out April 3rd by USPS. The time is now to expect MORE from our union. We have a choice for a new positive leadership of the UFT which will build a strong union movement along side parents, students, community groups, and other workers' groups.

---------
In addition to running in the UFT elections, MORE organizes events ranging from educational forums and protests to social gatherings. For information about MORE visit www.morecaucus.org. www.facebook.com/MOREcaucusNYC www.twitter.com/MOREcaucusNYC

There are sort of 2 wings in MORE. One end stresses the concept of Positive Alternative Leadership (PAL); the other looks to go after the throats of Unity and New Action.

Guess which wing I am in?

I only know Mike Schirtzer, who bills himself as the lone registered Republican in MORE, for about 8 months. It's like I found a son. Jeez, is there anything Mike, Superman, can't or is not willing to do to promote MORE? Here is the first video he ever did, with lots of input from the MORE steering committee. I think I can truly think about retirement.

Pics: MOREs at NYCORE and More

The MORE table

International HS teachers from various schools plus Seku

International HS teachers from various schools minus Seku

Diana models remodeled MORE Tee. Coming soon: fringes

The always amazing Bree Picower, one of NYCORE's driving engines

The Change the Stakes crew: Lisa, Rosalie, Jane

Gloria, Kevin and Emily (Kevin needs to shrink)

Leia forgot to wear her MORE tee. We forgive her after this mayoral control presentation

Diana and Lauren present at Change the Stakes workshop

OK. Kevin lowers himself to meet Emily

MORE top officer candidates Marissa Torres and Brian Jones do MORE spiel

Karen Lewis Video at NYCORE: 30 Minutes of Wisdom

Rather than continuing an insider strategy that has netted so little for the rest of labor over the years, the CTU has entered into open opposition with the neoliberal wing of the [Democratic] party." --- Micah Uetricht from Strike for America: The CTU and the Democrats as quoted by Diane Ravitch.

This is an important development. And this is an essay you must read.-- Diane Ravitch

What a treat seeing Diane Ravitch signing on to the analysis that lays waste to the UFT/AFT strategy of never mentioning the word "neo-liberal" and placing the blame on Bloomberg and holding out hope to NYC teachers that once Bloomberg is gone all will be well with a Democrat in office. Sorry, Charlie. Ask Chicago and especially CORE teachers what neo-liberalism is and you will get an immediate response. Go ask the average Unity Caucus member what it means and you will get "duh."

If you viewed the video of Karen and Mulgrew at the UFT Friday night (Karen Lewis and Mike Mulgrew at Left Labor Project), this keynote at NYCORE from Saturday morning is a powerful treatise on organizing and teaching. You see how Karen was a TEACHER and these are the people we want running our TEACHER unions.

People who spend years interacting with students and parents. Leaders who know and understand what we do and can translate that into action to defend the teaching profession and public schools. She even gives some discipline tips (and I was thrilled since I used to do exactly the same thing -- tell the parents of the most difficult behavior problems what a pleasure it is to work with their children.) But most important -- and here is a lesson for MORE -- she talks about how CORE started in 2008 with 8 people studying the issues to try to understand what was happening to teachers and public education. "You need to understand your enemy in order to fight them." And the most fun --- mocking Rahm Emanuel and his stamping of his tiny little feet.


NYCORE Conference 2013 - Karen Lewis Keynote from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.


Diane Ravitch just posted this which resonates with the issues raised by Karen. (Really, for long-time Ravitch watchers, how remarkable to see this coming from Diane.)

How CTU Confronted Antagonists in the Democratic Party by dianerav

This is a stunning analysis of the relationship between labor unions and the Democratic Party.

It is a must-read.

Many in education have been baffled by the bipartisan consensus around Republican ideology. Micah Uetricht is not baffled. He says without hedging that "Democrats have swallowed the Right’s free market orthodoxy whole. Much of the party appears to have given up on education as a public project."

Teachers unions, he writes, have been unable to articulate a coherent response to their abandonment.

That is, until last September, when the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike. He writes:

"The union has been unafraid to identify the education reform agenda pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his party nationally as an attempt to exacerbate inequalities within the education system, strip teachers of power and erode their standards of living, and chip away at public education as an institution, and to call such Democrats enemies. Rather than continuing an insider strategy that has netted so little for the rest of labor over the years, the CTU has entered into open opposition with the neoliberal wing of the party."

This is an important development. And this is an essay you must read.

I wanted to share a comment my friend made on the Friday night video that cuts to the core of some of the things Karen is talking about that distinguishes the CORE/CTU from the Unity/UFT approach: the refusal to let the enemy divide us. Divide closing school teachers from safe school teachers. Divide ATRs from the rest. Divide rubber room teachers from the mainstream. Divide small schools from large schools. What Unity does is call people like me and opposition caucuses like MORE dividers because we do not go along with whatever the leadership decides, even if it takes us over the cliff (like running charter schools -- which helps legitimize them -- and worse, co-locating them and undermining the public schools they reside in).

Karen Lewis is amazing. I only saw the initial statement you put up on the blog, but one of the things she seemed to be doing was to actually put her three maxims into effect by the way she was relating to the entire group she was addressing--both MORE and Unity Caucus people (who else was there?).
1. Unite
2. Make yourself stronger
3. Build power

Even her later statements which made Unity squirm were probably meant to do that, especially after she manipulated Mulgrew into echoing her (in the parts of his statement that was videotaped), setting up the contradiction between what he says and what the union actually does. Especially given the missed opportunity of building unity with parents/students/community when it came to closing schools.

For example, the question of union officer salary: How can union leaders really represent (and unite) teachers if our salaries [and job security] are so different from theirs, not to mention members of other unions and parents?

So, what do we have to do to make ourselves strong and unite with others? Let's start working to eliminate whatever we can that divides us (including those of us sitting in the room). Not that we necessarily believe that Mulgrew himself can be "united", but there were many others in the room.

The MOREs in the room Friday night looked at each other and covered their mouths as Mulgrew said stuff echoing Karen that was so far from reality, we felt we were in a comic book.

Here is one more quote from the Micah Uetricht article:

the union has put forth its own vision of reform, both at the bargaining table and in the streets through their engagement in mass action, their September strike, and their formal policy recommendations. It is a vision that explicitly rejects the Democratic Party’s education agenda and offers a strong program to shore up public schools as a public good–stronger than any reform proposals by the two major national teachers unions.

 You mean Randi's "Share Your Lesson" doesn't quite cut it?

Weekend Update: Happy Hunting

 Happy Hunting -- not a blog about MORE going after Unity. Or a show sponsored by the NRA.

Taking a nice break from the ed wars, what a treat this afternoon/evening attending the New York Theatre Company review, Happy Hunting, at the theater at St. Peter's church on 54th and Lexington. I only went because I took the car all day yesterday for the NYCORE conference and felt I owed my wife even if I expected to be bored to death. When I heard the usher tell someone the first act ran an hour and 40 minutes and I had to pee within 5 minutes of sitting down, I figured I was in trouble. Not wanting to step over the young Asian woman sitting next to me during the act -- she turned out to be a dancer studying with the choreographer -- I decided to grin and bear it. And it turned out to be a delightful show.

The NY Theatre Company terms their current 4 play series as "Musicals in Mufti", meaning they do not wear costumes or use sets and due to one week rehearsal times walk around with scripts in their hands. (There are only 3 performances of each play). There is some light choreography and some heavy duty singing by a fabulous cast. Happy Hunting was an Ethel Mermon vehicle in which she starred with Fernando Lamas and that turned into a disastrous relationship. Klea Blackhurst plays the Mermon role and you would think old Ethel was reincarnated. What a stage presence. All the actors sang and danced and acted and it was all so good.

Well, I got through Act 1 and raced to the bathroom. Act 2 was shorter and at no point did I dose -- an unusual event for me at a theater. Well, after a bathroom break and ready to leave, we realized there was a talk back event with all the actors and special guests so we went back in. And who were the special, special guests? Estelle Parsons who had been in the original show in 1956. And also a famed dancer and choreographer, Luigi, who sadly had to be helped onto the stage. But he is 88.

Well, we were treated to over a half hour of theater lore and stories. Even the actors were fascinated to learn new stories about the characters they were playing and about the original actors who first played their roles. The NY Theatre Company people had done tons of research on Happy Hunting and asked Parsons and Luigi many questions to clarify issues lost over the years.

So, what started out as an "owe you one" to my wife, turned into a fabulous afternoon, followed by a fine Beef Bourgignon at a French restaurant on 62nd and Lex.

We might take a shot at going to see Silk Stockings next weekend -- that is if my wife has it all together for the 25 sedar guests coming on the 25th. My bet is we are not going anywhere. But she can have the car all day Saturday and Sunday. I am not leaving the house given there is some basement and backyard work to do. We have had the construction guys here for 3 weeks with another 3 weeks to go - at least. Oy! The ed wars are a break.