This week’s The Warning podcast features Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Given that education has become so highly politicized in America, we covered a lot of territory from book banning, to the dangers that students and teachers face on a daily basis, to whether or not our politicians care to fix what’s broken in the educational system.
The bottom line: Kids' lives are more important than AR-15s! We must work together in communities. -Activism to stand up to Autocracy. Thank you Randi Weingarten and Steve Schmidt for addressing this most important issue, problems and solutions. We need powerful and passionate leaders and speakers to protect Our Children, and to speak up for quality education as a priority in this nation.
Why is this simple sane solution so devastatingly hard to implement. The longer this goes on the more I believe this country has no regard zero for the sanctity of human life. So depressing.
You can hear the frustration in Randi's voice as she discusses the safety of teachers and students. We as a country need to do a better job in keeping our children and grandchildren safe while they are attending school. It is imperative we keep up the pressure on our elected leaders to give us meaningful gun legislation and not rhetoric. I am sick and tired of the thoughts and prayers approach to the madness of gun violence. I am frustrated by the stranglehold of the NRA lobbyists have on our elected officials. Republicans only want to talk about cultural issues than do something about gun violence. Their solution to keeping our children safe is to ban books and drag queens. I can't speak for anyone else but books never killed anyone and drag queens have never offended me by their presence. I may not understand them but I have never had a problem with them either. The solution to the gun insanity is a simple solution. It only requires a ban of assault weapons and high capacity magazines. However, until we dry up the monies from the NRA and gun manufacturers Republicans will not change. They would rather place our children down range with targets on their backs than to do their job in protecting us. Please vote Blue and change the politics of gun violence to the politics of gun safety measures.
Before listening to the podcast, I must say this. Civics lessons, lessons on why we study and for what purpose. For tomorrow? No, for now.
First. Contrast with visuals and audio what the U.S. senators commented about the downpour of American neo-Nazis in Columbus, Ohio. The moment it happened. The U.S. representatives? Law enforcement? Who are the targets of American neo-Nazis? What is racial violence? What is Congress doing about it?
Second. Visuals. Present the case of Mr. Fred Guttenberg. Try to google Guttenberg and you will not get his name up front and immediately. Put his picture and that of his 14-year old daughter Jaime, dead in a school shooting. Say it clearly. She was murdered in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018. Valentine's Day. At the Stoneman Douglas High School. February, which is also International Book Giving Day. Then put up the pictures of all the senators who would not advance the Biden Administration ban on assault weapons, weapons for mass destruction used for war in America. The U.S. representatives. What is open carry legislation and what states have adopted it? Why other states have not? Are we safe in our public spaces when citizens assume the responsibilities of law enforcement?
Third. What is it to be a transgender American? Who is state representative Zooey Zephyr? Why did Montana legislators violate the Constitution by ousting her? What is suicide, its forms and how is it affecting the LGBTQ community in America?
Fourth. What is the role of the Fourth Estate? Why is there a lack of information about how the news are reported and by whom? Why is it that we must not speak and chew gum when it comes to information and facts when there is a curtailment of what and how news are to be presented that have all to do with the lack of confidence in the news media? Why are there journalists who risk their lives doing what they do to better America?
Fifth. What did the former president of the United States do that is an obvious crime? Why do lawyers and ex-prosecutors comment on news shows, write opinions, educate on the specifics of their education? When one obvious crime in the news committed by the former president is wire fraud, it must be clearly stated as one such commentator did. Harry Litman said that wire fraud "the bread and butter" of the profession.
Sixth. Why Texas IS a case study in cruelty. The latest shooting there, not a school shooting, not a mall shooting, not a place of worship shooting, not a public space shooting, was the trespassing muderous spree of a neighbor against his next door neighbors, where a boy was a victim among the five assassinated. Rage killed a boy. Rage breeds cruelty. Cruelty is center stage in Texas at the Governor's mansion and the U.S. Senate as represented by two GOP senators. Show their pictures along the dead and find the connections across the country. The governor shoved it off as an illegal immigrant matter and has close ties with the NRA. Two Texan U.S. senators will not ban assault weapons, while mostly adult women die in such massacres, because they become the human shields that protect children across the nation. What do women say about mass shootings? Now is the moment to make use of those poll results. The dead boy was Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 8. Why does a Latin name and Hispanic origins have such horrid consequences when it comes to their existence as equal American citizens?
Sixth. What is the role of a governor? Show their pictures, state by state, and what they have accomplished to protect human rights. What are human rights?
Seventh. What is the Supreme Court of America? Who are the Justices? Why is there so much indignation in the country against it? Is it superfluous or is it based on actual numbers, Americans critical of its erosion of human rights and its ethics? Why is it that one word uttered by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse makes so much sense? "Omertà."
I asked my friend/ professional musician in Livingston to join me. Yesterday we found out we ended up on pg. 2 of the local newspaper, which is the last thing we were expecting, along side an excellent article about what is happening in our state. Here's the link. I have the head band and whiteboard sign and Dick Dillof on banjo and at least 100 people turned out -pretty good for Livingston, MT. More cars honked and cheered than big trucks that revved their engines and blew plumes of black exhaust at us. This is a train town and we were at the train station -the trains were whistling for us: https://www.livingstonenterprise.com/news/local/rally-for-zooey/image_4fb766c6-e83f-11ed-b564-17e92d6a174e.html
I talked to Marsha Shalloway on the phone earlier this evening and she really misses you. I told her that you 'followed the music' and are with the hummingbirds and I may do the same thing, soon. Is there any way she/we can be in touch with you?
I decided to find an old thread and see if I could find out. Marsha is 80. xo
"... make safety and our communities more important than assault rifles that kill people." The last words recorded in my memory from the clip above and I hope correctly. I have not watched the podcast yet. Am not subscribed yet. I'm sorry if I disagree, because safety here is not MORE important than killing people. Two thoughts that annihilate one another. Assault weapons in American homes and public spaces? There is only one solution. My loved mother says that they must be all collected. For hunting ducks?, she adds all you take home are feathers. She is horrified and shudders at what they do to the body, especially the bodies of small children. She blames also the individuals who sell them, and I am as horrified as she is.
I am 75 and my biggest worry when I was of a certain age was that my parents would notice all the sand in the car on school days. I was heading to Laguna Beach and disconnecting the speedometer.
Still managed to be on the honor roll for my grades.
My earlier comments to this podcast with Randi Weingarten, were my response to the short clip you posted on Substack..After listening to it in it’s entirety I am once again faced with a harsh and ever so frustrating reality..Firstly, your questions and perspectives were spot on, her positions, answers and solutions solid and pragmatic..Secondly, it brings me back around to the afore mentioned harsh and ever so frustrating reality..
The opposition to all that was contained in this smart and critically thought out discussion simply don’t care and don’t want any of it….They do not want to sit down and hash out these kind of solutions to bring the country to “Better”.. There’s that word again.."Better"..Better must be wanted.. they who oppose the kind of solutions put forward today don’t..
They do not care, about the people getting killed by mass shootings, because it is not them, they don’t care that children of all ages are not receiving a proper education, because their children are being taught what they want them to learn, a far cry from what was discussed in this podcast.. They prefer for the population to be uneducated and full of rage, hate and fear..
There is one thing that must be present in all parties at all negotiations in order for an idea, a solution or a fix to be realized..Wanting to..Currently only one side wants to realize solutions..The other side has an entirely different agenda..Steve you wrote an essay putting the proper name to it..Fascism..
“That our children should not be pawns in a culture war..”
~Randi Weingarten
I have news for you..Everyone’s children are not pawns in a culture war..Just the children who lack wealth, privilege and who’s parents are not elected GOP members of Government or are lobbyists for the Gun Lobby..
The children of those people and their teachers are not subject to the same AR-15 shooters in this country. They attend heavily protected private schools..
I submit, the wrong people are getting killed across this country, and until that changes nothing on this issue will change..
"That our children should not be pawns in a culture war..”
~Randi Weingarten
Well, that would be nice, wouldn't it? Then close the doors of K-12 classrooms to gender ideology and stop teaching young children the unscientific nonsense that gender identity exists separately from biological sex and culture and that children can and should discover for themselves whether they're boys, girls, both or neither. Don't turn teachers into gender-identity activists.
Not only are children in the lower grades too young to understand the implications of what they're being told, they're impressionable and eager to please the adults in their lives. They also cherish adult attention. In later grades, adolescents are motivated by the prospect of gaining the admiration of their peers.
It's all a laboratory for implanting or contracting false gender identities and all completely unnecessary. Most of the very few children with gender dysphoria or who are gender nonconforming get over it during adolescence and many come to understand they are attracted to the same sex. For example, I was very effeminate little sissy boy. I am thankful that trans "allies" and experimental and unproven "gender affirming care" hadn't yet exploded onto the scene. It would have been a cruel tragedy had someone decided that because I liked Barbie dolls and didn't like horseplay or sports I needed to become a little girl instead of the gay man I would become.
If you don't want your kids to be pawns in a culture war, don't put them on the battlefield.
Correct me if I am wrong, but It appears that you replied to my remarks regarding school shootings, with your position regarding gender..As I review my two replies they do line up one after the other, however, my remarks regarding classroom teaching has to do with the banning of books, the rewriting of historical facts of the country, and the removal of any lesson plan that educates on our country's sadly prolific history of racism, bigotry and the hatred of people of color..So, as I respect your right to have your position on gender, I fail to see what it has to do with my remarks, both on school shootings and the areas of classroom teaching in my remarks..
When conversing, when opining, when "opening" minds from another perspective, when speaking against the woke-mania that produces "acceptable" responses or produces deviant attempts to label without sense nor knowledge a la DeSantis, just brings to the fore how education also walks the woke tightrope. It begs the question, what is education, doesn't it?
I come from Kentucky where education fails it's residents year after year, though some notables are natives. Never is there a change that brings the #s UP. The nation seems to follow and I do not understand, except the word lazy comes to mind. Have we just become mean and lazy?
My child is about to become a teacher of history. I am very concerned about his safety as a teacher to be. I have no faith that the American People have the will to make the issues they seem to care about most — gun control/public safety, education, choice — central to a campaign.
In addition — my sons passion for history is what fueled a desire to teach. I worry that the "teaching to the test" method this country is addicted to will suck the passion from his soul. Teaching to the test does not make for good teaching, or learned individuals.
History is clearly not being taught well, or given enough attention in our schools. If it were — we would not be seeing one of the 2 major American political parties ready to end this democracy and its Constitution in favor of a fascistic dictator — a modern day "orange fuhrer" that did and if elected again would continue to destroy millions of lives. If you had said to me in the 1980s or 1990s that the republican party would be a clear and present danger to the Constitution, to Democracy — that it had sold its soul to a fascist cult — and ready to join a new Axis of Evil with Vladimir Putin, Victor Orban, Xí Jìnpíng, Marine Le Pen and Kim Jung Un — I would have thought that would have been impossible.
The bottom line: Kids' lives are more important than AR-15s! We must work together in communities. -Activism to stand up to Autocracy. Thank you Randi Weingarten and Steve Schmidt for addressing this most important issue, problems and solutions. We need powerful and passionate leaders and speakers to protect Our Children, and to speak up for quality education as a priority in this nation.
She is right, 100%.
Why is this simple sane solution so devastatingly hard to implement. The longer this goes on the more I believe this country has no regard zero for the sanctity of human life. So depressing.
She is a wonderful representative of teachers.
You can hear the frustration in Randi's voice as she discusses the safety of teachers and students. We as a country need to do a better job in keeping our children and grandchildren safe while they are attending school. It is imperative we keep up the pressure on our elected leaders to give us meaningful gun legislation and not rhetoric. I am sick and tired of the thoughts and prayers approach to the madness of gun violence. I am frustrated by the stranglehold of the NRA lobbyists have on our elected officials. Republicans only want to talk about cultural issues than do something about gun violence. Their solution to keeping our children safe is to ban books and drag queens. I can't speak for anyone else but books never killed anyone and drag queens have never offended me by their presence. I may not understand them but I have never had a problem with them either. The solution to the gun insanity is a simple solution. It only requires a ban of assault weapons and high capacity magazines. However, until we dry up the monies from the NRA and gun manufacturers Republicans will not change. They would rather place our children down range with targets on their backs than to do their job in protecting us. Please vote Blue and change the politics of gun violence to the politics of gun safety measures.
Before listening to the podcast, I must say this. Civics lessons, lessons on why we study and for what purpose. For tomorrow? No, for now.
First. Contrast with visuals and audio what the U.S. senators commented about the downpour of American neo-Nazis in Columbus, Ohio. The moment it happened. The U.S. representatives? Law enforcement? Who are the targets of American neo-Nazis? What is racial violence? What is Congress doing about it?
Second. Visuals. Present the case of Mr. Fred Guttenberg. Try to google Guttenberg and you will not get his name up front and immediately. Put his picture and that of his 14-year old daughter Jaime, dead in a school shooting. Say it clearly. She was murdered in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018. Valentine's Day. At the Stoneman Douglas High School. February, which is also International Book Giving Day. Then put up the pictures of all the senators who would not advance the Biden Administration ban on assault weapons, weapons for mass destruction used for war in America. The U.S. representatives. What is open carry legislation and what states have adopted it? Why other states have not? Are we safe in our public spaces when citizens assume the responsibilities of law enforcement?
Third. What is it to be a transgender American? Who is state representative Zooey Zephyr? Why did Montana legislators violate the Constitution by ousting her? What is suicide, its forms and how is it affecting the LGBTQ community in America?
Fourth. What is the role of the Fourth Estate? Why is there a lack of information about how the news are reported and by whom? Why is it that we must not speak and chew gum when it comes to information and facts when there is a curtailment of what and how news are to be presented that have all to do with the lack of confidence in the news media? Why are there journalists who risk their lives doing what they do to better America?
Fifth. What did the former president of the United States do that is an obvious crime? Why do lawyers and ex-prosecutors comment on news shows, write opinions, educate on the specifics of their education? When one obvious crime in the news committed by the former president is wire fraud, it must be clearly stated as one such commentator did. Harry Litman said that wire fraud "the bread and butter" of the profession.
Sixth. Why Texas IS a case study in cruelty. The latest shooting there, not a school shooting, not a mall shooting, not a place of worship shooting, not a public space shooting, was the trespassing muderous spree of a neighbor against his next door neighbors, where a boy was a victim among the five assassinated. Rage killed a boy. Rage breeds cruelty. Cruelty is center stage in Texas at the Governor's mansion and the U.S. Senate as represented by two GOP senators. Show their pictures along the dead and find the connections across the country. The governor shoved it off as an illegal immigrant matter and has close ties with the NRA. Two Texan U.S. senators will not ban assault weapons, while mostly adult women die in such massacres, because they become the human shields that protect children across the nation. What do women say about mass shootings? Now is the moment to make use of those poll results. The dead boy was Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 8. Why does a Latin name and Hispanic origins have such horrid consequences when it comes to their existence as equal American citizens?
Sixth. What is the role of a governor? Show their pictures, state by state, and what they have accomplished to protect human rights. What are human rights?
Seventh. What is the Supreme Court of America? Who are the Justices? Why is there so much indignation in the country against it? Is it superfluous or is it based on actual numbers, Americans critical of its erosion of human rights and its ethics? Why is it that one word uttered by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse makes so much sense? "Omertà."
"Rage breeds cruelty." This explains so much, just these three words.
We're protesting "Let Her Speak' in Montana -more people rising up then I expected.
Thank for ALL you've shared here. I read it a couple of times. xo
She needs to be heard. She chose a political position and that is amazing for transgender rights. Artists should get involved. Thank you, Lisa.
I asked my friend/ professional musician in Livingston to join me. Yesterday we found out we ended up on pg. 2 of the local newspaper, which is the last thing we were expecting, along side an excellent article about what is happening in our state. Here's the link. I have the head band and whiteboard sign and Dick Dillof on banjo and at least 100 people turned out -pretty good for Livingston, MT. More cars honked and cheered than big trucks that revved their engines and blew plumes of black exhaust at us. This is a train town and we were at the train station -the trains were whistling for us: https://www.livingstonenterprise.com/news/local/rally-for-zooey/image_4fb766c6-e83f-11ed-b564-17e92d6a174e.html
I had the feeling that a local musician and music would draw the kind of attention we want. Interesting that you mentioned that today. xo
I talked to Marsha Shalloway on the phone earlier this evening and she really misses you. I told her that you 'followed the music' and are with the hummingbirds and I may do the same thing, soon. Is there any way she/we can be in touch with you?
I decided to find an old thread and see if I could find out. Marsha is 80. xo
"... make safety and our communities more important than assault rifles that kill people." The last words recorded in my memory from the clip above and I hope correctly. I have not watched the podcast yet. Am not subscribed yet. I'm sorry if I disagree, because safety here is not MORE important than killing people. Two thoughts that annihilate one another. Assault weapons in American homes and public spaces? There is only one solution. My loved mother says that they must be all collected. For hunting ducks?, she adds all you take home are feathers. She is horrified and shudders at what they do to the body, especially the bodies of small children. She blames also the individuals who sell them, and I am as horrified as she is.
Where is the protest?? Where is the strike?? Where are the teachers unions??
I agree. I have wondered why the teachers have not gone out on strike, especially in Florida.
I am 75 and my biggest worry when I was of a certain age was that my parents would notice all the sand in the car on school days. I was heading to Laguna Beach and disconnecting the speedometer.
Still managed to be on the honor roll for my grades.
My earlier comments to this podcast with Randi Weingarten, were my response to the short clip you posted on Substack..After listening to it in it’s entirety I am once again faced with a harsh and ever so frustrating reality..Firstly, your questions and perspectives were spot on, her positions, answers and solutions solid and pragmatic..Secondly, it brings me back around to the afore mentioned harsh and ever so frustrating reality..
The opposition to all that was contained in this smart and critically thought out discussion simply don’t care and don’t want any of it….They do not want to sit down and hash out these kind of solutions to bring the country to “Better”.. There’s that word again.."Better"..Better must be wanted.. they who oppose the kind of solutions put forward today don’t..
They do not care, about the people getting killed by mass shootings, because it is not them, they don’t care that children of all ages are not receiving a proper education, because their children are being taught what they want them to learn, a far cry from what was discussed in this podcast.. They prefer for the population to be uneducated and full of rage, hate and fear..
There is one thing that must be present in all parties at all negotiations in order for an idea, a solution or a fix to be realized..Wanting to..Currently only one side wants to realize solutions..The other side has an entirely different agenda..Steve you wrote an essay putting the proper name to it..Fascism..
“That our children should not be pawns in a culture war..”
~Randi Weingarten
I have news for you..Everyone’s children are not pawns in a culture war..Just the children who lack wealth, privilege and who’s parents are not elected GOP members of Government or are lobbyists for the Gun Lobby..
The children of those people and their teachers are not subject to the same AR-15 shooters in this country. They attend heavily protected private schools..
I submit, the wrong people are getting killed across this country, and until that changes nothing on this issue will change..
"That our children should not be pawns in a culture war..”
~Randi Weingarten
Well, that would be nice, wouldn't it? Then close the doors of K-12 classrooms to gender ideology and stop teaching young children the unscientific nonsense that gender identity exists separately from biological sex and culture and that children can and should discover for themselves whether they're boys, girls, both or neither. Don't turn teachers into gender-identity activists.
Not only are children in the lower grades too young to understand the implications of what they're being told, they're impressionable and eager to please the adults in their lives. They also cherish adult attention. In later grades, adolescents are motivated by the prospect of gaining the admiration of their peers.
It's all a laboratory for implanting or contracting false gender identities and all completely unnecessary. Most of the very few children with gender dysphoria or who are gender nonconforming get over it during adolescence and many come to understand they are attracted to the same sex. For example, I was very effeminate little sissy boy. I am thankful that trans "allies" and experimental and unproven "gender affirming care" hadn't yet exploded onto the scene. It would have been a cruel tragedy had someone decided that because I liked Barbie dolls and didn't like horseplay or sports I needed to become a little girl instead of the gay man I would become.
If you don't want your kids to be pawns in a culture war, don't put them on the battlefield.
Ollie,
Correct me if I am wrong, but It appears that you replied to my remarks regarding school shootings, with your position regarding gender..As I review my two replies they do line up one after the other, however, my remarks regarding classroom teaching has to do with the banning of books, the rewriting of historical facts of the country, and the removal of any lesson plan that educates on our country's sadly prolific history of racism, bigotry and the hatred of people of color..So, as I respect your right to have your position on gender, I fail to see what it has to do with my remarks, both on school shootings and the areas of classroom teaching in my remarks..
When conversing, when opining, when "opening" minds from another perspective, when speaking against the woke-mania that produces "acceptable" responses or produces deviant attempts to label without sense nor knowledge a la DeSantis, just brings to the fore how education also walks the woke tightrope. It begs the question, what is education, doesn't it?
I come from Kentucky where education fails it's residents year after year, though some notables are natives. Never is there a change that brings the #s UP. The nation seems to follow and I do not understand, except the word lazy comes to mind. Have we just become mean and lazy?
My child is about to become a teacher of history. I am very concerned about his safety as a teacher to be. I have no faith that the American People have the will to make the issues they seem to care about most — gun control/public safety, education, choice — central to a campaign.
In addition — my sons passion for history is what fueled a desire to teach. I worry that the "teaching to the test" method this country is addicted to will suck the passion from his soul. Teaching to the test does not make for good teaching, or learned individuals.
History is clearly not being taught well, or given enough attention in our schools. If it were — we would not be seeing one of the 2 major American political parties ready to end this democracy and its Constitution in favor of a fascistic dictator — a modern day "orange fuhrer" that did and if elected again would continue to destroy millions of lives. If you had said to me in the 1980s or 1990s that the republican party would be a clear and present danger to the Constitution, to Democracy — that it had sold its soul to a fascist cult — and ready to join a new Axis of Evil with Vladimir Putin, Victor Orban, Xí Jìnpíng, Marine Le Pen and Kim Jung Un — I would have thought that would have been impossible.
And yet. Here we are.