No sooner had the ink dried on my Laura Ingraham article when I noticed the article on Algemeiner about anti-Semitism and the quick action of Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio. His actions show even more that shutting down two Polish anti-Semites is important and his work reveals just how complicit Fox News, Donald Trump, others in the Catholic Church, and supporters of Fox News and Trump have been since the Campaign of 2016. This was taken from Algemeiner and should cause even Jews to reflect more about their own opinions.
This was taken from Algemeiner and should cause even Jews to reflect more about their own opinions.
Rodriguez emphasized that “anyone who offers a message that discredits the horror of the Holocaust, and the genocide which sought to extinguish the entire Jewish people, is not welcome at our parishes or academies.” She added that Bishop DiMarzio “regularly remembers in prayer the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, and offers intentions for peace in our world.”
Both Donald Trump and Laura Ingraham objected to the recent FACEBOOK decision to remove right–wingers. I have been writing that Trump and many others have been stirring up hate, but even Jews and influential Jewish organizations have refused to see the light.
Hateful speech was just stopped in Brooklyn, but the White House has been full of hateful speech which has been applauded as Trump hides behind his Jewish family, friends, and the American flag and military.
It is time to reject Trump, right-wingers, much of Fox News, and institutions and organizations that remain silent or blame others as Hitler himself did.
We should establish right now American Councils across the United States to open the discussion up to the American people. We cannot count on the candidates. It is up to people like Bishop DiMarzio and others who truly understand and who can get things done. Trump keeps failing as he appeals to his base. Perhaps Brooklyn, where I was born, will establish that first council to lead the way. Trump need not apply! Please contact me for my input.
Laura Ingraham of Fox News has been supportive of right-wingers, but it concerns me that she has expressed her objection about eliminating the electoral college. So she believes that the total democratic vote is not so important and that the system where small states hold power over the people should continue. I have a plan of action for her and those who think that peculiar form of Americanism. She should put up or shut up (US money). I have already written that we are in a civil war and secession may be a great solution, but not without expounding a bit more on how Ingraham relates to Democracy vs. states rights-electoral college. Mark Levin and others should take note of it (I read about his interview with patriot Rick Barry, the NBA legend). What I see are a bunch of extortionists on the right wing media talking about saving the union through upholding the Constitution. At this stage of my life, I feel that we can support the concept of empowering those small states desiring exceptional power over all of US. I would propose legislation with a Democrat Congress and a Democrat president to empower the Laura Ingrahams and those states by splitting the national debt and permitting secession in the same act. Call it an act of treason if you wish to, but the treachery of these right-wing intellectuals has to be exposed by a different kind of logic. If they love this kind of undemocratic power so much, they should step up to the plate and be responsible for paying the debt by the same method. More power comes with paying more of the debt. Be consistent! And remember always that I am applying only time honored Constitutional instruments in a creative way which is neither progressive nor socialist.
Jews have
been called “termites” among other things and I am sure other ethnic groups
have been called the same thing. Trump
may have a DNA link to termites that has not been revealed yet, but let’s think
of termites that invade your home. A
House Divided Cannot Stand!
We knew that
Trump was divisive and causing more hate in this country. Who are we?
Oui or we said yes Trump is causing more hate attacks. When a house does not have termites we have a
sigh of relief. Trump made his bed and
now he has to lie in it and he does lie in it a lot judging by all the Pinocchios
that he has received in the last few years for lying.
Long Island
had its share of hate in the mid-2000s caused by resentment of immigrants from
Latin America and Trump decided to get into bed with people just like
that. Steve Levy on Long Island and Lou
Arletta of Hazleton were leading the charge up a virtual San Juan Hill to get
rid of those immigrants. This is another
aspect of the Civil War that has been going on in this country. Now we learn that there was a 225 percent
increase in hate attacks in counties where Trump made campaign speeches in
2016. What took so long to cite data? The Anti-Defamation League provided the data
of the attacks or incidents and professors analyzed that there was something
significant that came up. Trump’s name
was used just as racists would site Jews, Muslims, African-Americans in their
attacks or incidents. Some proof is
needed to be defined as hate. But
millions of people cannot define Trump as a hate monger for one reason or
another. The Republican label is one of
those reasons. Some people would use the
word excuse! Some people will continue
to say that Trump is doing the right thing and even among people that I know
the reason could very well be the lack of a secular education that is needed as
those people have opted out for a religious experience. In other words, God is on America’s side and
God is on Trump’s side. Yet Jesus and
Moses talk to me in a significant way.
My Hebrew name is Moshe. That is
not Trump’s DNA. The days of thinking
that Trump is an Intelligent Termite must end now. Much of Christian-America has set Trump as
its default setting for faith and that was wrong and has to be dealt with soon.
We have to
be fair to Trump even after learning about this news. If there is only one attack or incident in a
county and two more people act out and the percentage goes sky high, this is
cause for concern but at the other end of the spectrum things will become
supremely dangerous in places that have already had lots of attacks. The prime beef (where’s the beef?) is that
the Trump name has been used over and over.
Just now, today, minutes ago I read that a 16 years-old attacked a gay person
24 in Mc Donald’s and he used homophobic slurs.
That makes the crime a hate crime.
A man set himself on fire near the White House and has just died. Trump is on fire and he immolated
himself. I’m on fire, too, which is another
kind of fire. And being on fire, it
would be great to know if that youth who committed a crime in the Mc Donald’s
had his read hat in the car that says Make America Great Again.
Getting back
to the problem of hate and possible solutions in connection with the spike in
attacks and incidents in Trump territories affected by the Trump red hats, one
would think that Republicans and Democrats (fascists need not apply) would join
together in an effort to bring about change in the worst of the documented
counties so that we can sleep at night in our homes and have fair elections
based on honesty and truth. I have consistently
stated until today that the F.B.I., the police, the ADL and the Zionist
Organization of America have to do much more.
And I say those things because I watch what they are doing and not doing
and demand more. Check for the termites
with orange hair in those counties and remove them.
In addition
the Trump dictatorship is about to end as the dictatorships of others have
ended. The Trump road has to end now. Have you noticed more than a few termites
with an orange glow?
I told former Secretary of State
Kenneth Mc Clintock that Puerto Rico could be returned to Spain so that Puerto
Ricans could have opportunities in the European Union. Consistent with that idea and thought is just
what Thomas Bravo is investing in.
Puerto Rico needs to be repopulated badly and the Bravo plan may be consistent
with my thought that India could repopulate Puerto Rico. My computer (brain) has been working for
years and I had to find out more about the $100 million donation right away
This message was taken from the Bravo
Foundation which knows about the 44 percent poverty rate of Puerto Rico which
has to very closely linked to the educational problems that I will address here. I believe in social justice, but is the
effort hitting the bulls’ eye or just the target? “Our mission is to foster basic principles of social justice in Puerto
Rico. We seek to nurture a more just society, in which youths of all socioeconomic
backgrounds have access to personal growth and economic development
opportunities.”
On the
same day that Governor Rosselló held a town hall meeting in Kissimmee, Florida
to get much more support for Puerto Rico in its struggle with the Trump Administration
and the Congress, Kenneth Mc Clintock, former Secretary of State of Puerto Rico
under Governor Luis Fortuño, was a guest presenter in a free conferenece call about
the conditions in Puerto Rico.
Of
course the repopulation of Puerto Rico by people from India and other countries
will not go over well if Silicon Valley plays a major role in reconstructing
Puerto Rico. There will be more hate
created than we need. And so far I see
in the announcement of the $100 million donation a lot about business and
little about humanitarian improvement. I
also see the destruction of Puerto Rico’s unions including the large teachers’
union coming and I count among its leaders some of my readers. It is time for all teachers in Puerto Rico
and all Puerto Ricans to learn about my ideas now and there should be no
holding back. There are lots of Puerto
Rican businessmen, I am reasonably certain, that would shoot down my ideas as
soon as the media spreads the word about them.
Consider this. Bill Gates dropped
out of high school briefly and then dropped out of Harvard. Had he really dropped out of high school and
earned his high school equivalency and grew up in Mayagüez like Orlando Bravo, Microsoft might have developed in
Puerto Rico instead of Washington (Seattle), giving jobs to a huge number of people
and generating lots of millionaires.
Business is important to Puerto Rico, but everyone there is important
and we should not forget that. And
everyone on the island should have access to critical training.
I have been to Puerto Rico to fight
for the people of Puerto Rico, but just like any other country (or territory)
the people are very divided. The
Independence Party of Puerto Rico cared more for governmental power, I noticed
from my chair at home, than helping the poorest of Puerto Ricans. Business people normally want to pay people
less not more. It’s the same
everywhere. In New York City there are
about 1.5 million adults without even a high school diploma and in Puerto Rico
before the exodus (the diaspora referred to is that of the 21st century)
there were a million adults without a diploma.
The high school equivalency failures of Puerto Rico during those decades
have impacted on families and Puerto Rican government was as responsible for
those failures as the people who failed the test or who failed to even start
preparing for the test. The sands of
Puerto Rico hid the heads of those elected officials and their staff.
The Puerto Rican government should
finally provide annual statistics for all the years that it sent N/A or not
available to the American Council on Education which controlled GED testing
then in Puerto Rico. Then Puerto Rico
created its own test which I could not obtain any information about from
Governor Rossello’s office. There was no
transparency when I contacted the staff regarding educational issues and even
my request to expand access to an important agreement made between Florida and
Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria went unanswered. Maybe Orlando Bravo’s money should be used as
well to teach the office of the governor new skills that would really
dramatically help the people. In
addition to that if the high school equivalency test is still free in Puerto
Rico, that will not work to help as the funding for testing has to be immense
instead of minimal. In addition if the
diploma or certificate is not universally recognized in the United States and
other countries, that is as close to fraud as things could possibly be (Puerto
Rico developed its own test). Keep in
mind that Certificates of Completion have been given out to students in New
York, for example, and those certificates are worthless and who caused
that? People in the department of
education where they live (city and state).
The Bravo announcement is not at all
different from the announcement of Yo Amo America made by the Inter-American
Development Bank over a decade ago, using Juan Luis Guerra, Shakira, Ricky
Martin, Alejandro Sanz, and others to help them develop something that they
probably considered to be of enormous potential. What were the results? Let’s read about the impact over the years
and decide if the same thing could have been accomplished by a placebo. Yo Amo Puerto Rico and I demand much more and
my ideas need a seat at the table to discuss things before the money’s all been
spent.
The N.A.A.C.P. approved support for
statehood for Puerto Rico but rescinded it almost immediately. The support for charter schools in Puerto
Rico must have been a key factor to make that political detour. Bernie Sanders just announced that if he
becomes president in 2020, there will be no federal funding of private charter
schools. I have played a role in some of
that, but I support all residents of Puerto Rico who attend neighborhood
schools and the teachers’ union that I have had contact with for over a year. My suggestions will also benefit students in
charter schools and their parents.
I propose this plan of education where
deliberate indifference to the people of Puerto Rico will not take place.
Students in the public schools of
Puerto Rico could immediately benefit by the constant flow of instruction on
FACEBOOK that will reach the home through the schools and keep all students on
track, increasing graduation immediately and for years to come.
Donations could help fund the high
school equivalency test taking and people who have enough money could pay to
take the test if there is an obvious shortage of private donations. I have long suggested that people like Carlos
Slim of Mexico take a break from their favorite charities and devote the time
and money to the high school equivalency.
Puerto Rico’s high school equivalency
testing program (if it is valid) could be expanded to other countries, the way
that the American Council on Education expanded the G.E.D. around the
world. Puerto Rico had the G.E.D. test translated
in 1973 to help all Spanish test takers, but that was more than 30 years after
the English test was created in World War II for American youth who dropped out
of high school to fight in the war. A
new vital testing program in Puerto Rico can create jobs for people. Puerto Rico’s Education Act of 1949 which
required Spanish language test takers to pass an English exam was never changed
even though Legislator Ramirez proposed revising that law for Puerto Rico’s
immigrants. The law was a disaster for
Puerto Ricans as well as valuable research will show. Where were the other legislators, senators,
and staff members all those years? They surely had very limited understanding
of what they had done to make things worse in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico could also use additional high
school equivalency help from the other test companies. Why should people be asked to wait to earn a
diploma when one of the testing companies could provide immediate testing on
demand?
Parents and children should be
educated. Universal pre-k which Mayor
Bill de Blasio of Puerto Rico was instrumental in developing and he made that
known to mayors across the United States who thought he was genius were
wrong. The pre-k program had to be developed
with high school equivalency programs for the parents and other adults. Long before de Blasio, for example, I reached
out to Mississippi and West Virginia.
West Virginia had a very poor graduation rate from high school and
Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana lagged way behind in educating people in
Colorado at the time of Hurricane Katrina.
The United States Department of
Education put out a free English program for Spanish speakers who needed to
learn English. That program only reached
a fraction of the people who needed it.
Think of all the immigrants crossing the border right now who could
benefit. Do the immigrant detention
camps have access to the program? US
Learns is the program. How many people in Puerto Rico could benefit
from the program right now?
The publisher of Jewish Business News
in Israel is ready to be a business to help people who need psychological help
by phone or the internet. Her program is called Dear Lili and she is just about ready to start up in
the United States. We can reach out to
her and bring badly needed help to Puerto Rico.
I met the president of the New York
City Central Labor Council (representing 2 million workers in New York City) in
the El Caribe Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
I did a big favor for him that involved the government of El Salvador
and he appreciated. When I visited his
small office later, we agreed that we would mobilize 300 people in each borough
each week toward obtaining their high school equivalency diploma, something
that the city of New York’s programs could never accomplish well without my knowledge. That labor leader was later arrested for
embezzlement and his successor did not wish to participate with me in my plan
to help (the world).
Around that time I put together my
first G.E.D. Roundtable and yes the government of Puerto Rico was represented. Yes the government of El Salvador was
represented. Yes the government of the
Dominican Republic was represented. Yes
the government of Mexico was represented.
The office of DC-37 was represented.
People came from Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and Chicago as
well. The office of Senator Hillary Clinton
was represented by her senior Hispanic advisor.
I did that “Roundtable” with Hector Gesualdo, the executive director of
ASPIRA of New York who was one of my top two collaborators. Hector is no longer with us, but his telephone
number has not been deleted from my cell phone list. These are all memories now with small accomplishments. Why? People in power hold the progress of the poor
back. Those poor are still in Puerto
Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico today as leaders in government there
make decisions that have little impact. Here
is the article from early 2006 about that Mesa Redonda or Roundtable.
Orlando Bravo should sit down with all
of Puerto Rico. The teachers’ union
members need great assurances and they can be helpful in creating the best
progressive agenda for Puerto Rico. We
cannot just count on the education department of Puerto Rico to get the people
where they have to go. The churches of
Puerto Rico should be at the table, but not because of the faith culture. Nobody should be left out and nobody should
be left behind. The universities should
be at the table as well since they should have previously unexplored
ideas. My point is that Orlando Bravo
has pledged $100 million and everyone should be providing feedback so that he
can get the most bang for his buck and to discuss transparency. What research does he have to show that his
ideas will add up to something great for Puerto Rico? And the media must play an important role in
all of this. Looking at the mistakes of
the past that I have explained here, it makes us think about what was the press
doing? To make Puerto Rico as strong as
possible is what is at stake here.
Bravo! Bravo! Let’s open the dialogue now with Bravo!
Puerto Ricans can help by advocating
properly for the poor and those who have not obtained the education needed to
survive in this world. This is a work
that can be taken to the United States Congress which should have been
better. Candidates running for president
of the United States will soon be reading this article and it will be shared
with the office of Senator Bernie Sanders who is leading the fight against for-profit
charter schools right now. I hope that
Senator Sanders unites with my friends from the N.A.A.C.P. in Washington, D.C.
and that soon all of Puerto Rico and others can fight together to improve the
lives of Puerto Ricans. Remember the
days of Hurricane Maria and things like Whitefish, Trump’s comments about
Puerto Rico (and even today his lies about giving $91 billion to Puerto Rico),
and the deaths that he is in denial about.
Where are the people in Congress speaking out about the egregious faults
of that paper towel tosser who should be throwing in the towel of his
administration? Would someone just toss
him out of the ring (wrestling) lucha libre style? A “just society” takes much more than entrepreneurship. All people deserve a living wage!
Our nation’s military and veterans
have some things here to think about. A
lot is going on in our nation and at the same time nothing is going on. The Marines and Navy Seals have leaked
important information about conditions in combat years ago and conditions in
peace today. Another American was just killed in Afghanistan and another
American veteran has just driven into a crowd of people that he thought were
Muslims. I keep telling people to leave
innocent people alone in war and in peace.
Our nation’s men and women who have served still have things to
learn. And I am one who does not want to
hear another person say I follow the commander-in-chief. We are about to look at this man and how he
makes his decisions to protect all of US.
I fear for everyone including the men and women who now have jobs in
fighting crime and fires in our nation, because I know that Trump has led the fight
against immigrants instead of doing more for our men in blue and the
communities that need to reduce crime and violence. And there will be more about all those
veterans that are not being helped even though Trump has set up a hotline and
permits “whistle blowing” within the Veterans Administration which is the law
of the land. For the rest of US he has
provided zilch. If you want to know why
you should share this article with veterans’ associations, national, regional,
state, and local, in a few more minutes of reading you will know why.
The next part if about how this man
makes his decisions. We learned in 2019
that Trump declared “victory” in Syria and spoke about immediate withdrawal or
leaving. How did he come to that
decision? Was he persuaded by the
Pentagon and the military experts? Now
we can take a look at Trump in 2005 and I am going to make this easy for
you. It’s the Imus in the Morning Show
and Trump called in. This
is about “declare victory and leave.” How does satisfy the tens of thousands of
soldiers who have sacrificed so much and who want to eradicate the
problem? This is not about more money to
build new and more powerful weapons that can protect US. This is about husbands and wives and sons and
daughters that should be taking a deeper look at this man and how he makes his
decisions. Go to about the 1:30 mark of
this 12 minute video and recording. By
the 7 minute mark you see Trump at his best.
So hang in there. You heard him
mention that someone that we do not know taught him how to handle these
situations. He is always talking to
someone we don’t know who teaches him what has to be done. In less than one minute you have learned what
you need to know. At the southern
border, someone told him what has to be done, but Trump won even though he was
not that popular. Now after shutting
down the government and leading US nowhere great, immigrants who were held in
shelters are being released because the shelters are overflowing and that means
more dangerous. True he is trying to
appeal to his base, but he is doing what Trump has repeatedly done. Fail! And where is the Trump vodka that he
talked about in the video? Failed. Have a drink on Trump (vodka of course) and
find out more about what is going on around the country that is affecting
veterans.
I cannot see how our military can
stand proud after all the talk that I have heard about the Vietnam War and how
we should have stayed and won the war.
Richard Nixon yanked American troops out, but he did not foolishly
declare victory. Yes things got worse
for a while, but we have no war anymore in Vietnam
with its people. Nothing! And did Iraq get taken over by someone worse
than Saddam Hussein? Share this
information with your children and your neighbors and do not let it die out.
Before I go into the very important
next part, think about this. Silence instead
of speaking out! Silence about what I
sent you should not be tolerated.
Silence about the information brought to me by Floyd Hamilton III of
Alexandria, Louisiana is an injustice just like that he will explain to you
here. I met Floyd because I was doing a
national telephone call about violence and hate. The former wife of the great Muhammad Ali
joined us when she and her son Muhammad Ali, Jr. were stopped at airports for
being Muslim. I told Floyd that he would
be the first speaker and I want you to know that I am good friend with the
father of Sean Bell who was killed by NYPD the night before his wedding. Let’s not be silent. Share the information with people in your
community. America is at stake and
things are dangerous.
Before I share the information, we
must address the history of the world briefly.
All people deserve to be free, but how can we be free when people in
power divide us. When people in some
places sought a nation, they were opposed by people who wanted empire. And everyone in the middle suffered in those
battles. The United States passed the
era of nationalism centuries ago and this country expanded from East to West
and North and South to create a nation that included many states including
California, Florida, Alaska, and even Hawaii.
And there were groups of people that favored an empire over the
nationalists because of great oppression that was taking place. We see the same thing today as the so-called
“swamp” in Washington, D.C. is battling against people in states over power. The swamp then was everywhere and today it is
everywhere as well. And we the people
get nowhere. Cher recently spoke about
50,000 vets who were homeless in Los Angeles and Trump naturally picked up her
comment which appeared to be anti-immigrant.
Where is that higher standard of the Marines and other armed forces to
stand together for America and not for its leader? So let’s work together to keep your families
together and our nation together. One of
those perpetrators mentioned was a veteran.
Is help on the way? Donald Trump
mentioned maybe an armed guard inside the Tree of Life Temple might have saved
lives, but this last killing took place outside (which I knew would happen
sooner or later). We need help
everywhere and prevention is the key to our success.
The case of Floyd Hamilton III fits into many of the things mentioned already. Nobody was listening to him for years and now veterans are supporting him in his cause for justice. Here is what Floyd Hamilton has provided that veterans should share all over our nation now.
In Jan 2004 the VA Medical Center hired Shivani Negi, MD.,
knowing that she had inadequate credentials for practicing medicine. She was
not required to complete the credentialing process, VETPRO, put in place to
screen applicants; nor was information concerning her rejection for a medical
license by the Florida Medical board considered; nor was the incomplete
application for the Virginia license addressed prior to her hiring- available
upon request.
During Shavani Negi’s tenure at Alexandria-Pineville VAMC, dozens of veterans and their families have been adversely affected. Many veterans have died, others have been denied medications and others have sought medical attention elsewhere to avoid her caustic and aggressive behavior.
It
is imperative that actions be taken to establish competent medical staffing at
Alexandria-Pineville VAMC, removing all who do not meet VETPRO and national VAMC
standards of medical care. Families of mistreated, maligned and killed veterans
must be compensated for their suffering and their losses. I feel that I,
Floyd Hamilton III, should be awarded/ compensated for damages and the
suffering and death of my father, the loss of my home and my business, and
post-traumatic stress syndrome experienced by me as I continue to console my 88
year-old mother following the tortuous loss of her life partner.
Veterans
have been moving to support Floyd Hamilton III in various demonstrations near
highways, in meetings with others that have claims, and others who did not even
know about their rights and are finding out that were entitled to
benefits. Everyone is fighting for
justice right now and they need all the help they can get. If you are not too tired, you should read on
about history and what it takes to improve the lives of people.
On
May 20, 2009, a World War II bronze-star recipient, my father Floyd Hamilton Jr,
died at the Alexandria-Pineville VAMC after 2 1/2 years in an iatrogenic brain
injury coma caused by Shivani Negi. My father withered away in the VAMC,
as opposed to an alternative facility, because the VAMC cover-up for Shivani
Negi during legal action against her.
Letters
submitted to my federal delegates from Louisiana were ignored by all except
one, and that one was the chairman who referred me back to the State
Congressman for the 5th District Ralph
Abraham (a Republican who is now running for governor of Louisiana) who held a
congressional hearing in Pineville, LA. concerning issues at the VAMC. Prior to
hearing I volunteered to speak but was denied the right to publicly address the
injustice about my Father.
This argument for help is strong and includes the current discussion of Confederate statues and flags that represent history. We can say our history since the Civil War is our history, but with a strong caveat. Hitler and the Nazis were part of German history and its glorification is reprehensible to most people. He had his admirers among Americans including German, Irish, and others in our own backyard. John F. Kennedy stopped taking advice from his own father who had been an admirer of Hitler decades before. American business was connected to Hitler and Nazi Germany as it destroyed free nations.
We need this kind of growth to put out the fires of hate now in America. Policies are needed that help us all achieve peace at home. And we have seen the dangerous rhetoric and we know the silence of tens of millions of people about that. When the Austrian Emperor wanted to help his people in the 1860s, he called upon his military to help people because local leaders could not be trusted and in that way the military became the eyes and ears of the emperor as complaints were made. We need the military to stand with US now and forever. None of this is “fake news” and we will make news together. It is time to act.
Murder He Wrote! Floyd maintains that the doctor did not have
consent to take his father off life support.
He has new evidence in this case and is ready to take it forward. He can be contacted so send me a message through
the blog. We want our nation’s eyes to read
all about this important veteran news.
Necesitamos una ley con tinta indeleble sobre los seguros médicos, una ley que durará aún en los tiempos malos económicos de los Estados Unidos. La salud es tan importante a la existencia de la humanidad.
En pro de los pobres, digo. Sabe que en Israel hay un millón de pobres y
muchos son los más religiosos. Y me
dicen que hay seguros médicos allá.
El ranking de Israel en 2013 fue número 4 en el eficaz en mundo de su
programa compulsatoria de seguros.
Yo sé la pobreza del mundo hispano en
el interior de mi país y en el exterior.
He visitado a El Salvador. México y la República Dominicana.
Y hablo cada dos semanas con un
ecuatoriano de Cuenca que habla mucho de su pueblo donde hay una escasez de
trabajos y salarios insuficientes.
Vamos a comenzar con unas letras
importantes que me gusta mucho.
No me digan que los médicos se fueron.
No me digan que no tienen anestesia.
Así está hablando Bernie Sanders sin
quizás las palabras que pueden convencer a los votantes.
Yo tengo 74 años, tengo seguros médicos y he tenido seguros médicos
toda mi vida. Fuimos en los 1950 a un médico
proveído por un sindicato porque mi padre fue un miembro.
Casí 70 años después Bernie Sanders
dice que necesitamos seguros médicos para todos. Y la oposición no quiere pagar el costo. Todo es fácil. Tengo seguros y creo que todos deben
tenerlo. Cuándo? Hoy.
Sabe que mañana es una palabra muy vaga para los que no tienen el deseo
de cumplirlo. Puede ser un negociante o
uno que ya tiene seguros pero no desea regular lo mismo a todos.
Juan Luís Guerra, el cantante y autor
de las letras vive en un pas
donde todavía no hay los seguros para todos (solamente cuberta parcial) y es lo
mismo en el rico país donde vivimos.
Bernie Sanders no es mi candidato pero estamos en acuerdo sobre los
seguros médicos. El problema es
convencer las personas en los estados donde hay los votantes que no lucharán
para ustedes. El niágara en bicicleta
hay que parar. En las iglesias dicen
pare sufrir y venga a la iglesia. Dios
cura. Y mucho más. Pare sufrir y convencer los demás a luchar por su salud.
Una otra falta en las explicaciones de
Bernie Sanders es que el senador no ha indicado al público americano que en una
democracia es el pueblo que decide y el presidente no debe rechazar su salud en
ninguna manera. Hable con todos en su
comunidad. Merece a los seguros médicos
ahora. Creo que en el desastroso
ambiente gubermental de esta administración no se puede aceptar un no. Y recuerde que Trump indicó hace tres años
que todos van a tener seguros médicos.
Que mañana larga fue su promesa!
Mi propio plataforma educativo incluyó
en 2004 que todos los inmigrantes indocumentados tendrían la oportunidad de
estudiar en los Estados Unidos y progresar mucho más. Particularmente hablé de la necesidad de
tener mucho más enfermeras (hasta un millón más por la necesidad
nacional). Todo era importante, reforma
de inmigración, mejoramiento de la comunidad hispana por educacion, reducir
discriminación, la aumentación en el salario mínimo y los seguros médicos. El problema que existe y existió hace siglos
es que los ricos desean pagar cero impuestos y la reforma de impuestos en 2017
de Donald Trump es un ejemplo. Estos
politicos no saben manejar un gobierno y siempre hacen los mismos errores de
los gobiernos. antiguos (monarquías, fascismo, democracias y dictaduras..
Actualmente hay muchos en la clase
media que son pobres también por las deudas.
Tenemos que avocar juntos, organizar juntos, protestar juntos y rechazar
un no juntos. Cada vida vale mucho y
necesitamos seguros médicos nactionales.
Cada madre o padre o hermano o hermana
entiende al escuchar las ofensivas palabras que su amada hija o hermana fue
tocada en una manera inapropriada en la la escuela o en un lugar. La Biblia nos dice en contradicción del
momento de division política que nos enfrenta que no debe proveer testigo
falso. La latina que comenzó esta
avalancha de denuncias contra Joe Biden no es culpable. El culpable, en mi opinión, es la revista The
New Yorker por publicar el artículo sin evidencia concreta. La opinión de Lucy Flores fue solamente una
opinión sobre sus sentimientos (factuales o no factuales). Y el ataque contra
Joe Biden es nada más que un otro muro político.
Espera un momento. Este profesor en la foto es “El Quijote del
GED” o un profesor bastante trascendente en el mundo, conocido en la República
Dominicana, Puerto Rico, El Salvador y otros paises. Y la marca de El Quijote es mucho más grande
que la de Donald Trump porque el hombre es un luchador por la comunidad como el
famoso Don Quixote de la Mancha. No se
puede defamar este hombre sin la excepción de promover ideas falsas o
mentiras. Amelia Vega es la mujer y la
foto fue tomado durante un viaje que el profesor hizo con su novia (ahora su
esposa) en Punta Cana y el ex-novio de Amelia Vega, Pablo Montero, está a su
lado izquierdo, todos preparando para la foto.
El encuentro con Amelia Vega fue inocente y ocurrió unos meses después de
pedir ayuda en este mismo asunto a dominicanos en Nueva York. Que suerte!
La actual foto está abajo y la reina
dominicana se parecío muy contenta por las palabras de un señor solamente
interesado en la educacion del mundo hispano.
En vez de condenas por su trabajo en el sector de educacion que se llama
el GED o la equivalencia del bachillerato, él ha recibido reconocimiento
internacional. En el mismo momento en su
vida, Martin Danenberg era el profesor del Consulado de El Salvador en
Brentwood, Nueva York. Esta comunidad
hoy en días es conocida por la violencia de la pandilla MS-13. El mismo profesor luchó por Mexicanos en
2002, desarrollando una reunion entre su amigo, el ex-consul general de El
Salvador Luis Montes-Brito y el Consul General de México Salvador Beltrán del
Río Madrid (cuando dos tercios de los inmigrantes mexicanos abandonaron sus
estudios en la escuela superior en los Estados Unidos).
El profesor entiende la política en general y la política de Trump, la administración más anti-Hispano en la memoria y lucha contra este hombre que tiene sus apoyantes hispanos. Damos gracias que no es una mayoría o más de ellos. Muchos claramente son negociantes y algunos están en las iglesias, la Iglesia Pentecostal y la Iglesia Católica. El Quijote lucha contra todos por el pueblo y su derecho de tener una vida mejor. Y la educacion importa!
La foto más increíble de todas es la foto abajo. El mejor encuentro de todos sus encuentros pasó en Filadelfia en el gimnasio de Joe Frazier, con el ex campéon mundial del boxeo y su hijo Marvis, también un boxeador reconocido. Pero la foto más linda en la posesión del profesor es abajo con Juan Luis Guerra, el tío de Amelia Vega. Usted el lector tiene que decider si el profesor ha hecho algo malo a Amelia Vega y si Joe Biden ha hecho algo malo a estas mujeres. Conozco una mujer quién tomó una foto con la Secretaria de Educación Betsy DeVos donde la primera se pareció por su lenguaje de cuerpo la incomodidad por el toque (por razones religiosas) de la secretaria de educacion. Y la secretaria no es culpable. Hay que defender con razón todas las personas atacadas en esta misma manera. Donald Trump es una otra cosa, pero repito que The New Yorker es culpable. Lo que yo quiero es que usted comparta esta información con los demás y Ojalá Que Llueva Educación. Gracias! Amelia Vega se casó con el baloncesto Al Horford, quien juega con los Boston Celtics.
El encuentro de Joe Biden con Lucy Flores fue inocente, también según toda la evidencia. Es evidente que Joe Biden tiene más pasión que yo, pasión humana y política para los representantes de su partido. Una solución ahora es escuchar y aprender su plataforma presidencial porque los Republicanos desean debilitar el progreso de un hombre que merece el respeto de todos. Y como Juan Luis Guerra dice en la canción El Costo de la Vida “la democracia no puede crecer.” Hay que construir puentes en vez de muros.
I have received letters from two senators over the last 19 years and one of them was from Senator Joe Biden (Mc Cain was the other one). Delaware happens to be the worst GED state in the nation each year and Biden is from Delaware. This should tell you that there were significant problems with Delaware over the years and I have to be honest. Bernie Sanders comes from a pretty poor GED state as well and Sanders has been supportive of Lucy Flores who wrote the article about Biden in the New Yorker. We will see if I agree with Bernie shortly. Read on. And there can no blame for this on Donald Trump.
Let me start off by showing you a photo that I took with former Ms. Universe Amelia Vega in 2003 and there have been people who thought that I was kissing her. I was actually talking to her and handing her my business card and it was wife who took the photo. And there is someone that I know who took a photo with Betsy DeVos and that person looked very distraught as Betsy De Vos was taking her around with her arm for the photo. I cannot fault Betsy De Vos for that, but don’t get me started about Trump’s appointee as Secretary of Education. I am a charter school opponent.
And that’s
Pablo Montero with Amelia. Years later,
Amelia Vega’s aunt said that’s my niece’s photo and wanted to know what she was
doing there. See the card! See the proof! I went on my way and that was the end of that
beautiful meeting. She was the most
amazing 19 year-old that I have ever met in my life. And do you see that I had my hands on her?
Here is what
you have to know before we get to Lucy Flores, a Latina. We have just gotten over the Baraboo story
where I read about and saw no wrong doing by the students on the steps who allegedly
were doing the Hiel Hitler salute. Then
we saw the Covington Catholic story with the Black Israelites and the Native-Americans
in Washington, D.C. and the media got both things wrong. I wrote a Native-American periodical that
covered that story and stated that I saw nothing that revealed wrong doing by
the students. Then the videos came forth
which showed the Black Israelites taking on the students. I was in touch with Baraboo and then I called
the Covington Archdiocese to share my views.
I have my views about the Biden-Flores story now to share.
I read her article
in The New Yorker and the New Yorker has to take responsibility for publishing
her story. Why is the vice-president
touching me she asks herself and then she states that he inhaled her hair
(concerned about not having washed her hair-imagine that). She states that she was embarrassed and wanted
to get away, but she had not washed her hair.
Was there a groping or a sexual assault that made her want to get away such
as a Trump groping later called locker room talk? I had to write that.
She brings
up racist attitudes that do not even apply in the situation, but free expression
is encouraged. She writes about what she
considered to be an act that was disrespectful which appears to be a good point
and how she felt that her qualifications were more important to her. Biden was there to qualify her according to
those high qualifications (I would assume and wouldn’t you?). He was there to help her not to gain control
over her sexually.
She writes
about the CEO of a company and Biden was vice-president of what is sometimes
called a corporation by people, but he was not her boss and they did not work
for the same company at all.
Then there
are provocative comments about articles that purported his creepiness which
could easily have been opinion pieces that she has read and she saw discomfort
in the faces of the Defense Secretaries wife, a senator’s wife who was kissed
on the lips, another woman who Biden whispered in the ear, and various
snuggling photos taken with constituents.
Discomfort on the face at that moment does not come close to proving
anything, because it is all about what’s on the mind of those women. Then she writes about Biden’s “troubling” past
and the imbalance of power that is felt by her and people at the work
place. Sure at the workplace it’s a violation
called sexual harassment. If Biden had given
Lucy Flores his cell number and the room number at his hotel so they could have
a drink later, that would have been the kind of supporting evidence that could
convince us.
So I blame The
New Yorker for printing the information, unless there is more. I am not a fan of Joe Biden, but he has my
support so far in this controversy. And
I will be sending the article to Biden.
These were the graduation percentages
in Hempstead since 2004. Those rates are
highly suspicious. Schools are supposed
to improve steadily, but the decline in 2008 must reveal some form of
corruption and general poor performance by all.
2004 49.6 % 2005 39.3 % 2006 47% 2007 58% 2008 51% 2009 50% 2010 46%
2011 27.8 % 2012 37.5% 2013 35.5 % 2014 37% 2015 40% 2016 47.7%. The statistics were revealed in New York
Newsday on January 21, 2018. There were
years that were much better than others.
Did academic levels rise and then fall or could it be that the school
district did not keep good exit interviews with students who just dropped out
or transferred as well? The significant
rise in graduation in 2016 seems like a good indicator of success for 2017, but
there has been chaos again this last school year and maybe no prediction of
success should be made.
Shimon Waronker has worked in
different boroughs of New York City and we were introduced by Joel Klein when
Klein was Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s chancellor of New York City Schools. I live fifty miles from Department of
Education headquarters outside of the city, but I went there to support parent
involvement, particularly District 27 which is in Far Rockaway. I believe that strongly in parent
involvement, but I can assure you that those parents and I had differences
about what to do.
I had to do research about Waronker
just as you would have to if you did not live and work in New York City. Most of my research came from reading the
book authored by Joel Klein after he left his position in New York City. I was down south when I first looked at the
book and I was amazed to learn that I was quoted on page 39. It intrigued me so much that I bought the
book. Since Bill Bradley, the great
basketball player and former senator of New York wrote a book and wrote about
education, I have made it my business to see what was said by candidates for
public office. I did the same for Donald
Trump and others when I saw their books and I have not been impressed by
anyone. Although Joel Klein was not a
candidate for office, I paid for the book and I was glad I bought it, because I
added a chapter to my own book about the Bloomberg-Klein mistakes.
Shimon Waronker took over the
Hempstead School District on June 2, 2017, but on December 21, 2017 he wrote a
letter to the community that 90 percent of English Language Learners are on
Level 1, the lowest level. And only 17
percent of the students pass the US History Regents (a state-wide exam). Students who cannot read or write and others
who fail all their classes are promoted.
And his plan of action is for staff to make changes for September of
2018 so that there would l be teaching to the individual needs of the
students. My questions include where did
things go wrong in September of 2017 and what was being done to provide the
students with what they needed?
Waronker, I knew, would have
trouble. He was and is what community
people can and do call “a carpetbagger I asked someone who is well connected to
Hempstead what takes place from day to day if the people who helped hire
Waronker are corrupt and his answer was that they are corrupt. I spoke with a person very connected to the
Hempstead School District and she told me that is what the opposition
says. What is the truth? The opposition is a large part of the
Hispanic community and the new majority is largely African-American. Even around 2004 I heard from a Salvadoran
who worked in government in Nassau County that the African-Americans controlled
the Title 1 funds and programs, which means that Hispanics would not get the
support they needed.
Enter Shimon Waronker, a Spanish
speaking Chilean Jew who served in the United States military and who turned a
dangerous school in the Bronx around through para military tactics that he
learned in the army. He did some nice things in the school, but the test scores
did not really go up and he received special attention and materials from the
chancellor that I found out about by digging deeper for information that was
available on the internet. Later, his
dual language school was being touted and he attracted a following in Brooklyn,
but my research again showed that the test scores did not go up there as well.
In my
book Issues of Our Times: Educational Solutions Matter I write that Shimon
Waronker should be interviewed today, because it would be helpful to
everyone. His impact was great and he seems open minded. His
efforts have been written about in The New York Times and more. Joel
Klein writes that the results in the third grade were disappointing in the New
American School that Waronker founded in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Klein
also states that middle class parents found out about the school and wanted to
send their children there. Of course the poor third grade results would
turn most parents off, but there certainly were positive things happening,
including a trilingual program. The school that he commanded when I met him was
still in need of great improvement in 2016.
This
is something that I dug up about J.H.S. 22 in the Bronx years after meeting
Waronker and seeing how close he and Joel Klein were. Joel Klein
did not write about the extra services that the school had been given
including: social workers, guidance counselors, family workers, and the school
had a new science lab, a new library, laptop computer carts, and much more.
These were things that were never revealed in Joel Klein’s book and you must
understand why. All of this was left out as Joel Klein praised his
principal leadership program. Even the New York Times fell for it.
What Joel Klein was supposed to say was that the test scores did not go
up. I say that parents must know about these things to be better
informed. In addition, on math, ELA, and science tests the school
recently scored 2 percent, 6 percent, and 18 percent receiving 3 and 4 on the
state tests.
Joel
Klein met with “very bright” and “motivated” students. This group was
called the Chancellor’s Advisory Council. Among the things that he asked
the students was were there gangs in their schools. Most of the students
were seniors. I learned soon after retiring that there was significant
dropout from school by Latinos in the ninth grade. If the council were
influenced mostly by seniors who already could see the light at the end of the
tunnel or their graduation, the focus was wrong. I wonder if the students
told Joel Klein yes there were gang members and that they come from
dysfunctional families the way Mayor Bloomberg told it on the radio.
In
the Greek democracy everyone was represented and we don’t see that in his
book. We can see a much better effort to help the school system in the
way that Shimon Waronker brought gang members close to him in the school
student government, but there are gangs all over the city and there is no
mention of the spread of good ideas into other schools. I am was in touch with
the gang unit of the DOE providing new ideas.
I also watched videos posted on
FACEBOOK that show important details.
There was chaos at meetings and possible obstruction by people. Audience shouting out was unnecessary. But there are things that really hit my
nerves. At a victory celebration people
were talking repeatedly about taking back their community, ignoring the fact
that there was another side of the community.
They declared that they would have the children in mind. What I saw were two groups that had unified
after working against each other. In
describing how they came together they recognized the importance of sitting
down to talk. It really appears to me
that this important tactic and strategy of uniting people did not occur with
the Hispanics on the other side.
This kind of failure by the school
district had to result in the state finding fault in the “governance” of the
school board, among other things. One
would think that the state would find a school district or two in the area for
everyone to learn from, even if it is on video so nobody would not have to
travel. People must learn how to handle
objectional material at a meeting without hindering the progress of the
meeting. There was a lot of argument
over the swearing in of someone which did not even need a vote. There have been fifty fights by students
since September in the high school.
Instruction was determined to be in need for special education students,
English Language Learners, pre-kindergarten, the high school, and computer and
technology.
Four years ago, I read about the
changes that were being made in Hempstead School District) and my conclusion
was that the high school would show hardly any improvement (my article was
published in Spanish in La Tribuna Hispana USA August 27, 2013). The administration was expecting a fifty
percent graduation rate in June 2014 and it achieved less than forty
percent. There were two more graduates
that year than in the previous year. The
school district still had not achieved fifty percent in the Spring of
2017.
In reading about the Hempstead School
District in the newspaper New York Newsday it seemed to me that Superintendent
Waronker, the majority members of the board, the minority members of the board,
the New York State Commissioner of Education MaryEllen Elia, and the New York
State legislature were to blame with different degrees of blame. And that also includes elected officials that
I have spoken to in Hempstead in the past.
I have just sent my article about educational solutions to the New York
State Board of Regents and I would hope to hear from the Regents this year.
Also as it has been mentioned (as in
other years) is the possibility of a take-over of the school district by the
state. Two of the things mentioned by
the state are the school district’s “community relations” and the school
superintendent in need of “maintaining an appropriate working relationship with
a board of education.”
One of the key solutions to helping
the world and this information was sent to Governor Andrew Cuomo with no
response from anyone in the state education department. You decide.
My nickname is “El Quijote del GED” which was given to me by Salvadorans
close to Hempstead, New York. I made
front page news with that title. Think
about all the students that do not get enough help and who cannot study well
enough to pass or get high grades. On
one occasion I was near some high school students in a fast food restaurant
where one student asked an Asian student how much he obtained on the
physics. The answer was 91. When the Asian student asked his fellow
classmate his grade the answer was 72.
Then that student called out across the restaurant to a friend of his
who was with another group of friends, asking his friend how much he got. The answer was preceded by a laugh and the
youth answered 40. I asked the student
who scored 72 if the felt the teacher taught him enough and his reply was “not
really.” Now just imagine the challenge
in Hempstead where about 35 percent on the students had dropped out. There are lots of “solutions” but one key
thing is that there must be a constant flow of tutoring that attacks the
weaknesses of each individual and there must be good results. Many tutoring programs fail.
This is taken from a movie treatment
that I wrote about what Chicago needs.
Hempstead is not Chicago, but it has lots of the elements that plague
communities in Chicago. New York Newsday
did publish my letter to the editor about educating the parents and the
children in universal pre-kindergarten programs, but communities do not learn
and do the right thing. In the 1970s
the graduation rate in the United States was over seventy percent, leaving
urban areas and communities like Hempstead, way behind. New York State’s African-American population
has the largest failure rate on the high school equivalency test in the nation,
ranking it at the bottom with Alabama and Mississippi each year. My nickname comes from being a voice in that
equivalency program called the G.E.D.
With that extremely high dropout rate from high school and the low
percentage of adults taking and passing the G.E.D., the Hempstead community has
been a very desperate community and even the F.B.I. has been called in to help
the police at least twice over the years.
I have fought to help the Hispanic community in Hempstead to get back
its G.E.D. program in the county program called CASA after the school district
cut out that program. And it was not
restored, leaving many communities with far fewer job opportunities in the
so-called “land of opportunity.”
You will now see a link between the
past and the present. Too many people
from all races and ethnic backgrounds are so concerned with the present that
they forget the past. And the actions we
take have to be measured by the truths of the past and the present to make a
great difference in this world. I always
say that nobody has walked in my shoes as an educator and I am probably
right. My years teaching in a regular
school, the time I spent in GED programs, and the campaign that I launched in
2001 have made me really unique. The
great fame that I obtained has not made me content. Why?
The massive failures that I have seen by community people, government,
and society in general could have been avoided, but the fight does on.
Allow me to introduce to you to an artist-teacher from Florida who teaches art classes, basically, to students who are African-American. He really got my interest by telling me that his students had listened to my free telephone conference call about Black Lives Matter (which is positioned on my website). This easily explains to you just how Waronker could get much greater support in the Hempstead community among its African-American population. Mark shows this painting to his thirty-five students and asks for their thoughts and criticism.
Michael Brown was the youth who was killed in Ferguson and his killing set off demonstrations and violence leading to what is now known in the United States as the “Ferguson Effect.” The students ask Mark who the artist is and he reveals to them that he is the artist. Mark Cohen says that to reach his students he uses “empathy.” Mark is correct and he reaches those students in the second day of class and transforms them. Mark has about a dozen Holocaust paintings as well and the rich combination of both groups paintings makes him a human bridge to connect with African-Americans anywhere. He could take his effort into Chicago, Detroit, and Baltimore as well. See the 400 Year Struggle now.
Over the last few years there has been
controversy in the Hempstead School District related to both charges of
anti-Semitism and unfairness in elections.
This poster had been circulated a few years ago and recirculated as a
reminder about people who have attained positions on the current board of
trustees. Was there a disclaimer when it
was posted? It doesn’t matter that such
negative information is passed by a relatively unknown candidate for the school
board or the current president of the United States. Great harm is being done by incendiary
comments and then we hear either an apology or some comment that should never
have to be made in the first place. As
you can see, one could conclude that the person posting this might be a
Republican or someone else, but not a Democrat.
Often it is someone rather conservative who does not wish to spend a lot
of the tax payer’s money. And it could
be from just about anyone as well. There
could be parallels between the person or persons who put this piece of
information together to Donald Trump who witnesses say called Haiti, Africa,
and El Salvador “shithole” countries.
The tiger happens to be the mascot of the Hempstead School
District. I later found out that this
information which I call “Hitler in Hempstead” was handed out during the
election campaign by candidates to take votes from those so-called Democrats.
Mark
Cohen not only paints Black Lives Matter subjects, but also paints Holocaust
subjects and he perfectly describes how the two are interrelated. “The
lessons of the Holocaust apply to all racism and religious bigotry around the
world. In a recent survey commissioned by the Anti – Defamation League (ADL) 26
percent of respondents transcending boundaries of nationality, religion, race,
age and sex admitted to harboring anti–Semitic feelings,” he writes.
Please see his paintings
before completing your reading of this article.
I went deeper into this issue,
checking out online information. I went
to FACEBOOK where there was talk about “taking back” our schools when the
schools belong to everyone in the community.
And this reminds me of taking back our country or even Make America
Great Again. This is quite common as
people are competitive, but again I would urge caution in the use of words that
divide. The campaigns taking place are
clearly seen as the battle between African-Americans and Hispanics, even though
I did notice a call for “unity” on the “Hispanic” side. I noticed that there are people on the
Hispanic side that are community leaders who I have found great fault with and
I believe the community people that do not have a voice and who have lost faith
in the leadership of the schools of the school district throughout the years
might very well agree with me. And I
later sent articles to Hempstead For Hempstead and nobody ever got in touch
with me. That’s how all of Hempstead
reacts and probably because some or many people will lose power in their
community.
If we use this example to illustrate,
you might see what I mean. George
Steinbrenner was very well known to sports enthusiasts as the owner of The New
York Yankees. He was made even more
famous due to appearances on The Jerry Seinfeld Show. I have always given Steinbrenner credit for
taking a youth who he caught doing graffiti outside his famous ballpark, Yankee
Stadium, and turned this slightly delinquent artist into a family member of the
team front office. Donald Trump has
turned a young man who caddied for him into a confidante, but that was after
noticing the key determinant in that young man.
Loyalty! Steinbrenner used
empathy to turn around Ray Negron. That
is exactly what is needed all over Hempstead and the greatest solution of all
has been rejected by everyone connected with that school district. Educate the child and the parent at the same
time.
The school district has invited a
well-known educator to speak that I used to send emails to him a decade ago
(Dr. Galloway). I noticed that he talked
about parent involvement in different forms to the community, but there has not
been a significant improvement in the district.
Isn’t something wrong when so many parents have been turned off in that
district and that solution has not worked?
A major part of the problem is attendance by parents at meetings and the
use of technology to reach parents to bring them into the dialogue has been
missing, even in Far Rockaway where I urged its use. That school in Far Rockaway is on the list to
be closed. I feel that schools such as
Hempstead and Far Rockaway must engage many more parents instead of having a
small group of parents and community people control things that bring forth
small gains. I would love to see
Hempstead and other poorly performing school districts make public their sign
in sheets for parent meetings (required in Title 1 programs). Hempstead school be scrutinized in this way
because of the great investment in time by the state.
And right now, New York City has put
together a 50-school plan that I plan to write about next (the Bronx
Plan). The Department of Education of
New York City should study the Hempstead School District and the things that it
has tried to accomplish to make the district a much better district and look at
the things that have failed before starting the Bronx Plan.
I gave a brief talk at the National
Black Violence Conference in Philadelphia a couple of years back and a young
man came up to tell me that I was right when I gave my solutions to the
audience. Those solutions were being
captured on video and I have not received that segment from the organizers
after making a request to receive my small talk. The video would have been very helpful for me
to show to people.
There always is some progress as
statics are kept each year, but the progress is always too slow. The State Education Department could learn
from this and help people all over the state.
Even school districts that are doing very well can prevent students from
falling through the cracks. Again that
is another thing that the Bronx Plan should take a look at now.
I want to thank Chancellor Carmen Fariña, her staff, my
friend Queen Makkada, and all of you for this event. It is a great moment that we are sharing.
Toya Graham and Baltimore have made national news. Did she fail her son? Did the school fail him? Did her son’s church fail him? Did her son’s friends fail him? Or was he just a David taking on
Goliath? And for the other youth who
were arrested, the school to prison pipeline is full of special ed students and
yes a much better parent involvement is needed to help. We need the Toya Grahams of our nation to
become parent leaders in our schools. We
have to train them and train them well.
Keep this in mind. Her son did
not belong there with a ski mask and a rock in his hand without his mother’s
knowledge.
The GED Hotline was there when Michael Bloomberg ran for
mayor. The GED Hotline opposed No Child
Left Behind under President Bush and favored No Person Left Behind. The GED Hotline woke up Jeb Bush and Florida
and got Governor Eliot Spitzer to transfer $2.1 million into the budget for GED
testing. The GED Hotline woke up New
York City causing three GED reports, one by the mayor’s own office. The GED Hotline wrote about helping the
residents of New York City’s Housing Projects and after ten years Mayor
Bloomberg finally did something. He
started the Young Men’s Initiative that has led to My Brother’s Keeper. The GED Hotline fought for the education of
immigrants as early as 2001, bringing consulates of Latin America and the
Caribbean together. The GED Hotline
later took the CEO and President of the GED Testing Service to the embassies of
Latin America to support President Obama’s Deferred Action. The GED Hotline praised Public Advocate Bill
de Blasio’s Finish the GED program in 2013 which provided $250,000 in
additional funding to help our youth.
The GED Hotline told Queen Makkada years ago that a big reason why
students fail state tests is that the teachers need training in how to
effectively teach to the test. It is
highly probable that Diane Ravitch, who now says that student test scores
should not be used for teacher ratings, got the idea from me. The GED Hotline has helped tens of thousands of
adults directly and indirectly, but it has failed. New York State has lost close to 100,000 GED
diplomas among adults since 2002. That
means that the vast majority of those people lost an opportunity.
I feel that helping parents is the key to success. I just spent five and a half hours in Rikers’
Correctional Facility and I liked it much better than I liked being in the
Rubber Room in Brooklyn in 1999. I hope
to bring an online program and a pilot project to help the families and friends
of the incarcerated where those men, women, and teens can improve their
education through the rich vocabulary and games provided by a software. The acquisition of the vocabulary will put
people who learn the words on the road to college readiness. And in this way the formerly incarcerated
will reenter society and study more if their parents are studying. Helping them will help all of you and keep us
all safer. There are 100,000 people incarcerated
there during the year.
Parent involvement can mean helping with passing state
tests, staying in high school or earning a high school equivalency, passing
college placement tests, preventing bullying, and helping the family, school,
and community and more. There is a plan
if you want all of that. It’s Up to You
New York. We can achieve much better
results.
These young people and others who are not incarcerated
have children in universal pre-k. One of
every four New Yorkers lacks a high school equivalency and we have the
solution. I know that the colleges and
the schools can work together and educate more adults, the parents in your
community.
If you do what Queen Makkada has done, meaning work with
hundreds of parents and their children who pass their state exams while
attending different schools, you will be doing what successful charter schools
do. Children cannot keep failing the
state tests under the present volatile climate.
Principals and teachers are getting fired, men and women who should not
be fired. Michael Bloomberg said on the
John Gambling show that it is alright to be subjective in firing someone. Joel Klein went along with this. We cannot accept that.
Years ago I sent a message to the City Council of New
York and this is what I soon learned.
Queen Makkada and I met a man named Isaac. No this is not a biblical story. Isaac told us that his cousin was connected
with the DOE and the staff was told to account for compliance, Title One
compliance. This was what I was asking
for and it was being done. What happened
to it? It is here right now, finally.
And Title 1 cannot be confined only to parents who come
into school. No! We have to do what Joel Klein failed to
do. We have to double, triple, and
quadruple parent involvement. We have
answers. We have solutions. Parents have to be engaged, helping their
children pass state tests and helping children prepare for college placement
exams. It’s Up to You New York.
I am in Joel Klein’s book, but Queen Makkada is not. Please see page 39 about the Rubber
Room. I guess that Queen Makkada is not
in his book, because she did not make it to the Rubber Room.
Today is an opportunity to finally do things right. A few years ago, I proposed a change to
parent involvement at a UFT conference in Queens by which the parents have to
be better engaged long before their children fail college placement tests. And now I am telling you that the future of
parent involvement is through technology.
Queen Makkada and I made a special visit to the Tweed to
talk about GED help for all of the schools in District 27. Where did it go? Nothing happened. We could have mobilized thousands of parents
and their loved ones in a city where about 1.5 million adults do not have a
GED. The parent who learns more can
continue to be the first teacher of his or her child, but we lost that
battle. The Tweed was asleep. Parents and their children should study
together. I recently told parents in
P.S. 89 Queens how they can learn common core material by studying from the new
TASC High School Equivalency book and continue to help their children.
Queen Makkada invited me to the Tweed to attend a meeting
with Chancellor Joel Klein. Joel Klein
brought Shimon Waronker into the meeting.
In that meeting, Joel Klein stated that he felt that District 27’s
parents could be a model for the rest of the city. What happened? Nothing happened. Waronker made history by reducing the
violence in JHS 22 Bronx. What Klein did
not write about in his book is this.
Joel Klein did not write about the extra services that the school had
been given including: social workers, guidance counselors, family workers, and
the school had a new science lab, a new library, laptop computer carts, and
much more. These were things that were never revealed in Joel Klein’s book and
you must understand why. All of this was
left out as Joel Klein praised his principal leadership program. Even the New York Times fell for it. What Joel Klein was supposed to say was that
the test scores did not go up. I say
that parents have to know about these things, to be better informed. In addition, on math, ELA, and science tests
the school recently scored 2 percent, 6 percent, and 18 percent receiving 3 and
4 on the state tests.
I asked Joel Klein’s tag team partner, the mayor, how we
could get more gang members into GED testing seats faster. I did not ask how could we get them to class
faster, but it would not have mattered.
You see Every Child Does Not Matter.
Bloomberg responded by saying Martin those youth come from dysfunctional
families and we cannot get them into class.
At the same time, Joel Klein was saying that coming from dysfunctional
families was an excuse with him, an excuse that teachers should never use. And here the mighty mayor who appointed Joel
Klein was saying the exact opposite. My
attempt to help make New York a safer place failed.
