RAHM'S ROVINGS AND RAVINGS: How many people in Rahm's September 8 longer school day demonstration were paid to protest?
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a light-hearted moment. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.On September 8, 2011, Chicago's mayor bullied some of the members of the Chicago City Council into speaking and voting in favor of a resolution supporting a "longer school day." He even took the time to point his threatening finger at a few aldermen when they bucked his nonsense. And a proof of the paucity of support for his program came from the fact that instead of moving the all-important resolution through the City Council Education Committee (after, maybe, hearings), Rahm pulled a "Shock Doctrine" thingy and had the Education Committee chair, Latasha Thomas, ram the resolution on to the floor as a "Special Order of Business."
Was the Open Meetings Act violated when the item did not appear on the public agenda of the Council? Maybe.
After getting off a bus marked "#9" at City Hall, a group of well behaved children in red jackets hoisted their "90 more minutes NOW!" signs and lined up inside to be escorted upstairs by pre-arrangement. When asked what school they were from, the children said "Promise Christian Academy." When asked how the extra 90 minutes of school in the public schools would affect them in a small Christian school, they couldn't answer. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.Meanwhile, the mayor's growing and hugely expensive propaganda department continued to push forward as — a great example of true concern for the children — every tiny school that went under the pressure to approve the waiver. Reporters received a City of Chicago press release about the latest, Mays in Englewood, during the Council meeting. That brings to four (out of 400) the elementary schools that voted in favor of a waiver. Despite the hysteria and Shock Doctrine stuff, questions continued arising about Rahm's Media Management Team. Substance is now in the third day of Rahm's Refusal to distribute the "Public Schedule" to Substance, as it had been doing until he ordered Substance cut off.
More and more questions arise, such as: Who is paying for more and more of the supposedly spontaneous support the mayor is receiving for his push.
Several of the protesters supporting Rahm Emanuel's longer school day used their signs attacking the teachers of Chicago to cover their faces when news photographers (and not just Substance) tried to cover their march. Many of the people in the protest refused to say how they had gotten to the event and which public school they were protesting on behalf of. Above, two examples. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.And delightfully, the Chicago News Coop's James Warren noted, in his September 8, 2011 piece on the longer school day, that Rahm and Jean-Claude have chosen what may be a very revealing but possibly embarrassing name for the schools that vote for the waive: the "Pioneers." Less than two weeks after Rahm announced he was going to have a "Five Year Plan" for the TIFs (while refusing to put any TIF money back in the schools, following a dog-and-pony show "TIF Task Force), Rahm adds his "Pioneers." Warren notes that the Pioneers thing smacks of Stalinism: "Pioneers" was the name given to the youngest of the Young Communists from the old Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe.
Five year plans.
Pioneers.
Media Manipulation (and the banning of Substance from distribution of the mayor's media events schedule).
Maybe next we can have the 'Pioneers' march down LaSalle Street under the balcony (built with TIF dollars) that will some day jut out from the fifth floor of City Hall?
At least one of the buses that brought the protesters to City Hall on September 8 carried a number of senior citizens who were unable to discuss the issues of the longer school day but were willing to hoist their signs and proclaim their support for Chicago's mayor. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.A few facts as the "longer school day" stuff pushes out a hundred realities during the first week of the school year.
Most of the people protesting outside City Hall on September 8 couldn't tell this reporter what school they were from. Check the photos with this article.
That's probably because they weren't from a school.
The buses seemed to have been packed with people who were paid to protest. And the one group of children who showed up (disembarking from a bus that had a sign listing it as "Number 9") were from a school called the "Promise Christian Academy." Distinctive in their red blazers, the children walked into City Hall and were taken up the back stairs to the City Council (without having to go through the metal detectors on the second floor) by a Chicago police officer who seemed to be waiting for them.
Above, supporters of Mayor Rahm Emanuel lead the chants outside City Hall on September 8, 2011. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.More than a week ago, Rahm was at a preacher patronage pep rally in favor of his longer school day push at Sox Park. That day, Substance and others asked who paid for the expensive food, while CPS officials distributed copies of petitions for the preachers to sign favoring the "longer school day." Supposedly, the event was organized by the CPS "Office of Faith Based Initiatives." But to this day (September 9) CPS spokeslady Becky Carroll has refused to provide the press with the cost of the Sox Park event or the budget for the CPS "Office of Faith Based initiatives" that pushed it.
Meanwhile, as Rahm continues to order his staff to refuse to distribute the Mayor's "Public Schedule" to Substance, Rahm's staff claims it isn't refusing to distribute the Mayor's "Public Schedule" to Substance. When confronted with the question of why Substance had been removed from the email press list, a mayoral spokesman replied testily: "We don't remove press from our press list."
Stalin with Young Pioneers in the Soviet Union, 1936, the same year he ordered the famous edition of the encyclopedia.Which, like so much else going on during the Reign of Rahm, is precisely the opposite of what is happening.
By: Jim Vail
Great article!
Great story George. It's Substance and CTU vs. Rahm Emmanuel (for prez). That's something to be proud of!