"One Ring to Rule Them
All! One Ring to Find Them. One Ring to Bring Them All and in The
Darkness Bind Them."
In these times in which the few but
fearsome forces of greed are aligned against school children, public
education, the teaching profession and the unions that protect so many of
us, we must find common cause, coordinate our activism as much as possible and
strive towards a more democratic society. It seems some of our own have
either lost their voice or turned against us, but the evil will not triumph for
"the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he
judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any
will refuse it" (Gandalf). I have already seen many do so.
I look to my UFT for more direction
in our defense, but on some of the most important issues I feel adrift in a sea of scum-filled educational
reform. Yet, I know that I am not alone. "All that is gold
does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost." I might
say like Frodo, "I wish it need not have happened in my time."
But I hear more words, "so do all who live to see such times. But
that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with
the time that is given us."
I am deciding these things now.
Indeed, each of us must decide what role we will play in this battle to
save public education and the foundations upon which our democratic society are
built. It makes no difference whether we feel ourselves small or great in
this great course of events: "Even the smallest person can change the
course of the future" (Peter Jackson's Galadriel), particularly if we
all bind ourselves to fight the common foe.
We must stay the
course together. "On nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more
clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose
him" (Haldir). Yet, most of us are united in opposing the abuse
of children through standardized testing wrought with a vengeance. We
oppose the demoralization and destruction of the teaching profession through
VAM models and the APPR. We oppose calculated attacks upon the Unions
that protect us from nineteenth-century-style abuses. We oppose the
calculated destruction of the pension programs workers have paid into for their
own security in their golden years. We oppose One Common Core to Rule us
All. We oppose the destruction of the public-school system and the
deregulated, profit-making privatization replacing it. It strikes at the
heart of the most sacred foundations of our democracy, the public school
system.
In this climate, I would much rather
bind my fate with that of "little hobitses" than any Gollum,
Wormtongue or the Dark Lord. It is impossible to say for certain where
this road leads, but I take comfort in the fact that although our forces are
disparate, they are heading in the same direction.
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say (Bilbo).
The forces to destroy public education in the
United States are aligned clearly against us all. They push on ahead with superior money in an unapologetic, openly undemocratic way. They push
on ahead with superior money and unrestrained greed. They sway some with
the promises of wealth, and leave others in despair. "I will not
say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil" (Gandalf). Find
hope though. I do not envision their ultimate triumph because legions hold to the same values of Sam Gamgee from the great stories of old, "the ones that really mattered," that "there is some good in this world...and it's worth fighting
for."
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