The fact is that, no matter where on the political spectrum you may fall, you almost certainly hate Bill de Blasio. People on the right contend he's the second coming of Fidel Castro, while those of us on the left wonder how we ever counted him as one of us. And whether left or right, if you haven't drunk deeply of the Trump Kool Aid you know that deadly disease is a bad thing, and its spread ought to be avoided by any means possible.
We're learning that the new strain tends to affect younger people more, but that doesn't bother Bill de Blasio. After all, his kids aren't in school anymore. And why should he worry about UFT? After all we didn't support him in the primary, opting for some guy who told the NY Daily News the city couldn't afford the raise NYPD and FDNY got. Is he still mad at us for that? Does he think by making us go out and risk our lives, along with those of the kids we serve, we'll somehow become even?
De Blasio took a principled stand, saying he'd close the schools as soon as the city hit 3%. He, like others who pushed for school openings, simply assumed that would never happen. It's funny how Very Important People fail to understand exactly how epidemics work. But he ridiculed those of us who said it was a bad idea, and pretty soon it turned out we were right. Who would've thunk it?
But then a small but vocal minority started screaming it was time to open the schools. Ethics shmethics, decided Bill de Blasio, and flushed his principled stand down the tubes, thinking his lost reputation would somehow hop back out of the toilet. New Yorkers would suddenly forget that he shows up late for absolutely everything, that he spent months out of state in a preposterous and wasteful campaign for the presidency, or that he kept schools open way too long back in March.
But this is Bill de Blasio's hill, and he's ready to die on it. Personally, I think de Blasio has the absolute right to die, at least figuratively, on any hill of his choosing. What I object to is his dragging the rest of us down with him. I also object because it's likely that deaths caused by his delusional obstinacy will not, in fact be figurative.
If one more person dies due to the pigheadedness of Bill de Blasio, the blood will be on his hands. Over 75% of New Yorkers don't deem schools safe enough to send their children in. The city's capacity for testing is sorely limited and thus far they've failed to keep up. While it's amusing to watch clowns wallow in their ineptitude, Bill de Blasio is playing with live children, not seltzer bottles.
And let's not leave out our esteemed chancellor, who goes along with every caprice of his boss, no matter who it hurts, who claims to respect us but sneers when 108,000 of us demand he close the schoools. Richard Carranza demanded 108,000 signatures for epidemiologists. I'm glad he finds our concern for our lives and those of the children we serve so hilarious, but this blatant indifference renders him as unfit as his boss. I have no idea how he musters the gall to write us all those flowery, insincere emails.
The bright side is that Bill de Blasio is term-limited and can't afford to buy a third term, as billionaire Bloomberg did. This will save him the indignity of a crushing loss and save us the trouble of voting him out. If he really wanted to help the city, though, he'd step down immediately and get a real job. Not as a teacher, though. I rate him ineffective plus plus.
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