March 15, 2010
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By Tanya Dennis
“So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, I’m as mad as heck, and I’m not going to take it anymore!
The teacher’s and student’s “Day of Action” strike, resonated the same frustration and futility that Anchorman Howard Beale expressed in Paddy Chayefsky’s 1976 blockbuster “Network”.
Over 1000 protesters were at City Hall in San Francisco while 800 U.C. Berkeley Students marched from campus to Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland, to join seven hundred other protesters regarding cuts in education. An additional $32.00 per tax payer would fund Cal State and U.C. Universities. However Berkeley Unified School District has slashed 8 million in the last two years and is facing a 2.7 million deficit for 2010. Photo by Gene Hazzard.
“Network” resonated with the American public because all of us have been pushed around by our government, a business entity, a boss, or a situation where the gross inequity of it all became untenable.
Last Thursday, March 4th teachers and students locally, nationally and internationally participated in a “Strike and Day of Action.” In Oakland, one hundred and fifty participants at the downtown rally were arrested after storming the 880 freeway and shutting it down, as over a thousand protesters attended a peaceable rally in San Francisco.
The unfair layoffs, fee hikes, cuts and re-segregation of public education has gotten personal and teachers, parents and students are feeling the pain.
Mr. Driscoll at Unity High School laments at the lack of science equipment he needs in his classroom to teach at his best, but remains quiet when fears that the school may not be able to conduct summer school after losing forty thousand dollars takes precedent.
Or Principal Monique Brinson and Ms Laura Johnson at Sankofa Academy who reach into their own pockets daily to feed hungry students because there is not enough food in the morning breakfast program to go around.
With the anticipated 32% fee hike at the U.C. Universities, a parent whose child is now attending a U.C. Berkeley School will have to pay $5,000 more for the same services, and that’s if they’re a resident of California.
It’s time to say “enough”! We’re disgusted, we’re tired and mad as heck and we’re not going to take it anymore!
But unlike the movie “Network”, we have to do more than protest. We have to level the playing field. I suggest we each follow the example of 12 year old Trevor McKinney in the 2000 movie “Pay it Forward.
Trevor is given a school assignment from his new social studies teacher, to think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor “forward” with good deeds done to three new people. Trevor’s efforts to make good on his idea brings a revolution to the world.
So I’m asking every citizen in Oakland and California to forego a happy meal, a Starbucks, or a pizza and send five dollars to a school of your choosing. Young Trevor asked that each person do three good deeds by “paying it forward three times.” If we only do it once it will make a big difference.
My money is going to Sankofa Academy, Mr. Driscoll’s science class and Unity High’s Summer School budget deficit. Sometimes it’s not enough to yell and shout and expect the bureaucrats to hear you. Let’s hope they do, and strikes, rallies, walkouts, occupations, sit-ins, and teach-ins should continue for the duration necessary to produce results. But in the meantime. . .pay it forward. You’ll feel better and you won’t be so mad. . Please give freely to any school of your choosing or to: Rowan Driscoll, teacher or Mr. Castillo, Principal c/o Unity High School 6038 Brann Street, Oakland, Ca 94609 – Monique Brinson, Principal c/o Sankofa Academy – 581 – 61st Street, Oakland 94609
