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Crowd Laughs as Chicago Teachers Union President Talks about Killing the Rich
Townhall.com ^ | January 8, 2013 | Kyle Olson

Posted on 01/08/2013 10:45:29 AM PST by Kaslin

The Chicago Teachers Union is not just about looking out for its members’ interests. The union wants to fundamentally change America, too.

That shift occurred when the radical Karen Lewis was elected as its president two years ago. She’s best known for mocking U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s lisp and for taking on - and defeating - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the district’s first teachers’ strike in a generation.

CTU leaders have been on a victory lap of sorts since the September strike, with union activists seeing themselves as protectors of union power during a time of membership decline and education reform at the state and local level.

They’ve also taken on the role of social activities, fighting for causes like the Occupy movement and gay marriage, which have nothing to do with education.

Some union leaders have called for violence and other radical tactics to achieve social goals.

When Lewis appeared at the Illinois Labor History Society’s “Salute to Labor’s Historic Heroes from the History Makers of Today,” she didn’t disappoint the crowd. She threw gasoline onto the fire of class warfare, and even mentioned mob killings of wealthy Americans.

“… Do not think for a minute that the wealthy are ever going to allow you to legislate their riches away from them. Please understand that. However, we are in a moment where the wealth disparity in this country is very reminiscent of the robber baron ages. The labor leaders of that time, though, were ready to kill. They were. They were just – off with their heads. They were seriously talking about that.”

Some in the audience laughed and clapped at her remark.

“I don’t think we’re at that point,” Lewis laughingly replied, without specifying when “that point” might arrive. “And that’s scary to most people. But the key is they think nothing of killing us. They think nothing of putting our people in harm’s way. They think nothing of lethal working conditions.”

She then used schools without air conditioning as an example of “lethal working conditions.”

SEE THE VIDEO HERE.

The true labor leaders of the “robber baron” age would probably roll over in their graves and remind Ms. Lewis that she and her colleagues have it quite good.

Big salaries with an average income in the $70,000 range. Generous benefits and pensions. Limited work days and nine-month work years. What are these people complaining about?

Lewis also used the occasion to mock “job creators.”

“Which side are you going to be on? So are we going to be on the side of justice? Are we going to be on the side of a living wage for every person? Or are we going to be on the side of people whose entire mentality is based on a lie. ‘Job creators.’ Really? Then why have we lost so many jobs?”

With such a cynical, un-American attitude coming from their union president, does anyone really expect Chicago teachers to introduce students to the many virtues of the free market system, or the nobility of taking a risk to become an entrepreneur and therefore a “job creator”?

As domestic terrorist-turned-professor Bill Ayers acknowledged, leftists have the power in our schools and classrooms, and they’re taking full advantage.

The Chicago Teachers Union is the tip of the spear in terms of “social justice unionism.” It’s a union led by far-left radical activists who are determined to alter American society through our schools and children. Advocating for the interests of teachers is simply a means toward a larger and nastier goal.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Front Page News; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: billayers; bustunions; chicagoteachersunion; democrats; karenlewis; liberals; liberalviolence; libindoctrination; socialistdemocrats; unioncorruption; unions; unionviolence
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To: Servant of the Cross

Almost soft-spoken in person, Lewis is a natural performer and a forceful orator, often building up a head of steam around a single point. She also has a tendency to take things too far. The unfiltered Lewis was on full display in a speech she gave to a convention of teachers last fall in Seattle, where she committed the gaffe that introduced her to the greater public. “I am the only black woman in the class of 1974 from Dartmouth College,” she said, only to deflate her own accomplishment in the next breath with a sarcastic “woo” and a glance. “People are impressed,” she continued. “Let me tell you, I spent those years smoking lots of weed. Self-medicating.” The crowd tittered.

This was just three minutes into a 32-minute ramble that veered from the bankruptcy of Milton Friedman–style capitalism to billionaire education reformer Penny Pritzker to the now-infamous mocking of the speech impediment of Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education. “This guy who has the nerve to stand up and say, ‘Education is the thivil rights ithue of our time,’ ” Lewis said, imitating Duncan. “You know he went to private school because if he had gone to public school he’d have had that lisp fixed.”

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/November-2012/Karen-Lewis-Street-Fighter/


21 posted on 01/08/2013 11:11:03 AM PST by kcvl
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To: Servant of the Cross
Looks like a Micheal Moore Family Reunion. Facist Pigs!
22 posted on 01/08/2013 11:11:57 AM PST by MotorCityBuck ( Keep the change, you filthy animal! ,)
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To: silverleaf

I’ll bet she does think she’s ‘dead sexy’.......ugh.....just threw up a little....LOL


23 posted on 01/08/2013 11:12:23 AM PST by liberalh8ter (If Barack has a memory like a steel trap, why can't he remember what the Constitution says?)
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To: Kaslin

The real goal of the radical left...

“… Do not think for a minute that the wealthy are ever going to allow you to legislate their riches away from them.”

What makes her think she has that right?!


24 posted on 01/08/2013 11:13:05 AM PST by kcvl
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To: kcvl
Hey, she thinks she has that duty.

She's on a mission to take from the White Man.

25 posted on 01/08/2013 11:19:46 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Nothing will change until after the war.)
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To: kcvl

it is all about contol of the pensions.

unions are just politicians giving money to themselves and overporked thugs like her feeding off of the serfs. She is nothing more than a henchman keeping the minions in line.


26 posted on 01/08/2013 11:26:08 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Kaslin

What a commie idiot.

She said “But the key is they think nothing of killing us. They think nothing of putting our people in harm’s way. They think nothing of lethal working conditions.”

Chicago classrooms are “lethal working conditions”? Now why would that be? Would it be because the little darlings were raised in two-parent, God-fearing homes who value Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness?


27 posted on 01/08/2013 11:30:04 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Kaslin

Almost every Commie that has even a tangential relationship to the current administration was somehow involved with the Chicago schools. Valerie Jarrett’s 84 year old mother still agitates through the CPS system. They’ve been cranking out Commies for years.


28 posted on 01/08/2013 11:44:57 AM PST by 762X51
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To: Servant of the Cross

Well, I must say looking at those photos, and the size of some of those pantloads, it’s obvious that those poor teachers must have had mountains of food forced down their throats. Probably by nasty tea partyers. Yeah...Bush and Cheney too.


29 posted on 01/08/2013 11:52:08 AM PST by driftless2
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To: Kaslin

30 posted on 01/08/2013 12:14:25 PM PST by Diogenesis (Vi veri veniversum vivus vici)
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To: GladesGuru

“She then used schools without air conditioning as an example of “lethal working conditions.””””

What a sissy joke.

I went to elementary school and high school in Wisconsin, in a one room school and then a rural high school.

We didn’t have air conditioning or anything close to such.

I would put the graduates we had up against anyone working in the Chicago school system—or any other—with any kind of test of general knowledge anyone can devise.


31 posted on 01/08/2013 12:21:46 PM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: ridesthemiles

The unions have become what they were formed to protect against.


32 posted on 01/08/2013 12:30:15 PM PST by spawn44 (`MOO)
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To: Kaslin
Limited work days and nine-month work years. What are these people complaining about?

They don't even work 9 months a year. I added up all the days the kids were actually in school, and it averaged 6 months.
They only work HALF of what those who are paying them have to work.

So, because teachers only work half a year, they should only be paid half their wages. That's all the taxpayers would get if they only worked half a year.
Why not keep things fair, just as they ask? Cut their pseudo-welfare checks in half.

33 posted on 01/08/2013 1:00:56 PM PST by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal")
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To: ridesthemiles

I thought that is why kids don’t go to school in the summer time. I can’t think of one school in NYC with air conditioning. Maybe the offices had AC but not the classrooms.


34 posted on 01/08/2013 1:20:06 PM PST by USAF80
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To: Kaslin

Anyone know what her yearly salary and perqs are?


35 posted on 01/08/2013 1:25:19 PM PST by CityCenter (Compromise is the welcome mat to deception.)
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To: Kaslin
She threw gasoline onto the fire of class warfare, and even mentioned mob killings of wealthy Americans.

Thanks to libtard government interventionism, pressure-group warfare is becoming more and more serious. When this is combined with the Marxist doctrine of class interest,in such conditions, growing conflict and hostility develop among the various groups, culminating in violent clashes and, ultimately, in demands for political separation.

36 posted on 01/08/2013 1:43:32 PM PST by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: Kaslin
The tip of the spear comment reminds me of South Africa's ANC. Their military wing was called the Spear of the Nation.

Umkhonto we Sizwe

Lewis is an ignorant Marxist pig.

Conservatives are fools for letting themselves be called Reds. It'll confuse a generation in the same way we let liberals steal liberty.

We also better start reading up on the Robber Barons.

Conservatives should rail against the political entrepreneurs who use government to hobble real entrepreneurs. That's how to win this war and it is a war.

37 posted on 01/08/2013 2:10:54 PM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: liberalh8ter

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Bra-Fitting-Tips

38 posted on 01/08/2013 2:37:23 PM PST by Mountain Bike Vomit Carnage (Yes! Live! Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!)
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To: Kaslin; All

When Countrywide Financial’s CEO had a $140 million salary in 2007, and cut it to $102 million in 2008 (incidentally he also had lots of stock), the market killed him. NO more Countrywide, no more stock value. Forget unions, time for the stockholders to get bold and angry.


39 posted on 01/08/2013 2:44:11 PM PST by gleeaikin
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To: Kaslin
"Teachers Union President Talks about Killing the Rich"

That's the height of stupidity. It's a fascist comment. Privatize education--all of it, IMO. Let 'em work for a living.


40 posted on 01/08/2013 3:08:29 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)
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