Not content with the current level of anger and violence in America, the Chicago Teachers Union wants to drag us back to the even worse 1960s.
Meet the honored murderer.
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) leadership decided it was time to lionize not the beloved and charismatic Kirk, but instead a fugitive murderer who was the paragon of the ugly and deadly 1960s
JoAnne Chesimard, a.k.a Assata Shakur, was convicted in the 1973 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster, the married father of two children. She escaped prison and fled to Cuba where she died on September 25.
The New York Times’ obituary said:
Ms. Shakur herself was indicted 10 times by federal and state authorities in New York and New Jersey on charges of murder, robbery and kidnapping. All but one of those cases ended in acquittals, dismissals or hung juries. The lone exception began with a car ride in the early morning of May 2, 1973.
Only a hard-left, blind ideologue could ignore such a rap sheet.
As did the CTU’s leadership. Here’s its condolences:
Rest in Power, Rest in Peace, Assata Shakur.
Today we honor the life and legacy of a revolutionary fighter, a fierce writer, a revered elder of Black liberation, and a leader of freedom whose spirit continues to live in our struggle. Assata refused to be silenced. She taught us that “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
So, in the CTU’s eyes, Shakur was a hero. Someone they still ought to emulate. It proudly invokes a communist maxim: “We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
Here’s who still inspires the CTU leadership: She was a member of the Black Liberation Army, a violent and dangerous self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist outfit. She spoke and acted in favor of an “armed struggle” to keep white people from, as she put it, “annihilating” black people. Good as its word, the Black Liberation Army engaged in a series of murders, kidnappings and bombings. Members of the Black Liberation Army broke her out of prison in 1979 by, among other things, kidnapping the guards.
Having lived through the violent 1960s and ‘70s, I recall that those times were worse than today. The bombings and killings went on for more than a decade. That anyone could celebrate someone who participated in those killings is beyond belief. The CTU has reopened wounds that took decades to heal.
Sure, the CTU has a right to honor whomever they want. I’m not in favor of shutting it up.
But the CTU is not just any voice. It represents the people and the system that educates Chicago’s children. Supposedly educates, I should say.
So it’s proper to ask: Are the CTU’s members reflecting their leaders’ dangerous viewpoints in the classroom? Are the kids impressed that a couple of CTU folks visited Venezuela a few years ago and came back praising all the wonders that the socialist dictatorship there had achieved?
Even more troubling is how the CTU controls the mayor—Brandon Johnson—it had elected. Meaning that the CTU is responsible for the financial reckoning waiting to come for Chicago.
I suppose the CTU’s members are happy with the leaders they elect because they have managed to pry such outrageous wage and other benefits from the Chicago Public Schools. I suppose they don’t mind that so much of their union dues fund the harebrained hard-left credo and its priesthood.
So, “rest in peace,” Chicago Public Schools and the students who are being so badly served.
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