Winter 2004

APPLES AND WORMS

	An APPLE goes to the UFT chapter leaders in large high schools that bore the brunt of the DOE’s school safety melt-down this fall. It was the hard work of these chapter leaders - putting together an e-mail campaign on the safety crisis from their schools to the DOE brass and elected officials, passing on leads which UFT central could provide to the media, organizing pickets - which made it possible to turn public attention to this critical situation and to finally get some action from City Hall and Tweed.
Why does City Council member Eva Moskowitz remind HS so much of Cruella d’Evil in the Disney movie 101 Dalmatians? Perhaps it is the way in which both were born into wealth and privilege but used this advantage for less than noble ends. Perhaps it is the disdain of the rich and powerful for the struggling common woman and man that both figures express. Or maybe it is the way in which their schemes relied so much on misrepresentation and lies. We are not certain ourselves. But of one thing we are sure: If ever there was a richly deserved WORM, it is the one that goes to the Upper East Side’s d’Evil, Eva Moskowitz, for her craven effort to gain fame and higher office on the backs of New York City public school teachers. But we don’t hold a grudge: HS wishes her all the best - in early retirement.