Day 254: Honked My Horn, Pumped My Fist

Let me start this post off by once again reiterating that this blog is apolitical.  I don't care which party you belong to or who you support because no matter what, we are all humans, and everyone deserves kindness.  For those around the country and world who haven't heard, overnight at 12 midnight, the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike effectively shutting down the Chicago Public School system.  There has been a lot made on both sides as to why the strike is happening, but what it seems to boil down to is that beyond the teachers looking for more money (according to news outlets, that seems to have been agreed upon by both sides), they want a school system that is fair, democratic, and puts the children ahead of profit.  My wife is lucky enough to not be a part of all of this because she happens to work for a charter school, but I have many friends whose lives are being affected by this strike.  What they have told me is that the most important thing for them is that the children should be put first.  To them, that entails not closing an estimated 250 schools, additional art and enrichment classes, and not having more students per classroom than what has been proven ineffective.  Those are all things that I feel are important to strengthening not just the Chicago school system, but school systems all around our country.  As I have driven around my territory throughout my work day, I have passed a bunch of different groups of teachers standing united in their efforts.  So today, for my random act of kindness, I honked my horn and pumped my fist for them, to let them know that I am fully behind anything that improves the learning environments for our children.  It is a terrible thing that the kids aren't in school right now, and I hope that this strike doesn't last much longer.