Yesterday, I attended the first day of a week-long event at the Capitol. This event was hosted by the California Teachers Association (CTA) called, ”The State of Emergency.” The weeks leading up to the highly publicized event gathered unwanted supporters.
Click Here for a slideshow of what happened.
I have three children in public schools and I believe that our school system needs fixing. However, I agree with California Republican Party Chairman, Tom Delbaccaro, when he told SFgate newspaper, “Protests should be aimed at the governor for reducing services instead of cutting deep into bureaucracy in California. If there are any cuts to education, California can blame one person and one person alone: Jerry Brown." Despite my opposition to the CTA and their continued request for more taxes instead of listening to Chairman DelBaccarro’s advice, I want to make it clear that the events that happened yesterday evening, that resulted in close to 70 arrests, were not part of the CTA event. The media needs to stop sensationalizing the fringe the same way they did with the Tea Party. The few teachers who were arrested, stayed behind on their own, despite the obvious disgust from the majority of the CTA group.
The CTA event, which was intended to peacefully and respectfully bring teachers from across California to lobby their Representatives regarding the expected budget cuts to education and to extend the tax increases that will be expiring this year, grabbed the attention of other fringe groups such as Code Pink and Cindy Sheehan. Code Pink, who gained notoriety during the Bush Administration for their vocal opposition to the war and their trademark pink attire, took the opportunity of latching onto the teacher's event to gather publicity and falsely show a greater number of supporters to their message. Their plan was to “Bring Wisconsin to California” by holding a sit-in in the Rotunda of the Capitol and sleep in the Capitol for the entire week just like what happened up north.
Day one started out with teachers holding protest signs in front of a local high school and a march to the Capitol. After lunch the teachers got to work visiting the offices of the State Legislature.
As you walked up to the Capitol, The Code Pink bedsheet protest signs littered the grounds with their rhetoric of “Tax The Rich.” The hallway that led to the Governor's office was filled with students and teachers. The Capitol Rotunda was blocked off, on both floors, to prevent the planned protest in the area.
I asked the students where they were from and the majority of answers were UC Santa Cruz and San Francisco State. When asked how they got here first we were told they came on busses and when I asked how long they will be up here the reply was “however long we feel like.” This prompted my follow-up question of, “does the bus driver know when you are wanting to go?”
As I continued to question both teachers and other attendees, one thing was clear, the teachers had no intention of being any part of the Code Pink protest. As the day was nearing the end, organizers of the CTA event held the permit for the Rotunda where they planned to hold a quiet prayer, blessing their day and their mission to better the education in California at 5:00 pm. Unfortunately, the fringe groups took the opportunity to enter the Rotunda along with the teachers. This group quickly worked to corral the people in the rotunda into a circular protest march with chanting that filled the Capitol. Teachers that were able to escape the march, became enraged telling me “This is NOT what I signed up for! These people are being disrespectful, they are NOT part of us!”
This small group of teachers asked me to follow them as they looked for their other teachers and left the building where the other teachers from across the state were gathered around the CTA organizers to discuss what just happened. Several organizers spoke the same message as the teachers that I left with saying “We will be here all week, we have to be careful so that we distance ourselves from what just happened inside.”
After I left the CTA I re-entered the Capitol. The group was still marching and chanting “Books not Bombs.” Just before the Capitols closing time, approximately 200 protestors began sitting down lock arms and various people would get up to perpetuate the message and civil disobedience. The few teachers that stayed back announced that they were from Oakland and shared in the message by speaking to the crowd. One teacher told the crowd, “When will they let us actually teach kids? We have to stop teaching them stuff that is so boring that it needs to be revised every year! We need to teach kids critical thinking so they stand up to authority!” A student from San Francisco, Eric, stood before the crowd and conveyed a message that was not only anti-Republican but surprisingly very anti-Democrat! At one point Eric made the comment “The Unions are tied to the Democrats!”
Finally the Capitol Police began the announcement that the Capitol was closed. As he made the announcement through a megaphone the crowd began yelling to drown out the announcement. The Capitol Police began arresting protestors. A handful of protestor decided that a night in jail was not as appealing as they thought, so they left the Capitol through the front door. One girl even went up to an officer and asked if she could go down the hall to the bathroom and he told her that she can go outside and across the street to the public bathrooms because the Capitol was closed.... she left also. Various Code Pink supporters were dragged out of the Rotunda as they gave academy award winning performances for the media as the police took them from the Capitol. In the end, close to 70 protestors were arrested.
There are four more days scheduled for the CTA event. Hopefully, last night will be the only chaos brought to the Capitol for this week.
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