POLITICS AS USUAL: The Bottom Up Campaign Contributing Correspondent: CDW

Jean - Claude Brizard

The "Bottoms Up Campaign" was created by Commissioner Pat Horton for the single purpose of motivating voters to start at the bottom of the ballot. Because too often people over look the candidates at the bottom of the ballot, who are mainly JUDGES. And to most voters’ surprise, judges are more important than the select political positions that are listed at the very top of ballots.
Judges play a role in everybody’s daily lives, when other positions like State Reps., State Senators, Aldermen or Congress people are crucial, they don't have day-to-day impact on the lives of voters or non voters.

Anyone who gets parking or speeding tickets and attempts to contest those tickets most do so in front of a judge. If you get notices about your taxes, your family issues like divorce or kid support or if your business is faced with a lawsuit, you most dispute those challenges in front of a judge. And if you are dealing with juvenile issues, or facing criminal encounters, a judge will decide your faith.

Think about this! When now Mayor Emanuel was stampeding his will on Chicago trying to succeed former Mayor Daley, he was challenged by some for his residency, and several judges were ultimately responsible in deciding rather he would be eligible or not to compete as a mayoral candidate. And lets not forget the Supreme Court body of judges that gave George W. Bush the 43rd presidency of the United States.
So commissioner Horton was on point in her insight that voters should now pay more attention to the people they elect as judges. And voters need to start at the bottom and proceed up to the top of the ballot, because who sits on the tens of dozens of judge benches throughout Cook County determines your freedom. For more on Horton's observation, see her video link: http://youtu.be/gNvad0cFYKg.

EDUCATION NATION
NOW I know why Mayor Rahm hired an outsider to be CEO of Chicago Public School. Emanuel knew what direction he was taken in terms of trying to destroy the teacher's union and public education. He knew he was going to cause a national uproar and he needed someone who had no connections to Chicago or the state of Illinois.

So he went thousands of miles away to get a foreigner to come to Chicago and be the face or what I'm calling the gofer that does the mayor's bidding while taking the heat without any personal or emotional empathy. Brizard doesn't have family or friends in Chicago or in the public school system. So he doesn’t have to be concerned with affecting his relatives or close friends and associates in making these drastic cuts and displacing teachers, students and strong arming the unions. And guest what? He’s not carrying the mayor's water; he's even pouring the mayor a drink when he needs it. That is the meaning of a gofer or a catty.

I'm all for better schools and more responsible parents playing a bigger role in their children's education. But parents don't install working air conditions in schools. Parents don't supply the schools with toilet paper in the bathrooms. Parents don't make sure each student has text books. And parents don't make sure the school is safe and functioning and not perceived as an abandon building. Most importantly, parents don't hire instructors and oversee the curriculum; that's the job of CPS administration!

The parent's responsibility is to assure that their children are equipped with the right mentality and attitude to understand the purpose of learning institutions. And parents are to make sure their child is motivated to obtain and retain what's being delivered to them by the select schools of their choice.

This is what the parent's jobs are in terms of preparing their offspring’s for the future. So to keep blaming parents, Lord knows they have to carry some of the major burden; but they can't be blamed for non-functioning and inadequate schools that lack basic elements for learning and teaching.