Mike Pompeo Just Proved He Is the Stupidest Person in the World
DIANE RAVITCH in the Diane Ravitch's Blog
Is it one of these guys? Nope, according to Mike Pompeo
Trump’s
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just proved that he is the stupidest person
in the world. He said in an interview that Randi
Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, is “the most dangerous
person in the world.”
More
dangerous than the President of China, Xi Jinping, who is threatening the
survival of Taiwan and re-imposing a repressive regime across China.
That's her on the right, assuming a very threatening posture
More
dangerous than President Kim, the dictator of North Korea, who is threatening
South Korea and the rest of the world, with his intercontinental ballistic
missiles and nuclear weapons.
More
dangerous than Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who is trying to destroy the
people of Ukraine by destroying their access to heat, light, and water as
winter begins, in addition to raining deadly missiles on them.
No,
Pompeo says, Randi is “the most dangerous person in the world.”
Why?
Because she leads a teachers’ unions, and unions are evil.
Teachers
too are evil, Pompeo believes, because the children of America can’t read,
write, or do math.
He said,
“I tell the story often — I get asked ‘Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?’ The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten,” Pompeo said.
“It’s not a close call. If you ask, ‘Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?’ It would be the teacher’s unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids, and the fact that they don’t know math and reading or writing,” the former top U.S. diplomat added.
Randi
replied:
In a thread on Twitter, Weingarten said she didn’t know if the remarks should be considered “ridiculous or dangerous.”
“At the state department, Pompeo defended Middle East’s tyrants & undermined Ukraine. He was more focused on pleasing Trump than fighting 4 freedom, national security & democracy. To compare us to China means he must not know what his own department says,” she wrote.
“Maybe spend a minute in one of the classrooms with my members and their students and you will get a real lesson in the promise and potential of America.”
Pompeo’s
blast is ridiculous and stupid. But it’s also dangerous for Randi. It makes her
a target of extremists in search of targets. This country has a surfeit of
lunatics with guns. Pompeo should pay the cost of personal security for her.
His
uninformed, ignorant remarks are insulting to teachers.
I
challenge him to name a non-union state that outperforms unionized states.
Every
teacher should belong to the AFT or the NEA. They would have higher salaries,
health care, pensions, and job security. They would have state and national
organizations to protect them in state legislatures and Congress.
The
teaching profession is under fire by ignorant politicians like Pompeo.
Consequently, many experienced teachers have resigned, and there is a national
teacher shortage.
The
best way to support teachers and their noble profession is to improve their
stature, their salaries, and their working conditions. The only way that will
happen is if there are strong unions to stand up for teachers, who alone are
powerless.
Only
strong unions will fight for the profession against the hostility of bombastic
fools like Pompeo.
Pompeo
can’t tolerate strong women or strong unions.
©
2021 Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch is
a historian of education at New York University. Her most recent book is "Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement
and the Danger to America's Public Schools." Her previous
books and articles about American education include: "The
Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are
Undermining Education," "Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform," (Simon
& Schuster, 2000); "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What
Students Learn" (Knopf, 2003); "The English Reader: What Every Literate Person Needs to
Know" (Oxford, 2006), which she edited with her son
Michael Ravitch. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.