I Am Opposed To The Use Of

On Mondays And Fridays In Early May, Nearly 18,000 Children-the Equivalent Of All The Elementary Students In Suburban Glencoe, Wilmette, Glenview, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Deerfield, Highland Park And Evanston-are Assigned To Classes With No Teacher.

The Contrasts Between What Is Spent Today To Educate A Child In The Poorest New York City Neighborhoods, Where Teacher Salaries Are Often Even Lower Than The City Averages, And Spending Levels In The Wealthiest Suburban Areas Are Daunting Challenges To Any Hope New Yorkers Might Retain That Even Semblances Of Fairness Still Prevail.

I Feel, In The End, As If Everything I've Done Has Been A Failure.

I Do Get Scared About The Physical Danger From Drug Dealers. But It's Not In The Same League As The Danger I Feel Eating An $80 Lunch With My Privileged Friends To Discuss Hunger And Poverty. That's When My Soul Feels Imperiled.

Many Of Us Regard Ourselves As Mildly Liberal Or Centrist Politically, Voice Fairly Pleasant Sentiments About Our Poor Children, Contribute Money To Send Poor Kids To Summer Camp, Feel Benevolent. We're Not Nazis; We're Nice People. We Read Sophisticated Books. We Go To Church. We Go To Synagogue. Meanwhile, We Put Other People's Children Into An Economic And Environmental Death Zone. We Make It Hard For Them To Get Out. We Strip The Place Bare Of Amenities. And We Sit Back And Say To Ourselves, "well, I Hope That They Don't Kill Each Other Off. But If They Do, It's Not My Fault.