The Interrupters: Stopping street violence, one incident at a time.

In the year 2009, the city of Chicago was in the national focus due to the acts of violence which were happening on the streets.  42 children were killed due to senseless violence during this period and most notably was that of Darrion Albert.  I distinctly remember this very summer as nearly every weekend I was seeing a story about another youth which was killed in the streets due to violent actions.

That summer, film maker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, At the Death House Door) was in Chicago following the organization Cease Fire's violence interrupters as they worked on the streets of Chicago.  Following Armeena Mathews, Cobe Williams, and Eddie Bocanegra, James paints a picture of a city gripped by violence with people fighting back against the violence through education and understanding.

Recently aired on the PBS program Frontline, "The Interrupters" has opened the nation's eyes once again to violent crime, while showing a revolutionary way in dealing with violence in the streets.  That very summer, Mayor Richard Daley began toying with the option of seeing if the National Guard could help curb the violence which was taking place in the street.  Had our cities' streets become war-zones in need of citizen soldiers patrolling neighborhoods?  CeaseFire's direct approach to violence intervention was able to show a dying art in the world of policing where getting to know and understand the people of a beat helps reduce violent crime because there is a sense of community between law enforcement and citizens which has been lost in recent years.

As we go through the weeks, we meet various people who have been affected by violent crime.  We visit a family who lost a son through gun violence and the grief which it caused, but finding hope in the boy's sister to takes to her brother joy of painting as a way to deal with the pain.  We see the family of Darrion Albert being consoled by members of CeaseFire, helping them cope with the tragic loss of their son.  We also get a chance to sit in on a boy returning from jail, apologizing to the people in which he held up in a local barber shop and the forgiveness which he hopes for his foolish actions.

While we witness the pain and suffering of a city, we also see hope through the very people which walk its streets every day making a difference in the lives of people they interact with.  As someone who hopes to be teaching within Chicago schools in the very near future, I could not have felt more proud of the city, and the people which inhabit the numerous neighborhoods of the city.  While being intense at times due to the films subject matter, "The Interrupters" sends a message that things can get better if we search for the root causes of violence which plague many of our cities.  Force is met with force, while for most people, a true friend and someone who will listen to their problems can help mediate many of these violent events before they occur.

[from ChicagoMag.com]

So many kids today, growing up in these neighborhoods, have very few heroes and role models to look up to.  The music stars and athletes have come to preaching tales about being violent is the only way to be a true man, or the only way to survive in these areas, creating a vicious cycle of violence which is so hard to break.  While we cannot deny that the root of these problems goes back for generations, and more recently economics have made the situation worse, we can find hope and inspiration in these people working to make their neighborhoods better places to live.

If you are looking for a true to life tale of the state of the urban world in America, look no further than "The Interrupters".  I could barely think of a moment while watching this documentary I would either be in tears of pain for the lives lost, screaming in rage at what choices some people were making, or in tears again in knowing that things will get better with more people like Armeena, Cobe, and Eddie being role models for children searching for a better life.

My grade = A

Watch the trailer:

The Myth of "Too Big To Fail"

[Photo Courtesy of Mother Jones]

We all remember in 2008 when the new term of "Too Big To Fail" came into the political spectrum with the bailouts of the investment firms and banks to "prevent a second Great Depression".  Most notably was that of AIG in which people cried foul over the $112 billion which was doled out to this company from the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury which was then being used for multi-million dollar bonuses for CEOs (because they did such a great job running that company into the ground) and the executive retreats to exotic resorts which most people only see when looking out the window of their Best Western they are staying at.

We were all told that by dumping billions of dollars in corporate welfare to these banks, we were saving the American banking system and the American economy in turn.  But taking a closer look at the situation more and more people are realizing that the idea of "Too Big to Fail" has been in development for years.  In the period between 1930 and 1960, there were a total of 13 major banking acquisitions (8 of which involving the now JP Morgan Chase).  From 1960 to 1980, there were 7 major acquisitions (5 including the now JP Morgan Chase).  But then came 1980.  For the next decade there were 33 major banking transactions, and then from 1990 to 2000 there were 62, then 2000 to present day there have been 43 acquisitions of banks.

Quite literally cutting regulations

So what happened?  What we saw during the period of Reagan was a massive decrease in banking regulations including the people at the SEC who were to be monitoring these various mergers between banks.  This however was not taking place.  At this time we were seeing a greater influx of investment bankers into politics and given direct positions in the Treasury Department and in various bodies which regulate mergers and acquisitions.

Then came 2007.  Jobs were being cut, and foreclosures were on the rise.  Economists, and anyone who reads the news, could see an imminent recession.  First we saw the collapse of Bear Stearns which was bought out by JP Morgan Chase, who then also bought up Washington Mutual.  As banks were failing, the major banks of JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America were buying them up.  Much easier to buy a bank than build new branches in communities.  One investment group was allowed to fail however, Lehman Brothers.  The top CEOs of these banks were brought in and various banks associated with Lehman were split and sold off to those top bankers.  The mortgage investments however were too toxic for the other companies to take among themselves which led to the bankruptcy filing of Lehman.

by Robert Mankoff

Too big to fail is a myth which became reality after the collapse in 2008.  Banks which have never been considered sacred ground which must be saved, became that over the past 30 years.  What we see here is a chain of events much like bigger fish eating up smaller fish.  The only problem is, we only have about 5 huge fish in the ocean looking at plankton wondering what else they can gobble up.  

People now, through the Occupy movement, are looking at these various practices and trying to educate the public about the various rules which have major loopholes in the law.  So do we have a population which is willing to make a stand and say enough is enough?  Do we have people willing to take on the political battle much like the battle against Standard Oil in 1911?  All I can say is that I hope so.  The American people wont stand for another bailout, and the next crash of these banks could never be allowed to happen because of how large the government has allowed them to get.

American Teacher: A look at teaching in America today

In recent years, there has been a very public war on teachers and public education. There has been a double sided push for privatization citing failing schools and under-qualified teachers being protected by tenure and teaching unions, while at the same time teachers are being pressured from governments where teachers are losing their ability to be creative in the classroom because of the demands of standardized tests. With 46% of new teachers leaving the profession within the first 5 years of teaching, something is fundamentally wrong with the way in which teachers are perceived and treated within society.

"American Teacher" is a documentary created in collaboration with the Teacher Salary Project and narrated by Matt Damon (whose mother is a public school teacher). This documentary focuses specifically on the pay and salary in which teachers receive. This was an interesting approach in my opinion since so many of the talking heads on cable news, specifically Fox News, like to criticize teachers for being so well paid compared to other professions. This film looked at the lives of specific teachers from around the country; one was an expecting mother, another works an extra job after school, a Harvard and Columbia graduate teaching 1st grade, a second year teacher, and a teacher who left the profession due to financial reasons.

Last year, the media world was touting "Waiting for Superman" as this amazing film which outlines the problems of schools and how to solve those problems. But there was a major flaw in this film, the teachers,or lack thereof. What the nation saw was a film which was part of the privatization push which was created by No Child Left Behind and failed to show the true majority of teachers who willingly take a vow of poverty and public ridicule, because they believe so strongly in their calling to teach.

This film chose not to focus on teacher unions or the politics involved in education today because to the filmmakers, this was not essential to the point in which they were making. The purpose of this documentary was to tell the story which faces so many teachers everyday. What we do see are people who are dedicated to the profession, who have a true sense of responsibility to their students, and understand their importance in a modern society which demands an educated populace and workforce. These are not the exception when it comes to the average teacher. Every person I know who either chose to go into education, or who currently works within that profession, have those same very views because this is who teachers are.

However, the reality of the situation is much more dire because of the pay in which teachers receive for the amount of work in which they actually do on a daily basis. According to the NEA, 62% of teachers hold second jobs on top of their regular teaching duties. Half of those jobs include coaching and other activities relating to school, while the other 50% work outside of the school atmosphere in retail stores, construction, or the service sector where they can find hours which work around their schedules. When was the last time you heard of a surgeon prepping for surgery, when 2 hours ago they were driving a forklift in a warehouse?

So why does salary play such an important role in the discussion of education reform and better performing schools? Teachers do not go into the field because of pay and benefits. Teachers are paid 14% less than people who have similar education and are in the work force at other careers. A lawyer in New York City starts with bonuses making over $150,000 in the first year while a teacher will make around $45,000. After 25 years of teaching, the average salary nationwide for teachers is $67,000 a year, while for an MBA after only 5 years is making nearly $225,000 a year. The next question is how many hours do teachers work every day? It is a safe average that your public school teacher once you include prep time, after school activities, grading, and of course actual time in front of a classroom, you are looking at a work load of almost 15 hours a day. That means you are looking at an hourly pay of less that $14 per hour.

Pay and compensation are indicative of the level of respect in which we place a career in society and the film does a great job of outlining this as a major problem for not only teaching as a profession, but for education as a whole.

My one main critique of this film though would have to be a much needed historical perspective on teaching as a profession. There is a brief mention of teaching in the past, but a definitive look at teaching's lifestyle compared to today (compared with other professions who have evolved over time) would have added to a compelling argument for paying teachers more and attracting the smartest and most ingenious people our universities have to offer.

As a standalone documentary, it can be a little repetitive, but in the context of films like "Waiting For Superman" and the media blitz against teachers, this is a much needed part of the conversation of educational reform.

My grade = B

Watch the trailer: