Steinberg Tweaks Rev. Meeks? Dante, Neil, Dante. Brunetto Latini ?

Brunetto Latini was a GLBTQ civil servant in Florence in Dante's Day. Neil Steinberg reads Dante all of the time. I taught some passages from the Divine Comedy for years and have merely a high school teacher's middling familiarity with Dante. I never would buy a sweatshirt with Dante's Mug on the front, however. Who would?

However, I do remember Brunetto Latini*. Dante tossed folks with whom he had congress from Florence into Purgatory or the Inferno during his epic journey with the Roman poet Virgil through the afterlife in search of lost and beloved Beatrice - who is up in Heaven ( Paradiso) with Beatific Vision -All Three of Him.

Not Brunetto Latini. The poor guy was lumped into the third ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell ( Inferno) with the sodomites - gays.

There are plenty of breeders in Hell as well - folks who cave in to Lust. That is the sexual urge in all of its many manifestations -Diversity is Hell.

Well today, Old Neil goes after Rev. Senator James Meeks, who broke with the Left Coalitions by urging Vouchers for all school children. Contra Progresso! Che Brutta!

Rev. James Meeks has railed against homosexuality - contra natura, as Dante and Virgil and Pope Benedict XVI might say.

Rev. Meeks met with the Illinois Gay Papacy in Closed Session. Neil finds that to be great sport - treats James Meeks like people of the 19th Ward he does, Old Neil. Funny guy.

Damn! I never get invited anywhere. I would have loved to be in the room when the Rev. James Meeks explained to gay activists how his urging the state to continue denying them jobs and housing based on their sexuality, not to mention his firm, oft-stated belief that they'll all be roasting in hell with Satan for eternity, was merely a misunderstanding, now that he needs their votes. . . .The crux is what he is willing to say to the thousands of Salem Baptist faithful every Sunday. If the scales have indeed fallen from his eyes, and he has decided he wants to be mayor so much that gay people should now be judged, not by the color of their sexuality, but by the content of their characters, well, glory hallelujah, he should not whisper it to a few gay leaders, but shout it from the mountaintop to his faithful flock. I would get up early on a Sunday, put on a good suit and go to church to hear that sermon. If it ever happens, I'll let you know.

Neil's tongue tucked tightly to the cheek! Shades of Dr. King to make the sinful soul sing! Neil must be killing himself with laughter directed at all of the ignominious fools us mortal be who are not Neil Steinberg.

Not my cup of giggles. Like most people, I have more than enough grist for the giggle mill with my own personal and public follies.

Satura Lanx! Dante is a pretty good student of human nature and could teach all of us about tolerance. Well not all of us. Certainly not those who puff themselves up as Dante scholars, to be sure.

As I said, I have a middling familiarity with Dante, but full appreciation of literature's ability to make better human beings of us -were we not to use literature as a coffee table book.

Dante admired the genius and the poetic abilities of Brunetto Latini and is saddened to witness the man's torment in the Inferno - it was not Dante's choice to toss Latini in the third ring of the Seventh Circle - that is God's work. Dante has much more in common with Rev. James Meeks than with Neil Steinberg.

James Meeks has a congregation and a constituency.

Neil Steinberg has a column -for now.

* Brunetto Latini- Florentine philosopher and statesman, born at Florence, c. 1210; the son of Buonaccorso Latini, died 1294.

A notary by profession. Brunetto shared in the revolution of 1250, by which the Ghibelline power in Florence was overthrown, and a Guelph democratic government established In 1260, he was sent by the Commune as ambassador to Alfonso X of Castile, to implore his aid against King Manfred and the Ghibellines, and he has left us in his "Tesoretto", (II, 27-50), a dramatic account of how, on his return journey, he met a scholar from Bologna who told him that the Guelphs had been defeated at Montaperti and expelled from Florence. Brunetto took refuge at Paris, where a generous fellow-countryman enabled him to pursue his studies while carrying on his profession of notary. To this unnamed friend he now dedicated his "Trésor". After the Guelph triumph of 1266 and the establishment of a new democratic constitution, Brunetto returned to Florence, where he held various offices, including that of secretary to the Commune, took an active and honoured part in Florentine politics, and was influential in the counsels of the Republic. Himself a man of great eloquence, he introduced the art of oratory and the systematic study of political science into Florentine public life. He was buried in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Among the individuals who had come under his influence was the young Dante Alighieri, and, in one of the most pathetic episodes of the "Inferno" (canto XV) Dante finds the sage, who had taught him "how man makes himself eternal", among the sinners against nature.

Brunetto's chief work, "Li Livres dou Trésor" is a kind of encyclopedia in which he "treats of all things that pertain to mortals". It was written in French prose during his exile, and translated into Italian by a contemporary, Bono Giamboni. Mainly a compilation from St. Isidore of Seville and other writers, it includes compendiums of Aristotle's "Ethics" and Cicero's treatise on rhetoric. The most interesting portion is the last, "On the Government of Cities", in which the author deals with the political life of his own times. The "Tesoretto", written before the "Trésor", is an allegorical didactic poem in Italian, which undoubtedly influenced Dante. Brunetto finds himself astray in a wood, speaks with Nature in her secret places, reaches the realm of the Virtues, wanders into the flowery meadow of Love, from which he is delivered by Ovid. He confesses his sins to a friar and resolves to amend his life, after which he ascends Olympus and begins to hold converse with Ptolemy. It has recently been shown that the "Tesoretto" was probably dedicated to Guido Guerra, the Florentine soldier and politician who shares Brunetto's terrible fate in Dante's Inferno. Brunetto also wrote the "Favolello", a pleasant letter in Italian verse to Rustico di Filippo on friends and friendship. The other poems ascribed to him, with the possible exception of one canzone, are spurious.
New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia

Sun Times Attack Sen. Meeks, School Reform in Defense of Local Councils - local soviets wedging open the the doors of control.

A study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research found that the majority of LSCs appear to function well, noting that most do their work responsibly and draw in new resources for their schools.

Chicago Sun Times 02/12/10

Oh, by the way -

In 1991, (Mike) Klonsky co-founded the Small Schools Workshop in Chicago with Bill Ayers.

The Workshop was given at least $175,000 by Chicago’s Annenberg Challenge. This organisation was chaired by Barack Obama, who had been recruited for the job by a group which included Bill Ayers.

They wanted to build Public School soviets - you know grassroots*?

Uh Huh, it appears that the Sun Times is dead wrong again and consistently.

Supporters of this (LSCs) major reform argued that
creating Local School Councils (one of
several major changes brought about by
the Chicago School Reform Act) would
help catalyze substantial improvements in
the quality of Chicago public education

http://www.designsforchange.org/pdfs/LSC_rpt_final.pdfThat was in 1988. How'd that work out?

In 1995, the state legislature modified the
Reform Act to give Chicago’s mayor more
control over Chicago’s Central Board and
central administration as well as the power
to intervene in failing schools. National
publications like Newsweek have asserted
that Chicago’s mayor was given “near total
power over the schools” by the 1995
legislative changes.7 This assertion is
untrue. The basic powers of Chicago’s
Local School Councils have remained
intact to the present, and Chicago
remains the most decentralized big city
school system in the nation.

Uh Huh and that was 1995. How'd that work out? Reverend Meeks responded -

“If you want to go back to prior to 1995, then go back. I will never go back. This school system has changed and is getting better. I don’t care what anyone says.

One of the central changes made by the
1988 law was to establish an elected Local
School Council at each Chicago public

Our Local School Councils were the funded experiment by Bill "The Terrorsist" Ayers, Mike Klonsky and their confederates. Our President Barack Obama, then a young community actiovist lawyer seeking the Progressive imprimatur on his political aspirations served on the three 501(c)3 boards that funded the soviet/grassroots Local School Council Control apparatus that destroyed public schools in Chicago, backrupted Illinois taxpayers and pull thestrings on the Chicago Teachers Unions.


school (except for a few special schools).
Each LSC consists of:
1. Six parent representatives, elected by
parents and community residents.
2. Two community representatives, elected
by parents and community residents.
3. Two teachers, elected by the school staff.
4. The school’s principal.
5. A student elected by students (in the
high schools).
Unique among U.S. cities, Chicago’s LSCs
were given strong powers, including
powers in the following areas:

1. Principal Selection and Evaluation.
LSCs appoint the school’s principal
to a four-year contract and rehire or
replace the principal at the end of this
contract period. And they supervise and
evaluate the principal on an ongoing
basis.
2. School Improvement Planning.
LSCs set priorities for their school’s
improvement through helping develop
and approve an annual school improvement
plan. These plans must focus on
achieving student learning standards set
by the state.
3. School-Based Budget. LSCs help
develop and approve a school budget,
with major control over an average of
$500,000 per year in flexible funds from
the state.

Uh Huh, continuing and how'd that work out?

Here is where Local School Councils began:

The Community Renewal Society (CRS) describes itself as a “progressive, faith-based organization that works to eliminate race and class barriers.” Rev. Calvin S. Morris (left) is the executive director. CRS publishes both the Chicago Reporter and The Catalyst, in which the above announcement was run.

At the 48th Annual Eugene V. Debs – Norman Thomas – Michael Harrington Dinner, Morris was a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Chicago honoree (h/t Trevor Loudon):

Rev. Dr. Calvin Morris was the Executive Director of the Community Renewal Society, a civil rights organization with roots going back to the 19th Century in Chicago, and was a co-chair of Chicago Jobs with Justice, a Labor-Community organization active in supporting the organization of low-wage workers and in support of peace.

The Catalyst was founded by its current publisher, Linda Lenz.

According to her Alliance for Excellent Education profile:

Linda Lenz is the founder and publisher of Catalyst Chicago, a monthly news magazine that covers the progress, problems and politics of school reform in Chicago. She is also the publisher of the sister publication, Catalyst Cleveland. Catalyst is a publication of the Community Renewal Society, a nonprofit founded in 1882 that fights for racial and economic justice. …

Before launching Catalyst in 1990, Ms. Lenz was the education writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and before that an editorial writer for the Chicago Daily News. Following graduation from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she was a political writer and columnist for the Pioneer Press, North Shore.

On August 30, 2008, former Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lenz dutifully penned an apologetic published in the Sun-Times on the Bill Ayers-Obama relationship. Lenz dismissed any connection between Ayers’ years with the Weather Underground and his more recent school reform enterprise, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and the shared relationship with Barack Obama, who was CAC’s first executive director. Lenz writes


In other words, Obama does, indeed, know Bill Ayers as more than just a guy from the neighborhood. So do a host of civic leaders in Chicago.

On his Small Talk blog, Mike Klonsky praised Lenz’s effort, commenting “Chicago Catalyst’s Linda Lenz … gives us the real story on Obama and Bill Ayers and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.” It should also be noted Klonsky’s Small Schools Workshop is “named as a major Chicago Annenberg Challenge beneficiary,” as he and Bill Ayers “[picked] up a bundle — $175,000 –– for ’small school workshops.’”

By the way, Lenz is also a low dollar donor for Obama’s presidential campaign, contributing only $1000 in 2008.

More Obama/Ayers/Klonsky connections

Following Lenz’s August 2008 article, RBO wrote in a since-deleted article that the Obama/Ayers/Klonsky connections continue:

Chicago Catalyst’s largest funder is The Joyce Foundation, upon whose board Obama served for eight years, beginning in 1994, during which time, in 1995, Anne Hallett of the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform, William Ayers of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Warren Chapman of the Joyce Foundation proposed the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.


Mike Klonsky is a former member of Lenz’s Catalyst Chicago editorial board, as is John Ayers, Bill Ayers’ brother.

Thomas G. Ayers (more here), Bill Ayers’ father, was a contributor to the Community Renewal Society, as are: Bettylu Saltzman, whom we learned recently, has been an Obama supporter since at least his run for the Illinois legislature; Obama bundler John Rogers (and an Exelon director), through his Ariel Mutual Fund (more here); Sidley Austin, the law firm which employed both Barack and Michelle Obama and Bill Ayers’ wife, Bernadine Dohrn; Mike and Susan Klonsky; and Trinity United Church of Christ, Obama’s church until recently tossed under the Obama bus. In fact, funders for the 2005-2006 cycle reads like a who’s who list of Obama campaign funders dating from his earliest fund-raising days.
In that same article, RBO included the following video from May 2006 in which Lenz acts as moderator at the National Louis University forum on No Child Left Behind, in which Bill Ayers participated.

The geniuses at the Sun Times site the 1997 finding of the University of Chicago data padding study, yet argue that LSCs must remain. They go further demanding that the Illinois Legislature SPEND MORE to support LSCs of a Trainwreck of a Public School System. Catalyst is the mouthpiece of the radical leftists who dreamed up the school soviets- like Progress Illinois is the SEIU organ. They collectively and cordially hated Paul Vallas who attempted to bring real reform. He knew a soviet operation when he saw one. Kay Lenz and her surrogates hounded Paul Vallas, or rather Mayor Daley, who is not a huge reader it seems to me. These Radicals hate Charter Schools. They hate Vouchers and now they are building up the hate for Sen./Rev. James Meeks. They hate cordially and enthusiastically - nothing personal.

The Legislature should dismiss this bill and focus on efforts that might actually improve the Chicago Public Schools.

The Legislature should and will support this bill and focus on Vouchers and will help Chicago Public Schools.

As long as the Media and the Chicago Sun Times in particular gets its sole nurishment from radical leftists and lawsuit addicted lawyers, it will continue its path to irrelvance.

Supporting Local School Councils and fighting Vouchers? Not so hot, but the Chicago Sun Times is Okay with it. Radical. Radically stupid.


*

Originally, the soviets were a grassroots effort to practice direct democracy. Russian Marxists made them a medium for organizing against the state, and between the February and October Revolutions, the Petrograd Soviet was a powerful force. The slogan "All power to the soviets!" (Vsya vlast sovyetam!; Вся власть советам!) was used by the Bolsheviks to oppose the Provisional Government led by Kerensky.

Based on the Bolshevik's view of the state, the word soviet extended its meaning to any supreme body that obtained the authority of a group of soviets. In this sense, soviets turned into a hierarchical structure - Communist government bodies at local level and republic level[note 1] were called "soviets", and at the top of the hierarchy, the Congress of Soviets was the nominal core of the Union government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), officially formed in December 1922. However, the Communist Party officially played the "leading role" in society by that time; the soviets were in practice subordinate to it.

Later, in the USSR, local governmental bodies were named "soviet" (sovet: "council") with the adjective indicating of the administrative level, customarily abbreviated : gorsovet (gorodskoy sovet: city council), raysovet/raisovet (rayonny sovet: raion council), selsovet: rural council, possovet (poselkovy sovet: settlement council).

The term also came to be used outside the Soviet Union by some Marxist-Leninist movements, for example, the Communist Party of China's efforts in the "Chinese Soviet Republic" immediately prior to the Long March.