A number of you have written in after our story last night about the possible closing of Catherine Ferguson Academy in Detroit, a school for pregnant girls and young mothers. Below, a few links to that conversation about this that has already been going on in Detroit and Michigan. If you've got others to share, please include them in the comments. This is a story that's happening at the grassroots level -- no Catherine Ferguson gardening pun intended. This is a story that depends on you to tell it.
Mark Maynard's blog report has a lot of local discussion going.
The independent Voice of Detroit has terrific reporting from inside the sit-in at Catherine Ferguson, including accounts from people we showed last night.
The website Defend Public Education has a petition going, as does Change.org.
You can learn tons more about Catherine Ferguson Academy through the "Grown in Detroit" documentary.
If you've got more links, please post them. We'll keep following these stories and tell you more as we learn it
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Here is a photo set from Catherine Ferguson Academy this week, after the protests, and before the building will be abandoned completely. Once it is abandoned, it will be stripped clean beyond use by metal scrappers, as per usual for decommissioned Detroit Public School buildings.
Okay - this does not permit links to be posted - so i wish they didnt ask us to post more info. Pffft.
You have to get permission from newsvine to post links. It's a one-time thing. Then any post with the tag open-mic will allow you to post links. If you don't want to bother, then spell out the dots and slashes. Sorry! It's a newsvine anti-spam measure I guess. Annoying.
I'm sorry you're having trouble posting the link. The "open-mic" tag is supposed to make it so that you can post links. I'll ask the tech team to take a look right away.
Here's an example along with a how to Tweet Toot Your Own Horn oh HOW and WHY you, your team and staff are appreciated:
Rachel Maddow, the Nation Daily Kos http:(slasher-slasher)ow.ly/4FP6Q #Rachel #Maddow #Nation #Daily #Kos #Progressive #poll #effectiveness #interest #love
All the Best to All... Happy Easter n Other Holidays
Bob...:D
I read the blog page from Mark Maynard last night and I'm sad to say that I was saddened by some of the posts on the page. My husband actually cried at the footage of them arresting Ashley Matthews. If you look at Ashley's profile on LinkedIn, she truly wants her education and to flourish in her career. I am proud of the students to be so brave but I'm deeply saddened by some of the reactions of my fellow Americans.
Our children are our future and each of us deserve the right to a good education (equal) regardless of our choices in life, skin color, religious beliefs, etc. Some are born into a situation that they have absolutely NO CONTROL over and it takes great efforts to make something of their lives - EVERYONE deserves the right to have the chance to overcome those situations.
This just proves the conservative lie that everyone in this country has an equal chance to succeed.
Thank you for this segment, Dr. Maddow.
WHere can we donate to this cause? My six year old saw the piece and wants to donate the "share" part of his allowance to those girls. I want to give him the opportunity to do this.
Ruth, you are an outstanding mother. Thanks for your part in raising the next generation of compassionate Americans.
You can donate at BAMN:
https://www.bamn.com/1/donate.asp
They appear to be legitimate and a grass roots activist organization. Their site archives go back to 1995, and their legal actions and briefs date back to 2004. They are affiliated with UEAALDF. They are also affiliated with the Voice of Detroit newspaper.
It's Easter Sunday, so I haven't been able to call VOD (313-825-6126) or the CFA (main office: (313) 596-4771) to confirm BAMN's legitimacy.
BAMN members used to go to newspaper strike picket lines to provoke the cops and then they'd disappear when the tear gas and batons came out. If that's still their MO, I wouldn't donate to them. Better to contact the school principal
I am a rep. for a local colege. Every year, for the past several years, I visit CF to talk to seniors about career options. I have always been impressed by what a wonderful school this is! The young women work very hard, and it shows. They can do so in a safe, protected environment. No judgement, no negativity of any kind. Only support and understanding. Their children, of all ages, are well taken care of - allowing them peace of mind to study and grow. The idea that this school is going to be closed is an abomination. The idea that it is just another political pawn sickens me. Shame on Robert Bobb and all those who will let this happen. Detroit needs more, not fewer, schools like this.
Thane52, I'm glad you are part of the solution to these young womens problems.
What aggravates me so much about this, among many other actions "conservatives" have taken lately, is they claim to be pro-life, as in anti-abortion. Yet when poor, teenage unwed girls, especially of color, keep their babies and pull themselves up by whatever strength they can muster, those same conservatives slap them down like they were flies.
Every community needs a school like this one to take care of the fact that there are teenage mothers who need to be educated in an environment that nurtures both them and their children. They built their own solution to their problems, and the thug boss installed up there is now taking it away from them.
This is unconscionable, and everyone in every community needs to get behind these girls and do everything we can to help them.
No state official should be able to take over a city unless it is experiencing the most dire situation. It feels like the mafia is in charge of Michigan! But that would be insulting to the mafia!
My God! When did Democracy die? When did Evil rise up and win power???
Here is a school with a 90% graduation rate and some idiot wants to CLOSE IT DOWN???? We in Nevada struggle to raise our 56% grad rate and have been struggling for 40 years now with little rise in that %. And the fool in Michigan WANTS TO CLOSE THIS SCHOOL THAT PROMOTES EDUCATION, CHILDREN, LIFE AND all that is good? Who is allowing dictatorship? Did Michigan drop out of the United States? Or did the United States drop Democracy?
gh
My father used to be a principal in Chelsea, MA, and while it was really resource strapped compared to other schools, the students and faculty were really committed to education and I see this here too. It upsets me how short sighted this response is. Do officials really think closing a school that educates people others like to ignore will actually help the region? These women are extremely inspiring. I hope somehow this works out in the right way.
Thank you for covering important stories like this one. I wish more news shows would follow your example. I want to see more stuff like this and less stuff about the super-inflated-ego-with-a-comb-over-who-may-or-may-not-be-running-for-president. I refuse to say his name.
Agreed! Also, I agree with your staff - I don't want to hear about the #%*&ing "Royal Wedding"! ;) Thanks Rachel and crew!
I COMPLETELY agree. The rest of the media is drooling over themselves with with the guy whose name (appropriately) rhymes with Dump, and the you know what wedding, that truly important stories and issues are shoved aside, just like I didn't need to hear about Charlie Sheen when all that was going on. That's what ET is for. I want news, information and viewpoints that are relevant. I'll add my thanks too :) Have a great weekend Rachel, Laura, Tricia, Will, Bill and everybody else at TRMS. You guys ROCK!!!
Paging Margaret Atwood....
The Handmaid's Tale (published 1985) is set in the near future in the Republic of Gilead, a country formed within the borders of what was formerly the United States of America. It was founded by a racist, male chauvinist, nativist, theocratic-organized military coup as an ideologically-driven response to the pervasive ecological, physical and social degradation of the country. Beginning with a staged terrorist attack (blamed on Islamic extremist terrorists) that kills the President, a movement calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" launched a revolution, oustedCongress, and suspended the U.S. Constitution under the pretext of restoring order. Taking advantage of electronic banking, they were quickly able to freeze the assets of all women and other "undesirables" in the country, stripping their rights away. The new theocratic military dictatorship, styled "The Republic of Gilead", moved quickly to consolidate its power and reorganize society along a new militarized, hierarchical, compulsorily-Christian regime of Old Testament-inspired social and religious orthodoxy among its newly-created social classes.[citation needed]
The story is presented from the point of view of a woman called Offred (a patronymic name that means "Of Fred", referring to the man she serves). The character is one of a class of individuals kept as concubines ("handmaids") for reproductive purposes by the ruling class. The book is told in the first person by Offred, who describes in portions her life from the beginnings of the revolution, when she finds she has lost all autonomy to her husband, through her indoctrination into life as a handmaid, to her third assignment as a handmaid, in this case to Fred, (referred to as "The Commander"). Through her eyes, the structure of Gilead's society is described, including the several different categories of women and their circumscribed lives in the new theocracy. The Commander, a high ranking official in Gilead, exposes Offred to many hidden or contraband aspects of the new society. He takes her to a secret house of prostitution run by the government ("Jezebel's"), and he frequently and secretly meets with her in his study, where he allows her the contraband activity of reading (of old women's fashion and beauty magazines). The Commander's wife strikes a deal with Offred—she arranges for Offred to have sex with her driver Nick in an effort to get her pregnant. The Commander's wife believes the Commander to be sterile, a subversive belief as official Gilead policy is that only women can be sterile. In exchange for Offred's cooperation, Serena Joy gives her news of her daughter, who Offred has not seen since she and her family were captured trying to escape Gilead. Through another handmaid, Ofglen, Offred learns of the Mayday resistance. As the novel concludes, Offred is being taken away by men in a large black van. Before she is taken away, Nick mentions that the men are part of the Mayday resistance, and that Offred must trust him. Offred does not know if she can trust Nick and if she is really escaping or being trapped. Yet, she enters the van, thinking, "Whether this is my end or a new beginning, I have no way of knowing: I have given myself over into the hands of strangers, because it cannot be helped."
The novel concludes with a metafictional epilogue that explains that the events of the novel occurred shortly after the beginning of what is called "the Gilead Period." The epilogue itself is a "transcription of a Symposium on Gileadean Studies written some time in the distant future (2195)," and according to the symposium's "keynote speaker" Professor Pieixoto, he and "a colleague", Professor Knotly Wade, discovered Offred's narrative recorded onto thirty cassette tapes. They created a "probable order" for these tapes and transcribed them, calling them collectively "the handmaid's tale".[5][6][7] (from Wikipedia)
Just yesterday, I bought a copy of "The Handmaid's Tale" to re-read, having read it twenty years or so ago; lately, I have been thinking of as a prophetic tale and wanted to confirm my impression of it. It should be mandatory reading for everyone.
I've tried to get the movie version of this book (not a great interpretation) from Netflix, but to no avail. It would be good if people could see even a less than perfect version, but it's off the radar for now.
This makes me so mad that I want to scream. Many teachers, students and parents are working their asses off to create the best possible environment for learning with inadequate resources and despite the reform attitude that testing is the answer to all ills. Here's a school that by all accounts is working and thriving, and the corporate interests and their allies want to put it to a stop. When are voters going to wake up and realize what these corporate-influenced "leaders" are doing???
Being from the school of "If it works, don't fix it" I can't imagine what mental giants made the decision to close the CF school. Study after study, report after report speak to the need of educating our youth because they are the future of this nation, yet we continue to destroy the very instituions that are, in fact, successful in doing so..............what has happened to common sense?
The GOP continually espouses the fact that "they" want this, that and the other thing for our children and our grandchildren..................why save anything for those they are currently demoralizing and destroying?
Amen, Kelly. At this rate, our children and grandchildren will be ignorant and the America the GOP says they want will decline rapidly into chaos.
Maybe that's how they want it, a plutocracy. The only people who will be educated are the chosen. The rest, the vast majority, will be surfs of the chosen. Why do the people need an education when all they will be doing is the daily grunt work of feeding, cleaning up after, and generally taking care of the chosen?
I think the election of President Obama has cemented their deepest fear, that anyone, no matter how lowly-born and non-white, can grow up to become President of the United States and the most powerful person on Earth.
If that fear is what they are fighting, all their actions make perfect sense. Destroy the system that made Barack Obama able to become president. It doesn't matter how many other people are hurt, they must destroy the system so it doesn't happen again.
Why are they doing this? Ever hear the expression "Good riddance to bad rubbish?" The residents are mostly poor and black. Developers want to build a golf club community. Don't be surprised to hear down the line that Eminent Domain was declared and the town is going to be razed. This has nothing to do with budgets, but everything to do with money.
I thought "Race to the Top" was Obama's plan. Isn't that what is driving this as well as other school reform around the country? The Emergency Financial Manager was appointed by a democrat. So why the conservative bashing?
I have to admit that you're right about that, Katy. This is from E.D. Kain's blog at forbes.com:
So who is Robert Bobb?
It turns out, he's a recent graduate of the Broad Foundation's Superintendent Academy. The Broad Foundation, along with the Kellogg Foundation, pays Bobb $145,000 a year on top of his $280,000 government salary. For those of you not familiar with Broad, it is one of the leading foundations promoting school choice and privatization across the country. One might almost think that paying a public official hundreds of thousands of dollars a year might amount to nothing short of bribery, especially given the very specific agenda of a foundation like the Broad Foundation.
Now, Bobb is proposing to create charter schools for 16,000 students from 41 schools slated for closure. He argues that this will save millions of dollars. I have to wonder, however, at the conflict of interest.
The Broad Foundation isn't some right-wing think tank. This is what the Broad Foundation had to say about the election of Barack Obama:
The election of President Barack Obama and his appointment of Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, as the U.S. secretary
of education, marked the pinnacle of hope for our work in education reform. In many ways, we feel the stars have finally aligned.
With an agenda that echoes our decade of investments—charter schools, performance pay for teachers, accountability, expanded learning time and national standards—the Obama administration is poised to cultivate and bring to fruition the seeds we and other reformers have planted.
I just want to thank all the people in support of these girls. I was also crying when these girls were arrested. I can't believe where this country has went to. These girls are being arrested because they are fighting to get an education to better themselves and make a future for their children. How sad and ridiculous!
The same people that want to deny these girls an education will be the same ones who bitch about them if they're on welfare, uneducated and struggling to find work. These young women can't win. They're either being denied an opportunity to learn and succeed in life, or they're called welfare/deadbeat women who leach on society. That's the GOP for you. It breaks my heart and pisses me off. I'd like these supposed Christians point to where in the Bible it says to treat people with such unabashed cruelty.
So many people in Michigan do not realize how damaging this new EFM bill is and our local media doesn't tell anyone that. When they do say something they put a union spin on it and people are not getting that this bill enables big business to take anything they want and we do not have any say in it. Whatever your political view, this is the killing of democracy. When the local television stations were called in Lansing, we were told that the EFM law in Benton Harbor is out of their jurisdiction. I think with 132 cities, 26 townships, and 16 villages listed on the MSHDA report as eligible distressed areas is major Michigan news. Their plan is probably to take us down city by city with as little push back as they can get by keeping the citizens from knowing exactly how damaging this bill is. When the EFM, Robert Bobb's salary is $280,000 from public money, and $145,000 from private companies there is a real conflict of interest and it is not in the interest for the citizens of Michigan. I am also worried that our votes don't even count any longer.
We really need to go back to paper ballots. Programmer under oath admits computers rig elections.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1thcO_olHas&feature=share
http://www.michigan.gov/mshda/0,1607,7-141--181277--,00.html
Battle Creek, Michigan here. If there had been a school shooting, mass attack of any kind the Michigan media would be all over it. I think they don't want to deal with the EFM law changes because the governor and Rep. Polsholka (sorry if name is mispelled) slipped that one by all. Along with everything else going on with his office they are really just reporting his fluff and not really doing any digging. Example Mack from Kzoo gazette. Keep us in mind Rachel keep reporting on Michigan, because the next state might prevent some of the awful things happening here from happening to it.
Thank you for your focus on Catherine Fergusen Academy. About a mile away, another school on that list is Detroit Day School for the Deaf, the oldest day school in the country, begun by Detroiters who understood the value of children being educated in their own community rather than having to go to the boarding school in Flint. It was on the closure list with Catherine Fergusen and kept open by suport from the community (though it's principal who was not cooperating with supporting its staying open and bringing best practices from Gallaudet university was replaced. It is the only school in Detroit built with federal, state and local money specifically to meet the needs of deaf children. It is the only school where deaf and hard of hearing students using sign language can communicate freely with everyone in the school and is part of the continuum of placements supported by federal and state law. Would love for you to come and see what is going on here in Detroit first hand, Rachel.
Like the cause in Kansas, this one deserves a "boots on the ground" approach, too. Keep the flame under the collective @$$es of these ersatz democratically elected officials but set it on AFTER BURNER! ... return home, rinse, repack, and repeat frequently.
The Michigan Citizen has the most recent article I could find, dateline April 24.
I hope ya'll continue to cover what happens at CFA. I know that the context of the emergency financial manager stuff is critically important--but so, too, is the specific, particular fate of this one school. That is to say, what are their tactics, what do they need, and what does it take to rebuff the EFM's dictatorship??
(PS, couldn't post this comment when I included the link to the Michigan Citizen article and had to remove it to post.)
Amazing, with all the actual crime that one can find in Detroit or any large American city, that such a police effort was deemed necessary to manage a school sit-in held by teenagers. Americans better wake up. We are losing our nation municipality by municipality, state by state. The Tea Party is right about this. They're just wrong about the perpetrators. Those responsible for this ongoing takeover of America by rightwing business interests are the very entities sponsoring these Tea Party morons.
Read this post. This is driven by Obama and the democrats!
9.5 - Wed Apr 27, 2011 8:14 AM CDT
/p>
I find it unconscionable that these same people blather on about women NOT having abortions, yet in the same breath, take away those very things that allows a woman to succeed to make a better life for that baby. These young women made a decision to keep their baby, and they took steps to ensure that they could succeed in life, as well as give their babies a better future. And kudos to every single one of them.
But to DELIBERATELY take away that chance for these women? Seriously...WTF? is WRONG with these people? I mean it......what is WRONG with them? I don't know how much more of this stuff I can take. It makes me sick, it makes me sad, and it REALLY pisses me off that more people aren't angry about what's happening around the country. People had better wake the hell up...or WE WILL BE living in an authoritarian theocracy, where women are once again a piece of property living in subjugation to men as nothing more than baby-making factories, minorities are sub-human, and the world is run by "the good ole' white boys club".
Frankly, it terrifies the s**t outta me....and I don't think I'm being paranoid or falling for conspiracy theory. If you look around the country....It looks very real to me.
Those were my thoughts exactly. Many pro-lifers' concern for the life of the unborn child ENDS when the child is born.
When I was a teenager, I really believed that the people who protest at the abortion clinics should be mandated to raise the babies. Each protester gets to save a life! And pay for the little one's diapers, then college.
Otherwise, what business is it of theirs? And cutting funding for education for young mothers is OUTRAGEOUS...
Isn't it amazing these individuals are against abortion, then take away all support for the mother and child, cut education, and then gleefully send them to war to be killed. If this is their religion count me out.
They don't give a @!$%# about the women or the children. The children are just (in both senses of the word) punishment for the crime of having sex while a woman. The women's lives therefore deserve to be ruined and the children's lives are collateral damage.
Ya, the whole God's anger thing will be visited upon the children for many generations.
The more I think about it, the more sick I become.
It amazes me how so many people, generally those of a conservative nature, will scream about how "the state is broke," and they cannot afford these schools. Then, they close these schools, leaving more uneducated people unable to provide for themselves. Once these people seek assistance, like Welfare or Medicaid, those "Conservatives" will complain about how we shouldn't help these "welfare mothers."
I wish someone could explain this to me.
Apparently they're supposed to die and "decrease the surplus population" as per Ebenezer Scrooge.
Rick Snyder who recently declared financial martial law in nearby Benton Harbor will be the grand marshal of St. Joseph's Blossomtime parade - can't make this stuff up!
close enough to wave at!
close enough to tar and feather?
Hopefully he gets booed all the way!
They really need to contact Oprah, she could help them.
I was thinking the same thing. I wish I knew how to send this story to her.
I sent this to Oprah today,
Oprah's Angel Network
P.O. Box 96600
Chicago, IL 60693
Dear Ms. Winfrey,
Please step in to prevent the Catherine Ferguson Academy, the farm school for pregnant girls and young moms, from closing in Detroit.
Your African Girls school that you started is so successful; can you help in the some way in Detroit? I believe we have to start with the babies in order to change the pattern of failure. So many young people today don’t have any hope to succeed. This school was making a difference and it is being closed.
If a new hope was made available to these young mothers, those girls would have a chance to go on to college and become successful mothers, adults, and citizens.
Mr. Geoffery Canada is saving the Harlem children with a new school program that is based on every child going on to college, not trade schools, but college. If you contacted Mr. Canada he could advise how his program could be put in place in Detroit and then it could be adapted to a new opportunity to extend the program closing at Catherine Ferguson Academy.
Sincerely,
What is happening in this country is just wrong. The Kochpublicans are destroying this country a piece at a time. They have already proven that nothing is to low or dirty for them to do. The only way to fight this is to start at the top of the problem and work down. Kochs-Supreme Court-Congress-Govenors-State Legislators. Obama needs to replace Holder and get someone who is not just a pretty-boy but has the balls to take on this problem. The Supreme Court is now a joke and needs to be cleaned of the corrupt bought and paid for justices. Has anyone bothered to check the resume of the 200 managers trained in Michigan? Bet that would make an interesting story! Now is the time for Obama to decide which side he is on. Is he with the people or the Kochpublicans. This is a fight for America and needs to start now, before it gets to the 2nd adm. solution.
I'm afraid Holder does just what Obama wants him to do.
The bitter irony is that Republicans are trying to eliminate abortion and believe that there is a safety net for women who choose to take their pregnancies to term. Why, then, aren't Republicans helping these women instead of closing their school? Are they afraid, because minority women will have an education and realize what the old, white male Republican party is doing to them? The Republican party is also taking away whatever safety net is still available to women.
They don't believe in a safety net. It's only ironic if you accept forced-birther framing as "about the unborn". It's about punishment, pure and simple.
Not the Republican party. This is Obama's Race to the Top and in Detroit a Democrat appointed financial manager.
Read this post. This is driven by Obama and the democrats! 9.5 - Wed Apr 27, 2011 8:14 AM CDT
Why, why, why (in this age of accountability) when a school succeeds in it's endeavours to educate these young women, teach them life skills, prepare and send them to college are they considered a failure in the School District???
Again, it's the party that governs : keep the child (because of our morality rules), drop out of school to become that responsible parent without education or skills BUT you have to pull up your bootstraps and succeed alone while we watch you fail. ((even though the party that governs had their own help (either through birth circumstance/socio-economic neighborhood and education et al), on their trip up the ladder, they just hate to admit it))
I would like to applaud GE, for not dictating what you and others are able to report on. Maybe the owners of GE still have some compassion for the American people. I think that the local media in Michigan is controlled already. We hear more about what is happening in Libya than about the takeover of our own state.
I kinda think it's the least a corporation can do to "allow" unfavorable reporting. I don't think GE really deserves accolades for doing the bare minimum.
It's just that doing the minimum is becoming more and more rare.
The bitter irony is that the Republicans are against abortion, yet they won't help women who choose to bring their pregnancies to term; because the Republicans believe there is a safety net to help women, while they shred what is left of the safety net.
Republicans have a "You're on your own, punk." attitude towards regular people who need help, combined with a hand-holding, mollycoddling, nursemaid attitude toward millionaires and gigantic corporations. It is so hypocritical that they end up defending publicly funded bonuses for millionaire executives at AIG while angrily opposing raising the minimum wage for the guy who cleans the floors in the AIG building. Or closing schools like this one and flipping the saved money into tax cuts for corporations and rich old white guys. Which they surely will; they always do.
Before Bush was president, using the government to massively enrich yourself at public expense was a source of embarrassment. It was something you hid. It was frowned upon at least, illegal at worst. After Bush, it was an economic model, a legitimate business plan. This is Bush's legacy. Conservatives are simply using a series of ginned up "budget crises" as an excuse to extort money from people who didn't have a lot to begin with and redirect it to people who already have millions.
Because it's okay to do that now.
Well, Rachel sure is right about Ground Zero.
I already feel like our elected senators and congresspeople are NOT representing us by backing out of their promised actions, or worse. So the feeling of "dictatorship" is already prevalent for me, personally.
American politics is getting SO damned corrupt I'm seriously considering leaving the country for good.
Police abuse is rampant, and with for-profit prisons owned by judges it's clear that we CITIZENS are REALLY THE PROBLEM.
Taking away the power of our elected officials is only the first step.
Maine is in danger of going that way too. WIth our newly elected (by38% only) T-bagger Governor..........He dictatorily removed a mural from the DOL, because it was offensive to some ( anonymous business owner) and a lawsuit from citizens was ruled in his favor by a Federal Judge ( bush W appointee)
We also have an alternative school like that, which serves young Mothers with children. It opened it's doors to other students, this fall when the local school was voted closed by the citizens. Kids can chose to attend the alternative It's ( set up so community $ pays their tuition) or bus to the nearest Public school 30 miles away.
http://www.thecclc.org/forum/index.php?topic=596.0
http://www.thecclc.org/projects/passages.htm