Homer-Lockport Tea Party Screening of ‘Injustice the Film’ — July 30

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Homer-Lockport Tea Party is going to screen a very special movie at 7PM on July 30. The film is titled “InJustice, The Film,” and is a documentary about “greed and corruption in American’s lawsuit industry.”

You can see more info at the InJustice website or at the Homer-Lockport Tea Party site.

The film will be introduced by WLS radio personality Dan Proft and will start at around 7PM on July 30 at 14326 Golden Oak Drive, Homer Glen, Illinois.

I had the pleasure of meeting the director of the film, Brian Kelly, when his film first came out and he had some interesting things to relate about the film.

Interview
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Homer-Lockport Tea Party Screening of ‘Injustice the Film’ — July 30″


What Is Constitutional Conservatism?

-By Yuval Levin, National Review

(ED: I don’t usually repost an entire article from another site but this article is too important to just excerpt. I apologize to Mr. Levin in advance, but his essay is one of the best definitions of what American conservatism truly is that I’ve seen for a long time. It is also a good explanation on why modern liberalism is as wrong as can be and anti-American to boot. It is a must read for anyone that wants a hint of the character of American conservatism and a good guide on how to think about what conservatives advocate. I just had to post it in it’s entirety, just had to have this chronicled on my site.)

This fall, liberals from the president on down have begun to grasp the scope of the political and intellectual disaster that the past three years have been for the Left. Their various responses to the calamity have tended to have one thing in common: immense frustration. But the different expressions of that frustration have been deeply revealing. They should help Americans better understand this complicated moment in our politics, and, in particular, help conservatives frame their responses.

Liberal frustration has fallen into two general categories that seem at first to flatly contradict each other: denunciations of democracy and appeals to populism. In September, Peter Orszag, President Obama’s former budget director, wrote an essay in The New Republic arguing that “we need less democracy.” To address our country’s daunting problems, Orszag suggested, we need to take some power away from Congress and give it to “automatic policies and depoliticized commissions” that will be shielded from public pressure. “Radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic.” Two weeks later, North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Beverly Perdue, made a less sophisticated stab at the same general point, proposing to suspend congressional elections for a few years so members of Congress could make the difficult decisions necessary to get our country out of its deep problems.

Orszag and Perdue both seemed to channel a long and deeply held view of the Left — that the complexity of modern life and the intensity of modern politics should lead us to put more power in the hands of technical experts who have the knowledge to make objective, rational choices on our behalf. Leaving things to the political process will result only in delay and disorder. President Obama has frequently expressed this view himself — wistfully complaining to his aides earlier this year, for instance, that things would sure be easier if he were president of China.
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What Is Constitutional Conservatism?”


Politico Misstates Concealed Carry Law Claims it Violates State’s Laws

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently Politico does not like the new concealed-carry reciprocity law recently passed in Congress. They must not like it. After all, aside from covering it in a negative light, the newser so badly misstated the law that it could easily turn its readers against the whole idea. But perhaps that’s the idea?

The law, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, would allow gun owners that have a concealed-carry license in their home state to carry their firearm in another state if that state also has a carry law in place. The law, however, does not allow someone to carry a firearm in a state that does not currently allow its own citizens to enjoy concealed-carry rights.

All this law does is standardize the lawful status of interstate gun carriers so that law-abiding citizens are not confused by and in fear of violating the many different state statutes concerning their firearms when traveling.
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Politico Misstates Concealed Carry Law Claims it Violates State’s Laws”


Victory for Bloggers: Illinois Blog Wins Lawsuit

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a good sign for blogger free speech, a lawsuit against a high profile conservative blog in Illinois has just been tossed out. A political contributor brought the lawsuit over a story about property tax reassessments and political contributions. This is a victory for free political speech as well as a victory for the status of blogs in the world of “journalism.”

I’ve been aware of this story for some time but the folks at Illinois Review, the blog in question, asked me to sort of keep it all quiet. There were all sorts of legal questions being thrown about and since the folks that run the blog don’t have deep pockets and the whole thing was being born at their own expense, they wanted to be sure this whole mess didn’t escalate and hurt them too bad financially.

The lawsuit meant to silence the blog was a convoluted one, to be sure. Illinois Review had posted a story that revealed that former Ill. State Rep. Paul Froehlich (R, Schaumburg) had sought campaign contributions from property owners who had won property tax relief claims that the Representative had assisted in getting settled. But after the story went live, due to the notoriety the county assessors office reversed those tax relief decisions.
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Victory for Bloggers: Illinois Blog Wins Lawsuit”


Freedom of Speech Wins: Baltimore Politician Drops Lawsuit Against Blogger

-By Warner Todd Huston

Examiner blogger Adam Meister was doing what bloggers do, namely posting the info that “journalists” refuse to write about. In this case, back in March, Meister found that a Baltimore Councilwoman was living in a different district than she claimed she was living in. As a result, the politician tried to sue the blogger for his posts.

City Councilwoman Belinda Conaway filed a lawsuit demanding an idiotic $21 million in damages for Meister’s expose of her true primary residence. But this week Conaway abruptly dropped her suit against the blogger.

Through public records, blogger Meister discovered that Conaway lives in Randallstown and not Baltimore, the city she was elected to represent. Conaway has, though, claimed she lives in an extended-family household in Baltimore.

Meister disputed Councilwoman Conaway’s claim and he posted tax information where Conaway claimed for tax purposes that Randallstown, not Baltimore, was her primary residence.
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Freedom of Speech Wins: Baltimore Politician Drops Lawsuit Against Blogger”


VIDEO: God Sides With Chris Christie, Lightening Zaps Dem That Threatened to Punch Guv

-By Warner Todd Huston

New Jersey’s Senate President is a vile, sort of loud-mouthed kind of cretin. Not long ago, in keeping with the Democrat’s New Tone (™) in politics, Stephen Sweeney threatened to punch Governor Christie “in his head.” Well, apparently God has added his thoughts to Sweeney’s preoccupation with violence…

Yep, that was Sweeney almost getting fried by the big guy upstairs for all his lies and nonsense.

Chris Christie, 1, Sweeney, 0.

Now if we can start zapping union members, too! Ha, ha.
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VIDEO: God Sides With Chris Christie, Lightening Zaps Dem That Threatened to Punch Guv”


N.J. Courts Not Interested in Democracy

-By Warner Todd Huston

Most Americans are under the mistaken assumption that we as voters can elect someone to make changes in our government. Whether the government of our city, county, state or that in Washington DC we voters have this romantic idea that we can affect change by electing people to office that will make those changes. The New Jersey Supreme Court, however, has disabused us all of those absurd notions.

Governor Chris Christie was elected to office for one reason, to solve New Jersey’s budget mess. He’s not Mr. Nice guy. He’s not the prettiest face in New Jersey politics. He wasn’t even the state’s most beloved public figure. He ran on fixing the budget and the people hired him to do just that.

But now, even though he was able to get certain budget changes through both houses of his state legislature, even though he has kept his shoulder to the grindstone doing the very job that the people hired him to do, even as he was on the verge of succeeding, the courts have stepped in and torpedoed the effort.
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N.J. Courts Not Interested in Democracy”


Thanks Governor Quinn: Illinois Loses Another Business and One More (Sears) on the Way Out

-By Warner Todd Huston

Wisconsin is celebrating over the stupidity of the political class in Illinois, a state that is steadily destroying its business climate and mounting some pretty high tax rates. The town of Menasha, Wisconsin, though, loves Illinois because Prolamina Corp. has chosen it for a new flexible-packaging plant, one it is moving from the Land of Lincoln to Wisconsin.

Prolamina Corp. will begin building its new facility in Wisconsin in August. The facility will be serving the needs of the “tobacco, cheese, pouch materials, pet food, medical, produce and snack food markets.”

“The location offers lower operating costs, improved response times and lower freight costs to customers,” said Bevis, who started the company last year as Packaging Solutions Holdings Inc., Lake Forest, Ill.

So, Illinois has lost yet one more business. There has been a steady stream of business fleeing from Illinois.

This news comes as a prelude to reports that Sears is shopping for a new state to move to, as well.

Sears has its Headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago but is now considering a move out-of-state.
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Thanks Governor Quinn: Illinois Loses Another Business and One More (Sears) on the Way Out”


Bobby Unser: Race Car Driver, Celebrity… Criminal?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Bobby Unser is famous for having won the Indy 500 three times and only one of two drivers that won that great race in three separate decades (’68, ’75, ’81).

Unser has a long list of achievements in motor sports starting back in the early 1960s. But there is one achievement, dubious though it may be, that the federal government is happiest he achieved. He is officially a federal criminal and the U.S. Forest Service couldn’t be happier.

Criminal? Oh, you bet. At least according to our despotic federal government he sure is….

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

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Bobby Unser: Race Car Driver, Celebrity… Criminal?”


Just Can’t Win Dept: Unions Honor Traitor Republicans, Dems Call Unions Traitors

-By Warner Todd Huston

Traitors to the right of them, traitors to the left of them, traitors in front of them… behind them, around them within them… in the they-just-can’t-win department, unions held a soiree for the traitor Republicans that voted in favor of some of the pro-union provisions in last week’s temporary budget and their pals in the donkey party were heehawing in rage to beat the band over the whole thing. The news is quite revealing in a number of ways, really.

On March 10 Politico reported that 15 labor groups held a little “thank you” party on Capitol Hill for those Republicans that voted in favor of the few pro-union amendments to the CR. Only those Republicans that voted in favor of the unions were invited.

Of the pro-union amendments, one would have repealed the Davis Bacon prevailing wage law and the second would have prohibited the federal government from observing project labor agreements (PLAs). The latter failed by a 210 to 210 tie vote. Some Republicans claimed that they voted in favor of the PLA amendment by accident due to the flurry of amendments offered in a short space of time before the votes came due.

Democrats on the Hill were not amused by the union’s reaching out to the GOP, though.
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Just Can’t Win Dept: Unions Honor Traitor Republicans, Dems Call Unions Traitors”


VIDEO: Another Lefty Garbles the Citizens United Case

-By Warner Todd Huston

Annie Leonard has made another one of her left-wing, hopelessly skewed videos and in this one she employed every unthinking left-wing trope possible to garble the Citizens United case from last year. Well, Lee Doren has unleashed another fantastic take down of Leonard’s nonsense. This one is very much worth sticking through to the end, folks.

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VIDEO: Another Lefty Garbles the Citizens United Case”


Obama Says Gov’t Employees Not to Blame, Yet in 41 States They Make More Than Everyone

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a recent interview with Channel 4 TV News in Milwaukee, President Obama denied that government employees are responsible for the “budget problems” that the nation faces and that employees such as those in Wisconsin are not to blame. We shouldn’t “vilify” them, he said. Yet, seeming to contradict Obama’s claims USA Today has reported that in 41 states government employees make more on average than workers in the private sector.

In a fine demagogic manner Obama told Channel 4 that we need to understand that these public employees are “our friends and neighbors.”
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Obama Says Gov’t Employees Not to Blame, Yet in 41 States They Make More Than Everyone”


Our Out Of Control Courts: Bankruptcy Courts Now Deciding Cases on Feelings?

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the issues that many conservatives have focused on is our out of control court system and the constant judicial overreach that occurs therein. Here we have yet another case of a court insinuating itself into an area in which it previously never had purview and if this decision stands it will open our courts to a flood of court shopping that will turn our legal system further down the wrong road.

At least since the forced busing case of 1971 and the Roe v Wade abortion case, conservatives have been complaining about judges taking undue powers unto themselves. For decades these power mad judges have been expanding their reach to control our lives until even our state and federal legislatures have seemed to give up their rightful role as lawmakers. Once again we have a judge that has reached beyond his proper role.

The case in question is Marshall v. Marshall and, yes, once again Anna Nicole Smith is going before the U.S. Supreme Court — and from beyond the grave at that. The reason a Smith matter is again before the SCOTUS four years after her death is because one of her cases was decided by a federal bankruptcy court in California on reasons that had nothing at all to do with technical bankruptcy rules. The case before the SCOTUS would determine if the bankruptcy court acted properly.
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Our Out Of Control Courts: Bankruptcy Courts Now Deciding Cases on Feelings?”


Justice Kilbride: Extreme

From JUSTPAC…

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride has spent millions on slick TV ads and direct mail — trying his best to hide his liberal record and portray himself as “independent.”

Today, the Chicago Tribune editorial board blows a hole in Kilbride’s claims of independence, writing:
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Justice Kilbride: Extreme”


NO on Justice Kilbride: $1.25 Million Dollars

From JUSTPAC…

That’s how much cash Illinois Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride’s campaign has received from the Illinois Democratic Party.

He’s used much of that money to pay for slick TV ads and direct mail pieces to cover up his record of siding with criminals over victims and law enforcement.

Now it’s our turn to tell the truth.
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NO on Justice Kilbride: $1.25 Million Dollars”


Kilbride Has ‘Forfeited His Right to Serve Another 10 Years’

From JUSTPAC

In the video below, Edward Petka, retired Will County Circuit Judge, former State Senator and former Will County State’s Attorney, discusses Justice Thomas Kilbride’s record of choosing criminals over victims and law enforcement. This video was shot on the site of the 1983 Joliet “Ceramic Shop Massacre”. Thanks to overwhelming evidence, serial killer Milton Johnson was arrested and convicted of that massacre — but Kilbride called for Johnson’s retrial as part of a blanket call for the retrial of 25 Death Row inmates.


Study: Justice Kilbride Sides With Criminals, Against Victims and Police, 91% of the Time

From Justpac, the political action committee of the Ill. Civil Justice League…

Also Called for Retrial of Joliet Serial Killer and Rapist

JOLIET, IL — Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride has sided with criminals, and against victims and law enforcement, in 91% of criminal law cases analyzed in a new study released today.

The Criminal Law Edition of The Economic Judicial Report was released by three prominent former Will County law enforcement professionals, who held a press conference at the former site of the Joliet ceramic shop in which serial rapist and murderer Milton Johnson massacred four women in 1983. Justice Kilbride previously called for the retrial of Johnson as part of his view that all 25 Death Row inmates should receive a “blanket” retrial.
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Study: Justice Kilbride Sides With Criminals, Against Victims and Police, 91% of the Time”


This Judge is a Threat to Illinois Jobs Illinois Needs More Jobs — Not a Judge Who is Hostile to Job Creators

Dear fellow Illinois citizens,

We’ve already emailed you about Illinois Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride’s record of being hostile to Illinois law enforcement.

But did you also know that he is a threat to local jobs?

That’s right — Justice Kilbride has consistently voted against Illinois employers.
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This Judge is a Threat to Illinois Jobs Illinois Needs More Jobs — Not a Judge Who is Hostile to Job Creators”


Calif. Teachers Unions Endangering Kid’s Lives

-By Warner Todd Huston

Reason Magazine explores the appalling situation in California where teachers unions were able to strongarm the legislature to deny teacher training for the use of Diastat, an anti-seizure drug meant to keep kids afflicted with epileptic conditions from dying in school.

The drug has been approved by the federal government to be administered by non-medical personnel through the delivery system approved and widely distributed, but teachers unions opposed this safe delivery system and the brief teacher training program. The unions claimed it was because they were trying to make sure that kids were “safe,” but the real reason is that the unions were just trying to increase the number of union member’s jobs in schools. Far from helping save kid’s live, the unions were trying to create jobs for themselves.

You see, the unions feared that if this drug were approved to be administered to afflicted kids by non-medical personnel then schools might fire school nurses. It isn’t about kid’s health. It’s about union jobs.


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Calif. Teachers Unions Endangering Kid’s Lives”


New Chicago Teachers Union Head is Same-Old-Same-Old

-By Warner Todd Huston

New Chicago public teachers union chief Karen Lewis could have come into office as a visionary that would bring some sanity to teachers union bloated demands in this era of the worst economy since the Great Depression. She could have seen the good sense of lowering expectations. She could have taken the stance of refusing to take pay raises for Chicago’s teachers as a motion of good faith in negotiating. Unfortunately, Lewis has proven herself to void of vision and stuck in the 1990s by continuing obscene union demands of constant raises and ever greater perks for union members.

In a day when unions are losing the last shred of good will that they once enjoyed in the public, Karen Lewis stood stiff-necked and refused to compromise with Chicago School head Ron Huberman. Lewis rejected giving up an automatic 4% raise in exchange for preventing layoffs.

She’d rather grab for the cash than save teacher’s jobs.
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New Chicago Teachers Union Head is Same-Old-Same-Old”


Amer. Bar Assoc. Peddling Race Instead of Law With New ‘Hispanic Law’ Study

-By Warner Todd Huston

There are several precepts that American jurisprudence is supposed to be based upon. “Equal under the law,” “justice is blind,” “no man is either above or below the law,” in the U.S. these basic ideas undergird the premise that we are all the same under our American law. But apparently someone forgot to tell the American Bar Association about all these simple, long-time American principles because the ABA is delivering itself a new charge: The search for Hispanic law.

That’s right, folks, the ABA is no longer concerned with “the law.” The ABA is poised to become more concerned with segregating Americans into classes each with their own sort of “law.” According to the ABA, I suppose, we now have your basic “Hispanic law,” and perhaps your “African American law,” with maybe a little “White law” thrown in there, and, who knows, maybe some “gay law,” or heck, why not even some “non-human Americans law”? I mean my dog might want to sue someone, ya know?
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Amer. Bar Assoc. Peddling Race Instead of Law With New ‘Hispanic Law’ Study”


Outrageous Pensions Turning Ill. Teachers into Millionaires

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at Champion News Bill Zettler has been doing a fantastic job of following and chronicling the completely out of control pensions of Illinois public employees and this week he asks why Governor Quinn wants to raise taxes just to make millionaires of retiring teachers.

Zettler found two teachers that will be making in excess of a million dollars in pension payouts.

Check out this obscene total:
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Outrageous Pensions Turning Ill. Teachers into Millionaires”


Kagan Gets the Nod With 5 Republicans Voting Yes

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, was just given the official nod to take her seat on the highest court in the land. Five Republicans voted yes and one Democrat voted no. The vote was 63-37.

The five Republicans that voted yes are as follows: Lindsay Graham (R,SC), Judd Gregg (R, NH), Susan Collins (R, Maine), Richard Lugar (R, IN), and Olympia Snowe (R, Maine).

Kagan’s confirmation is the sixth most contested since WWII. Kagan’s 37 no votes as measured against the following:

Robert Bork (58 nos)
Clement Haynsworth (55 nos)
G. Harrold Carswell (51 nos)
Clarence Thomas (48 nos)
Samuel Alito (42 nos)
Elana Kagan (37 nos)

Of those nominees Bork, Haynsworth and Carswell were rejected while Alito and Thomas were confirmed.

Conservatives have criticized Kagan as one who has a radical, left-wing ideology. The document dump from early June on Kagan’s work in the Clinton administration showed Kagan as an anti-gun advocate, pro-assisted suicide, pro-abortion, for some human cloning experimentation, and very supportive of the whole global warming theology. Conservatives feel she will help push the court in a leftward direction.


Small Businessman Raped By Legal System

A small businessman that owns rental property was sued by a woman claiming “mental distress” because he left on her door notices that informed her of repairs, notices that he was required by law to leave for her knowledge.

This is the sort of abuse of the system that drives up costs for all of us. In Chicago it now costs renters a starting monthly rental fee of $1,000 a month for a small one bedroom apartment (sometimes two depending on what part of town). One thousand a month is absurd and in outlaying areas of the city is the amount you can get for a mortgage!

It is easy to see that constant regulations and the revolving door of the legal system because owners are being sued by every other renter causes rental prices to soar. This is why we need tort reform as this stuff acts as a corruption tax that makes the cost of living higher for all of us.

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Small Businessman Raped By Legal System”


Teachers Unions Spent $100 Per Teacher on Politics

-By Warner Todd Huston

Education Next undertook for the first time an effort to find out how much of their members dues money that teachers unions spent on political action. The results are very interesting. The analysis discovered that, “national teachers unions and their state affiliates spent more than $100 per teacher in five states, with Oregon at the top of the list at $360 per teacher during the 2007-08 election cycle.”

Much of this money was spent to attempt to control the political debate above and beyond mere issues of education. Teachers unions spent millions trying to affect the political debate on taxes, housing, healthcare, gay marriage, congressional redistricting, and a whole raft of issues that as teachers they have precisely nothing to do with.
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Teachers Unions Spent $100 Per Teacher on Politics”


Worst Teachers Rewarded by Unions, New Teachers Abandoned

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week the Chicago Tribune published an editorial detailing the biggest reason why unions as they have operated in the U.S. for decades are an illegitimate venture. The Trib published a plea to new Chicago teachers union chief Karen Lewis not to protect the bad teachers under her charge and to help the younger teachers that haven’t yet proved to be bad for kids by allowing the bad ones to be laid off without complaint.

The Trib’s editorial called the practice of keeping bad teachers “dancing lemons,” revealing the sad practice of shuffling bad teachers around the system instead of firing merely because they may have tenure on the job. While new teachers are automatically laid off due to budget cuts, teachers that have a disciplinary problem or a troubled history are kept because they’ve been on the job longer. This is wrong and reflects badly on the union and teachers alike, not to mention that it leads to a bad education for our kids.
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Worst Teachers Rewarded by Unions, New Teachers Abandoned”


A Review of Film ‘The Lottery’: ‘Heartbreaking,’ How Unions are Destroying Education

-By SkyBluez

(Ed’s note: Sky_Bluez is one of my favorite Twitter pals and she wrote a great review of The Lottery, the film we discussed on Tuesday. It was originally posted on her blog The Song Remains the Same.)

Last night I saw The Lottery a documentary about the problems with traditional public schools in disadvantaged areas. The film follows four families who enter the lottery to get a chance at having their child leave their low performing public schools in Harlem and the Bronx and attend a much better performing charter school. The documentary shines a light on how the local Democrat political establishment and teachers unions throw road blocks at every turn and make it extremely difficult for more of these well performing schools to be available for parents who want them.

The film is very well done. You can’t help but feel invested in these children as Ameenah translates for her deaf mother, or Christian gets frustrated working on his addition with his father, or Greg Jr. Laments not wanting to go to “house #2” to visit his dad in prison. All three of these children are raised by a single parent and face great hardship . Then there is Eric Jr. who has better circumstances. Eric has two involved parents. His father is a Union bus driver and mother is an aspiring teacher. This family is torn because they are union supporters, but still want the best for their children, which is not public school.
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A Review of Film ‘The Lottery’: ‘Heartbreaking,’ How Unions are Destroying Education”