Surviving Ackerman's reign of terror
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Surviving Ackerman's reign of terror
The good news is that Arlene Ackerman can't hurt us anymore -- the disgraced ex-Philly schools chief has literally gone to the desert. The even better news is that Duong Nghe Ly -- a victim of the violence at South Philadelphia High School that festered under the unwatchful eye of Ackerman and the hapless principal she installed there -- is still in Philly, fighting for a better city. He wrote this piece to mark the three-year anniversary of the violence.
Today, I am at the University of Pennsylvania, the first in my family to attend a private institution. Having been here for two years, I have taken a lot of things for granted. I used to go to school every day feeling unsafe and stressed out, wondering when I would be mocked, teased, or beaten up because of who I was. Now, even at 2 a.m., I walk to my dorm feeling perfectly safe, knowing that Penn police are on campus to protect me. It amazes me sometimes to look back and reflect on my newly found privilege.
I have not forgotten that many people I know left South Philadelphia High School — students of all races. I especially feel pain for the students who left because of harassment and bias they had experienced at school. That was something the school should have stopped. Of the six Chinese immigrant students who went to the hospital on Dec. 3, 2009, five dropped out of school.
As I look back on three years, I have learned to be more conscious of my privilege and deliberate in my actions. So I have learned to invest my time and energy on specific issues that I am passionate about. I am pursuing a sociology major and hope to return to my South Philadelphia neighborhood as a community organizer and educator. Most important, I have found a network of like minds from around the country that inspire me. There is still a lot to learn, but I’m developing my own sense of social justice and political consciousness.
I think the sky is the limit for Duong Nghe Ly -- and, as a footnote. his story also reminds us that "community organizer" is a noble calling, despite claims to the contrary.
Hey, did you see the new pics of the bloody "white Hispanic" George Zimmerman, who suffered a beatdown before he shot the self described "No limit Ni**A (don't like using that word) Trayvon Martin? This pics have come to light after seemingly doctored photos of ABC and advanced by many far left media outlets, like this one, that attempted to show that the "white Hispanic, George Zimmerman wasn't beaten and bloody. http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/12/03/zimmermans-attorney-releases-photo/— Phishface- Unlike your parents, Trayvon's parents can be proud of their son. Proud of him for defending himself, and attempting to fight off a stranger who followed him, approached him, possibly assaulted him, then shot him. All for no apparent reason. There would be no bloody pics, no beatdown, if your hero had listened to the police and backed off. Looks like Trayvon beat that creep pretty good, and he deserved it. What a coward, no wonder he is your hero.
— one_eyed_jack - Hey Phish, do you think that ACORN helped Obama to steal the last election?— wokmaster
Arlene Ackerman is still here. She never left. She just manifested herself in other lifeforms. Let's face it folks. The School District, and everything around and near it is corrupt. Ackerman, Knudsen, Ward, Archie, Masch, Mathews, Nixon, All of The rest of the SRC past and present. Gamble....All of them. It's like The Lord of The Rings and instead of rings there is the 2 Billion Dollar budget that sucks in the corrupt. It is rotten thru and thru.— DarnelX
Republicans remain recalcitrant on raising taxes for the those making over a quarter million a year, led by Tea Bagger extraordinaire, Jim Demint.
Face it 'baggers, the writing is on the wall. With the "fiscal cliff" looming, time for you to stock up on 10 years' supply of toilet paper, canned goods, MREs, beef jerky, incandescent light bulbs, fuel oil, guns and ammo, and the rolls of foil you will need to cover your heads as protection from those socialist propaganda rays beamed to earth from that satellite North Korea is about to launch secretly funded by Obama. Then pack up your things and go to your Unibomber shacks in the hills and stay there for 10 years.
That fiscal cliff means that this 6,000 year old world really IS flat as you've been sayin' all this time, and all but the chosen 144,000 are about to fall over the edge come January 1. Then Armageddon will rage, fire and brimstone will rain from the heavens, and that Beast with 7 heads and 10 horns in the White House will reign supreme while puppies and kittens will have sex spawning a plague of flying monkeys raining more destruction upon the earth. It sez so right there in that trippy Book of Revelations in that Bible you like to thump - so it MUST be true.
That many conservatives actually take more than half this rubbish I just wrote as the truth might explain a few things...— wokmaster- ""community organizer" is a noble calling, despite claims to the contrary."...true, but it doesn't train you to be President. Sarah Palin, a community improver rather than a community organizer, had more executive experience than the Empty Suit in 2008. Good job dolts.— 2ndNlong
- Hey, you can always nominate the half-term ex-Governor for prez in 2016. Good luck with that!! — wokmaster
- Funny, I can't think of any profession more suitable than community organizing to prepare for the Presidency.
- It's nice to know the president has actually experienced inner city life, instead of just mocking the people as takers and destroying the communities including the innocent children without a care of the consequences. Problems need solutions, not sticking your head in the sand like a ostrich and hoping the problem goes away.
- Speaking of totalitarians, I wonder if any of the libz here have seen some of the signs in Cairo mocking Obama's support of the - wait for it now - "largely secular" Morsi. "Comedy gold" as they say. /// .....(prolly not - they live their lives safely ensconced in their own little never-criticize-Dear-Leader MSM cuckoon)— teardownthisfishwrap
- Comedy gold is FoxNews once again rallying its couch-bound stormtroopers in the "War on Christmas", as if government being "largely secular" was the last sign of Armageddon.
- Must read about why the "fiscal cliff" isn't as bad as it's being portrayed to be.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-shakely-fiscal-cliff-20121205,0,6067250.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29— wokmaster - So, at worst, we'll all have to eat canned beans for a few fiscal quarters. Nothing like shared sacrifice to bring a nation together.
- No not really. When the Bush tax cuts expire, how can the GOP not agree to a tax cut for 98% of the American people. This is about principle. Get rid of these ridiculous tax cuts. It's not just about the rich paying more - we ALL have to pay more. The idea that we can cut the deficit, without all of us feeling the pinch, is something I would expect to hear from Republicans. It's the same line of thinking that gave us a President and GOP Congress who cut taxes while invading two foreign nations. Pay me now or pay me later. — wokmaster
- Andrew Sullivan
- Blinq
- Blogorrhea
- Blonde Sagacity
- Free Republic
- Instapundit
- James Taranto
- ScrappleFace
- The Corner
- Buzzmachine
- Eat the Press
- Editor and Publisher
- Media (Huffington Post)
- Media Bloodhound
- Mickey Kaus
- Pressthink
- Romenesko
- The Inksniffer
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Above Average Jane
- BlankBaby
- Citizen Mom
- Keystone Blog
- Metroblogging Philadelphia
- Phawker
- Philadelphia - America's Hometown
- Philadelphia Will Do
- Philebrity
- Philly Future
- Phillyblog
- Phillyist
- The Clog
- The Next Mayor
- Welcome to Phillyville
- Young Philly Politics
- Afro-Netizen
- All-Spin Zone
- Atrios
- Bad Attitudes
- Billmon
- Booman Tribune
- CorrenteWire
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- iFlipFlop
- Kiko's House
- MyDD
- Philly (Dragonballyee)
- Rowhouse Logic
- Slacktivist
- Suburban Guerilla
- Tattered Coat
- upyernoz
- AmericaBlog
- Andy Borowitz
- BuzzFlash
- Crooks and Liars
- Cursor
- Daily Kos
- David Sirota
- Drudge Report
- Echidne of the Snakes
- Fire Dog Lake
- Glenn Greenwald
- Hullabaloo
- Jesus' General
- Jon Swift
- Josh Marshall
- Juan Cole
- Kevin Drum
- Mad Kane
- Majikthise
- Matthew Yglesias
- Oliver Willis
- Raw Story
- Swing State Project
- Talk Left
- Taylor Marsh
- TBogg
- The Carpetbagger Report
- Think Progress
- War and Piece
- Wonkette
- A Citizen's Blog
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Beer Leaguer
- Dick Polman
- Phillies Nation
- Philling Station
- Shallow Center
- The 700 Level
- The Good Phight
