Conservatives have a new public enemy: Al Levie, a Wisconsin teacher the right-wingers at The Gateway Pundit are calling a “hateful leftist” after Levie said last week he couldn’t “in good conscience” accept an award from “1% lackey” Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.
According to Yahoo! News, Levie was given a Martin Luther King Jr. humanitarian award for his work with Voces de la Frontera, an advocacy group for immigrant and low wage worker rights, but refused to accept it due to Ryan’s support for cutting teachers’ collective bargaining rights and other anti-labor, pro-business initiatives the Republican congressman has helped spearhead.
“I can’t in good conscience accept this award, as a humanitarian, Paul Ryan stands for everything I don’t believe in,” he said during the ceremony. Later, Levie expanded on his opposition:
I would not accept the award from Paul Ryan because Paul Ryan is a lackey for the 1 percent. Paul Ryan had no business at a Martin Luther King event, it’s totally hypocritical. On the one hand he votes to slash health care, while on the other hand, King dedicated his life and he died for it, for people to have adequate healthcare, to have adequate jobs.
And Ryan, of course, does not stand for such fair access to basic rights. He stands for exclusionary politics that hurt America’s middle class, bolster business interests and exacerbate inequality. Oh, and he loves fine wine that costs more than most people spend on their monthly food budgets.
That of course matters not to his fans, though, because they would rather smear a hardworking teacher than stand up for the majority of Americans. Good thing we have someone like Al Levie, who vowed last week “to redouble my efforts in the struggle for social and economic justice.”
January 27, 2012 at 2:46 pm, Billy said:
The rightist-versus-leftist tone of this blog is unfortunate, considering you usually choose interesting topics to discuss.
January 28, 2012 at 8:44 pm, TeacherDi said:
This IS relevant and interesting. How about investing in some class and intellect in contributing “meat” to this dialogue: not soundbites from someone else. I applaud the teacher’s integrity and his thoughtful classy way of explaining his position. Shooting off mouths is too easy for most people. *sigh!*
January 27, 2012 at 3:07 pm, Blakendecker said:
You people are deplorable.
January 27, 2012 at 7:30 pm, former teacher said:
Go for him for standing up for what’s right.
January 28, 2012 at 2:13 am, Mike said:
Honestly, Paul Ryan has done nothing in congress except attack education and attack healthcare. That’s the facts and anyone here who would criticize that as “rightist versus leftist” is simply trying to undercut reality. If you were getting an award from a person who did everything in his power to damage your business and damage everything that the award stood for, you’d absolutely be right to hand it back. It’s called morals, and so few people have them these days.
Now if you really wanted to go for rightist versus leftist rhetoric I’d be happy to oblige.
1) Ryan got into his seat in congress on the promise of creating jobs, and he has yet to introduce any economic plan or jobs bill. What’s worse, he does not support any of the policies that the 5 most reputable economic analysis firms believe would create long-term jobs.
2) Ryan has slashed major education programs including before and after school daycare at elementary schools by taking hostage the federal budget, which includes provisions that fund veterans’ health benefits. In both cases we nearly suffered a government shutdown which would have destroyed tens of thousands of jobs.
3) Ryan has supported voter ID legislation that makes it more difficult for students, the poor, the elderly, and minorities to vote… a range of demographics that encompasses nearly half of the voting-age citizens in this country.
January 28, 2012 at 3:34 am, Jo Hargis said:
This is NOTHING about right vs. left. This is about doing the right thing, standing up for everything you’ve just fought for, and having someone who lives their life trying to bring you down try to hypocritically commend you. I don’t blame this guy one bit for refusing the award, and I say huge kudos to him. He did the right thing. I’m quite proud of him.
January 28, 2012 at 6:54 am, Lon said:
Way to go Mr. Al Levie!!
January 28, 2012 at 8:57 am, Blesselman2003 said:
I applaud you Al Levie.
January 28, 2012 at 9:14 am, Marcus Byrne said:
Looked at the comments on the website and they are the typical litany of ignorant dupes. Most of the comments seem to stem around revisionist history, I guess it’s revisionist that Dr. MLK was participating a labor protest when he was assassinated.
January 28, 2012 at 2:45 pm, Jf Frings said:
Any politician who by his actions in government fails to represent the interest of average everyday working people should be removed from office, the sooner the better. The right wing assault on blue collar and other average working class people will have a long lasting cost to the members of the government who are unabashedly aligned with big business. People are waking up to this fact and there will be a clear response to these lackeys for the far right.
January 28, 2012 at 6:40 pm, Lsanders said:
He’s an idiot. If he was my kid’s teacher yesterday, he wouldn’t be come Monday.
January 29, 2012 at 1:01 pm, Isointernationalllc said:
This took incredible courage and I commend the spirit in which he did this
January 29, 2012 at 3:28 pm, OperationOpenUP said:
If he deal here was just about whom he accepted the award from, then couldn’t he have requested another person? Or ws his protest soled because Paul Ryan was invited to such an event and he wouldn’t accept it because the event organizers sought to be inclusionary without bias.
I believe in Mr. Levie’s protest, but I also think that he worked hard and his hard work brought him recognition and, in the end, the protest had nothing to do with-the award. He should have sought to call Paul Ryan out and still been rewarded his honor.
January 29, 2012 at 4:42 pm, Lsanders said:
In my opinion, Mr Levie showed his students how to not cooperate. In spite of political differences, there is a lot more about which all parties agree. Mr Levie chose to make an award in honor of MLK into something all about himself. Not admirable nor demonstrative of an attitude that a lot of us miss. If you call Mr Levie classy, well, that says a lot about you.
January 29, 2012 at 7:26 pm, Wiandy Mitch said:
Ls, he accepted the MLK award. He did NOT accept a secondary award from Ryan. And why should he? Ryan stands against everything he believes in. If you were a conservative, right wing American, would you accept an award from Caesar Chavez? I hope your anger is because of the way the article was written (please look at other sources) and not because Levie stood up for what he believed in.
January 29, 2012 at 7:21 pm, Wiandy Mitch said:
There was a bit of a mistake in the article. Al ACCEPTED the MLK award. What he REFUSED was a second award from Ryan. He also made it clear that he proudly accepted the MLK award, but not the secondary one from “Paul Rand”.
January 29, 2012 at 7:36 pm, Lsanders said:
So because I find the President’s policies counter to what I think is best for our country I should refuse to accept an award from the US because he presents it? Ridiculous! You probably blame the right for the divide in our citizens, right? Lol
January 29, 2012 at 8:44 pm, Terri Echols said:
Hell to the Yeah…and what better way to honor Dr. King?
January 30, 2012 at 12:44 am, Anonymous said:
To
the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world. Find true love？ ——-> sugarcupid.C¤M
May 08, 2012 at 4:01 pm, Teacher Appreciation Week: The GOP should be ashamed of scapegoating teachers | Death and Taxes said:
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