This week's syndicated column
Silver is right in fight for children by Alan Chartock

It has been awfully cold outside. In Albany, the new politics of “more for those who already have” has been even colder than the weather. Do you remember when Rocky was training in the original movie and they had him beating up sides of beef in the freezing meat locker? Well, you had better be sure that is what’s going to happen this year. In this case, it falls to Sheldon Silver, the fiery and effective Assembly Speaker, to fight for what is right. Inevitably, Republican Joe Bruno, the Senate Majority Leader and a very decent human being, will be his silent partner and just as inevitably, Gov. George E. Pataki, confused about where to head next on the political trail, will be the odd man out.
A very decent advocate for fair treatment of all New Yorkers, Silver is once again ready to do battle with the forces of greed and political penury who are egged on by the billionaires who couldn’t spend what they have in a million lifetimes. They are the ones who give the campaign contributions and own at least one tabloid that disparages those who would provide a decent education for every child, health care for all and a warm place for those who are at the mercy of the elements.
Yes, there will always be poverty-crats and people who take advantage of the social net that is there to help the least protected among all of us. These are the ones who give the well-heeled meanies out there the ammunition to hit on all of those people who really do need the help that a fair and just society would give them. A child who is born into poverty has the chance of a cockroach to make it in this world, in contrast to the kid whose parents sent him to private schools with tutors and music lessons at every turn. Even as a child of the middle class, I had those advantages.
Who among us really can’t understand the plight of a child who through no fault of her own, is born to a crack-addicted junkie or someone with no education and no real prospects for a job? Statistically, that child has no hope. She has a much greater prospect of replicating the behavior of that hard-luck parent and she is at far higher risk of ending up in jail than my wonderful children are.
New York has always been a place where people can bring themselves up by their bootstraps. My parents were given a first-rate education. My father, with his high school diploma, could do more math and understood more about contemporary events than many of the young people in graduate school today. Our society gave my parents a chance. My mother, born and raised on Rivington Street, went on to earn a doctorate at Hunter College for the same free tuition I had when I went there years later.
That’s a long way from today, when people like Pataki not only reject the idea of a free tuition for all students but keep coming up with plans to reduce the already meager support we give to our students. How in the world are these kids supposed to make it when they need the money the most?
We are told that America is a moral and religious nation. Well, whose reading of the Bible or the Koran would suggest that the folks on the bottom should not have a decent chance in this life? We all know how people with dark skins are treated in this society. We know that people of color have to work harder to get anywhere. And we know that we will not live forever. When we look back on life, did we help or did we go the selfish way?
As the new Legislative session unfolds and questions of whether to support education and community centers and tuition assistance come up, I would hope that each and every New Yorker will not avoid the plaguing question of how to make things more fair and more equitable for everyone. Life is short. This is the land of plenty, the richest nation in the world. Let us tighten up the system to put a stop to the crooks who stand in the way of our attempts to help those with the greatest need. Let us put those who make a mockery of the word liberal where they belong, in jail or out of politics. Let’s remember who and what we are and what we can be. Keep your eye on Silver, a deeply religious and ethical man, and remember what he is fighting for. Remember the kids.

- posted by Alan @ 2/04/2004 07:10:00 PM