Rahmbo says children of non-elites have "empty eyes"

[Hannah Bell]

In a session with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board, multi-millionaire mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel offered an amazing observation about Chicago children that he blamed on Chicago's schools.
According to Rahm, while he was shaking hands at "L" stops, he noticed what he called an "emptiness" in the eyes of children.

"Shaking hands at “L” stops around the city, Emanuel said he has seen “an emptiness in kid’s eyes that I would never accept in my own children” — a dynamic he wants to fight..." the Sun-Times reported in a January 10 story.

Somehow, that children's emptiness — which doesn't show in his own kids — is, like everything else that besets Chicago's global ruling class, the fault of the public schools and public school teachers.

Naturally, the Sun-Times didn't ask Rahm how he knew the reason for the "emptiness" — just as the Sun-Times never asks for any actual specifics when a guy like Rahm (or his buddy Ron Huberman, also a product of Chicago's City Hall) spouts crazy claims like Chicago kids get four years' less school in 12 years than kids in Houston, or that the Chicago Teachers Union "turned down" more than $300 million for a "longer school day" of, Rahm seems to be saying "five minutes"!

We have a more down-to-earth suggestion about why children meeting Rahm Emanuel, his half dozen handlers, and that ubiquitous video crew that is carefully cutting up his video footage into the smarmy messaging he's trying to substitute for reality: Rahm's a scary guy, and the kids who don't run away from him like a Halloween Ghoul or Zombie are showing fear — not emptiness.

With each passing day, the nice thing about the Emanuel campaign is that it shows just how far from reality Chicago's corporate ruling class has become.

Another nice thing: They'll pour hundreds of millions of dollars into electing this guy, when every child in town (probably including Rahm's own) can tell by looking in the guy's eyes that he's really messed up — or worse...

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1906§ion=Article

[gateley]

1. I know what he means, though. Instead of that spark and the look that they're

hungry to learn, their eyes have that vacant look. No hope. Little happiness. Tough life for one so young.

I give Rahm props for even noticing and commenting.

A friend of mine who worked at a restaurant where one person after another went into drug/alcohol treatment said that when they returned, the life had returned to their eyes. They're eager to live again. I think it may be similar with those kids. :(

[Hannah Bell]

13. oh, puke. he's not talking about drug addicts, he's talking about kids at a meet & greet & he's

full of shit.

[gateley]

21. I didn't say he was talking about drug addicts, but the dead eyes is the same --

Haven't you ever seen any kids like that? The difference between them and those who are raised in a supportive, loving environment are striking. Kids shouldn't have the worries that many of them do, it makes them old, it kills the joy.

So I stand by what I say, puke away.

[Hannah Bell]

24. bullshit. he's not talking about kids raised in something other than a "supportive, loving"

environment, he's talking about random kids he saw outside transit stations, whom he knows zip about and is making massive bullshit generalizations about. In order to promote his bullshit agenda.

he's full of crap.

[gateley]

28. Well, you won't change my mind and I won't change yours, so we might as

well move on.

[Hannah Bell]

29. i suspect rahm wouldn't much like it if we posted pictures of his kids & made similar judgements

on about the same amount of evidence.

he's a prick. a soulless prick.

[EFerrari]

22. I can't imagine being a poor kid and reading or having someone tell me

that my next mayor said something like that.

Does he think those kids are deaf and dumb, too?

What a horrible thing to put out in the press.

[handmade34]

the aside

is that today's children do have an emptiness in their eyes; I have seen it much too often... it does take a village and we are failing miserably... Rahm Emanuel and many others

[Fumesucker]

2. It's just a reflection of the future they see for themselves, Rahmbo..

Do your kids see such a bleak personal future?

No?

Well, perhaps that's why you don't see that emptiness in their eyes.

[Hannah Bell]

14. or maybe he's projecting his own feelings about low-income or minority people.

i seriously doubt that the children of people who took the trouble to come to a meet & greet = soulless zombies.

& if he's just trying to shake hands with random kids outside a transit station maybe they don't want to shake his bullshitting hand.

[Fumesucker]

16. Or then maybe he's seeing his own reflection in their eyes?

Perhaps not though, vampires don't reflect do they?

I'm not really sure why Rahmbo pings my creepdar so hard but ping it he does.

[Hannah Bell]

18. mine too. "creepdar" is the word.

[Gravel Democrat]

26. This little girl seems quite impressed with Rahmbo

And it's certainly easy to see why...

[Hannah Bell]

27. oooh, she has soulless eyes. she didn't get down & kiss rahmbo's feet with a big shit-eating grin

& thank him for saving her from her soulless existence in a public school.

[Prometheus Bound]

3. I don't know what it is when I look into his eyes, but it ain't pretty.

And his words and actions confirm that impression.

[DCKit]

4. Does he never look in the mirror? nt

[immoderate]

5. Is it a done deal with him? Can he lose?

I don't like him and I can't see how he could be good for the people of Chicago. Correct me if I'm wrong. :shrug:

--imm

[reformist2]

6. That's not emptiness - the kids obviously don't like him!

Kids have good instincts like that.

[stray cat]

7. Violence and hopelessness permeate many inner city and other schools and neighborhoods

He is one of few who even notices or wants to do anything about it. How often do you see a post on DU that gives a damn about the kids?

[Missy Vixen]

17. What exactly does he "want to do about it",

besides install himself as Lord and Mayor of Chicago, and additionally consolidate his power base for his OWN White House run? Anyone who thinks he's not thinking about it needs to get their head examined. If he's aligned with those who are currently laying America's public school system to waste as well, he has no intention of improvement.

I see NOTHING good in Rahm Emanuel. I'm embarrassed he belongs to the Democratic Party I have been an enthusiastic member of since I was 18. His comments do nothing but show him to be the elitist he is.

[Hannah Bell]

19. bullshit.

[Liquorice]

25. I agree. nt

[datasuspect]

8. union busting, privatization, and carpet bagging will cure their emptiness

i'm surprised rahm could even find the L.

[monmouth]

9. Hunger has an effect also....n/t

[knitter4democracy]

10. That emptiness doesn't stay there long when you start talking with them.

I've worked with kids in the inner city, and I teach in an alternative high school. I know what he's talking about, but what I've noticed is that it seems to be a safety/coping mechanism. Get them talking about something they love, and they light right up.

[JVS]

11. Maybe he's mistaking a sense of entitlement for fullness.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[datasuspect]

20. the view is a little different outside a chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle

[WinkyDink]

15. Who knows what he really saw? It's clear Rahm is just saying what he wants to.

[Brickbat]

23. WTF is this shit? This is just disgusting. Rahm's comments, I mean.

[MattBaggins]

30. Is there any chance whatsoever of him losing?

That would just be cosmic karmic justice.

[UTUSN]

31. & a Dem is being attacked HERE is WHY?!1 n/t

[Hannah Bell]

32. because he's a soulless prick who's slamming working-class children to promote a ruling-class

agenda, is that good enough for you?

if i'd said, "rahm's children have empty eyes" i'd be accused of attacking *his* kids, & rightly so. but he gets a pass for making that kind of mean-spirited generalization about *other* people's children?

& in the context of pushing the destruction of public schools?

fuck him.

he's no democrat, he's a corporatist.