Dear Newt Gingrich, for one summer I actually WAS a school janitor.

[FarLeftFist]

Yes Newt, for one summer about 3 years ago I worked in a NYC public school as one of the many hard-working school janitors in that school. Although I am in the Bricklayers/Masons Union here in NYC (Local 1), I was in between jobs waiting for my next assignment. I was fortunate enough to know someone who was a Dept. of Ed. UNION Janitor and guided me through the steps to receiving my NYC Dept. of Education Janitor ID card and offered me the summer help.

This was in summer of 2008 just as your republican cronies finally hammered the last nail into the coffin of our economic system, there wasn't much work to be done on the Union Labor front here in NYC at that point due to either investors hoarding cash and not investing (i.e. No hotels, attractions, etc) or city budgets feeling the stress of tightening budgets (i.e. No new city housing, departments, facilities, hospitals, schools, etc). I qualified for unemployment from the UNION Company I previously worked for but unquestionably opted to take up this offer and learn a new trade/skill instead, even if it was temporary until my union gave me my next assignment in the field. (Of course this narrative goes against everything you republiCon f**ks believe i.e. People are lazy, people don't want to work, people would rather just do nothing and get paid, etc etc) Nope, like millions of other unemployed Americans, if they CAN work and have the chance TO work they will jump on it immediately.

Now let me explain to you, in lieu of your recent comments about your position on NO child labor laws and children working as janitors instead of union members, why you, in fact, are completely f**king nuts, bat-shit insane, and out of your goddamned mind...

First, when you say NO child labor laws you are already contradicting yourself and showing your true stupidity. NO child labor laws? NONE?! So you would be willing to let your 5 yr old daughter work 40 hr weeks?! If you said NO then obviously you are FOR some sort of law, at least a minimum, huh? Anyway, thats the LEAST of sheer stupidity you've unleashed on this subject. Lets continue...

As a NYC Janitor I was exposed to HUGE amounts of toxic chemicals, from graffiti removal spray, to wax floor stripper, to industrial chemical solvents that could melt your face off if not used properly. Then there's the back-breaking work. Lots of it. From massive garbage disposal...3-4x a day pushing, loading, and unloading HUGE over-filled containers on wheels to multiple locations, to constant HEAVY lifting, to the often humbling bathroom cleanups and sanitization, I was lucky, this school only had 6 bathrooms, well not including all the office bathrooms for the administration as well. Have you ever cleaned a public bathroom for kids grade K-5, Newt? Yeah, scary stuff.

Then there's the outside clean-up, as in on and around school property. Would you want your 9 yr old alone on a public street, sweeping, possibly abducted? C'mon Newt, some of this must be making sense by now. There's leaf-blowing, operating a John Deere, landscaping. Some other duties include assisting in working on complex boiler systems in the basement, knowledge of the entire buildings fire exits, CPR, fire sprinkler systems, evacuation routes, random things the teachers may ask of you such as moving desks and chairs from one floor to another, if the alarm is tripped in the middle of the night they drive to the school to let the police in with their keys, etc etc etc. The list never ends.

Look Newt, I could keep going on the vigorous duties of just some aspects of what a janitors job entails but I imagine it must be making you feel like a very miniscule man right now because you probably never lifted a finger in your pathetic little life except to point it at those hard-working people you choose to view as the 'bottom-of-the-totem-pole' folks who's paychecks you would outsource to children because you continue on your quest to be the most evil, douchiest, half-assed attempt of man who has ever walked the Earth. Equating THAT work to somehow thinking it can be replaced by child labor marks you down in history as the single most pathetic and stupidest thing not just any presidential candidate has said in the history of the United States, but quite possible the dumbest thing anyone has ever said in the history of the United States. Congratulations.

Oh btw Newt, I've been back at my Union job for over 2 years now but I'll never forget one of my first assignments as a young Union Bricklayer, rebuilding WTC 7. What have you done for you country lately?

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow DU'ers, and remember to be thankful even for the smallest things in life. It's all the small things that make life worth living. Be thankful for everyday you continue to breathe and exist and contribute to the greater good of humanity.

[wtmusic]

1. I can't believe this punching bag has successfully re-entered the race.

There is no substitute for brazen arrogance. None.

[rhett o rick]

15. Those "racing" for the republicon candidacy are an embarrassment to America

Dont you feel like we are being manipulated?

[pnwmom]

2. Wow. That was terrific! Thanks for the enlightening post.

I knew janitors did a lot more than he was giving them credit for, but your post really lays it out.

[irisblue]

4. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

what she said. thanks

[summerintx]

42. Must have been at a secondary school

If FarLeftFist had been a janitor at an elementary school, he might have also had frequent "opportunities" to clean up vomit, blood, urine, and even feces, especially in the classrooms of the younger students who are likely to be having "accidents" (especially if they are too shy to ask the teacher to go to the bathroom or just too involved in playing).

All could be a source of spreading disease. At the school I taught at our janitors had special training and used procedures learned to prevent spreading germs on their cleaning tools. Not a job one would dream of giving children if one wants to minimize outbreaks of disease.

During the swine flu outbreak, at least at my school in Central Texas, most of the janitorial staff worked 8 hour shifts at my school cleaning from 4 p.m. to midnight emptying trash, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, and also had to wipe down walls, desks, door knobs, etc. with disinfectants. Imagine the students learning during the school day then going to work after school and working until midnight, then starting all over the next day.

Gingrich is dangerously clueless.

[Demoiselle]

3. An excellent post, FarLeftFist. Thank you!

[Odin2005]

5. When I was 15 I worked helping the school janitors do summer cleaning.

Nasty work.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. First there was bullshit. Then came batshit. Now there's Newtshit.

No one does crazy like the Newt.

[Warpy]

7. Thank you. I've already pointed out there would be few cash savings

in expecting a nine year old to nurse along a balky boiler system that should have been replaced 20 years ago or a five year old trying to unstop toilets that have been plugged up by the rich kids just for fun.

Stupid, elitist fucks like Newt think janitors only empty a few wastebaskets and sweep the floors. Stupid, elitist fucks like Newt should never be allowed anywhere near the halls of government.

Oh, and never mind the dubious wisdom of expanding the labor pool to include children when the U-6 unemployment is already flirting with 20%.

May his next ten incarnations be as a child laborer in one of Pat Robertson's blood diamond mines.

[area51]

19. +1 n/t

[CrispyQ]

23. I'm ready for a new reality show where asshole politicians who make ignorant comments like Newt's

have to live the reality to learn the stupidity of their comments. We'll call it "Living Like the 99%" & a segment of the show will include harsh call-outs to the ignoramus jerks that would vote for this heartless fuck.

[annabanana]

8. It was clear that the "wise" man was speaking from PROFOUND

ignorance on the subject.

[Taverner]

9. Add to this that if the students do the janitorial work, they will not have time for studies...

[applegrove]

10. So well said.

[JDPriestly]

11. Thanks.

[RainDog]

12. great post.

and happy thanksgiving to you.

[Demonaut]

13. well written, they never think things through

[The Genealogist]

14. Thank you!

Newt would see this as the scribblings of a peon who is not rich enough to matter. But I think that what you said is wonderful!

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. K&R

[XemaSab]

17. Smackdown!

:D

[Brigid]

18. I love it when . . .

somebody starts spouting off about something they know nothing about the way Gingrich did on this, and somebody who actually knows what he's talking about, namely you, smacks the crap out of them. You should definitely find a way to send this to him.

[eilen]

20. Newt strikes me as the kind of guy that hires someone

to put his grill together in the summer time. I highly doubt he knows anything about what a janitor's (or in our lexicon-- environmental worker) sphere of duties may include. That and he's a prick.

[B Calm]

21. I'll never forget that HYPROTICAL SOB waddling his fat ass over to the

senate after the house voted to impeach Pres Clinton.

[My Good Babushka]

22. It's a wonderful post

except don't say "in lieu of" because that means "instead of". You mean "in view of" or "in response to".

[CrispyQ]

24. Excellent commentary.

k&r

[1776Forever]

25. Newt is still in the one room schoolhouse era it seems! He is scum - plan and simple! n/t

[Enthusiast]

26. K&R.........nt

[stevedeshazer]

27. Great post. Thanks!

[pasto76]

28. this union ironworker has been working Stimulus and/or military jobs for over a year

work is stop and go. 3 months here, a month or so off, another month on - due to the same reasons the OP listed: the corporate banks hoarding cash.

All I want to do these days is work and pay my bills. Oh, and transform my yard into a giant garden and raise tilapia. Anything I can do these days to lower my food bills.

[mzteris]

29. this letter needs to go viral.

Are you on FB?

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. kick

[liberal N proud]

31. kick, kick, kick

[matt819]

32. This belongs on the op-ed page in the NYT

and every other paper in the country.

Well said.

Happy thanksgiving.

[Richardo]

34. I agree

:thumbsup: :patriot:

[alp227]

33. and another thing, won't allowing child cheap labor lay off many ADULTS?

wonder how dumb many people are not to realize this. thanks for posting!

[lunatica]

35. The janitor we had in the department I worked in years ago also raised the

flag at the entrance of UC Berkeley every morning before work. I always assumed it was another janitor who lowered it in the evening.

The groundskeepers are also an invisible crew there. You don't see them working much but the grounds are absolutely beautiful all year around.

[TBF]

36. It won't be Newt's 5-yr old working 12 hr days, it will be ours.K&R nt

[truedelphi]

37. Thank you for both the OP and your work as a janitor.

The decade I spent working against pesticides showed that schools where janitors had full time jobs had much healthier kids attending those schools.

Without enough janitors around a school yard to see to it that insects and other vermin are properly dealt with, and to keep the trash taken away, teachers and teaching assistants resort to spraying their rooms with massive amounts of bug spray. Rats an dmice flourish. And on and on.

Having conscientious janitors working keeps kids healthy. It's that simple.

[Paka]

38. Thank you for that post! n/t

[blockhead]

39. Good post my fellow union brother!

[treestar]

40. These assholes really would welcome a return to the Gilded Age

Those laws were passed because it was horrible that children were working. And they can work now, the laws are just to keep it reasonable. No more 9 year olds working 12 hour days in factories is generally considered progress - except to these horrific morons.

[Kennah]

41. Frankly, I'm a lobbyist for Freddie and Fanny

Can I be frank, even though my name's Newt, frankly.

[calimary]

43. Something that's demonstrably stupid about our friend newty - if he's such a renowned historian

then how on earth could he advocate doing away with child labor laws?

Does he not know the history behind those? Does he not know, looking back through the decades, WHAT HAPPENED years ago that forced the enactment of child labor laws? If he doesn't know and fully understand what happened in America's past, he's NO historian. He's about as much of a credible historian as our goldfish is.

[Mimosa]

44. Great OP! N/T

[Tsiyu]

45. My father, who spent time in orphanages

might disagree with you. He believes the worst thing Newtie ever said was when he suggested that single mothers' children should be taken away and raised in orphanages. I guess Newtie figured that such a move would punish the single mothers for having ever had sex AND save the feds money by warehousing the spawn of the poor.

But the Child Labor comments do speak volumes. My dad started to bring it up at Thanksgiving, but ended up just shaking his head and I nodded mine and said, "I know."

Great Post, FarLeftFist. Wish I could rec this a million times.

[tallahasseedem]

46. Kicked...

because I got in too late to recommend. Great post and thank you!