"School Reform" mayor Bloomberg opens " Respect for All Week" with a flourish

[Smarmie Doofus]

More school "reform follies" from the town that started it all.

The most salient excerpts:


>>The mayor, who lives in the neighborhood, said that when he walked by the stone-and-brick building on St. Patrick’s Day, “there are a bunch of people that are totally inebriated hanging out the window, waving.”

“I know that’s a stereotype of the Irish,” he added to a smattering of groans and laughs, “but nevertheless we Jews from around the corner think it.”>>>


>>>The association, which includes prominent doctors, writers, lawyers and even some boldface names like Liam Neeson, was founded 114 years ago, in large part to combat demeaning stereotypes of the city’s Irish immigrants. >>>>


And for those who can't get enough tragic irony, there's more. Monday is the first day of Respect for All Week in NYC schools:

>>>Respect For All (RFA) Week

NYC Department of Education has designated February 14-18 as RFA Week in all NYC public schools. During this week, schools will have opportunities to highlight and build upon ongoing diversity programs and curriculum-based instruction. Schools will also have opportunities to embark upon new initiatives that promote respect for diversity and engage students in meaningful lessons and/or other activities that focus on preventing bias-based harassment, intimidation and/or bullying. >>>> http://schools.nyc.gov/RulesPolicies/RespectforAll/default.htm






Here's the article in full:

Mayor Aimed Drunken Irish Joke at an Unusually Sober Place

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/nyregion/12irish.html?_r=1

Michael Falco for The New York Times
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg apologized for saying that drunk people hang from the balcony at the American Irish Historical Society.
By SAM DOLNICK

The stately town house’s wrought iron doors open onto a hushed foyer. Marble busts eye guests climbing the staircase, which leads to a grand room lined with formal oil portraits. French windows offer views of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and fur-coated women slipping into idling town cars.
Related

City Room: After a Quip By Bloomberg, Irish Jaws Are Dropping (February 10, 2011)



Michael Falco for The New York Times

“One would be far more likely to have a cup of tea than a glass of Guinness at the place,” said one Irishman of the society.
Keg-party central, this is not.

When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg described the American Irish Historical Society on Wednesday as a place where “a bunch of people that are totally inebriated” hang from the balcony, he could hardly have picked a more unlikely target.

The association, which includes prominent doctors, writers, lawyers and even some boldface names like Liam Neeson, was founded 114 years ago, in large part to combat demeaning stereotypes of the city’s Irish immigrants. Today, it holds a vast collection of rare books, and hosts refined — some might say stuffy — poetry readings and concerts for “the intelligentsia of Irish America,” as an admirer put it.

“One would be far more likely to have a cup of tea than a glass of Guinness at the place,” said Brian O’Dwyer, an advocate for Irish immigrants who frequently attends the organization’s events.

Mr. Bloomberg spoke off the cuff, in an attempt to be humorous, during an event Wednesday evening at the Fifth Avenue town house honoring the author Mary Higgins Clark, grand marshal of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and featuring Noel Kilkenny, the Irish consul general to New York. The mayor, who lives in the neighborhood, said that when he walked by the stone-and-brick building on St. Patrick’s Day, “there are a bunch of people that are totally inebriated hanging out the window, waving.”

“I know that’s a stereotype of the Irish,” he added to a smattering of groans and laughs, “but nevertheless we Jews from around the corner think it.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s comments prompted criticism from Irish-American leaders, touching off a round of angry statements, clarifications and apologies. But from the neighbors of the sleepy town house and its frequent denizens, his words elicited a different reaction: surprise and puzzlement that the carefully preserved building and its staid crowd had been singled out as an emblem for, of all things, rowdiness.

“We heard the venue and it was like, ‘Huh?’ ” said Thomas M. O’Brien, president of the local chapter of the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, another Irish-American organization. “It’s certainly more of a library than a saloon.”

Jenna A. Herche, who works the front desk at a plastic surgeon’s office next door, thought even that description was generous. “There’s nothing there,” she said. “There’s no keg party going on once a week. I wouldn’t even know they were there.”

The city’s 311 line has not received a single noise complaint about the building since 2005. Jackie Ludorf, chairwoman of the local community board, said the group had such a low profile that “I never heard of it before the mayor said what he said.”

To be sure, the society does hold an exclusive St. Patrick’s Day party every year for the group’s inner circle. Alcohol is served. And people have been known to watch the parade from the building’s small balconies overlooking Fifth Avenue.

“If you see someone you know, you cheer them and shout a greeting, but I would not say it’s a rowdy event,” said Christopher Cahill, the executive director of the society. Moments later, he cinched his camel-hair overcoat tight. “That would not be the nature of any of the events here.”

Ms. Herche said she had worked next door during three parades, and while she had seen maybe six or seven people on the balconies at once, she had never witnessed a scene that would justify the mayor’s remarks.

“They’re older people,” she said. “This is not a bunch of kids.”

A walk through the building supports that impression. A chandelier hangs above a grand piano on the second floor, where the mayor spoke. Signs on delicate furniture request, “Please refrain from placing items on this table.” On Friday, two vases of wilted tulips lent the silent parlor the air of a mausoleum.

Mr. Cahill said that he accepted the mayor’s apology, and that he and Mr. Bloomberg were moving forward. On Saturday, the society will host a high school oratory contest. On Thursday, an American-Irish trio will play Brahms, Liszt and Weber. “This has been a repository for a sense of class of the community,” Mr. O’Dwyer said. “It is a symbol that we have made it in New Yor

[Starry Messenger]

1. I guess we should be grateful he didn't throw in "mackeral snappers" for good measure.

I thought anti-Irish remarks went out with the Gilded Age.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. 19th Century Schools Went Out with the Gilded Age too.

But they keep coming back. Along with income inequality, right to work laws,sweatshops and foreign wars of conquest.

Perhaps there is a connection between these developments and the folks thinking the thoughts Bloomberg, et al are thinking.