Be more physically active. Adults

My sainted mother was a public school teacher until she married my father and immediately, as a married woman, was forced by local Massachusetts rules then in force to leave the classroom. (My own grade school teachers included Miss Galvin, Miss Harrington, Miss Donahue, Miss Keohane, Miss Condrick, Miss Loud ... you get the picture.)

One happy adult memory is a lunch with my then-90-year-old mother in the leading Italian restaurant in our hometown of Weymouth, Massachusett s. The world-weary expression on our waitress’s face, herself already a grandmother, brightened immediately when she recognized my mother from more than 60 years earlier: “Miss Fallon,” she announced, “You were the best teacher I ever had. Remember me from the Jefferson School ... Marie?” My mother did in fact remember and later unsenti mentally recalled Marie’s losing encounters with the eights table in multi plicati on.

In additi on to my mother, my only sister was a public school teacher. My only daughter was a teacher. Aft er leaving the Marine Corps, I, too, taught high school history. I agree with former Democrati c Texas Gov. Ann Richards who, before seeking and winning public offi ce, had been a junior high school teacher. She said, “Teaching was the hardest work I had ever done, and it remains the hardest work I’ve done.” Republican presidenti al candidate and former Sen. John McCain echoed the same senti ment when he argued that a good teacher should not be paid less than a bad congressman.

Former White House Chief of Staff and later Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel shrewdly noted, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” meaning, “the opportunity for us to do things you could not before.” The current nati onal and internati onal crisis has closed schools and required parents to share confi ned indoor space with their children for hours and days on end.

All over America, mothers and fathers who had not thought much about it have been forced to confront, understand and appreciate what the American public school teacher does every day of the school year: manage, inspire, organize, discipline, inform and educate not one or two children but 30 children, all day long -- some, sadly, with the attenti on span of a fruit fl y.

While safeguarding people’s health and providing treatment to all affl icted are our overriding prioriti es, it may also be ti me for us Americans, beginning with parents, to recognize just how demanding, diffi cult and indispensable the work of the public school teacher is and that a school teacher deserves to be paid much more than the median salary, which, according to the Bureau of Labor Stati sti cs, is $58,230 for an elementary school teacher in the U.S. Reconti nued on page 6 Not Wasti ng a Serious Crisis Mark Shields

When I think of “essential” workers in America, the smear merchants of the Anti-Defamation League are at the bottom of the barrel. For decades, they’ve demonized conservatives and Christians as agents of “hate” and treated our very existence as incitements to violence. The ADL’s manufactured outrage machine has broadened its target list to anyone remotely critical of Israel for any reason, President Donald Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, “America First” college students, innocuous hand gestures, cartoon frogs and anyone who dares to think or write that “It’s OK to be white.”

Now, in the wake of the “Chinese fl u” pandemic, ADL is lining up with all the other federal bailout vultures clamoring for free money. This week, the group issued a statement calling on Congress to include “relief for chariti es” in any COVID-19 legislati on. “In ti mes of crisis,” ADL self-righteously urged, “nonprofi ts are on the front lines, ready to respond and serve communiti es across the nati on -- but funds are needed to conti nue doing so.” The “relief package” pushed by ADL and several hundred other groups demands $60 billion in “emergency sti mulus funding to support our work... during this ti me of crisis and need.”

What a crock. The primary “front lines” ADL occupies are on the battlefi elds against American sovereignty and free speech. By my count, the open borders zealots of ADL have fi led 17 amicus briefs in our courts supporting obstructi on of Trump’s immigrati on enforcement and nati onal security measures. The group is parti cularly proud of its brief in Trump v. Hawaii, in which it “led a coaliti on of six Jewish organizati ons using our unique moral voice to passionately argue against the so-called Muslim ban, citi ng three historical examples when our nati on later recognized that we were wrong to turn our back, including denying refuge to Jews fl eeing the Nazis.” The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the travel restricti ons and affi rmed the broad plenary powers of the executi ve branch over immigrati on.

On top of the $60 billion ADL wants for itself and its ideological fellow travelers (including tax-funded refugee resett lement contractors Catholic Chariti es, Church World Service and Lutheran Services), the group called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week to include Medicaid coverage and tax rebates for illegal immigrants in her Chinese fl u rescue package. ADL’s full-throated promoti on of America’s demographic transformati on through mass migrati on stands in stark contrast to its unapologeti c defense of Israel’s restricti onist immigrati on policies and conti nued on page 6 Chutzpah: ADL Wants a Federal Bailout Michelle Malkin

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