So, Plan B...

Bob n Bob!

Being a revolutionary at heart (although I was a "pig" during the Vietnam Era...a National Guardsman called out to help quell the riots at SIU in Carbondale following Kent State), "Bob n Bob" have always appealed to me.

Now if you've never heard of the musical group "Bob n Bob"...take heart...there wasn't one.

I'm talkin' Bob Marley... the Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician...member of the Rastafarian Movement. (Sorry, can't resist a coincidence. Yesterday was the 28th anniversary of Bob's death from cancer at age 36. Twenty-eight years ago. YEP...1981!)

One refrain from a Marley song always struck me as the purrfect strike song, but we never got around to using it...

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!

With that tune to get my blood pumping, I then turn to a "domestic terrorist". (I'm sure that's what the Bush administration would have labeled him. Remember, it was the Bush administration that refused to let musician Cat Stevens into the country because of his dangerous views...like riding the "Peace Train"!)

My other Bob...

Robert Allen Zimmerman...aka Bob Dylan.

Well, I've gotta tell ya...when I listen to Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, I gotta believe that Bob Dylan worked in Cairo School District Number One in a former life (or future life.) I mean...he feels our pain...he has walked in our shoes!

Discounting such obvious protest songs that could have been inspired by oppression anywhere - e.g. "Blowin' in The Wind" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" - there are songs that seem just too tailor-made for CSD #1 to have been inspired anywhere but here.

Don't believe it...

How about this verse from "All Along the Watchtower":

There must be some way out of here,
Said the joker to the thief,
There's too much confusion,
I can't get no relief.

Before you object, look at what was prophesied in the same song:

Outside in the distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching,
The wind began to howl.

Bob Dylan foretold the rise of CAT...as a response to past superintendents that rode into Cairo determined to lay waste to a once proud school district!

Or, maybe the duality is a more specific reference...to Gary Whitledge and Tony Maltbia...the tandem that got us into our current federal lawsuit!)

WOW!

But, it gets better...

Dylan's inspiration for maybe his best known song - "Like a Rolling Stone" - is obviously based upon his bearing witness to former Cairo BOE members and superintendents:

Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but know you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

I mean...nobody would ever buy a song about a rogue school board in Southern Illinois or their hired gunslingers. So, a revolutionary but commercial Dylan was wise enough to disguise the culprits...make it appear that the villain was a former lover.

But, to an "insider", it's obvious...

• "You threw the bums a dime in your prime..." - One of the former negotiators for the Cairo BOE actually gave CAT a proposal with the acronym "B.U.M.S." written at the top...indicating "Bargaining Unit Members"!

• Same line...the "dime" - Reminiscent of the $85 the current BOE wants to "buy you" with.

• "About having to be scrounging for your next meal" - The "free meals" at the school board meetings. Once the BOE members and superintendents fall, the scrounging begins!

• "You've gone to the finest school..." - See, Dylan even comes right out and says it..."school"!

• "But you know you only used to get juiced in it" - Well, if rumors are right, we've had some of that too!

• "You said you'd never compromise..." - If you had any doubts, a direct reference to the BOE's perennial position during negotiations should seal the deal!

• "As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes and say do you want to make a deal?" - Ask any member of the CAT bargaining team about the BOE's reaction to our offers...the proverbial deer in the headlight!

• But, Dylan ain't done yet - "Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat". How many times does Bob have to mention "CAT" in his songs before you receive his subliminal message!

• "Ain't it hard when you discover that he really wasn't where it's at after he took from you everything he could steal." - I think Bob was maybe too generous here...giving the BOE members credit for actually realizing that they had been ripped off by their former superintendents. Is that maybe an example of what they call "poetic license"?

I rest my case...

Some of you have commented to me, knowing my many, many years of "sucking it up" and submitting myself to yet another round of abuse..."How do you do it?"

POSTSCRIPT: Ya know...after I had already "published" this edition on the Home Page, it occurred to me that there might be yet another bit of prophecy in "Like a Rolling Stone"...

The (opening) refrain...

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Reminded me of a contract...

Can't be the teachers, teacher assistants, ESPs, or custodians...none of us have one.

No...the contract between the Cairo Board of Education and its Superintendent.

According to THAT contract, the Superintendent's free house and utilities provision is supposed to expire. The Superintendent is supposed to move to Cairo beginning with the 2009-2010 School Year.

Wonder if they will stick to it???