that what the Newtown teachers did, while beyond heroic, was in no way an anomaly or unusual for teachers; the vast majority of all teachers I've ever known would not hesitate to do this, including my own parents and their colleagues. My mother taught at a juvenile reformatory for boys and had some hairy incidents and close calls, where protecting the kids was her first priority. This is par for the course for teachers, which is just one reason among many why it's been so painful these past several years to hear the continuous, vicious, ignorant, mean-spirited attacks on them, the profession, their competence, to watch politicians who have no clue whatsoever what the profession is like or on anything educational at all for that matter, gleefully strip away, or continuously attempt to strip away, their basic rights and benefits and worsen their working conditions, etc. You won't see an investment banker or Wall Street goon or CEO think first of others, and protect others, before their own safety, ever. Yet THEY are the ones glorified and no one minds their ginormous salaries and perks at the expense of their workers and society.

Nicholas Kristof wrote a wonderful column this weekend about gun regulation and our insane culture of gun worship, and he made a poignant point that teachers stood right up to actual gunmen, some even losing their lives in the process, while "feckless, cowardly politicians cower before the likes of the NRA." Damn straight. And damn disgusting and infuriating.