Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

Author’s note: This is the long play version of a speech I gave during the May Day Rally in Sioux City, sponsored by the “Siouxland Good Trouble Makers.” It rained during my speech, so I did an abbreviated version. Here is the full text. An estimated 150 people attended this rally.

This crowd gets my blood pumping! On this May Day, let’s remember the International Worker slogan of 1905: “An injury to one is an injury to all.” It was true then. It’s true now. 

If one person is denied due process, equal justice is on life support. When the richest man in the world waves around a chain saw gutting essential programs, run by essential workers, and when a president imposes reckless tariffs, America bleeds. 

Rallies like this one are the tourniquet that stops the bleeding. Today, our collective voices speak truth to power. This isn’t about political red or blue. It’s about right and wrong. 

Millions of federal workers had collective bargaining rights stolen. The thief is President Donald Trump. I know a little about collective bargaining rights being stolen, and so do Iowa public school teachers and support staff. They’re left with a hollow process where management’s first offer can be its final one. “It’s bargaining lite.” It’s not fulfilling, and it sure isn’t satisfying.

Public schools are under attack. Eliminating the U.S. Department of Education will hurt some of the most vulnerable students, and there’s no reason for it except to use schools as a political wedge, and to send the message public education is the enemy. It’s the foundation this country is built on. Under this administration, that foundation is crumbling.

The federal government provides 10 percent to 14 percent of public-school funding. Without those funds, Chapter I programs providing critical assistance in reading and math will die. In Iowa, a meager 2 percent increase to State Supplemental Aid allocated by the Republican legislature, won’t cover the cost.    

Don’t you think there’s a national interest in ensuring schools across the country follow civil rights laws, and there’s at least some consistency in special education services provided? That’s what the Department of Education provides. After all, part of the name of our country is UNITED.

Sure, there’s wasteful government spending. We’ve all heard about $1,000 Pentagon hammers. But gutting whole departments is a political stunt. DOGE should be called DODGE. Elon Musk and his young tech minions dodge both responsibility and transparency. 

They’d rather cut twice without listening once.

While this administration causes chaos, they hurl insults at critics. They call us “woke.” But it’s not the insult they think it is. We’re awake to injustice, and inequity.

Yes, our eyes are open to diversity, equity, and inclusion. It makes us stronger.

My favorite insult is when they call us “snowflakes.” Look around you. There’s no two of us alike, yet we speak with one voice. When snowflakes come together, there’s a storm.

We are that storm!

As Mark Twain supposedly said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”  

Wild tariffs cause wild recession, depression, and world conflict. Let’s listen to the rhyme of history.

What can we do? Voters often have short memories, so keep speaking with one voice. Congress works for us. Remind them in forums, through emails, and phone calls. Vote like your future depends on it. It does.

Abraham Lincoln said, “To sin by silence, when it’s a duty to protest, makes cowards of all men.”

Thanks for being brave enough to speak out, even in the rain.