August 07, 2015
“Hey, Governor Christie, Punch My Face!”
That’s the title of a teacher’s blog post who volunteered Monday to be the real-life punching bag for Governor Chris Christie. He volunteered for the job in response to Christie's comment earlier this week that teacher’s unions needed a “punch in the face.”
“I would like to step up and offer Christie my face to punch,” said Russ Walsh in a blog post. “I am well qualified for the job. I have been a public school teacher and administrator for 45 years. I have been the president and the chief negotiator of my local teachers union. I have been sharply critical of Christie’s education policies on my blog.
"I deserve that punch in the face," said Walsh, who identified himself online as a Rider University employee who lived in Morrisville, Pennsylvania.
In addition to Christie’s “punch in the face” comment, he said teachers unions were the “single most destructive force in public education.”
This is not Christie’s first time attacking teachers unions - part of his national profile was created during a time early in his governorship when he attacked teachers unions and their pensions. YouTube footage of Christie angrily responding to a teacher at one of his town hall events went viral and has become a part of Christie’s image.
Walsh, however, did more in his post than just offer to be on the receiving end of a Christie swing - he defended the purpose of teacher’s unions and what they have done for those who work in the classroom.
“When teacher unions fight for reasonable pay, they are fighting to attract high-quality candidates to the profession,” Walsh read.
“If Christie wants to punch the teachers unions in the face, he needs to realize that he is punching every teacher in the face. He is punching each and every dedicated teacher who has been working to improve the lives of children for decades before Christie discovered that bashing teachers is a winning campaign strategy,” Walsh said.
You can read the full blog post here.
