Given the weather forecast it's clear that God, Jehovah, Pluvius Maximus or the deity of choice is sending a message about the effectiveness of this vigil.
What troubles me is the expectations of success on the part of many of my younger colleagues who are going and expect to be heard by Kleinberg.
I hope I'm just a cynic, and they're on target, but when Custer went down the valley of the Little Big Horn, saw all those Sioux and Cheyenne and said "This don't look good!!" was he being cynical?
This vigil is a joke....was any notification sent out to the members? Did anybody receive any phone calls? My overcrowded high school's chapter leader knows nothing about this and she is certainly not recruiting anybody to go.
This rally, if it takes place at all, will be a big flop.
Perhaps Ms. Weingarten owns stock in a candle company?
I think we all know what this is about--nothing more than playing the game. Ms. Weingarten can tell the members, 'I *did* to do something! Now, sign here, and here, and don't forget the salary reduction form for your dues. Next!'
Unions, like political parties and charities, exist beyond the local level for one reason only: to collect money. They do this by first creating fear then exploiting that fear to reach into your pocket. This 'rally' is a great event for Ms. Weingarten--if you go, you show your support for *her*, if you don't then she can say 'Clearly this isn't important to the membership. *I* did all *I* could.' Heads she wins, tails you lose. Damn, I wish I was that smart.
It's sad that the UFT's years of knuckling under have left us all so cynical. Here's hoping we're wrong and that Weingarten becomes concerned with fighting the power, rather than collaborating to the detriment of working teachers.
Still, I'm going to sit while I wait.
Nothing like a candlelight vigil in the rain to be REALLY effective. I'm sure Madame Randi is not upset. Also, why hold this vigil at the UFT headquarters, located in an area of Manhattan totally inaccessible to many locations in the outer boroughs? The DOE and the UFT headquarters might as well be in Buffalo, it takes so long to get there from locations in the outer boroughs. She thinks this will placate "the staff". She's a collaborationist, alright.
Its a first good step. However, after Randi's retreat from confronting Kleinberg in 2005 and the results that followed. Let's see if she is really drawing a real line in the sand.
Why do I think that somehow, somewhere, Bloomklein were doing a rain dance?
It's a shame Randi makes these comments after the fact, by that I mean contract.
She writes about qualities that make good schools work, yet our contract never addresses those qualities even though many of us here and have.
She can say all she wants, but with her future goals more on her mind, she is nothing but a lame duck union president who doesn't have to deliver.
The rally was filled with the usual suspects - Unity Caucus/union employees, members of the opposition and some rank and file teachers who came out. Plus some rubber room people. Very similar to the John Stoesel idiotic protest a few years ago.
The idea of holding an event at Tweed on this particular day (which has been a consistent theme of some of us over the years) was the PEP meeting at 6pm where BloomKlein's rubber stamps endorse anything they do, Other than Man boro rep Patrick Sullivan.
Thus, some of us were more interested in that event where the public gets 2 minutes to comment. Some people are coordinating their comments into blocks of time. I have been videotaping these and putting short cuts up on you tube. (Check my blog for links.)
Why bother? Because the BloomKlein machine has made it look like they are doing wonderful things and the national press have jumped on the bandwagon. When parents and teachers get up publicly to expose the sham it is one way to fight back. Certainly with the UFT not fighting back there is a need to make a stand.
Speaking of which, there is no line in the sand by the UFT and Weingarten. They totally ignored the fact that there was a meeting taking place -- no presence at all. If Weingarten was so upset at the witch hunt for teachers, why not inundate the meeting with people speaking against it publicly? It was up to people in TAG and others to do that for them.
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