Lessons to be Learned Part 2: Be Careful Who You Trust

 

     This morning I was watching Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick from Texas saying that seniors, like him, would risk getting infected to save the economy. My coffee cup nearly fell out of my hand. After my initial shock, I started questioning why this ‘person’ was being given a national platform and why his statement was being given any credence. This  Lieutenant governor is basically saying money is more important than lives. Maybe others’ lives are less important than money, but you can bet your bottom dollar that his is worth more than all the money ever printed - past, present and future - especially, if he says otherwise. Trump and his toadies on Fox News believe similarity, which is why this toady fromTexas suddenly became big news with his grand plan. I pictured Trump doing a jig in his boxers watching it. His businesses are bleeding money and if he can flip the switch, we’ll all be bleeding and his businesses will be pumping dollars. I thought to myself, watching this pathetic LG, that there must be a whole lot Texans kicking themselves over this guy, who is putting everyone’s life up for a game of spin the Corona bottle. This is a potential nightmare scenario for us as a nation - one that became a reality for NYC teachers last week.
 

    Last week, we had our own version of Dan Patrick, knowingly send people out to get sick and/or die. Not to ensure a stable economy, but to make sure automatic dues keep rolling in. You see, if  Michael Mulgrew had told his constituents, NYC Public School teachers, that all the schools were potentially unsafe, because of the virus; and/or that traveling into any school was potentially unsafe because of the virus; and/or that once surrounded by other teachers and administrators that the virus could be contracted from others; and/or that if the virus was contracted, it could infect others, including family members, then those statements could be seen unfavorably under the Taylor Law and the automatic dues checkoff stopped. That would mean teachers would have to consciously decide and make the effort to ensure the UFT got their dues. So instead of warning or stopping or advising teachers not to go in for a distant learning training, he remained silent. (I found it especially jarring, ironic and idiotic, as this was done right after he fought to close the schools.) When one sits and thinks about that silence and what that silence means, it speaks profoundly to what he is as an individual and what the UFT has become as an organization.  I don’t know about you, but if Mulgrew and the UFT tried to save my life and the lives of my family members, I would have no problem signing over my last dollar to him and the UFT. Likewise, I would have no problem pulling my last dollar from him and an organization that risked my life and the lives of my loved ones. As some of you get sick or worse, and I pray that is not the case, remember.