When Jackasses Rule the Roost

...consequences are ignored (by said jackasses)

I got an email from LeRoy Barr about Wednesday’s Delegate Assembly. It was interesting in that all it covered was Mulgrew’s speech. Mulgrew said this. Mulgrew said that. Mulgrew championed this and that cause. There was no mention of anything members proposed. said, or did.

It’s curious. A union should be about members. Ours, evidently, is about Mulgrew. This is an issue for us. It’s part of why we’re so apathetic. We’ve let a cult take over our union, and haven’t managed to conclusively organize against it for 60 years. We seem to have accepted Unity as a higher class, and ourselves as a lower one. Still, class is an artificial construct—like bigotry.

I’ve got a thing about bigotry. As the only Jewish kid in a Catholic neighborhood, I grew up with it. I learned up close and personal how you get treated when you are The Other. It’s particularly virulent when you’re a child and there are no other Others around. I’ve come to deplore bigotry of any stripe.

Of course, this is a cultural thing as well. Depending on where you are, this Other, the one everyone ridicules, can be just about anyone. It could just as well be you. It could be your mother, your father, your lover, your best friend. As an arbitrary construct, it could be virtually anyone.

Right now, in my circles, antisemitism is not widespread. At the very least, those with whom I speak are thoughtful enough not to share it with me. For a long time, when I was young, I never saw homophobia being questioned at all. I had a gay uncle, and my dad was always weird about my visiting him. I didn’t understand at the time. This uncle would take me to shows and concerts. I always really liked him.

Homophobia is somewhat less in vogue these days, but no bigotry really ever dies. Anti-trans sentiment seems more popular nowadays. Xenophobia is pretty much official US policy. As someone who works exclusively with newcomers, having done so for decades, I’m thoroughly disgusted by that, and ICE in particular.

And hey, ICE is a masked, secret, well-funded military force. At any time, they could go after someone else. Anyone else. You, me, or perhaps our unions. Let’s be honest, despots hate unions, and teachers are the ones they hate first, and most.

If you follow the press, you know as well as I how teachers are stereotyped and ridiculed. That’s why it’s so despicable when bigotry lives among us. It’s even more despicable when it’s practiced by our ostensible leaders. It behooves us to refrain from such nonsense, even if our politics differ.

I was pretty shocked to hear, at last Wednesday’s DA, that one of my union brothers was harassed for nothing less than choosing a vacant seat in the Delegate Assembly the other night. How juvenile and petty do you have to be to call a section yours, and then bully your supposed union brother, who’s simply in need of a seat? Seems like something you ought to outgrow by middle school.

Hopefully, by then you can even outgrow your bigotry.

There’s an interesting article published by the America Psychological Association contending that ageism is one of the last socially acceptable prejudices. That’s unfortunate. Other cultures associate age with wisdom. We tend to see it as, “Get off my lawn!” or something of that sort.

What if I were to tell you that the guy who harassed the member about sitting in the wrong seat was an unelected UFT District Representative, that he made well more than any working teacher, and that during another Delegate Assembly, he chose to ridicule retired delegates with memes exactly like these? What if I told you he saw fit to share them with chapter leaders (for whom he was ostensibly setting an example)?

I love the laugh emojis on the last one. I don’t know who said, “Getting old is not for the faint of heart,” but ridiculing people for their infirmities, real or imagined, is beyond the pale. It’s unprofessional. It’s unacceptable. And it cries out to be addressed, even if it’s done by Unity.

A big reason the District Rep. finds retiree members so hilarious is that they are not part of Unity. Unity respects Unity. You? Not so much. This is especially true if you happen to oppose them. (I couldn’t believe some of the AI-generated blather I read about myself during campaign season.)

As for ageism, Unity has no issue with it whatsoever. For example, after this guy was caught ridiculing people older than he is, he went and told the DA he was nice to his grandma, or some other such nonsense, and they applauded him. (Of course, if you’re Unity, you applaud when told.)

If you look at the comments on this post, you can see yet another Unity stalwart suggesting ageism is just fine, and that I simply lacked a sense of humor. I’ve no doubt people say much the same when they “kid” others about their skin color, their religion, their gender, sexual orientation, language, country, or any number of things.

I guess, though, that the Unity member who criticized me is right. I just can’t see the humor in bigotry. Maybe that’s why I’ve never been part of the Unity Caucus. Who’s to say?

In fairness, when another unelected Unity District Rep. wrote the most vile things about my friend Norm Scott, suggesting he would soon die of cancer and deeming that as a source of hilarity, he was suspended. Of course, this was in the midst of campaign season, strictly for show, and the instant said season was over, he was reinstated. Everything’s fine now, because campaign season’s over, and this particular form of bigotry is just fine with Unity.

It’s not fine with me. I hope it’s not fine with you either.

Beyond stereotypes, Unity freely engages in character assassination. For example, Mulgrew referred to anything about his new, shiny health plan coming from anyone but them as “misinformation.” They see themselves as the sole source of truth on this earth.

We know, though, that they’ve lied to us. We know they misrepresented the Medicare Advantage plan in which they tried to dump retirees. We know Mulgrew lied when he said all doctors would accept it. We know he lied about how good it was because he sent retired Unity VPs and a cancer patient to the City Council to claim they needed real Medicare. Anyone paying a hundred bucks to visit City MD knows he lied about co-pays.

We know they never admit wrongdoing. Even when Mulgrew paid lip service to opposing Medicare, he never copped to his lies. He never took back his accusations that we spouted fairy tales or misinformation. He never took back his contentions that we were enemies of the union or conspiracy theorists.

We also know that not only have they never renounced their odious ageism, but they’ve doubled down on it. Month after month, they show up with clearly dilatory tactics, trying to fill our Retiree Chapter meetings with anything whatsoever to keep us from working in our interests.

We’re looking through you, Unity, and the Picture of Dorian Gray has absolutely nothing on you. If you want respect, you’d better stop stereotyping us, stop lying, and stop pretending we don’t see what’s right in front of our eyes.

We may be old, but we’re not blind.

Note—Unlike most city retirees, UFT retirees are forced to pay a premium on prescription insurance. Please sign our petition asking our Welfare Fund cover us, just as other municipal unions do. If you had issues signing before, they should be resolved now.