What we talk about when we talk about the UFT

Forgive me, it's been a long time since I have posted, and I have to be brief. It's popular for blogs written by and for teachers to be anti-UFT. Recently, some blogs even picked up on the heinous story by the NY Post about UFT president Michael Mulgrew's alleged affair. In doing this, all we are doing is picking up the public's gauntlet and using it to beat ourselves. This is exactly what people want to read. The anti-teacher sentiment which has been engendered by political figures at every government level thrives on the rhetoric and techniques of witch hunts. When I have had complaints about the UFT, I have been pretty direct in making them -- to the UFT members in question. If I went unheard, I found a way to get the individual in question to hear me. As I have said on other occasions, I have been helped a great deal both by Unity members of the UFT and members of alternative factions. What I like about both groups -- people like ICE, GEM, etc. is that they are actually trying to do something, not just complain. When we complain publicly about any group of teachers (or teacher) we reinforce stereotypes which are being capitalized upon in the current climate. More than this, we waste time. Don't stop questioning what anyone does, but do stop getting involved in tangents. Keep asking -- keep the dialogue going, if not in the forum in which you started, then in another, BETWEEN YOU AND SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. WASTING TIME JABBING AT ANYONE doesn't help. I'm "putting this out there" because this IS a general point. When my mother was working for the city, she got enormous help both from her own union, and from advice of other unions, all of them for Blue Collar jobs. No matter what complaints she or others in her job title had, they didn't waste time complaining about other workers. My mother had meetings directly with the head of the Dept. of Health of NYC, she had meetings with leaders of her union and even asked for advice from leaders of other unions. That's how she managed for the over 30 years she worked. If you are going to say times have changed, I'll say this: Willie Loman didn't have a union. Had he worked as a construction worker, he would have had a union.