Retired Teacher Chapter Leader Tom Murphy Calls for Decorum - After screaming at people for posting signs in back of UFT meeting hall and calling security

You use decorum to silence people who hold you accountable. All you are doing is using decorum as a means of oppression..... Montana House of Representatives Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr on being banned for voicing opposition to transgender legislation

Decorum, it seems, is honored lately more as an ideal than a practice. Outbursts at our December RTC membership meeting come to mind.... Tom Murphy, UFT Retired Teacher Chapter Chair

Give us liberty or give us decorum

You hear calls for civility - assume best intentions - even when there are no best intentions. Shutting out voices is itself uncivil. I've known the feeling over the decades of being a minority voice in many organizations. 

But oppression can lead to greater activism against the voices of oppression. Mulgrew and crew try to brand all dissidents as fear mongerers and liers, which is itself fear mongering and lying.

• Rosa Parks was not civil
  

Just like in Tennessee and Montana, the outcome at the April Retired Teacher meeting, where few even noticed the signs, was that Murphy's outburst called attention to them - I was outside the room and rushed in when I heard the ruckus - and have some audio of Murphy screaming but am too inept technology wise to share it. 

• Teacher unions in LA and Chicago have not been civil and have won big victories
• The latest news has been big losses for the UFT on charters and school budgets and an upcoming contract that the union will try to put lipstick on the pig. Maybe it's time for the UFT/Unity cowering hordes to be uncivil. But wait -- they are uncivil to those who stand up to them in the opposition.
• ICEUFT Blog
  UFT SETBACK ON ZOMBIE CHARTER SCHOOL REVIVAL -
  
• UFT Loses Big on Budget - New Action blog
   
  • Diane Ravitch's blog

  New York: Governor Hochul Caves to Billionaire Charter Lobby  
   
  

The late, great George Schmidt of Chicago, told me back when the caucus he helped found tried to purge him, partly over his gruffness framed as lack of civility. (It didn't work and the vote was heavily in his favor). I and a few others know the feeling as we faced similar attacks here in NYC. I'm not uncivil - just a loud-mouthed Jew from Brooklyn. Some Jews learned a long time ago about the consequences of being civil in the face of oppression. Not all unfortunately. In Israel, they are doing bad shit unto others as was done unto them and that can lead to uncivil reactions, which leads to further oppression because authoritarians have no other mechanisms to use.

So, it was an LOL moment to see Mr. Civility and Decorum, Tom Murphy, screaming "Put down those signs" at the bold, energetic retirees who use the pronouns she/her standing proudly in the back of the room and not only calling security, but threatening to close down the meeting if the signs were not removed. Watching the video of Zooey Zephyr being censured by right wing anti-democracy forces, along with the Tennessee banning of black legislators over a faux decorum issue, is beautifully ironic. (Murphy once accused me of antisemitism because my Ed Notes cartoonist made Randi's nose look too big.)

By the way, where does it say in by-laws or constitution that there are  no signs allowed? 

I'm sure Randi Weingarten and UFT virtual signalers will be quick to support Zephyr while engaging in the same type of actions in trying to suppress voices in the UFT. Look at this from Murphy:

In accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order, the RTC Executive Board sets the agenda for membership meetings. Board members voted to defer regular business and allow the UFT president and the Aetna health care plan presenters to speak with an extended Q&A period at our March and April meetings. Many members who want information without disruption have applauded this approach. We appeal for decorum.

The esteemed Mr. Roberts also calls for minority voices to be respected. I ran for the RTC Exec Bd, all Unity Caucus, in the 2021 election with Retiree Advocate and we got 30% of the vote and no voice on this Ex bd - that is a lack of democratic decorum - and you know what? There is a growing group of retirees urging us to become uncivil for being voiceless.

 
You know what a lack of decorum looks like? Unity occupying all 300 delegate seats to the DA and denying the 30% who voted for Retiree Advocate any voice. Do you think if we had our share of Delegates - like almost 100, it would be so easy for Unity to push through their Mulgrecare debacle? Risking the health and even lives of retirees and UFT working members is the ultimate lack of decorum. I say this as I will limp to a knee specialist before the Sept. 1 drop dead date of the removal of Medicare.

Just watch Unity Caucus in action on a regular basis and you see fundamental uncivil anti-democracy Republicans. 

Former NYC teacher and principal, Congressman Jamaal Bowman is not being civil:

• Jamaal Bowman, a former NYC teacher and administrator, defeated Eliot Engel to first win the nomination for his seat, and has been an unwavering advocate for progressive issues, including this bill which he has sponsored: THE MORE TEACHING LESS TESTING ACT
  
• https://bowman.house.gov/_cache/files/8/9/89180377-ee4a-4906-b170-f4ee28d3602e/0D579FD78ABAA89748EA157D3F31CAB1.more-teaching-less-testing-act-bill-summary.pdf

 The"offending" signs:

 

A few recent greatest hits about the union of civility:

 

Murphy letter below: From the Chapter Leader

Be ‘guardians of civility’

https://www.uft.org/news/retired-teachers-chapter-news/rtc-chapter-leader-column/be-guardians-civility 

By Tom Murphy

April 13, 2023

New York Teacher

Decorum, it seems, is honored lately more as an ideal than a practice. Outbursts at our December RTC membership meeting come to mind.

As a middle child, having grown up in a family that spoke to one another respectfully, I try to foster positive interactions. What in human behavior makes things sometimes fall apart?

Basic psychology tells us the subconscious mind is composed of the id, a source of raw impulses and instincts, and the superego, which operates as a moral conscience. The interplay between the two guides us toward a healthy ego, allowing us to function normally in society. Buy it or not, it’s one way of understanding that when things are out of whack, social discourse breaks down.

In front of a classroom, you knew all about decorum and human behavior as a survival practice, even if it wasn’t based on a belief system. Remember that hot Friday in June before air conditioning when that lovely youngster in the back row erupted and caused visions of summer vacation to appear in your head? You addressed it because the other students deserved decorum, and you had to survive. Of course, some of us are glad for statutes of limitations on some crazy things we did and said while handling those situations.

Then, we were on the front lines of setting the tone of good behavior for students entering society, but it’s still important for us to be guardians of civility. We’re not in the classroom anymore, but we are active members of associations, including on the internet.

Social media and digital communication have so many positives. Think of Zoom meetings that engage not just a few hundred members but the more than 6,000 who participated in our March RTC meeting. However, we have yet to learn how to deal with its downside. Perhaps the semi-anonymity of an email or a Facebook post unleashes our id-like urges without restraint. Four or five colleagues sitting around conversing in person have a different sense of social discourse than someone sitting alone at a keyboard venting and fulminating. Remember the old caution to write that angry letter, but put it in the desk drawer overnight and read it the next morning before mailing it? Now, in our digital age, overnight is a nanosecond, and you can’t chase the mail carrier to get it back.

Some online exchanges on the consideration of a new retiree health care plan over the last two years have been toxic, questioning motives and spreading false information. Such tactics partly disrupted the RTC meeting on Dec. 13, denying others the opportunity to get valid information. What to do?

In accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order, the RTC Executive Board sets the agenda for membership meetings. Board members voted to defer regular business and allow the UFT president and the Aetna health care plan presenters to speak with an extended Q&A period at our March and April meetings. Many members who want information without disruption have applauded this approach. We appeal for decorum.

Remember yourself in front of that hot classroom on a Friday in June and think about how you would handle it.

 Retiree Advocate/UFT