UFT Solidarity: Introduces the Straw Man

One thing that keeps me going is my somewhat belief in God. I go back and forth quite a bit. I have never been an atheist, but I have been, or at least have had, a foot in the agnostic camp at times.

I have in the past dabbled with Mormonism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Christian Science, and I think once, Christianity. I even considered Judaism an ethnicity and not a religion and would claim that my religion is eclectic. A little from column A, column B, and so on.

My wife, who is much more attuned to God and spirituality than I, during my 3020-a would tell me that God will see what is right and put me in my right place. It kind of worked, but the logical side of me had a tough time with that kind of belief at times.

But I believe that when all is said and done with this election that MORE/New Action did all they can do to be in the right place at the right time when the results are announced to be in the place that MORE should be.

Now I am not saying that there is some type of deity behind MORE/New Action rather I am pointing out the Humanistic wind blowing into the sails of MORE /New Action how everyone associated with MORE/New Action as comported themselves throughout this vigorous campaigning to have a union that works for the stake holders instead of the other way around. Win, lose, or partial win, MORE/New Action has ever tried to intimidate or use subterfuge.

The following has been sitting on the desk of The Crack Team for about a week. We have had many discussions, workshops, all night benders on whether or not to share this. After many a ballot tonight (54 to be exact!) we finally got a majority to approve the sharing of our find (Click if you need to enlarge).

The above is an email that UFT Solidarity presidential candidate sent to Scott Boswell, the American Arbitration Association's Director of Elections, last week in effect a poor attempt at intimidation and an even a poorer attempt to start looking for, as well as blaming, scapegoats if and when Francesco Portelos is not elected UFT president as he has so vociferously has promised.

Let's give Portelos the benefit of the doubt for a moment and believe he is not trying to find a Straw Man for his failure, OK? Just my sending this email, just the intimidating tone in the email, is at best rude, but at worst, extremely unethical.


But this is par for the course with Portelos. Intimidation and bullying is all he knows. Think about it, we do want someone as UFT president that fights for the teachers, for the students, and for the communities. But do we want someone whose first inclination is to burn bridges right out of the chute? God forbid if that happens. It'll be another 3 years of nothing and spinning our wheels.

But there is something more happening here and The Crack Team is aware of other Straw Man methods that the followers of Portelos are using. When one fails as a leader, find a scapegoat.


Portelos has put whatever it is of his reputation on the line with these elections and he is now flailing for excuses at what is coming down the pike. What better why to divert attention from his what he did not do than find somewhere else to shine the light?

Fortunately, there has been chattering that the Straw Man will not work with a growing number at UFT Solidarity save the truly indoctrinated.

What we need at the UFT is level headed thinkers that are have the emotional maturity to be in charge. We can't replace what we have with the same thing.

Think about it.