"Fight with the money in your hands!" if you're questioning Kerry

[NewHampshireDem]

In the midst of some pretty tense contract negotiations between our union and the school board we declared impasse and brought in a moderator. As usual, the issue of contention was salary. We thought the school board's offer was too low (in retrospect, it was, but that's another issue) ... we were so angry we were willing to reject their offer, go back to the membership and tell them we would be working without a new contract--meaning the old one would be in force and meaning *no raises* at all.

Keep in mind that 10 weeks of contract negotiations are a stressful thing--purposely so, in my mind, designed to break down the participants and get them thinking with their guts rather than their brains.

Fortunately, our mediator, who was brought in once impasse was declared, gave us some sage words of advice. He knew the board would not budge and he also knew how angry--and powerless--we were. "Fight with the money in your hands," he told us. His point was that a small raise was better than no raise and that if we took it we didn't have to like it, *but we should still take it!* Once we had the new contract we could begin the fight for the next one--with the mone in our hands!

The situation here at DU has reminded me a lot of that situation. Some people are saying, "Kerry doesn't support ____________ so I'm thinking of not voting or voting for Nader." That's foolishly walking away from a small improvement to take no improvement at all. The alternative--another four years of * and maybe 20 years of his SCOTUS--is much, much worse than any disagrement anyone here might have with Kerry's positions.

So the point of this is summed up in a paraphrase of those sage words:
LET'S FIGHT WITH THE WHITEHOUSE IN OUR HANDS! Support Kerry, then fight like hell to make sure our voices are heard.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. that's right!

Having been an officer of a local NEA chapter for several years before my retirement, I know exactly what you have just gone through. The mediator is correct. And your analogy is spot on. If Bush is reelected, there is a distinct possibility that, at the very least, our rights will be eroded via the decisions of a right wing SCOTUS. At the worst, I fear he will blunder us into nuclear war with N. Korea and shut down our democracy.

[meti57b]

2. I agree and would add ...

You can't always get absolutely everything you want all at once. Usually it has to be done gradually.

[No Mandate Here.]

3. Because of the SCOTUS implications,

we need to fight with our children's AND our grandchildren's futures in our hands.

* can (and did) screw up quite a few things- Iraq, a "Divider, not a Uniter" with his hate filled partisanship, the tax structure... (I could go on... and on. Each of these things will be rectified with the Democratic Senate majority and the more even tone that will come in the first few years of the Kerry presidency.

If * wins, and selects the new SCOTUS, not only are we screwed- the country is screwed for many, many years.

This is my fear.