I Got Mail!

 I got a lot of lovely cards this holiday season. Friends and family who reached out to connect with me at the end of the year. They send their wishes for me and my dear ones. Usually they are brief handwritten notes scrawled at the bottom of a pre-printed card with barely enough room for a signature but still gets that interaction in, sometimes I get the impression that this is a way of reaching out in order to come in just before the calendar changes. You get credit for "staying in touch."

Which is why, when I pulled a festive green card from an envelope that had been left in my mailbox, turned it over and saw the entire back was covered with what I could only assume was cheer and festive greetings. I did not immediately read the wishes, but drifted down to the signature to discover who would be going to all this trouble to greet me seasonally. 

Aaron Withe. I wracked my brain to try and recall who this might be, so I did the obvious thing and read the card: "Dear David, Give yourself a gift this holiday season! Prevent $1200 on average in salary deductions every year. Start saving by scanning my QR code or visiting CancelUnionDues.com. Merry Christmas!"

Aaron Withe is the chief huckster and face of the "Freedom Foundation." The card I received was part of an ongoing campaign by Aaron and his cronies who are trying to crush labor unions by getting members to leave them. The Freedom Foundation is taking on government union bosses and defunding their radical unconstitutional agenda everywhere."

Okay, so I'm no big fan of my union, and there are plenty of little nits I have to pick with them, but I continue to pay my dues because I appreciate the way they support new teachers and help those who find themselves in desperate times through sickness or the practices of the even more bizarre and arcane school district for whom I work. Yes, I have quibbled from time to time about how my union dues are spent, but I am also completely aware of the good that they do. I always return to the anecdote about how the union rep at my school dropped by my room to hand me my contract. I assumed it was to read it over to see if I wanted to join up. Then I was told that I already had when I took the job. 

That was a long time ago, and the times that I might have used an extra few bucks in my paycheck have been many. I am a teacher, after all. We are not making money in such bushels that the idea of saving twelve hundred dollars a year doesn't seem at times attractive. But at the end of the day, I know that my salary and benefits have been moving up over the past quarter century because of the work my union does. For me. If Aaron really wanted to impress me, he would tell me that he was working to get teachers across this great land of ours to make the kind of paycheck they should be making, before or after any deductions. 

So, maybe next year I'll send Aaron a card with that wish on it. For now, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.