Irrelevance

In case this hasn’t been mentioned before, I have a good sized ego and can be vain. For the most part I like to keep a low profile, just because it is easier to get things done when no one is paying attention to me. But I don’t like being brushed off. Twice this week my complete irrelevance has been pointed out to me. A local pol, who has declared her candidacy and in whose area I live, hasn’t announced any public meetings. I signed up for her email list but so far haven’t received anything. The calendar area on her web site is empty. However, a friend of mine received an email saying this person would be a guest at a public meeting this coming week. So I called her campaign manager and left a message asking if this was the only public appearance she would be having before the primary election or if there would be others. Next week is pretty busy. I’d like a chance to see this person and hear what she has to say but if there will be other opportunities I’ll go to one of those. So far my call hasn’t been answered. I hate it when that happens. Maybe I’ll get a call next week. Maybe not. But so far the message I am hearing from this woman is that either her campaign is woefully disorganized or that she doesn’t’ really care if people have a chance to meet her or not. I’m one of those people. Chances are she will win the election but so far she hasn’t won my goodwill. Chances are she doesn’t care. Chances are it won’t ever make a real difference to her. I hate it when that happens. Chances are she won’t get my vote, now or at any time in the future.

By a quirk of fate I have ended up being president of my union local this year. I’ll spare you the details. We are part of a larger union for the whole organization and then a subset of the national union. This year we are considering affiliating with another union as well. We had meetings with representatives of both unions, discussed the issue electronically, sent around some things to read, and then the executive council had a vote on whether or not to put the issue before the entire membership. It passed by a wide majority and the ballots went out. Thursday night the president of the national union, who had not weighed in previously, sent out an email to all members stating her opposition to the plan, and saying that local leadership had refused to send out her thoughts with the ballot. Local leadership would include me. I’ve never heard a peep from this woman before. So the executive council members are all feeling like we have a shiv sticking out of our backs. I fired off an email to her and the general secretary of the national union. Both have said that the strength of the union lies with the actions of its individual members. I pointed out that they have just made it clear to membership that national officers feel very comfortable publicly dissing local leadership with no advance notice or warning and that it might be a tad difficult to find people to run for office in the future. I ended up with the office primarily because no one else was willing to run. In fact I ended up with the office because the guy who was elected took off for the south seas a few weeks after the results came in. Hmmm, maybe he knew something I didn’t….

It was a bad week. Hopefully next week will be better.