OPEN LETTER TO FOLKS WHO HAVEN’T YET VOTED ON THE TENTATIVE AGREEMENT
by John Mears
Chapter Chair, West Valley Occupational Center
The efforts of those to get “NO” votes on the TA could destroy all we have worked for to save adult & career education. We now have around 24 hours before the votes are counted. If the majority say “no,” adult & career education will cease to exist in Los Angeles as of July 1. I’m not sure opponents to the TA get that. I don’t think they get that negotiations are over. I don’t think they understand that LAUSD does not need to negotiate with us any more any time soon. The call to “fight on” is suicidal. The impulse to hold out for a better offer is a lemming’s march to the sea.
Let not the dream of what could be, defeat what can be. Let not a fantasy kill our clear perception of reality. Let not the perfect become the enemy of the good.
This TA has its flaws, but the alternative is total annihilation.
Victory is within reach. It is not perfect, but it is doable. Please, please, people — don’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Vote “YES” on the tentative agreement & save thousands of jobs & the futures of hundred of thousands of students.
– John “The Renegade” Mears
