Fear.
No, not really. Julie always seems to be the most sensible person in the room. A supreme realist, strategist and with high level political skills that many of us can't match.
Thus her reaction when the NY Post came calling to do an article on Mulgrew's refusal to debate Julie -- and can't you see why he won't.
I got the call from Yoav Gonen from the Post, the one guy many of the fighters against ed deform sort of trust even though he works for the Post. He wanted Julie's number to get her reaction. I didn't think twice about it. The press wanted to do a story so why not I thought?
So we don't hear anything for 2 days and then Julie emails that not only is she busy with a sick Jack but she feels icky even talking to the Post on this issue even though she likes and respects Yoav. She said that the Post would use this to bash the union and Mulgrew in an unfair way and didn't want to be a part of that. Thus an internal debate inside MORE.
One MORE member was to get back to Yoav as a courtesy. But at this point the vicious anti-union Post reporter Carl Campanile entered the picture and MORE was pretty unanimous we wouldn't get involved. In fact he wanted a quote from Julie and wanted to send a photographer to her house to run a picture which would have appeared next to Mulgrew's.
Instead of looking at this as an opportunity to troll for votes, given that the Post is read by more teachers than the NY Times, Julie flat out refused. The Post was informed her letter to Mulgrew was public knowledge. And that is what was used in the article co-written by Yoav and Campanile -- the good and the bad.
The upshot of this is that for those of us who were initially not put off by Yoav's inquiry, is that Julie's instinct that a Post attack on Mulgrew and the UFT was not a good thing for any of us, a reaffirmation why Julie Cavanagh is the perfect spokesperson for an alternative to Unity that sees the big picture.
When Julie talks, I listen. Except when she calls me "grandpa."
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