This Blessed Union

Have you hugged your Union Rep today?

Yikes, just saying the word "union" these days is like shouting "bomb" in an airport.  On the issue of labor unions lately, people fall into two categories:  you either hate 'em or...don't like 'em much.  (And it's the members who feel that way!)

Really, opinions are all over the place when it comes to unions.  They're too powerful; they're powerless.  They're necessary; they're unneeded.  They serve the public; they're self-serving.  Everybody's right.  It's a paradox. [shrug]

I don't want to get political.  I'm trying to be thankful.  And there is one person I know who deserves thanks and gets none:  my union rep.  My union rep is not a Teamster thug named Lou.  She is a 4th grade teacher named Aidee.  She took up the mantle when no one else would.  We came to teach.  Most of us don't really identify with the lobbying, picketing, slogan shouting mob that the public equates with unions.  At the start of each school year, when the committees are being posted and tasks assigned, we choose campus clean up over Union Rep.  Aidee stepped up, her spiked heels clicking on the tile floors.

She attends meetings and trainings and reports back to us rank-and-file.  She researches and advises and is responsible for countless thankless tasks far removed from the teaching she loves.  And because she does this, I don't have to.  Uh huh, there it is.

The thank you note I wrote today was for Aidee.  Do you know someone who does the work you hate to do?  Do you ever think, "I am SO glad that's not me!"  Put that person on your list of people to thank.

Thank you, Aidee, for taking care of us and the Union tasks we loathe.  Thank you, God, for Aidee.