Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 18:01:11 -0400
From: Paul Kennedy <paul.kennedy at yale.edu>
Subject: what are we supporting?
Dear John,
Word may have come to you of the torrent of verbal abuse, gestures, personal naming, in a word, intimidation that accompanied the first session of my wife Cynthia's [and Doug Rae's, and Allan Plattus's] course in SSS at noon today. Why should a secretary, or a TA, carrying course materials, be subject to such abuse? The union leadership which tolerated, or encouraged, those acts, are beyond and beneath contempt. Just go to the NEW HAVEN REGISTER website for comments from ordinary residents (NOT enjoying the astonishing perks of the unions) to see what they say about 34 and 35.
So, instead of consulting about a faculty petition which puts pressure upon Yale, why not think of one that is directed to the leadership of Locals 34 and 35, asks them to moderate their intimidation, stop disrupting classes (Doug Rae and Cynthia's class could not continue), get into the real world, and cease their obsessive anti-Yale delusions? I would be happy to sign it.
I am sending this to History and ISS e-mail lists. If it produces agitations outside my office, it will simply prove my point. Physical intimidation is the most counter-productive way to get your point across. Bullies never win. Unless you let them.
Yours ever,
Paul