Unanimity is the enemy of democracy.

Retired members of the Illinois Education Association should be receiving their ballots in the mail. We get to vote for nine delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly.

The RA takes place the first week of July in Denver.

I am running as a delegate. #19 on the ballot.

Not every one of the 10,000 members of IEA Retired knows all the names on the ballot. It is not unusual for those who have recommendations to forward those names around to people on their mailing lists or FB pages.

I have done that for those I support like Jack Tucker and Bob Kaplan who are members of our SORE chapter.

And some have done that for me.

Some of those people have received some flack for supporting me.

I’m not pleased that some people who support me have gotten flack. But I’m pleased that my name on the ballot has caused some people to pay attention to these elections. I receive support and I receive opposition because I have been outspoken about the direction our Association and the Retired section of the Association should be headed.

And where it shouldn’t be headed.

Most IEA elections are about nothing. One candidate is for the future. The other is for the children.

Some current and former leaders equate disagreement with decisions made at the top with being anti-IEA or anti-union. They confuse the IEA with North Korea.

Democracy demands debate. Unanimity is the enemy of democracy.

I am running as a delegate to the NEA RA. If you don’t agree with my activities as a pension advocate and a union activist you may not want to vote for me. Or you may want to vote for me because you think debate is healthy for our Association. Or you may even agree with me.

If that is you and you are an IEA Retired member, vote for #19 .

And if you don’t know where others who are running for delegate stand on issues like our election strategy, the leadership’s support for Senate Bill 7 or Common Core, ask them.