No on Issue 2, or how I stopped worrying and learned to love Facebook

Today's guest post comes from Becky Brown, former PACE president, veteran of nearly every building the PCSD, and a passionate supporter of the NO on Issue 2 campaign.
 

(Apologies to “Dr. Strangelove” purists...)

On a Saturday morning in late August I attending a “No on Issue 2” training session.  Not much time was spent on “the why.”  We all know the why this has to go away.

• Issue 2 is Unsafe (Do you really want to leave safety measures to management   entirely when those who actually do the work have the best understanding of what the job entails?)
• Issue 2 is Unfair (Are you okay with sacrificing to get the state budget under control when those in charge of the state are willing and happy to give raises to their employees?) 
• Issue 2 Hurts the Middle Class (And why should public employees take the blame for the Wall Street Fat Cat’s taking big pay increases and bonuses?  Just how many millions does one person need?)

Lots of time was spent on “the how.”   The how entails contacting everyone you know, at least 40.  And contacting them more than once.  Research has shown that seven personal contacts will result in getting the desired results. 

Wow.  That was pretty overwhelming.  And then it hit me.  The “thing” I’ve been avoiding - avoiding because I’d heard from my association, “Be careful.  Don’t have contact with students.  Anything you post can be seen by anyone.”  So I’ve avoided this tool.

Former students have encouraged me to take the leap.  And I’ve always said, “maybe.”

And now.  Here it was staring me in the face.  Yes.  I did it.  I opened a FACEBOOK page.

My first attempt was to post a “Vote NO on Issue 2” sign instead of my picture.  Well, that didn’t work, but I was able to get the picture on my wall.  And I managed to post the “Three Reasons:  Issue 2 is Unsafe, Unfair, and Hurts the Middle Class.” 

The hits were great!  I received many likes.  While finding friends I found other educators who have used the No on 2 sign either as their picture or on their wall.  

I found many fellow educators at Princeton and at OEA and even NEA.  I found many former students:  some of them scattered to the winds, but many of them still in Ohio (yes!  voters to vote NO!!!).  I also found relatives.  Unfortunately one on them (not blood, thank you, an outlaw) was quoting Newt (Good grief! I have some work to do...after all, her daughter - in - law is a math professor at an Ohio college).

So,  I was able to get over the first hurdle.  Now.  My new goal as I continue to find more friends is to continue to post information about Issue 2 being a bad thing - even more important as the opposition in a most benevolent voice talks about the glories of Issue 2 and how we need to give up even more to help the state budget.

It was a big step for me to do the FACEBOOK thing.  And I will continue to stretch my comfort level as I work to defeat Issue 2.

What are you willing to do to help defeat Issue 2?   Remember, this is the fight for our lives and the lives of our families.  Those of us who are still working and those of us who  are retired must do everything in our power to make sure that the legacy of Collective Bargaining that was left to us by others will be there for those who come after us.

Together we can!

You gotta talk to them...

Today's post is a guest post from Rebecca Heckman , science teacher at Princeton High School, 22 year veteran teacher and OEA member, 13 year member of PACE and daughter of the types of conservatives we need to vote NO on Issue 2 this November...

My entire life I’ve voted Republican. My dad ran for public office in St. Bernard, and politics were always part of our family life. My parents talked about elections and how to vote and considered straight ticket voting the only responsible way to go. You side with a platform, and you follow that. The candidates would follow the party line, you could be sure of that.

My parents continue to be straight ticket, conservative Republican voters. We had a bit of a falling out during the original SB5 discussion of the past spring. After SB5 passed and the initiative began to get the signatures to place a repeal on the November ballot, I couldn’t bring myself to talk to them about the issue and ask them to sign the petition.

Recently, however, I decided to bring up Issue 2 to them to see if I could talk them into voting with us to repeal Issue 2 this November. I was nervous, but it had to be done. My parents have two daughters who are public school teachers, and they needed to understand what SB5 would mean to their daughters…and they needed to hear it before November.

When I approached them, it was a casual setting and I felt comfortable. I stuck to the following points:

· Teachers won’t be able to negotiate working conditions if SB5 stands

o I stuck with this point for a while.

o I mentioned class size and how difficult it makes my job.

o I discussed lack of in school planning time and how difficult that makes my job.

· I talked about the fact that when we wanted to discuss SB5 with the senate, teachers, fire fighters and policemen were locked out and denied that right

o I mentioned this point when it was pointed out that the governor had asked the unions to meet, and we had said NO to him

· I talked about what SB5 would mean to their grandchildren - 9 of the 11 attend public schools

o I stressed that safety would be an issue in crowded classrooms.

· Finally, I mentioned that while I understood the state’s financial issues, I didn’t feel it was the duty of the middle class to shoulder the entire burden of their budget shortfalls.

o If the middle class loses money due to this bill, it will harm the economy.

o I’d have less money to spend and so would many people like me.

o This is not how to end a recession.

In the end, I was able to convince my mom and dad to vote no on Issue 2 this November. It was a difficult discussion to initiate with them, but our future as educators depends on conversations like this being held at family dinners and with people like my parents. We cannot be afraid to address the people close to us. This is the time to confront and educate them. If we don’t take this initiative, no one will, and we can’t afford to do that.

Commercial: Loophole

The second No on Issue 2 commercial is now showing. It focuses on the Unfair part of the message...

You can view it below or on YouTube.

Get & STAY connected

Photo by Erica Marshall - muddyboots.org

Today is where the rubber meets the road, folks.

Today is the day when we start asking you to actually do something rather than just add a few page views to the blog stats.

You need to go to the We Are Ohio Friends website. It's www.waofriends.com.

You can click the link directly and follow the steps, or you can right-click and open the link in another window so you can keep this page open, too.

On that page you're going to be asked to create an account and login. It's easy if you already have a Facebook account because you can just use that as your login info. From there, they'll check to see whether you're already on the voter rolls for this year (like if you've voted early - it's public record that you voted not how you voted, no worries.)

Then the important part. You'll be asked to commit to making weekly contact with up to 8, 25, or 40 friends and family.

See, the thing is that we kicked major backside in getting petition signatures. We turned in more signatures than any petition in Ohio history. We rock.

But that's passed and gone.

And we're gonna need way more NO on Issue 2 votes than our 1.3 million signatures. We need more NO on Issue 2 votes than one for every union member in Ohio. We need like five or ten or twenty votes for every union member, and we can't just count on those lining up for our cause unless we're proactive about going out and recruiting those NO votes.

We need to get to the recruiting, to the convincing, to the talking to friends and family and neighbors and soccer moms and fellow Jungle Jim's shoppers and everybody else.

Once you create an account, you'll be asked to search for friends and family members by name and city. The site'll check out to make sure they're registered voters, and then you get to give a little info and commit to contacting that person once a week from now until the November election.

You won't be giving We Are Ohio any contact info about that person other than what city they're in, so they won't be getting emails from We Are Ohio or the OEA. All you'll be doing is committing to do what you can to remind that person weekly that they need to vote NO on Issue 2 because it's Unfair, Unsafe, and Hurts the Middle Class.

That's all.

Sign up...pledge a few names...and then talk to them once a week.

Your talking can be in person or by Facebook or by email or by sending them a link to this blog because at least once a week we'll be posting something that you can share with your friends and family (or the girl at Starbucks who makes your carmel macchiato every Sunday morning or your church's pastor).

For today, though, go ahead and get registered and start pledging.

(If you still have some more questions, we've embedded the two-page instructions below. They're from the We Are Ohio training.)
We Are Ohio - Friends, Family, Neighbors
And here's the video to Stereo MC's doing "Connected" because it's been going through my head since I started writing this blog post... 

The training PowerPoint

In case you couldn't make it to one of the training times (sorry for the short notice, by the way), here's the PowerPoint training presentation. It's a bit long (44 pages), but it has some good stuff to remember.

Issue 2 Member Training PPT

Stay on target

In spite of the hackneyed Star Wars reference in the title, today's post is all about staying on message.

One of the major pushes that We Are Ohio is encouraging us to stay with is maintaining a clear, concise message throughout this campaign. To that end, there are three major tenants of that message that each of us needs to learn, remember, and repeat ad nauseum.

Say it with me...Issue 2 is Unfair, Unsafe, and Hurts the Middle Class.

Breaking that down a little further.

• Issue 2 is Unfair - We need to ask people to stop pro-SB5 politicians who only want to look out for themselves and their special interest friends - not the people that they were elected to serve. Politicians make special exceptions for themselves and upper management while stripping the rights of middle class Ohioans. It's not Ohio values to let firefighters, police, and teachers lose their rights and see their wages and benefits gutted while insiders and people at the top get big pay increases and bonuses.
• Issue 2 is Unsafe - We need to ask people to stop the politicians who are willing to put our safety at risk. SB5 puts the safety of all our families at risk by making it illegal for nurses,teachers,and emergency responders to fight for safer staffing levels, critical safety equipment and training that protects them and our communities.
• Issue 2 Hurts the Middle Class - We need to make politicians start serving us - the people - and stop blaming us. SB5 hurts Ohio families and blames public employees for a mess caused by Wall Street's greed. Instead of serving We the People and working to create jobs, some politicians work harder for big corporate donors by offering them tax breaks and selling off our parks, prisons, and turnpikes. That doesn't create anything but a bigger hole in the budget.

When we're discussing Issue 2 with people (and remember, the push now is to get people to Vote NO on Issue 2...we're sticking with NO on Issue 2, not SB5 anymore.), we have to remember a few do's and don'ts of our message:

• DO maintain message discipline.
• DO stay proactive and aggressive in pushing our message.
• DO talk about the broader impact on the public and Ohio communities.
• DO make this a fight about protecting the middle class families of Ohio.
• DO make the call to action to turn out and vote every time.
• DO use all three components to layer our message - exemption for those at the top, protecting the safety of families, protecting the middle class.
• DO stay focused on the proactive message about protecting families.
• DO stay focused on the proactive message about protecting the middle class.
• DO say public employees or frontline public employees.

• DON'T waste time responding directly to opponent attacks and giving their message any airtime. Re-focus to our message.
• DON'T talk about the impact on unions.
• DON'T make this fight about protecting unions.
• DON'T state the problem without also giving the solution - turn out to vote.
• DON'T use one component alone because it doesn't make the most effective case.
• DON'T go on the attack against Kasich directly. Instead, lump him in with politicians.
• DON'T make your tone too angry or partisan.
• DON'T say government employees,public service unions, or labor unions.

There are even some phrases that We Are Ohio is suggesting that you practice using:

• "Makes a special exception for upper management and politicians"
• "Takes away the rights of middle class Ohioans"
• "Our friends and neighbors who are teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public employees"
• "Hurts the middle class"
• "The wrong thing to do"
• "Safe staffing levels for nurses"
• "Flawed"
• "Unintended consequences"
• "We the People"
• "Corporate special interests and their high-paid lobbyists"
• "School safety"
• "Turns our backs on the people who watch ours - like teachers, nurses, and firefighters"
• "Hold Wall Street and CEOs accountable"
• "Unfair"
• "Unsafe"
• "Politicians should keep their promises to Ohio's public employees"
• "Tax breaks for big corporations"
• "Critical safety equipment for firefighters"

It seems almost Machiavellian to think in these terms, but one of the things that is most convincing is a disciplined, consistent argument.

Say it with me again and say it every chance you get...Issue 2 is Unfair, Unsafe, and Hurts the Middle Class.

No on Issue 2 training sites

There are a few opportunities to attend in-person trainings for the No on Issue 2 campaign.

If you are interested in attending any of these trainings, please contact the OEA representative (in the right-hand column) to make sure a spot is reserved for you.

Date	Time	Location	OEA contact
9/13	4:30	Lakota West HS 8940 Union Centre Blvd West Chester, OH 45069	Rod Bird (513) 539-3131 (800) 487-6266
9/13	4:00	Alpha Service Council Glen Este HS Touch of Class Restaurant 4342 Glen Este-Withamsville Rd Cincinnati, OH	Robin Busby (513) 984-3679 (866) 287-3373
9/14	2:30	Lakota West HS 8940 Union Centre Blvd West Chester, OH 45069	Rod Bird (513) 539-3131 (800) 487-6266
9/21	5:00 w/ meal @5:30 RSVP please	SWOEA Office CMC Springdale Office Center 270 Northland Blvd Suite 224 Cincinnati, OH 45246	(513) 771-3319