Them’s Fighting Words

Talk of Demands and Fighting Imply Action That Really Isn’t Happening

“We are mighty, and as Merrie said, we are winning,” MTA Max Page said at a meeting this summer, crediting MTA members with legislative action they couldn’t have affected without a time machine.

In spite of this rhetoric, we are not mighty. And we were winning only if we take credit for something on which we had no effect.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with using the language of battle or boxing as rhetoric; however, there is something very wrong in confusing rhetoric for reality and words for action. It creates a sense of efficacy where none really exists. Words are sometimes action, but they are often a cheap substitute. Fighting implies a battle. Even metaphorically, it implies some sort of effective action.

In a recent exchange on Massachusetts Educators United (MEU), my interlocutor wrote that “we need to fight for safe working conditions in schools.” There was no answer to the question, how are we going to accomplish that? When it comes down to it, fighting is active. The best we get from the MTA is invitations to protests and emails to elected officials. There’s nothing wrong with protests or emails, but the vast majority of the time, they have no effect.

Another word with pugnacious connotations is demand. It implies force behind the assertion of a policy goal. It’s a favorite word of Najimy and my MEU interlocutor who said “educators and parents gave up on demanding a safe return” and that we need to “demand taxes on corporate profits to pay for safe learning conditions.” How are these aren’t demands? They are goals. Any force behind them is imagined.

We lose a little bit of power every time we make a demand and it goes unmet. And that’s one of the reasons the MTA is where we’re at today. Largely ignored on Beacon Hill and laughed at by the Baker Administration.

President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “‘Speak softly and carry a big stick.” The MTA Leadership prefers to reverse this, hoping that by speaking loudly, no one will notice we have no stick to carry at all.