It's a convention in Las Vegas, so naturally we've been sucking down as much free food and drink as we can get, and after three full days of it, it's coming to an end. But we've been sucking down information too, in the form of panels, keynotes, speeches and trainings. It's our first time here. We learned a lot, and we'll be bringing it home to Local 1021.
Netroots Nation stands at the intersection of progressive politics and social media, and if there's one lesson (actually, there's many) that we leave here with, it's that labor unions are not on the sidelines, but very much at the center of it. Among the
union sponsors of the conference are SEIU, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the United Food and Commercial Workers (
UFCW).
Let me be blunt. As SEIU 1021 members, we've become all-too-wearily accustomed to hearing people talk trash about our union on all sides; it's easy, too easy perhaps, to become demoralized about who we are and what we do and why/how we do it; too easy to believe that the trash is the "real" SEIU and our accomplishments are illusory at best, or ephemeral, to be spoken of only in the past tense.
But let me step out from behind my mask as editor of the 1021 NewsWire and ask you something personal — and you only need to answer yourself, not me: Who do you get your self-image from? Do you listen to your enemies and opponents and believe that their harsh, unkind words are the "real" you? Or do you listen to your friends, the people who really know you?