AN OPEN LETTER TO MS.NYEKA PHILLIPS FROM BOB TANNER

1

To Ms. Nyeka Phillips, you’re a wonder

As our UTLA chairperson who 

Has single-handedly left us plowed under;

And all the while you didn’t have a clue.

As chapter chair you split the school asunder

As ably as Deasy's wrecking crew.

We went from faculty participation

Which, led by you, turned into hibernation.

2

Your carping, petty style has left me sickened.

You lost disputes no chapter chair should file.

You might have been a chapter chair who quickened

The faculty; but with your juvenile

Approach to our affairs you only thickened

Perceptions that our teachers are servile.

When once, en masse, we went to demonstrations,

You isolated us from convocations.

3

From Tanner, Forrester, to Dallas Wimer,

We helped prepare the teachers to join in.

You thought because you were a wisenheimer-

(Though really but a petty born-again

Who’s, by the way, become a social climber) -               

Your carping, barbed remarks would help you win

Your way to being a power in the school,

When all they did was prove you were a fool.

4

You’ve queered relations with administrators

Not least because your crocodile tears

Won’t substitute for arguments debaters

Would never make unless still mouseketeers.

Your crying needs the aid of medicators

To help relieve the stressfulness of fears

That you have had when facing Ms. Malone,

A woman who’s a fighter to the bone.

5

As to your social climbing, you would be

A principal so you can rule a school.

God help all those not in your coterie,

Which pretty much will mean the average fool.

I wouldn’t kiss your ass on PCP,

If it meant you could send me to Kabul.

As principal, I know you’ll hold a grudge  

And use it when you play “here comes the judge.”

6

Especially at a time when our profession

Is under fire from Gates and Eli Broad

And all their ilk who think to take possession

Of public schools and turn them their commode,

Denying teachers’ rights to self-expression.

Ms. Phillips, you have played their little toad:

Not organizing teachers to fight back

Is just the same as aiding their attack.

7

The function of a stalwart union leader

Is organizing members for the trenches;

But you, who are a flatulent secretor,

Have had us sitting two years on the benches.

And so have functioned as our great impeder

Not least, or it’s my guess, because your stench is

So foul an odor such we can’t elude

And so we sit here in dull lassitude.

8

As well, we sit in dangerous positions

Under the guns of LAUSD

Which is preparing heavy ammunitions

To cannonade us as did Michelle Rhee-

When teachers wouldn’t bow to politicians

Who’d turn the public schools into debris.

Who isn’t for us is against us. So…

I’m happy that it’s time you chose to go.

9

PS: To Mr. Manikas.  You see

You’ve bigger fish to fry than Ms. Malone.

But organize the South Gate faculty

To stand as if they were a wall of stone;

And like your Greek forefathers build esprit

Against the tyrant Deasy who'd enthrone
Himself against our union and tradition

And send him, with Nyeka, to perdition.

10

And so I bid the faculty farewell;

And take my big mouth into my retirement.

I didn’t mean to come on so hard-shell

But had to write this rant as a requirement

(Before I hurry off) to help propel

You into understanding what my ire meant:

We are professionals but also workers

Who have to find the strength to be berserkers.