Recently we have been reading many entries in the letters to the editor concerning the current dispute between the government and the B.C. Teachers Federation.
The BCTF is referred to as if it were dictating to the teachers what they should do. The BCTF is a collective representing teachers’ interests. It is made up of teachers who have been elected by their colleagues to represent them as a collective group.
They do not dictate to the membership what they should do. In my 30-plus years of teaching, I attended many meetings of the BCTF as a representative of Vernon teachers.
The BCTF is a professional organization made up of well educated, intelligent people who are there to represent the best interests of the members. The current attitude of the critics who write to the paper seem to miss the point of what is really happening in our society.
When one analyzes the criticism, it basically all comes down to money. This is actually only a reflection of the current trend in society where the final arbiter of most decisions is money.
Unfortunately, this will be the demise of our western society as we know it. Do you remember the riots in New York? The Occupy movement was just the tip of the iceberg of unrest that is building in western society. Our so called free democratic society is being dominated and manipulated by money. Our so called free elections are no longer free because the party with the largest advertising budget can flood the airwaves with propaganda and influence the results. The person who pays the piper calls the tune.
As a society, we seem to have become obsessed with money and that has overridden the human values that so often are held up as the shining light of our society.
We need to set out our priorities in a clearer fashion and be sure that they are in the correct order for the long-term survival of the human society in which we have such a personal interest.
R. David Atkins
Vernon
