More comments from the underground below. If you see Fred wandering around, give him resusitation. I think he had an acute chalk-dust attack when he told me 3:30 was ok.

--Jason has left a new comment on your post "How was I to know the time was inconvenient for th...":

I presume you are aware that high school teachers do not get out until 3:15 and middle school teachers get out later than that. I fear a meeting at 3:30 might be difficult for teachers to attend.

Jason, never presume that I know anything. In fact, presume the opposite. I will change the time to 4:30. Straggle in if you are a little late. And look pretty. lee

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "How was I to know the time was inconvenient for th...":

I'll be there.

Look teachers, if we want to really have some control over our working life and stop being bullied, this is your chance.

Imagine the power of dozens of us standing together.

Please dont let others carry the water for you. There is power in numbers. We need you.

If you can take a personal day to get your car fixed, you can take one for this Lee has gotten the attention of an important person. I agree that even 4:30 will be difficult but think about all the days you will be adversely impacted by the decisions of the "good ole boy network" that cares little for you and respects you even less.

This may be our best chance to be heard. Lets not blow it.

Time to walk the walk. Our contract grants us personal days. Is there anything more "personal" than the chance to air our grievances to someone in a position to help us?????

I will be there and I hope others will be there to support Lee's effort to get justice for us.

David

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Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 9:06 PM

Thank you, David, for this homily. I get tired of giving buck-up lectures. When I was an intensive-care head nurse (I nursed for 15 years before I got tired of seeing my favorite patients die on me and checked into Columbia University), I used to go on duty and make my rounds of Death Valley to see how each patient was doing. If I said, "Well, Mr. Terminal Emphysema, how's it going?" and the patient replied, "Oh, nurse, not good. I think I'm on my last legs," I would chirp, "Oh, no, you are not--not on my shift. You are feeling better--much better. You will make my record look bad if you aren't." If he were able, the patient would laugh--and live another eight hours. Had I sympathized with him, he would have turned over and died for sure.

Tapping into other areas of the human spirit during my intensive-care death watch often hit the place of resilliance in a fading soul.

Remember that tip and use it. It works outside the intensive-care unit too. lee

Compose Email: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com

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How was I to know the time was inconvenient for the meeting with the Tribune publisher when Fred Our Board Candidate told me that time was ok? I hope this does not indicate the precision with which Fred performs on the Circle-of-Power Dais when he gets elected and replaces Lamb. Remember, I taught in college, and we had great control over our schedules. I forgot that I am dealing with the inmates of a penal colony.

I am going to get the time changed for the meeting to 4:30. Any objections to 4:30? Speak up if you have.

Then I want to see the three I have heard from get their buns to that meeting and squawk to a person who can make Elia ease up on teachers. Goader, I will kill you if you aren't there. By the way, I find your columns enlightening. They educate me.

Ditto for the other two whose message appears below: David and "Would love to come."

If I can risk Jennifer Pole Girl and her boyfriend Jolly Green Giant Security Behemoth David Frederick's sending me to jail in leg irons and handcuffs, people can screw up their courage to the sticking point and join Granny Lee at this meeting.

I wonder how in the hell the wonderful patriots of this country faced down King George. If I have said it once I have said it a thousand times, bullies run when you say, "Dammit, NO! I won't take it any more!" You have to squawk and squawk loud. You know in your heart that's the only way to get control of the schools again. And don't forget our goal is to inform the public what is going on in their schools so that we can get new people on the board who are not in sync with the crooks at ROSSAC. I am eager to see what the Ethics Commission from the Florida Bar does in its "further investigation" of Tom Gonzalez when it comes to town.

So the time is 4:30. Speak up and speak fast if it needs to be 5 pm. As my son--now a NASA engineer--used to say to me until it ran me crazy: "Be there, Ma, or be square." When he got too big for me to menace, I used to chase him with a broom, which amused him.

I expect Susie Creamcheese present if she has to come in a Halloween mask. This is a command performance for La Creamcheese.

This response tells me I am going to have to charm Paul Tash to come over the water from St. Pete to the downtown Tampa St. Pete Times bureau to meet us. He hates my guts for correcting his grammar, so that will be a challenge. But trust me, the kid here will do it.

Never underestimate the power of a Southern girl to charm her way to victory. In times of crisis a Southern girl can also pick up a gun and blow the brains out of the Yankee soldier who wants to rape Tara's women and steal the silver. Did you see Gone with the Wind? I have--twelve times. Scarlett is the role model of all of us Southern girls.

Versatility: that's the way to glide through life. lee

PS: I am now trying to confirm that Jennifer Pole Girl is a Republican. If so, I shall write the national, the state, the county, and the women's local Republican club run by Faye Culp to describe Jennifer's moral turpitude, the board's lack of ethics, and Ms. Elia's boss pathology to register a protest against a Family Values Protagonist on the school board. Oh, and the governor. Believe it or not my asking him in a public forum once if he were gay has paid off in his paying attention to my requests. He remembers me, you see. Don't ever praise politicians if you want them to remember you. Kick them. That's what they recall. I have lived with a mayor for twelve years and met boatloads of the breed and observed the phylum up close. I know what I am talking about. lee

From: Anonymous [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 11:23 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on <!-- GoStats JavaScript Based Code --> Gentlepeo....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post " Gentlepeo...":

Would love to go... but we are stuck at work until at least 3:15 by contract...

Now it's 4:30, so be there. lee

Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 5:52 PM

From: Anonymous [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 8:53 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on <!-- GoStats JavaScript Based Code --> Gentlepeo....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post " Gentlepeo...":

Would love to go... but we are stuck at work until at least 3:15 by contract...

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Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 5:52 PM

From: Anonymous [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 8:12 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on <!-- GoStats JavaScript Based Code --> Gentlepeo....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post " Gentlepeo...":

Geeeez Lee. 3:30 on a work day? I love you but but similar timing of School Board Meetings is another area of concern for teachers as we are not able to attend unless we take a day off. This will make it extremely difficult for most of us to be there.

David

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Gentlepeople:

I have set up a meeting with the Tribune publisher, Ms. Palmer, for this Thursday at 3:30 pm at the conference room in the TV building of the Tribune, on Kennedy near the bridge.

The purpose is to allow teachers to let the Tribune publisher know the teachers’ view of their struggle with the board and administration. It will be the teachers’ voices telling the most powerful media presence in our area their views of what is wrong with the school system, the superintendent, and the board.

Teacher attendance will be my test for the interest of teachers in improving education and teachers’ status in the school system.

I will not accept the excuse that teachers are too scared of their jobs to show up at this meeting on Thursday, March 6^{thp>, 3:30 pm, at the Tribune conference rooms in the TV building at the Kennedy Tribune Building near the bridge.}

^{Teachers can come to the meeting and give false names, explaining that they are too concerned about retaliation to give their real name. But if they do not come, they do not care about their situation. Griping in the halls is easy; showing up for this meeting and speaking out are challenging.}

^{I can fight but will not fight for people too scared to do anything to save themselves. That’s class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33"> just spinning my wheels.}

^{I look foreword to the turnout on Thursday March 7thont class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34"> at 3:30 p.m. at the Tribune Building. It will tell me the truth about teachers’ commitmont>ent to their betterment.}

^{If teachers aren’t sat class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">isfied with things as they are, they will show up.}

^{If we have a decent teacher turnout, I continue to fight; if we have only a few quixotic, brave objectors, I leave for other projects and leave the schools to a greedy, power hungry Elia, to the gutless board, and to heaven.}

^lee