Yawn....
talk about same old drivel! you're like a broken record player.
You can't take away his soapbox TC, it's all rez has. how would he maintain his superiority complex
I say many don't particapte in democracy and self government (which is truth) of thier career and this is your reply? I rest my case....
You know I am pro-in-house Union, Rez. ALPA has to play the "credibility" game or the politicians won't listen to them (not that they listen anyway) ALPA touts this as if it were a virtue when it is a weakness. That's a HUGE con about National...they can't muddy the waters, effectively rolling over on their membership.
Exactly right. This is politics. (Did you think your career was anything but!!) You want ALPA to tell the politicans HOW IS GOING TO BE. Sorry it doesn't work like that. If everyone went to DC and told the politicans how it was going to be, we'd get nowhere.
Again, you have this perception that ALPA has or should have more power than it should. It never did. You just think it should.
Unions are not regulatory and they don't have deep pockets...
1. Regulatory... ALPA isn't the gov't, so they can't make laws.
2. Deep Pockets. Even management isn't the gov't, they can't make laws but they have deep pockets.
As you move down the food chain, we'll get to unions and air line pilots. As Air Line Pilots we all want to think we are wunderkinds, but in DC we are just above whalesh!t. That isn't ALPA's fault. Welcome to America.
And Copilotdoug, this is where your in-house idea would fail miserably. Mixed messages are fodder in DC. Multiple in house unions trying to get heard in DC can never work. Take a look at CAPA. A conglomerate of in house unions that form a legislative 'union' to have a voice.
Since unions are not regulatory.... they must have consensus!! If we want to make this profession something worth while, we have to speak as one voice. This is why everyone is so misreable...
The reason why you detest ALPA is because ALPA doesn't serve your career needs like you want. The reason is: you don't serve yourself and your fellow pilots. You expect to be served, so natually you are disapointed.
How can you expect the ALPA leadership to satisfy the wishes of the membership if they do not speak up. Particapte. Not involved.
There is minority particaption in Air Line Pilot careers!!
Combined with the fact that ALPA has 60,000 pilots they are obligated to, not just you, in addition to its level of importance in the US economy (recall the whalesh!t example). If you wanted to have a high level of career satisfaction perhaps you should have found a better career. Who's fault is that? ALPA?
Here is friendly reminder for all you ALPA haters:
While volunteering for a good cause is important, it is not enough. This country will only survive and progress as a democracy if its citizens—young and old alike—take an active role in its political life as well.
Sad to say, that precious franchise, purchased and preserved by the blood of hundreds of thousands of Americans your age and younger from 1776 to today, has not been adequately appreciated or exercised by your generation.
In 2004, with our nation embroiled in two difficult and controversial wars, the voting percentage was only 42 percent for those aged 18 to 24.
Ed Muskie, former senator and Secretary of State, once said that “you have the God given right to kick the government around.” And it starts with voting, and becoming involved in campaigns. If you think that too many politicians are feckless and corrupt, then go out and help elect different ones. Or go out and run yourself. But you must participate, or else the decisions that affect your life and the future of our country will be made for you—and without you.
So vote. And volunteer. But also consider doing something else: dedicating at least part of your life in service to our country.
I entered public life more than 40 years ago, and no one is more familiar with the hassles, frustrations and sacrifices of public service than I am. Government is, by design of the Founding Fathers, slow, unwieldy and almost comically inefficient. Will Rogers used to say: “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
These frustrations are inherent in a system of checks and balances, of divisions and limitations of power. Our Founding Fathers did not have efficiency as their primary goal. They designed a system intended to sustain and protect liberty for the ages. Getting things done in government is not easy, but it’s not supposed to be.
I will close with a quote from a letter John Adams sent to one of their other sons, Thomas Boylston Adams. And he wrote:“Public business, my son, must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or another. If wise men decline it, others will not; if honest men refuse it, others will not.”
Will the wise and the honest among you come help us serve the American people?
