-: And I questioned the principle about
what was so horrible about something that only
defended the rights of all Americans?
And his reply was,
"I'm telling you,
you both need to resign from this organization."
And I once again asked him,
what was so bad about it?
I recall him leaning over the desk and sticking his
elbow on the desk, finger in my face,
and said "What you have to understand
is you live in the Bible belt
and you will do as we say."
And his, I could see by that time
he was, he really meant it
and was serious.
And so the friend of mine,
history teacher said,
"I'll resign tomorrow. I will get out."
And so the principal looked at me,
and I said, "I won't do it."
And he said, "You will do it."
And I said, "No, no, I will not do it."
So he told us we can go back to our classrooms.
Well my friend did resign the next day,
and subsequently he was re-hired
at the end of the year.
This, gosh this, this must have been in the fall
of '74, '75, right around there.
Gosh, now my memory, anyway.
School contracts came up for renewal
every year in March.
March came
and my friend got his contract renewed.
Mine wasn't renewed and I was called in
by the principal and told
that at that time,
he was not saying I wouldn't be rehired,
but I had to show them that
I could follow school policies.
And so I said, "Well, what policies am I not following?"
And I recall him saying,
basically "you know what I'm talking about."
He didn't say you need to quit this union.
I assume by that time, he had
had many discussions with the lawyer
and with their school lawyer,
and so he didn't say that,
he just said "you understand what I'm talking about."
and I kept saying, "I don't."
and he said, "yes, you do."
And so that ended that,
and you can go back to your classroom now.
Can we stop just a minute, let me ask you a question?