It’s that time of year. The days are getting longer, the sun a little warmer, and the grass is starting to green up again. Spring is just around the corner, and for many families, it means a long-awaited trip to somewhere even warmer for spring break.
At least that’s the way it used to be. Now, thanks to the pandemic and the political left still going on and on about the dangers of COVID, many are still quite hesitant to take vacations, even with a newly approved vaccine out and working.
But that doesn’t mean that some people won’t go to places like Florida, the Bahamas, or Jamaica.
And no, I’m not just talking about those the left would call science-ignoring conservatives.
As it turns out, there are plenty on the left side of the fence who aren’t having qualms about traveling, even internationally, in the coming weeks. They just don’t want you to know that – especially if they are to keep up the ruse that it’s too dangerous to send kids back to school.
Take one teachers union in Los Angeles, California, for instance.
They are under no misguided conception that their employees won’t be taking vacations in the coming weeks as scheduled spring breaks occur. They just ask that no pictures of those trips end up on social media.
And no, I’m not kidding.
The United Teachers Los Angeles teachers’ union issued a warning this past week to its members on Facebook, advising them not to post any pictures of their expected trips “because the optics would be bad.”
The message read as follows:
“Friendly reminder: If you are planning any trips for Spring Break, please keep that off of Social Media. It is hard to argue that it is unsafe for in-person instruction, if parents and the public see vacation photos and international travel.”
Fox LA network investigative journalist Bill Melugin found the post on the 5,700-member strong Facebook group and made sure to take a screenshot to prove their hypocrisy. Melugin explains that the group made it clear via this message and other comments that “the optics would be bad for them while UTLA is refusing to return to ‘unsafe’ in-person schooling” if such vacation pictures of its employees were seen on social media.
And to that extent, the group isn’t wrong. It would most certainly look bad.
Here you have a group of teachers and various other staff members who voted just last Friday 91 percent to keep in-person learning for California students unavailable unless a swarm of outrageous demands is met.
According to KNBC-TV, the group demands that all teachers and staff members be vaccinated, their county’s infection rate drops enough to put them out of the “purple” category and into the less dangerous “red,” and, of course, that all safety guidelines such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and daily sanitizing be provided before they go back to work.
And Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom has gone a long way to make these things happen, including offering $2 billion in incentives for any district that begins to reopen certain grades and allow students of specific situations back into the physical classroom.
But the teachers are so far unwilling.
Of course, they also claim that their “friendly reminder” about them not leaking vacation photos wasn’t really from them.
In a recent response to Melugin’s exposure of their double standards, UTLA said, “We have a diverse membership and they are able to post their views on personal Facebook pages and in this Facebook group – however UTLA does not monitor nor is responsible for the content. We do not want to discourage a robust dialogue for members in the public square of opinion.”
Right…
I’m not sure anyone in their right mind would buy that line of malarky. I mean, really, who’s going to believe that a warning of sorts written on the group’s Facebook page is just one person’s opinion?
You read the outcome of their most recent vote – 91 percent said no to in-person learning. Sure, I know that for a few, their fears of reopening schools are quite real, with some teachers having risk factors that should make them wary of such a move.
However, I can assure you that most, probably about 91 percent of them, don’t have anything to worry about. They just don’t want to work – which is precisely why such a “friendly reminder” was needed.