To the Editor: “The Calling Has Come to Stand Our Ground”
August 24, 2023 • by Barbara McVeigh
Dear DailyClout,
Following the fires in Northern California, we started talking very quickly about the true source of the fires. I had the privilege to be on the ground interviewing 30-year veteran firemen, all of whom said they had NEVER seen fires like we had before. I got to tour a home with a family to see their neighborhood. There was literally a perfect rose bush with roses blooming that stood a foot away from a house made into an ash heap. It made NO sense. Watching the fires in Hawaii has us again on edge here in Marin County.
It was also a very sad day in Marin County, California today as a local grocery store has mandated masks for their employees. I stood outside with my sign and so many people were angry at me. One employee came outside to tell me that I was making the employees uncomfortable. A few passing people gave me a high five, but not many. Others just kept their heads down.
I aim to go back again tomorrow and I’m writing to all my congressional leaders right now. Do not comply. I got terminated as a teacher in September 2021 for not being vaccinated. Actually, I wasn’t terminated — my name literally disappeared from the system while I was in a classroom working. The office called me to tell me they were trying to do the paperwork to pay me, but couldn’t find me in the system to do so.
I have reached out to Teachers for Choice, following up with their NY lawsuit asking for back pay. I want to do the same. I asked the district about it and got a reply from their lawyers that I missed the one-year window for complaints.
I plan to stand my ground here in Marin County. If that means getting terminated from another job as a teacher, as I got terminated before for not being vaccinated in 2021, so be it. The calling has come to stand our ground.
Sincerely,
Barbara McVeigh is a mother and a teacher in Northern California. She is also an award winning international documentary film producer on issues of ocean health and social justice/the arts. When she was thirteen years old, her father stood in the 1981 National Union Strike to demand honesty in politics and her family lost almost everything when the government and media colluded to knock down the union. She learned the hard lessons about our civil responsibilities. Her calling, “It is time to stand again, full tilt before we lose everything.”
