"Terror" is the appropriate word

It seems we’ve been writing about the Chicago Tribune quite a bit lately.

Here we go again.

You might recall that, last week, the presidents of IEA and IFT sent a letter to the Tribune that began,

“How much longer will the Chicago Tribune allow itself to be used as a tool of terror by millionaire Eden Martin in his quest to deprive hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans of the reasonable retirement they, in large part, have paid for?”

It got even better after that.  You can read it in its entirety here.

It’s fair to say that the Tribune was not pleased.  In fact, it appears IEA’s Ken Swanson and IFT’s Ed Geppert hurt the feelings of the “World’s Greatest Newspaper.”

As terrorist acts go, a newspaper column that explains a legal opinion — and urges employees to help keep their own pension funds solvent — may strike you as fairly benign. But teachers union officials reacted to this “pension attack” by submitting their “tool-of-terror” response to the Tribune.

Yes, how dare the presidents of the two biggest education employee organizations in Illinois tell the Tribune that scaring people in an attempt to force a surrender is an abuse of power.

Did I mention that the op-ed column that led to the letter from the presidents was headlined “Pension check may not be in the mail”?

There’s been some criticism of the use of “terror” in this context.  The Trib was outraged and the Rockford paper also took note:

OK, the war has officially been declared. I mean, once the word “terror” or any of its derivatives gets into the act, you know the food fight just escaped the cafeteria and is on the hunt for new battlefields.

Please.

“Terror” is an ancient word and quite appropriate in this discussion.  To support that contention, let me introduce you to a retired teacher named Colette.

Colette is 80 years old.  She spent 29 of those years working as an elementary school teacher in some of Chicago’s most challenging schools.   It was hard work, but she was raising three young children on her own.  She did her best for her students and her family.  A promise was made to her about her retirement.

Colette receives an annual pension of about $41,000.  Because she was a teacher, she gets no social security benefit, not even receive a survivor’s partial benefit as a result of the death of her ex-husband.

Her pension check doesn’t come from the five state pension systems, but there are thousands of teachers like Colette all over Illinois.  Some receive more than she, many receive less, but most of them rely on that pension check for survival.

So, when the newspaper that so many teachers grew up with and have read his/her entire life prints a column that claims that the support that these teachers rely on could disappear, it’s fair to say the teachers experience “terror.”

Did I mention that the op-ed column that led to the letter from the presidents was headlined “Pension check may not be in the mail”?

When President Swanson submits his response to the Tribune’s complaining about the use of the word “terror,” there will be no apology.

Colette McBarron approves.

Mother knows best.