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Keyser Söze

On 11/27/15 8:52 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 27 Nov 2015 19:14:03 -0500,
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Nov 2015 18:53:37 -0500, Keyser Söze
wrote:

Well, hell, they got rid of you as a teacher.

Because I retired? What a stupid comment.
--

Call it whatever you want.

===

Why did the NEA get rid of you? That seems like it should have been a
good gig for your talents.

He retired ;-)

The reality is that the Republican lobbyist the NEA affiliate had on
retainer in New York State sent my name and C.V. and a recommendation to
Jacob Javits, a Republican U.S. Senator who was looking for a new press
secretary, and the senator invited me down to D.C. for an interview. He
wasn't sure whether he was going to run for another term, and I was
reluctant to commit if he wasn't.

In those days, many Republican officeholders were decent people, and
progressive, and not crackpot conservatives. Javits was one of these
decent pols.

During the same trip to meet Javits, I had an interview with the then
biggest AAAA Ad and PR agency in DC, and that agency hired me as the
account exec on its labor union and political accounts, and two
commercial accounts. I took the job because I was weary of working for
the teachers union, and I had just completed two really significant
tasks: "roadie" PR manager for a woman running for NEA president elect
(successful) and merger of the NEA affiliate and the AFT affiliate in
New York State (successful).

Some years later, I was retained by the NEA to produce a series of
political ads and brochures.

I did have a lot of fun working for the teachers' unions in New York
State. I had a professional staff of seven working for me, and we did
our jobs. After I left, my first assistant took a job as director of PR
for the teachers' union in Hawaii, which had to be a dream gig.