the guy by the door …

To my Union,  my friends,  faculty, students, and fellow workers:

I wanted to take pictures of the police attack on the folks camping at the Fort Channel portion of Rose’s Greenway. So their was the question as to whether I might be arrested as “collateral damage”.  So when the young woman from National Lawyers Guild suggested that she would lend out her marker to put their number on our arms I went right to her.  It seemed more direct for her to write it directly on my arm than to dictate it. It made me feel cared for. There was not a sexual thought in my head at the time. Mostly it was a twinge of fear at what might be about to happen.  But to those of you who assumed I was having sexual thoughts, thank you. I have left the number on, since there was the question of whether the Boston Police Special Operations Unit would be ordered to attack the folks in Dewey Square. The original order said that if the folks in the Fort Point Channel park did not vacate,  both camps would be cleared. They did not vacate, but were forcibly removed. I have heard no official statement about the dispostion of the original camp except that Mayor Menino has declared that “we have overstayed our welcome”. So I have left the number on for tactical reasons. And besides the young woman from NLG made me feel cared for. I’m 64 years old. It was suggested to me that my age would get me a safe conduct pass from BPD-SOU.  But that was proved wrong in the wee hours of October 11, 2011. Members of the Boston Chapter of the Veterans for Peace better known as the Smedley Butler Brigade, some of them older than me, were pushed onto the ground and arrested for holding their flags in Fort Channel Park. I know some of them guys and gals. I’m not a happy camper.

So here’s the thing. I want to leave the number on, but I have to go to work at Harvard’s fabulous Lamont Library.  I certainly have the right under Federal, State, and Municipal law to keep it on. But Jeffrey Feuer of the firm of Feuer and Goldstein has pointed out to me that most of us sign away a lot of our rights when we sign an employment contract.  An example of this is the disciplinary process of the agreement between Harvard University and the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers[hereinafter referred to as the Agreement  🙂  ]. Tim Gray of HCL Operations has made allegations against me.  My union rep and I dispute them and ask for the supporting documents on which the allegations are based – i.e. ‘the evidence’.  He agrees to produce it, and but hasn’t. There doesn’t seem to be any requirement to support an allegation nor any discipline on managers who make false allegations against their employees. I think we need to work on that.

So the question for those of you familiar with labor law and The Agreement and sideletters, can I legally be required to remove the number of the National Lawyers Guild from my arm while I stand watch at the Lamont Library. Simple question. I’m sorry. I forgot. Some of you are lawyers.

Afterthought: There are people who work at Harvard who have tattoos.