You are repeating the same dumb thing the "Captain" did.

This is a national convention. They have other things to discuss at this ANNUAL MEETING besides classroom behavior and professional development, which they handle through roundtables, publications, and regional associations all year round. If they want to discuss retirement and an organizational concern at an annual meeting (annual = once a year), why shouldn't they? If they want to discuss members' exposure to latex (to which some people are highly allergic -- ask a nurse), which they use because of health concerns, or exposure to mercury, a poison, and retirement, so what? This discussion, once a year, does not invalidate all the other things the organization does to support its members' profession for the rest of the year.

They want membership that pays dues, you say? The horror!!! They might actually want to offer grants, conduct research, write and publish articles, develop toolkits, etc., for teachers, parents, and other members of the public to access. Oh, and yes, they will use some of it to lobby. If business can do it, if other professions can do it, then teachers can do it too. They actually have legitimate interests to advocate, hard as that might be to believe. What might they do with the money? They do this, and this, and this, and this, just to cite a few. Of course, the greedy so-and-sos are probably paid for their time. Disgraceful!

If you want to repeat the same things the "Captain" said, and not go to the website to discover the rest of the story, that's fine. If you want to propose that the administrative details of the labor end of the organization actually represents the sum of NEA's mission, well then, there's nothing I can say.

Are you, as an individual, represented by your tax return? Is your church represented by its budget meetings and organizational committees? No? Then why is the NEA held to that standard? Oh, yes: because you want them to be bad.

Naturally, nothing they say apart from what you choose to look at is to be trusted. Remember that the next time you want anyone to take the President's speeches seriously.