Jim N. Reed’s speech to the STRS Board, December 14, 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Jim N. Reed and I am an STRS contributor and beneficiary. I have taught in the Liberty Union-Thurston Schools in Fairfield County for 42 years. My remarks today represent my personal opinion but I suspect they are shared by many others.

When I have appeared before this Board in the past I have described my relationship with my retirement system as contentious, one too often associated with disappointment, disillusionment, disgust. I am a member of the class of ’98, one of those retirees who got caught in the cracks during the transition that cost our retirement system its “Cadillac” reputation and that has proven so costly, figuratively and literally, to so many retirees.

Today, I would like to soften the rhetoric in a humble attempt to honor the memory of Mr. Tom Mooney. Though I did not know Mr. Mooney personally as many of you did, I was in attendance at the September Concerned Ohio Retired Educators meeting and had the opportunity to see and sense him in action. One could not help but be impressed with his genuineness, his affection for the cause of a better education process. Pertinent questions were posed to Mr. Mooney during the meeting…”How can we (educators) get the STRS Board members to act realistically. How can we encourage them to stop being rubber stamps and to analyze each matter before them for the benefit of all teachers?”

Included among his recommendations were that educators must be encouraged to have more dialogue with STRS Board members, that educators must improve their attendance at STRS Board meetings, and that educators must give constructive speeches. I must admit this latter admonition got my attention.How

Reading numerous commendations to his life’s dedication to education, I was struck by the number of times I read the same two words used by loved ones, friends and colleagues to describe this extraordinary man’s life…passion and professionalism.

In that spirit, I would challenge all of us in this audience this afternoon to make the extra effort, in Mr. Mooney’s memory, to add to his legacy of loyalty to the education profession with the same passion that became his trademark.

Let us memorialize his untimely passing by grasping this opportunity to reduce the adversarial positions in which we have too often found ourselves. Let us step back and take a deep breath, a fresh breath of hope that this evolving Board and its constituents can find more common ground on which to regain mutual respect and trust.

Mr. Mooney’s life may have been brief but it sparkled with his adamant insistence that education must continue to be bettered for its producers and its consumers. He was a true crusader with a cause to which he gave himself selflessly. His sacrifices have made him an education martyr.

Let us find a path that will compliment his passion and his sacrifices in a bipartisan search for ideas to improve the lives of all in his and in our profession.