RTC Chapter Leader Tom Murphy says the long wait for an outcome in the presidential election has been worth it. "I look for Biden to express the best we as a nation have to offer," he says.

As part of a 12-class Si Beagle schedule put together for Westchester Section retirees, members are creating historic records of the pandemic of 2020 in the COVID Metamorphosis Class, writing memoirs of life as we are living it today.

Joseph Lukose, a school social worker in Queens for 32 years, went back to his roots in retirement. A native of India, he is now a hobby farmer in south Florida, planting and nurturing the tropical fruit trees that surrounded him in his youth.

Members who retired after June 30, 2014, are eligible for the first half of their final lump-sum payment in November.

UFT Retired Teachers Chapter volunteers are calling fellow members in the swing state of Florida to get out the vote for Joe Biden. But instead of urging them to go to the polls, they’re making sure members receive and quickly return mail-in ballots.

The attacks from this administration on our hard-earned benefits and on our aspirations for the society we helped build require that, in this national crisis, we use all our mutual credibility to secure our future.

The UFT has been a political player since its founding 60 years ago. Now, for the crucial presidential election on Nov. 3, UFT retiree volunteers have been busier than ever as they work to turn out a record vote for the Biden/Harris ticket.

The 7,500 UFT retirees who live permanently in Florida, as well as thousands of winter part-timers known as “snow birds,” continue to await the reopening of the remodeled Florida Retiree Center in Boca Raton, the busy hub that serves them all.

Lily Tomlin: “Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.” In the White House, the occupant has been whining, finger-pointing, dividing and complaining since Day One. Imagine having him in your classroom as a student. But the complainer in chief isn’t alone. We all indulge. My message is: Complain but act.

RTC members in Florida flocked to Boca Raton for the reopening of the remodeled Florida Retiree Center on Feb. 27. UFT President Michael Mulgrew and Treasurer Debra Penny cut the ribbon during the ceremony, while (back, from second left) Retired Teachers Chapter Leader Tom Murphy and Florida Section Coordinator Ken Goodfriend joined other onlookers.