We've certainly had our fill of Joes this election. Joe six-pack, Joe the Plumber, Joe the Schmoe...
But, what is really bugging me is the Joe that speaks up every election season. The stupid Joe. The Joe who thinks the rich guys are all sticking it to them. All business owners are fat cats out to screw the regular guy. A guy who looks for someone in government to come along and redistribute the wealth. A red-blooded American with latent socialist beliefs.
From this you may deduce I was raised in a white collar home of privilege. Nope, couldn't be farther from the truth. I was raised in a Union home. Dad was, and I suppose still is UAW. My grandfather was UMW. I understand unions. I have benefited greatly from unions. Decent income for the family, good health coverage, car discounts, and great retirement benefits for my parents.
I would love for all of us to have this compensation package. Unfortunately, it was exactly these wages and benefits that drove jobs out of America. It was these unions that looked out for themselves and refused to see the bigger picture that doomed the economy. Of course, they didn't do it alone. Corporate greed definitely had their hands in the mess. But, that topic is adequately highlighted this election season.
Face it, we want to be paid top dollar, have great retirement and health benefits AND not pay a dime more for our goods and services.
Therein lies the rub. We can't have both. If workers get paid more, the costs will rise. And if costs rise in proportion to salaries, are we any better off than we were in the first place?
Sure some businesses could cut costs in their hierarchy to fund raises for Joe, however, over 52% of American jobs are provided by small business owners. These are frequently the people who take no time off, cover for workers when they are sick, do not give themselves raises, cannot afford health care for themselves but are expected to provide it for their employees and have invested their entire financial assets into their business. Their business goes under, Joe looks for another job, the owner is out not only a job, but also his or her life savings and their home.
We have raised our family on a frayed and often snapped shoestring. My husband worked over ten years in jobs where he was given no sick leave. You don't work, you don't get paid. It sucked. But it was a job. He also had his own company where any little profit that eked through went to paying our health care. I know what it is to pay that hefty bill every month.
But no where do I feel the government owes it to me to give me health care. Reform the system? Sure. Come up with a humane socialized health care that won't break the bank. I'm all ears. Investigate how insurance companies do their business, that would be congress doing their job.
But, when we are demanding 'our rights' at least be informed enough to know at what cost these benefits come.
For example. Obama is promising to cut the taxes of the middle class and still fund his programs by raising the taxes of business. My husband did some quick math. Our county has a population of 545,931. If every citizen was given a tax break or rebate of say $1,000, that would be $545,931,000. Let's cut it down. There are 217, 788 households making for $217,788,000 if $1,000 were given to each household.
We have over 12,000 businesses with 12 major employers. Assuming the twelve major employers would take on the brunt of this new tax, that would mean 18,149,000 in additional taxes. Additional. And did I mention three of these employers are non-profit tax exempt hospitals, one is a tax exempt city school district and another a tax exempt state university? That leaves one utility, four manufacturers with two in trade. Dividing the total between these seven employers that gives a additional tax burden of almost 31 million dollars. Who can absorb that and stay in business? And even if it could be done, how are they going to fund it? By passing it on to the consumer of course. Does the consumer ever win when business taxes are raised?
Interesting quote sam spade posted on the Southern Maryland on-line forum -
If a rich person wants more than he has - is it greed?
If a poor person wants more than he has - is it greed?
Really, isn't that the question in nutshell? I've been poor. Financially poor due to choices. We decided to have a parent raise our children and not daycare. It was a choice. Our choice. Why should the government bail us out for that? We live on one income. We've had to pay for health care. But through it all, there have been options available to change our situation. We just made choices to put the intangible needs of family first. Government already has in place generous tax breaks for people of low income and those raising children. Free lunch and breakfast for school age children. Food stamps, educational grants and so many other programs to give a leg up to those in the lower economic bracket.
So, this is one poor person saying, get real. We can't have some Utopian economic system where we all get great wages and benefits and costs remain low enough for all to take advantage of the endless bounty capitalism provides.
People who strive, work hard, invest their money, take the risks and suffer the sleepless nights should not be unduly punished for their ambition.
We need to get away from the 'they owe it to me' mentality. Joe, the rich do not owe you success. Government, quit trying to level the playing field with a track hoe. All you'll accomplish is digging a hole so deep that we will never get out.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
My Platform
Looking at those photos this morning so upset me, I took a moment to write down my thoughts for what we as a society need to change, enlarge, add or amend.
1. Foster Care for women who choose to keep their baby but have no one to help them through the pregnancy, deliver and settling into parenthood.
2. Health care for the child and mother and prenatal care.
3. Job Training
4, Education so every mother can achieve at a minimum a GED.
5. Job Placement
6. Safe, loving daycare
7. Birth control education - graphic by high school –what is really involved in an abortion, in labor, in being a single parent, in being a father, in adoption.
8. Availability of birth control.I don't like handing it out to everyone, per se, many don’t need or want it yet. I do think it should be available with no questions asked. Better to never be pregnant in the first place than have to make weighty decisions later.
9. A backing off of the topic of sex in TV, movies and music. No, not legislated. But kids are inundated. Can we not write of something else? Things can be funny or dramatic without sex.
10. Protection of women, girls and children.This one is hard to express, but I feel passionate about it. Society used to protect its women. Men used to protect women. Fathers used to protect their daughters. Community used to protect their children.While we women don’t want to be put into some kind of box, the reality is we are prey. It does no good for the rabbit to say he is just as strong as the fox. He isn’t.Our daughters need to know that. There is nothing wrong with good men protection women. Or good women protecting other women. We need to do all we can to assure rapes don’t happen.
11. Self-defense, safety smarts.Girls and women need to learn to defend themselves. We also need to be aware of how predators work so we can guard against them.
12. Stiff penalties for rapists.I don’t know much about this. What would deter a rapist? Are they often able to be rehabilitated? Again, we need to do all we can to assure rape doesn’t happen.
13. Safe places for girls and women to report fears, to ask questions, to find birth control.
Hot lines and centers that aren’t affiliated with pro-abortion or anti-abortion places.
Feel free to add your own ideas.
I have this sense what we need to do is stop looking to government to cure our problems. That these programs might be more efficient if run outside the government. Perhaps funded by grants, not an actual budget item.
I have this old fashioned notion that a great deal of our modern ills come from having moved off the front porch. When people know their neighbors, they can look out for each other. Help when needed. So often now we look to government to be the safety net instead of neighbors or community. I don’t think government makes the best safety net.I think people fall through the cracks because government is so big we assume there must be some program to help them. After all we pay enough in taxes.
OK, shoot the soap box out from under me. Just don’t shoot me. :)
1. Foster Care for women who choose to keep their baby but have no one to help them through the pregnancy, deliver and settling into parenthood.
2. Health care for the child and mother and prenatal care.
3. Job Training
4, Education so every mother can achieve at a minimum a GED.
5. Job Placement
6. Safe, loving daycare
7. Birth control education - graphic by high school –what is really involved in an abortion, in labor, in being a single parent, in being a father, in adoption.
8. Availability of birth control.I don't like handing it out to everyone, per se, many don’t need or want it yet. I do think it should be available with no questions asked. Better to never be pregnant in the first place than have to make weighty decisions later.
9. A backing off of the topic of sex in TV, movies and music. No, not legislated. But kids are inundated. Can we not write of something else? Things can be funny or dramatic without sex.
10. Protection of women, girls and children.This one is hard to express, but I feel passionate about it. Society used to protect its women. Men used to protect women. Fathers used to protect their daughters. Community used to protect their children.While we women don’t want to be put into some kind of box, the reality is we are prey. It does no good for the rabbit to say he is just as strong as the fox. He isn’t.Our daughters need to know that. There is nothing wrong with good men protection women. Or good women protecting other women. We need to do all we can to assure rapes don’t happen.
11. Self-defense, safety smarts.Girls and women need to learn to defend themselves. We also need to be aware of how predators work so we can guard against them.
12. Stiff penalties for rapists.I don’t know much about this. What would deter a rapist? Are they often able to be rehabilitated? Again, we need to do all we can to assure rape doesn’t happen.
13. Safe places for girls and women to report fears, to ask questions, to find birth control.
Hot lines and centers that aren’t affiliated with pro-abortion or anti-abortion places.
Feel free to add your own ideas.
I have this sense what we need to do is stop looking to government to cure our problems. That these programs might be more efficient if run outside the government. Perhaps funded by grants, not an actual budget item.
I have this old fashioned notion that a great deal of our modern ills come from having moved off the front porch. When people know their neighbors, they can look out for each other. Help when needed. So often now we look to government to be the safety net instead of neighbors or community. I don’t think government makes the best safety net.I think people fall through the cracks because government is so big we assume there must be some program to help them. After all we pay enough in taxes.
OK, shoot the soap box out from under me. Just don’t shoot me. :)
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I Love Christmas Music
I have been listening to Christmas music. Have been for some time now. I think I began about the time the political ads became a cancer on the airwaves.
There is much that is soothing in listing to the melodies of childhood, for I do not listen to modern carols. No, I plug into the great artists who graced the Goodyear and Firestone albums each year. Bing, Frank, Julie, Andy, Lennon Sisters, Johnny Mathis, Robert Goulet, Steve and Edie, New Christy Minstrels and so many more.
For those of you not from Northeast Ohio, back in the late 60’s to early 70’s, the rubber giants of Akron sold Christmas albums each year in the grocery stores, or somewhere highly available. I was just a tot at the time. Goodyear’s were the best. It was to those albums we baked cookies, decorated the house, checked strings of lights and trimmed the tree. We had a state of the art stereo in a cabinet of pecan finish. Mom will correct me if I have it wrong. There was a compartment for the albums, a turntable where we stacked those precious LP’s and best of all, a red power light in the fabric that covered the speakers. It was this light that fascinated me as a child. It was just like Rudolph’s nose. I remember spending what seemed to be hours fascinated by it.
There was a sliding glass door from which we could watch the snow. A blonde oak piano where mom played carols and Christmas tunes from beautifully decorative sheet music old enough to have been sold for a nickel. Christmas choral and band concerts to perform and attend. Traditions of opening one gift before going to sunrise Church service and the yearly new dress. Memorizing the Christmas story from the second chapter of Luke. The pageants of shepherds in burlap, angel wings of cardboard trimmed with bright silver garland, halos of coat hangers, wisemen’s beards of cotton kept fast with rubber string. Opening gifts Christmas morning and then packing the station wagon to go back to the hills of Pennsylvania to spend the week with the grandparents. A farm still beloved and a house in a little coal mining town that still haunts my dreams.
All this and so much more comes flooding back when I click on Live365. A much better place to spend a few hours than in the midst of a presidential campaign.
There is much that is soothing in listing to the melodies of childhood, for I do not listen to modern carols. No, I plug into the great artists who graced the Goodyear and Firestone albums each year. Bing, Frank, Julie, Andy, Lennon Sisters, Johnny Mathis, Robert Goulet, Steve and Edie, New Christy Minstrels and so many more.
For those of you not from Northeast Ohio, back in the late 60’s to early 70’s, the rubber giants of Akron sold Christmas albums each year in the grocery stores, or somewhere highly available. I was just a tot at the time. Goodyear’s were the best. It was to those albums we baked cookies, decorated the house, checked strings of lights and trimmed the tree. We had a state of the art stereo in a cabinet of pecan finish. Mom will correct me if I have it wrong. There was a compartment for the albums, a turntable where we stacked those precious LP’s and best of all, a red power light in the fabric that covered the speakers. It was this light that fascinated me as a child. It was just like Rudolph’s nose. I remember spending what seemed to be hours fascinated by it.
There was a sliding glass door from which we could watch the snow. A blonde oak piano where mom played carols and Christmas tunes from beautifully decorative sheet music old enough to have been sold for a nickel. Christmas choral and band concerts to perform and attend. Traditions of opening one gift before going to sunrise Church service and the yearly new dress. Memorizing the Christmas story from the second chapter of Luke. The pageants of shepherds in burlap, angel wings of cardboard trimmed with bright silver garland, halos of coat hangers, wisemen’s beards of cotton kept fast with rubber string. Opening gifts Christmas morning and then packing the station wagon to go back to the hills of Pennsylvania to spend the week with the grandparents. A farm still beloved and a house in a little coal mining town that still haunts my dreams.
All this and so much more comes flooding back when I click on Live365. A much better place to spend a few hours than in the midst of a presidential campaign.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Colin Powel Endorses Obama
A surprise, and yet not a surprise that Colin Powel has come out on the side of Obama.
And it is a great relief.
Colin Powel is the one and only man in politics for which I have respect. If he, from his insider position, has examined the facts and feels Obama is the better man for the job, then I heave a great sigh of relief.
I can’t wait until this election is over and we can move on. I hate party politics for the way they focus on the negative and divide our nation.
One thing I have resolved is I am going to be a more active citizen. I will correspond with my elected officials on issues that matter to me. I will think of innovative ways of addressing issues and offer those suggestions. Hopefully, my elected officials will appreciate input. Why should all the ideas come from inside government?
For example, one thing that has been milling around in my brain is foster care for expectant mothers. Young women who choose to keep their baby, but do not have the home support they need could be placed in a foster home with people who will help her with prenatal care, preparing for her child, finances, getting prepared to take care of a child and be a single mother. It is a responsibility I would take on.
But, more on that later.
I hope if Obama is elected, and it appears he will be, Colin Powel will be part of his government.
And it is a great relief.
Colin Powel is the one and only man in politics for which I have respect. If he, from his insider position, has examined the facts and feels Obama is the better man for the job, then I heave a great sigh of relief.
I can’t wait until this election is over and we can move on. I hate party politics for the way they focus on the negative and divide our nation.
One thing I have resolved is I am going to be a more active citizen. I will correspond with my elected officials on issues that matter to me. I will think of innovative ways of addressing issues and offer those suggestions. Hopefully, my elected officials will appreciate input. Why should all the ideas come from inside government?
For example, one thing that has been milling around in my brain is foster care for expectant mothers. Young women who choose to keep their baby, but do not have the home support they need could be placed in a foster home with people who will help her with prenatal care, preparing for her child, finances, getting prepared to take care of a child and be a single mother. It is a responsibility I would take on.
But, more on that later.
I hope if Obama is elected, and it appears he will be, Colin Powel will be part of his government.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Teachers Go Too Far
I read this today in an article by Thomas Sowell.
– “The arrogance of third parties, who take it upon themselves to treat other people's children as a captive audience to brainwash with politically correct notions, while taking no responsibility for the consequences to those children or society, is part of the general vision of the left that pervades our education system.”
As a parent, this is exactly how I have felt on numerous occasions. My ten-year-old’s teachers have been filling his head with pro-Democratic rhetoric for the last two years. Teachers I admire as well as teachers I dislike have been abusing their power to indoctrinate impressionable minds into their ideology. This is an abuse of power of the most reprehensible kind. Teachers do hold our children captive in their classrooms. In this state regulated setting, it is not their place to foster their ideals upon our children. They were hired to teach state approved subject matter, not share their beliefs or voting preferences.
If, and I do emphasize if, politics are to be discussed in the classroom, then it needs to be done fairly and in depth. Which opens up an entire cannery of worms. For example, can we really discuss the beliefs of the two parties without bring up abortion? It is a pivotal point.
Last night as we watched the debate, it kept niggling at me that my son was an Obama supporter based upon what his teachers had told him. Should I allow him to remain in the bliss of ignorance or should he be indoctrinated into the real world.
I decided to take the plunge.
I explained what abortion was. This little boy loves babies and the knowledge that people are free to kill them did not sit well with him. I explained many pro-choice advocates do not believe life begins until birth and so do not look upon it as murder. He didn’t buy it.
I hated to have to do that, but I feel his teachers backed me into that corner. It would be wrong for him to continue to believe all about the Obama campaign is sunshine and roses. It isn’t. Not by a long shot.
Some may say that now I am the one who is unduly influencing this child. Perhaps, but he is my child and as his parent, it is not only my right, but more importantly my responsibility to raise him in the beliefs as I see fit. If knowing the whole truth, or as wholly as we can ever achieve, he still decides to believe in Obama, then that is his choice. What I resent are teachers who present only the utopian image.
And, while I am on the subject. This greatly disturbs me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVn59TC2QqM&NR=1
My Muslim faith? I have a great deal of difficulty believing this was just a slip of the tongue. Of course it is possible, however, as a life-long Christian I cannot image ever making that slip. Somethings your subconscious protects you from.
If the man is a Muslim, fine. But don’t hide behind the cross just to get elected.
– “The arrogance of third parties, who take it upon themselves to treat other people's children as a captive audience to brainwash with politically correct notions, while taking no responsibility for the consequences to those children or society, is part of the general vision of the left that pervades our education system.”
As a parent, this is exactly how I have felt on numerous occasions. My ten-year-old’s teachers have been filling his head with pro-Democratic rhetoric for the last two years. Teachers I admire as well as teachers I dislike have been abusing their power to indoctrinate impressionable minds into their ideology. This is an abuse of power of the most reprehensible kind. Teachers do hold our children captive in their classrooms. In this state regulated setting, it is not their place to foster their ideals upon our children. They were hired to teach state approved subject matter, not share their beliefs or voting preferences.
If, and I do emphasize if, politics are to be discussed in the classroom, then it needs to be done fairly and in depth. Which opens up an entire cannery of worms. For example, can we really discuss the beliefs of the two parties without bring up abortion? It is a pivotal point.
Last night as we watched the debate, it kept niggling at me that my son was an Obama supporter based upon what his teachers had told him. Should I allow him to remain in the bliss of ignorance or should he be indoctrinated into the real world.
I decided to take the plunge.
I explained what abortion was. This little boy loves babies and the knowledge that people are free to kill them did not sit well with him. I explained many pro-choice advocates do not believe life begins until birth and so do not look upon it as murder. He didn’t buy it.
I hated to have to do that, but I feel his teachers backed me into that corner. It would be wrong for him to continue to believe all about the Obama campaign is sunshine and roses. It isn’t. Not by a long shot.
Some may say that now I am the one who is unduly influencing this child. Perhaps, but he is my child and as his parent, it is not only my right, but more importantly my responsibility to raise him in the beliefs as I see fit. If knowing the whole truth, or as wholly as we can ever achieve, he still decides to believe in Obama, then that is his choice. What I resent are teachers who present only the utopian image.
And, while I am on the subject. This greatly disturbs me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVn59TC2QqM&NR=1
My Muslim faith? I have a great deal of difficulty believing this was just a slip of the tongue. Of course it is possible, however, as a life-long Christian I cannot image ever making that slip. Somethings your subconscious protects you from.
If the man is a Muslim, fine. But don’t hide behind the cross just to get elected.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
How to Be a Grasshopper in a World of Ants
I was born a grasshopper in a family of ants. In my family, it’s all about what you do. Never what do you think or feel or believe, no, it’s all about what did you do.
The fable is a familiar one. The grasshopper sings and plays away the summer while the ant works, works and works. Then come winter, the grasshopper freezes its wings off while the ant basks in the warmth of its cozy home eating melted tootsie pops on pretzel crumbs.
I always knew I was the grasshopper and my siblings the ants. I knew I needed to change or come winter they’d slam the door in my face with all the snugness of a thousand ‘I told you so’s’. It’s a battle I’ve been fighting all my life. Then suddenly today the truth dawned on me in all its simplicity.
How can a grasshopper ever be an ant?
Why can’t I just embrace the fact that I am a grasshopper?
In the newer ‘softer and gentler’ version of the story, the ants realize this truth. They take the grasshopper in out of the snow. In return, all through the long cold months of winter, the grasshopper entertains them.
The German Anabaptist ancestral DNA in me screams out to disregard this perversion of Aesop’s moral. Life is all about the work. Don’t allow a clueless culture to convince you otherwise. To be is to do. Dobedobedo.
So, winter is coming. To shut my ancestors up, I suppose I’ll get away from this computer and go do something.
The fable is a familiar one. The grasshopper sings and plays away the summer while the ant works, works and works. Then come winter, the grasshopper freezes its wings off while the ant basks in the warmth of its cozy home eating melted tootsie pops on pretzel crumbs.
I always knew I was the grasshopper and my siblings the ants. I knew I needed to change or come winter they’d slam the door in my face with all the snugness of a thousand ‘I told you so’s’. It’s a battle I’ve been fighting all my life. Then suddenly today the truth dawned on me in all its simplicity.
How can a grasshopper ever be an ant?
Why can’t I just embrace the fact that I am a grasshopper?
In the newer ‘softer and gentler’ version of the story, the ants realize this truth. They take the grasshopper in out of the snow. In return, all through the long cold months of winter, the grasshopper entertains them.
The German Anabaptist ancestral DNA in me screams out to disregard this perversion of Aesop’s moral. Life is all about the work. Don’t allow a clueless culture to convince you otherwise. To be is to do. Dobedobedo.
So, winter is coming. To shut my ancestors up, I suppose I’ll get away from this computer and go do something.
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