Things that make you go…WTH?!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written anything.  Not for lack of trying, nor lack of ideas; I even wrote half a post, but never published it. It seems I’ve gone sort of ADD on stupid. I’ve ricocheted off recent stories in the news and online, each one more stupid than the next, each one begging to be expounded upon. Unable to focus, I’ve felt like the love child of Rachel Maddow and Lewis Black—a cross between astonished, dumbfounded and on the brink of an aneurysm.

It all started with a mildly enough, with a story from Maine (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/23/maine-paul-lepage-unions-labor-mural_n_839520.html) about their Governor demanding that some murals erected in 2008 in the Department of Labor building be removed because they were too “pro-labor.”  What?  The Department of Labor being pro-labor? To hell, you say!  What were they thinking? Apparently there was a perception that the pro-labor artwork, housed in the state department of the same name could be giving business owners the heebie jeebies and not making them feel sufficiently warm and fuzzy.

“Additionally, the state would be renaming eight conference rooms, many of which commemorate former labor leaders and one honoring the first female U.S. Cabinet secretary.”

Maine DOL Acting Commissioner Laura Boyett  stated that, “whether or not the perception is valid is not really at issue and therefore, not open to debate.” Wow. Way to shut down a conversation.  Hope she’s on the negotiation team!

I was immediately reminded of a scene from the film Cradle Will Rock (if you haven’t seen it, you should). Based on actual people and events, part of the story involves Rockefeller hiring Diego Rivera to paint a mural for one of his buildings.  Diego includes people in his mural that Rockefeller finds offensive, and after a dispute, Rockefeller orders the entire mural destroyed.  The scene of the work being jackhammered off the wall is both stunning and heartbreaking.

To the Governor’s credit, the story did report that his office was “exploring alternative places to keep the mural, perhaps in the state museum, and believes they can move it without damaging the artwork.”

It was at this point that I’d planned on launching into a pithy discussion of the value of art, particularly that which is non-aesthetic, controversial or otherwise not “pretty,” but I was derailed. Derailed by stupid.

Several years ago, I was watching an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO.  The panel was, of course, discussing some controversial topic.  Voices were raised.  Panties were in a twist.  One panelist, from Canada I believe, admitted that she was offended by the views of a fellow guest. ‘But if you are not offended by something every day,’ she said, ‘you are not alive.’

Apparently, there is no doubt that I am among the living.

From the utter “huh?” of my inner Rachel Maddow, I moved to apoplectic brain freeze when I read the headline: “Rick Santorum Blames Abortion For Social Security Woes” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/29/rick-santorum-blames-abor_n_841940.html). Have you ever heard Lewis Black tell the “If It Weren’t for My Horse…” story? If not, Google it.  Do it right now. I’ll wait. Because that’s the kind of moment I had when I read this headline.

And like a train wreck, I had to look.  I had to click on the link.  I had to read the story about how Republican (and “potential presidential candidate”) Rick Santorum, while speaking on a NH radio show, stated that he blames legalized abortion for the underfunded Social Security Administration.

For the moment, I ask you to put aside whatever your personal views on abortion may be.  I have my opinion; I’m sure you have yours.  The discussion of whether legalized abortion is right or wrong is not the issue I have with this story. The completely derailed logic train is.  Even as I write this, I must pause to rub my temples and try to make it make sense.

According to the report, Mr. Santorum explained that the reason Social Security “is in big trouble is that there aren’t enough workers to support retirees.”  Certainly this is a major factor, which is no news to anyone who has a clue that the Baby Boomers have been marching steadily towards retirement for some time now. No real headlines here. But this next bit…

“He blamed that [not having enough workers to support retirees] on what he called the nation’s abortion culture. He says that culture… den[ies] America what it needs — more people.”

If it weren’t for my horse…

The levels of wrong, the layers upon layers… I barely know where to begin. It is true that if more people were paying into Social Security than taking out, it would presumably be in better shape. Unfortunately, there’s currently a large chunk of the work-age population that is already UNEMPLOYED. So it does not seem to follow that adding more people to the mix is actually going help, since there currently aren’t enough jobs for the people we’ve already got.

It also seems rather presumptuous that ALL these people would be productive members of society. Certainly at least some of those people would be adding to an overcrowded prison system, for example. The very thought of “needing” more people gave me visions of women locked away in some Orwellian nightmare, forced to have children in order to keep the governmental system running smoothly. And let’s not even consider the general overpopulation of the planet to begin with, and the fact that having more people in this generation would mean “needing” to have more people in the next, and so on and so on…

If it weren’t for my horse…

And from that story, I just moved on to plain old pissed off, when I read about our good friends at the Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida.  You may recall that the leader of this church, Rev. Terry Jones, nearly started an international incident last year when he threatened Burn a Quran Day, which Jesus apparently told him was a good idea, but later told him, not so much. With Spring in the air, however, it seems the right reverend was on the red phone to heaven once again and this time successfully burned the Muslim holy book on March 20^th at his “church,” which has now been abandoned by almost all its parishioners.

A ‘spectator’ at the event taped the whole thing and posted it on the world wide web, where it was apparently viewed by, you know, the WORLD.  Afghan leaders, being part of the world, saw the video and publicly condemned the act 4 days later (which appears to be the length of time for www world travel), fueling days of violence in that country “where demonstrators set cars and shops ablaze Saturday in a riot that killed nine protesters” and endangered the lives of countless U.S. military personnel serving overseas. Another pastor at the church thought the riots were a shame, but sooo not their fault and he did not regret the action: “I in no way feel like our church is responsible for what happened.”

Really?  You don’t feel at all responsible? The whole part last time when you were considering this epic move, where the General in charge of the armed forces in Afghanastan and the frickin’ President of the United States were telling you not to burn the Quran and how it would needlessly endanger countless lives—that wasn’t a clue? Responsible: “chargeable with being the author, cause, or occasion of something (usually followed by for )”

Freedom of speech is a great thing and I am all for it.  But with freedom comes responsibility. There’s a reason you can’t yell fire in a theatre—you don’t get to do that because people could get hurt.  People could die.

In discussing the death threats he’s received since the incident, Rev. Jones claimed he was ‘prepared to die for what he felt was right.’ How noble of him!  I’m sure that makes the men and women currently stationed in the Middle East who have now been placed in additional danger due to his actions feel sooo much better. Surely they’ll sleep better tonight knowing Terry is willing to be a martyr for stupid people everywhere.  If they can sleep at all…

And then I read that this brilliant man now “plans to hold a trial of the Prophet Mohammed for ‘crimes against humanity’.” Tell me, is there a patron saint of jackasses??

On a lighter note, at least there was some good news: the last minute national budget fix didn’t zero out federal funding for the arts.  Good thing, too; clearly all these men need to watch some PBS and get a frickin’ grip.

I love it when things come full circle.

Teachers are taxpayers, too (and so are all the other public employees)

I am in the unique position of having been a public school teacher (albeit for a brief time), having worked in the private sector for a number of years, and being currently employeed in the public sector in a non-teaching position, too.

Watching the drama in Wisconsin unfold (and drama is certainly the appropriate word), a mix of repulsion and morbid curiosity washes over me. Much like watching a car wreck: you don’t want to keep looking, yet somehow you’re horrified to realize that it’s difficult to look away.

As with much of the political rhetoric of recent years, the use of language by politicians (and would-be politicians) is both fascinating and frightening.

In one speech defending his position on cutting teacher salaries and prohibiting collective bargaining, Governor Walker discussed the imbalance between the ‘have’ and ‘have nots.’ Us versus them.  You’re either with me or against me.  Gee, that sounds familiar…

In this scenario, it is the teachers and state employees who are the ‘haves’ and the tax payers of the great state of (insert state here) Wisconsin who are apparently the ‘have nots.’ Teacher vs. taxpayers. State employees vs. taxpayers.  Since I’m a state employee and a taxpayer, should I be fighting with myself?  Which side of the argument should I come down on?  What level of crazy will I rate as I drive down the street yelling at myself?

The language used to frame this argument is quite literally laughable, yet there it is, plain as day. The teachers are the ‘haves.’  The TEACHERS?  Seriously? Since when, I wonder, have the teachers been the ‘haves’? Good grief, the FEDERAL government even recognizes that this isn’t the case and created a tax credit to compensate public school teachers who routinely take part of their own salary to buy basic supplies for their classrooms. Not because they have extra money just laying around, going to waste, but because they care enough to have a little less themselves so that they can enrich their students’ educational experience in the most basic of ways.

Where does this happen in the private sector?  Having worked in Corporate America, I was never expected/required to buy a ream of paper or toner cartridge for my office.  No one ever said to me ‘if you really CARED about your job, you’d buy a package of dry erase markers for the conference room!’

In sense, I guess the teachers ARE the ‘haves.’  They ‘have’ education and training. They ‘have’ the responsibility of teaching our children (which, according to some, they never do right.  Either they’re doing too much: ‘that’s not your job to teach them that, that’s my job as a parent’ or not enough: ‘that’s what I pay YOU for; don’t expect me to get involved with my child’s education or participate in it in any way.’). They ‘have’ a thankless job for which they are undervalued.

The other day on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart pointed out another fascinating (and by fascinating, I mean disgusting) anomaly in the discussion of teachers and money.

One commentator, in expressing her support for Gov. Walker and his stance against teachers, stated that teachers ‘quite frankly don’t DESERVE $50K/year’ ($50K being an ‘average’ teacher salary thrown out for discussion). Wow. She went on to say how shameful it was that teachers were protesting. ‘What are they teaching our children?’

That is actually a great question.  What are these teachers teaching the children of Wisconsin (and those across the country) by protesting the governor’s proposals?  To value themselves and their work?  To stand up for themselves and their beliefs, even in the face of great controversy? To support quality education?  What a shame it would be to teach such lessons to our future leaders!

Interestingly enough (and by interesting, I mean disgusting), the same woman claimed (in a previous conversation defending the stance that the Bush tax cuts on the rich should be extended) that a couple filing jointly making a combined income of $250K/year and raising two children, perhaps attempting to put both through college, were ‘practically at poverty level.’ Really?

Assuming for a moment that the man and the woman (as a federally recognized couple is mandated to be) make the same amount of money (which in our country is highly unlikely, but I digress), that means each of these tax payers is making $125K/year, which again, according to this reporter, is ‘practically poverty level.’  Each person makes 2 ½ TIMES what the greedy, self-centered teacher makes.  If $125K is the new ‘poverty level,’ then what the hell is $50K?!

Ah, but those lazy teachers only work 9 months out of the year, you say.  Despite the fact that this is not actually true, let us assume, for the sake of argument, that the teacher is getting paid $50K for 9 months of work, while the poor woman in the couple example, let’s call her Pobrecita, works a whole 12 months for her meager $125K. It’s apples to oranges, you say.  So let’s level the playing field and say that Pobrecita only gets 75% of her salary, because she only works 9 months out of the year. That’s $93,750.

So, the teacher, who makes $50K and has a salary of 53% of Pobrecita’s for the same ‘9 months of work,’ is grossly overpaid, while Pobrecita should, what, look into applying for food stamps? That’s some interesting math right there.

And speaking of interesting math, where did the ‘fact’ that teachers work nine months out of the year come from? I’m not sure about where you live, but in my neck o’ the woods, teachers start teaching either at the end of August or the very beginning of September, and teach into June. Additionally, amazing as it may seem, classrooms don’t actually ready themselves, so teachers are required to be at work for some time prior to the start of the school year, as well as some time after school is out for the summer.

Teachers are also credited with the luxury of a ‘short’ work day.  Of actual in front of the class teaching time? Perhaps.  Let’s not consider the grading, lesson plans, conferences, etc. as part of their work day, though.  And in the high school where I taught, every teacher was also required to sponsor/co-sponsor a club or sport.  No time spent on that.

Clearly, everyone must sacrifice.

A few years ago, when the economy began going south in a big, bad way, the union leaders in our state sat down with the then governor in good faith, understanding the very notion that ‘everyone must sacrifice.’  We accepted concessions that saved our state $1 billion (yes, with a B).  That’s their number, not one the ‘unions’ (read ‘them’ and not ‘us’) made up.

Those concessions included a variety of ‘give backs,’ such as a pay cut, increased insurance costs, and a freeze on wages and hires to name a few.  Did we like it?  Of course not. But we all realized that in the end, everyone needed to give a little to do their part and help keep things running.

Our new governor (a democrat, lest you think this is a partisan rant), who initially gave the appearance of reaching out to state employees by encouraging us to submit ideas for saving money and generating revenue directly to his office, recently came out with his new budget proposal which demanded additional concessions (which he had not yet even begun discussing with the unions) or promised ‘massive layoffs.’ Unfortunately, if  you laid off every state worker in my state, you would still not balance the budget and you’d have no services either.

Yet, like the teachers in Wisconsin, we are the bad guys. We have to listen to the people who tell us how we should just shut up and give up whatever is needed, because just like the teachers, we apparently have no worth and provide no value to the state—we’re just there taking up space and stuffing our pockets with ‘taxpayer money.’ We are luck to even have jobs, we’re told, and if we don’t like it, we can just step aside because their 20 unemployed people who’d be happy to take our place.

Well, of course we’re lucky to have a job—who isn’t lucky to have a job in this economy? And who, particularly in this economy, wouldn’t have 20 people in line waiting to fill their job, if they didn’t like it?

The bottom line is, if we’re all in this together, that means we should ALL be in this together.  Not just pubic employees, or the middle class, or the poor. Everyone.

Yes, I am a public employee.  I do a job and get a check.  Don’t you? I support my community. I pay my taxes. All that ‘tax payer money’ that keeps getting talked about? That’s MY money, too.  And I don’t want to see it wasted any more than anyone else. But I am not a waste.  And neither are teachers. We did not cause the financial crisis.  And we have always been a part of the solution.