About Me

I have little time for.....well, anything. 4 kids, job, and yes, I decided at 33 that further education seemed like fun. I am terribly interested in politics, social problems, and brain injury.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

I'm not buying them pizza....

I stand firmly with the protesters in Wisconsin. While I'm certain nobody is surprised by that declaration, I have been thinking seriously about it. I'm not a member of a union, nor is my husband but I know their rights matter to me. Lets get all the logistics out of the way. First they are public servants. These are the people that teach children, respond in an emergency, and put out fires on the possessions a family most cherishes. Second, it's a vendetta. The union had already agreed to compromise and bargain on the very reasons the governor wishes to eliminate their bargaining rights. Third, if these lawmakers wish to cut the budget by decreasing benefits, perhaps they should look at their own. Through this economic crisis, my battle cry has remained constant, no it is not popular, but taxes have to go up and the government has to make real, substantial cuts and not only to programs they disagree with such as Planned Parenthood or NPR and PBS.

Unions do affect me, they affect everybody. Unions create the framework of workers rights from the steelworker to the McDonald's worker. These unions are accused of being a communist idea. This is the current scare tactic being used. If we look, we can see communist threads everywhere, the truth is that our democracy is not and has never been pure. (Gasp!) Sure , unions have a bad name, perhaps their start has not been so ideal. But here we are with the Patriot Act, which fails a democracy litmus test every day. We are often a nation of double standards. Perhaps if our people were taken better care of, unions would be unnecessary. Unfortunately this is not the case.

I am not buying pizza for the protesters, but I stand behind them. I stand behind them as a parent, a community member, and an American. I stand behind them because they are victims of an agenda conservative America has against unions.

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