Saturday, February 19, 2011

Every now and then we need to take stock of things; We need to do some soul searching; We need to stare reality in its face. Guess what – today’s one of those days. Now calm down we’re not taking stock of ‘our lives’ we’re going to take stock of America and its slipping status of exceptional. That’s right I said slipping.

To do that we’re going to look at a few different categories – Education, Health, Transportation and my personal favorite party politics.

Education: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently published the results of achievement tests given to 15-year-olds in 65 countries of the world. Our kids came in 25th in math, 17th in science, and 14th in reading (NO, I cannot even begin to explain that one). If that’s not sickening enough we’ve slipped into 12th place for our percentage of college graduates. Are we raising dumb kids? Did we take drugs while pregnant? Did we drop them on their heads when they were young? Maybe the answer for some is yes, but I think the problem goes deeper – much deeper. Personally, I blame the unions and here’s why: "When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children" that’s a direct quote from the former American Federation of Teachers President Al Shanker. I believe there are still those that become teachers to actually teach but once the union gets hold of them it’s all about the money and vacations – summers off don’t you know, 1 prep period each day, and teach only 4 or 5 periods per 9 period day, and of course money – lots of it regardless if you’re a good teacher or not. Thank you unions! Wow we should be so proud how they’ve dummied down our kids all for a buck.

Did you know that in Wisconsin the graduation rate is 46%! Yet these teachers believe they should not pay one half of their pension costs and 12.6% of their health benefits. They actually have the gall to believe they deserve a reward for a job well done. Talk about denial! Personally I’d fire all of them or give them nothing – make them pay 100% of everything until the graduation numbers improved dramatically! I think money is important too but believe it must be earned!

Health: FDA, Insurance companies and what I refer to as the Ambulance chasing Lawyers. Ahh the FDA who appears to be more concerned with certain pharmaceutical companies making money than the actual health of Americans. Need proof – check out all the herbs they’ve banned. Then we have the insurance companies – now don’t get me wrong – I despise ObamaCare and actually like my Insurance carrier but we do need some type of reform for two reasons: first ever try going to a homeopathic doctor – you now the nuts that believe vitamins and herbs and minerals will cure you – and the insurance company says NOPE, not on our dime. Who cares if they have proof that they heal cancer. Don’t you know there’s no big money in something that grows on trees or is found in the dirt? Secondly – they’ll be happy to pay for your abortion or your pregnancy but not your birth control (I refer to this as no common sense found here). As to lawyers as long as there’s a slimy lawyer to take a bogus law suit the price we pay for healthcare in the US will continue to escalate. It’s All about the money and were being held hostage for it.  

Transportation’s next. Airline travel - expensive; Automobile travel – expensive (think gas, tolls), Train travel – expensive; Why? Because we have to pay the union workers inflated salary and pension’s silly. Plus we have to pay for the mandatory breaks and hour lunch breaks. The song Money, money, money is playing in my head.

Party Politics is perhaps the biggest contributor to America’s fall from grace. Grown men and women promising one thing then doing the complete opposite b/c a union backed lobbyist came through their door with pockets full of cash. You know what they say Money Talks BS walks.

1 Timothy 9 states: Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 states: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

So there you have it – we’ve sold out America so the unions and a select few could make some extra bucks. Perhaps they’re all not evil but they are all wrong in taking everyone else hostage so they can line their pockets. Until we right these wrongs I guess we’ll continue to watch America’s slow and continual fall from exceptionalism.

There is hope though – some of the newly elected are taking the unions to task and saying money goes to those who deserve it – it must be earned! Found in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, Arizona, Idaho and Tennessee. The time has come for us as a nation to push back against the unions and their greed. This will be the mother of all fights across the country b/c it’s about money and not money for government employees – money for government unions.

Look at it this way - We’ve taken an incorrect detour for a while letting others drive while we slept. We just hit a huge pothole and now we’re awake. As we slip into the driver’s seat we see the road called exceptional up ahead. But there’s lots of potholes and debris in the road. It looks risky and unpredictable some might even say dangerous. The question is – do we have the guts to drive through it and get to where we need to be or do we stay on the detour knowing full well we will never return to where we need to be. To answer that question we must answer another first – who exactly rules this country We the People or the unions?