Rescuing the Lady

Oh, where to begin.

As if things weren’t already bad enough in Illinois, I read today where my state is the third most corrupt state in the nation. Chicago has the distinction of being named as the number one most corrupt city in the nation.

For many of us who have lived in Illinois our entire lives, this doesn’t exactly come as a revelation, but it is very frustrating after spending so much time in politics with the idea that we were going to change it.

I want to say that our politics in this state isn’t reflective of the people who live here, but unfortunately, it is people (real and imagined) who vote for the jamokes that get into state politics long enough to muck things up, plead guilty, serve their sentence and then become lobbyists when they get out. Our most recent poster child for Illinois politics comes courtesy of the Illinois Department of Transportation, where a mob bookie got a $70,000 a year job with the DOT and now, with the help of the union, continues to work for the state; much to the chagrin of his DOT supervisor.

You probably never thought that turning a key in a lock could be hazardous to your health, but at Menard State Prison, over $10 million was awarded to prison guards AND the warden for injuries caused from this innocuous act. Apparently, some of our Illinois Industrial Commissioners had their own workers’ compensation claims and were suffering “sympathetic” pain for the guards.

In an effort to cut our deficit and to bolster our credit rating, the state raised my state income tax by 67% and they also raised the corporate tax by 47%. Makes you want to run a business and work there, doesn’t it? Caterpillar recently told Governor Quinn the Mighty that they will not increase their business in this state, as long as the climate is so “anti-business”. Let’s see; we had the money to bribe Sears and the CBT to keep their business here, but not Caterpillar? I lost my job at Cat when they moved the engine assembly to Texas. Then, at about the same time, they moved the road graders from Decatur, IL to North Little Rock, Arkansas. And now; a new Cat plant is going to Athens, Georgia, but Quinn still thinks that Cat is just “blowing smoke”.

It was clear that the Gov was hurt by Oberhelmann’s statements and he could barely muster a reply. He said, “We overhauled the workers’ compensation system in this state”. Quinn’s idea of “overhaul” must mean that, when you get your oil changed, you are having your engine overhauled. The work comp “overhaul” did NOTHING to lower rates in this state.

So, there has been no meaningful spending cuts made yet, but Quinn and his bobble heads are still finding ways to RAISE money through the good taxpayers in this state. Now, Quinn and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanual want to charge a $65 “fee” for gun registration in this state and as we all know, a “fee” is not a “tax”.

It wasn’t that long ago that Rahm the Merciless was President Obama’s Chief of Staff, but Rahm couldn’t get everyone on board with doing things the “Chicago way”, so, feeling like a fish out of water, Rahm returned to the familiar waters of Chicago politics, where he has been doing a yeoman’s job of bullying his city council AND our governor.

So, that brings me to Obama. He got his start in politics as a community organizer. There must be a playbook or instruction manual that teaches one to organize. Now; I have to wonder if he was organizing in the most corrupt city in the nation in spite of it. After-all; he is a product of that environment. Did he escape it squeaky clean? I don’t think so. Look at his shadow cabinet of czars, his recess appointments, Obama Care, activists judges, the NLRB, his fast and furious attorney general’s willingness to sue private citizens and businesses to stop them from exercising their liberties, suing states to keep them from enforcing immigration laws and then it becomes very clear that President Obama is a by-product of his environment. His hypocrisy has no limits.

The House and the Senate haven’t been much help, either. Many of them still believe that they are beefing up their re-election victories by pigging out on pork projects for their home districts, because they are too chicken to base their chances on the moral and ethical strength of their votes on various pieces of legislation. And besides; giving the special interests groups that support and the special attention that they deserve isn’t “buying” votes in the strict sense is it?

Sure; everyone wants their taxes to come back home in some way, but it has caused a de facto redistribution of wealth. However; in Illinois, tax money that is taken and is supposed to come back to the school districts isn’t. Instead, Quinn the Mighty is simply telling school districts that they are going to have to take on a bigger share at the local level which will most likely cause property taxes across the state to skyrocket. I wish that I could tell my creditors to eat it in the same way that Illinois government tells their taxpayers.

In his “State of the State” address, Quinn offered NOTHING; only get tough talk, but no plans to get tough.

The 2012 elections will be the most important election in my lifetime and I don’t exaggerate when I say that. I cannot think of another single election where there was so much at stake at the state and federal level. We have an opportunity in Illinois to flip the entire legislature as ALL of the seats are up for re-election. There are but a very few who deserve the privilege of our vote for them.

At the federal level, I can’t wait to pay $5 a gallon for gas, even though we sit on enough oil to truly become energy self-sufficient and cut the cord to Middle East countries that don’t like us very much, but are more than happy to take our money and the lives of our soldiers and citizens.

That is not to say that I am for price controls, because I’m not, but why is it that gas prices can go up whenever a sheik farts, but a utilities company must “request” a price increase from the legislature?

I fully understand a company’s duty to shareholders and yea, though I don’t know what “obscene profits” are or what it is to have “too much money”; I know that our country survives because of capitalism.

I believe that, in many cases, those who have their hand out because “they can’t help it” are a myth. I have always felt that those in need will receive their help from charitable donations from kind-hearted givers. Government is not a charity nor should they determine for us how we should spend our money.

It’s a fact that not everyone can afford to buy a house, a car or go to college. Those decisions should be made by potential purchasers. When I took out the loan for our first house, interest rates were eight percent. I made my payments without the help of the government. I borrowed money for my vehicles from the bank and never missed a payment. Back then, there were no incentives to buy and interest rates were eight to nine percent. We took out student loans so that our son could go to college and we paid back every dime. We never looked for a bailout from the government. What has changed, other than loan rates have dropped dramatically?

All of us who came from poor beginnings know that we had two choices: stay there and wallow in self-pity fueled by government cheese or to change it.

I chose to change it. I won’t apologize for it and I refuse to stand by and allow government to tell me that I have too much and must give some of it to someone else.

I pay my taxes and I donate to charities. I volunteer my time in my community and will help where help is needed.

THAT is MY decision and because I am opposed to extending that charity to flimflammers and scammers of the System, I will not believe that I am a bad person.

The state of the government and the condition of our country is our fault.

So, I say that it is time to rescue Lady Liberty and to take back our country from dysfunctional governance.

It is a non-partisan approach. Republicans and Democrats alike have managed through several parliamentary procedures to set themselves up as the ruling class and in the process have trampled on our Constitution.

I will not consider any candidate from any party who will not work to change it. I want a government who will allow me to keep what I have earned and return upon my retirement the Social Security funds that I have paid since I was sixteen years old.

I have supported government at all levels. I don’t expect any more than what I have paid for. I expect government to honor their contract with me. Period.

Rant off.

Game on. November can’t come soon enough.

TCSS.

The opinions and views expressed are those of the article’s author, Art Goodrich, who also writes as ChiefReason. They do not reflect the opinions and views of www.fireengineering.com, Fire Engineering Magazine, PennWell Corporation or his dog, Chopper. All articles by the author are protected by federal copyright and cannot be reproduced in any form without expressed permission.

I Punted; Super Committee Fumbles!

I punted for our high school football team.
Punting was a very strategic part of our offense.
Back then; you know, in the "leather helmet" days, there were no fair catches. You either took the chance of catching the ball or letting it hit the ground and bounce until it was downed by the punting team.
My punts might average 35-40 yards-not very long-but they were extremely high.
The coach at the time taught me a soccer-style of punting that allowed me to kick very high, tight spirals.
The idea was that, when the punt returner saw many of my teammates surrounding him, just begging for him to catch it, he would let it bounce and since the ball would hit flat on the ground, it would bounce and then roll a long ways; pinning the opponent deep in their own territory.
It was really a thing of beauty.
Which is why you CANNOT compare what the Super Committee did today as "punting".
Lately, we seem to find ourselves searching for cute, little analogies for failure-utter and complete failure.
Failure is not punting.
Failure is not getting the punt off at all.
And the truth is that punting  is more complex than what we are seeing out of our government.
So; I am tired of that analogy.
How much practice and hard work would you guess that it took me to punt the football accurately?
I worked the entire summer before my senior year to completely change my punting style-so much so that I beat out the guy who had punted the three, previous football seasons.
THAT is the sweet science of learning the skill, improving it and then executing it at game time.
If you want to compare this current crop of legislative losers who are supposed to be "leading" our country to my football team of 1969, then there is no comparison.
My team is in our high school's hall of fame and Obama & Company are walking the halls of shame!
At a time when we need hall of fame efforts out of our government, we find ourselves with a group that couldn't even carry the water for this country.
And I apologize to all of the hard-working trainers and assistants for that remark. I have tons more respect for them than I do for our Congress at the moment.
It's time to clean house and put a new team on the field.
At least if they punt, it will actually have an impact on the outcome of the game.
For the record; what we are witnessing in this country is not some game or sporting event.
Our elected officials need to stop reaching into their bags of cliches, stop making excuses, suck it up and GOVERN.
You know; give us something to cheer about.
Sorry; they have me doing it, too.
But, the clock is running down and there are no more time outs.
Crap; I did it again.
You get my meaning, though.
TCSS.
The opinions and views expressed are those of the article’s author, Art Goodrich, who also writes as ChiefReason. They do not reflect the opinions and views of www.fireengineering.com, Fire Engineering Magazine, PennWell Corporation or his dog, Chopper. This article is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-produced in any form.

Our Incivility Ability

Whenever I take a business trip, it also gives me the opportunity to cover a wealth of issues in my mind.
As I drove to Kansas City, Missouri, I was thinking about an article that I had read in the Sunday paper.
In the article, the author attempted to identify where we lost civility and an unwillingness to compromise in our political system.
He cited the usual suspects-social media, websites, blogs, talk radio-and offered nothing new.
I can easily understand the premise of the article, but I think that a lack of civility goes well beyond politics.
Anyone who has been in the fire service since the dot com explosion can remember some of the websites’ discussion forums that quickly erupted into bashing and name-calling. At one particular fire website; many of us refer to those years as the "Flame Wars". It was all made easy because participants could do it anonymously and without fear of revealing their real identities.
Fortunately, we don’t have that problem at
When you think about how we used to settle our differences, in today’s culture; there is a lot more mental anguish than physical pain. Years ago, if our disagreements didn’t escalate into a fistfight, you could at least talk it out eyeball-to-eyeball; my preferred method for ending a dispute. You see; even back then, I could reason with the bullies.
I don’t know exactly when, after Man evolved from grunts to spoken words, when it was that we realized how powerful words could be and how much they could hurt, but if our country’s divorce rate is any indication, our society has become very prolific at it.
It is no longer the dreaded "dear john" letter, but rather a very public break up on Facebook.
My thoughts took me back to a time when kids had no choice but to follow family rules, respect the word of their parents or suffer dire consequences. Tough love; you know?
This trip took me through a part of Iowa where my parents and their families grew up. As a kid, we made many trips to Osceola, Iowa to visit with relatives.
It had me thinking about the four hour ride in our station wagon and what we did to occupy our time. That led me to explore the interaction that took place in the car and how little things had to amuse us. I believe that the time spent on those long trips strengthened our family unit. If one of us did something that did NOT amuse, it would have the offender sitting in the front seat between Mom and Dad. Ugh!
With eight of us in the car, we had to be civil to each other and respect each other’s "space". I am sure that many other families were very similar, so it is my opinion that civility began with the family unit.
That respect for authority in the home extended to the older adults, the schools and the law.
Helping the elderly to cross the street was cool; getting sent to the principal’s office was avoided at all costs and violating the law would have your parents comparing you to John Dillinger; public enemy number one during the Great Depression (some may have to Google to get the reference).
My generation also remembers the uniquely elevated status that was afforded to coaches. There was no such thing as a coach being too tough on a kid and parents intervening on behalf of their kid were non-existent. There was a code that said that the coach was always right and you NEVER questioned a coach’s decision in regards to you. Like it or not, you had to respect it. It was not an option!
Sound familiar?
It should!
I came up in the fire service at a time when we did what our instructors told us to do. We learned very quickly that questioning the instructor was not the same as asking questions. The smart ones knew it. Questioning the "whys" had its consequences. We didn’t have time to break into focus groups to discuss our feelings. You were told how to do it, shown how to do it and then, you DID it!
Subtle
Time to get back on point!
Politics is just another segment in our society where civility and compromise generally implodes.
It hasn’t cornered the market on incivility. It permeates throughout every fiber of our society; from day-care to Medicare, you will have your "could care less" about civility.
One of those defining moments where I thought that civility had completely left our country was watching the film footage of our returning Vietnam War veterans. I remember seeing them cursed at, spat on and denied their rightful place in our society. Post war care was scarce.
Yeah; there was plenty of incivility shown to our Vietnam vets. I mean; it was bad enough that they fought in a country where they weren’t sure who the enemy was, but then they returned home and were treated like THEY were the enemy.
So, I think that this current round of incivility in this country had early roots and has grown over the years. I don’t wish to cite earlier examples, because I wasn’t old enough to appreciate (?) their significance. Those older than me might say that the pre-Civil Rights years found a bounty of incivility in America.
Why, just today, as I was sitting at Ma and Pa’s Kettle in Cameron, Missouri, I was thinking about all of the uproar over the comments made by Hank Williams, Jr. on ESPN yesterday and I jotted some notes.
Though his comments are the latest example of incivility, his remarks were also taken out of context, in my opinion.
First, he compared President Obama and Speaker of the House Boehner playing golf to a meeting between Hitler and Netanyahu. He also referred to the party in power as "the enemy".
To be clear, he did NOT call the President "Hitler". He was using an outrageously, hypothetical analogy to describe the magnitude of the differences between President Obama and Republicans. It was very uncivil of Hank Jr. to mention ANYONE in the same breath as the world’s most prolific genocidal maniac.
What I find offensive is that the Media is speculating that Hank Jr. was "under the influence".
Nope; I think Jr. was under the misguided notion that his words were relevant to the political landscape; that his "celebrity" somehow commands attention.
Ironically, it DID get the attention of the ESPN bosses, who pulled Hank’s famously popular promo for Monday Night Football. I guess we live in a country where saying something that’s absurd can get you fired. I think ABC/ESPN were cowards for ending Hank’s gig; believing that they were doing "damage control". What I am hearing on talk radio is that there are more people upset with Hank’s firing than are upset with what he said, but still, my advice to Hank Williams, Jr. would be to shut up and sing!
But, alas; this is the world we live in today.
Henry David Thoreau wrote "Civil Disobedience" oh, so many years ago. I don’t think that he realized when he wrote it how timeless its pronouncements would be. It was on the required reading list for one of my early political science classes. I remember that he said, peer pressure mixed with a large dose of respect for the senior instructors and your team guaranteed that you wouldn’t even think about bugging out. And you learned to laugh even though you were the butt of the joke.www.fireengineering.com, where everyone must use their real names. It creates an environment that puts a discussion or a stated opinion-however poignant-on a more civil and respectful level.Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?I believe that civility and respect are so closely aligned that you really can’t have one without the other, because; if you are respectful, you are being civil and if you are civil, you are being respectful.
Here’s hoping that the fire service can raise the quality of the debate and be the shining beacon for civility in all that they do.
TCSS
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author, Art Goodrich, who also writes under the name ChiefReason. They do not reflect the views and opinions of www.fireengineering.com, Fire Engineering Magazine, PennWell Corporation or his dog, Chopper. Articles written by the author are protected by federal copyright and cannot be reproduced in any form.