Chris Christie is absolutely right. He is not ready to be President of the United States nor will he be ready come 2012. The fact of the matter is, there is not a human being walking the face of the earth who is READY to be the President of the United States, including Barack Obama. The world we find ourselves in is perhaps the most dangerous, threatening, fragile circumstance human beings have ever faced. This is uncharted territory. The skill set needed to navigate it successfully is not clear.
Currently our country is teetering on the edge of a deadly abyss. Judging from the direction our current administration is headed, we will have stepped off the edge and be in full free fall by the year 2012. Christie knows this. Of course he is not ready to lead a country in mid plummet. No human being is or will be.
I liken the role of President of the United States in this era of history to be the same of that as a person with a deadly illness. Who among us is ready to hear the sentence, "you have cancer"? Humans are never ready for trials of this magnitude but some humans have the grit to take on the trials. Some do not. Some actually feed the diseases they are tasked to defeat.
I see Chris Christie as a man with a multitude of grit. I believe if there is anyone who is able to grow wings from that grit and fly US back up to safety, able to restore America's emotional, fiscal and social stability, it is Chris Christie.
True, he, like any human, is not ready for such unknowns. He is, however, able. The only real question that must be answered and the one that so often is the key to the survival of a cancer patient...is he willing? Is Chris Christie willing to battle the cancer? Is Chris Christie willing to be President of the United States of America?
God willing.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
A Letter to an Archbishop in Wisconsin
This Sunday, February 27th, my Catholic parish in Virginia added an insert into our Mass Bulletin. It was a copy of a statement put out by a Catholic Archbishop in Wisconsin addressing the Wisconsin Catholic Conference. I do not know if the Archbishop asked to have this statement put into the Mass Bulletins in a parish in Virginia but regardless, we got the memo. It can be read in full here...
http://www.archmil.org/News/StatementRegardingtheRightsofW.htm
After reading the statement twice, probably three times I was motivated to write the following email to the Archbishop.
Dear Archbishop Listecki,
I am contacting you in regards to a letter you wrote which our parish included in this Sunday's bulletin. The letter was referenced as a Statement Regarding the Rights of Workers and the Value of Unions. I read the letter and found myself upset. My first reaction was to disagree that this politically charged topic should be foisted upon parishioners in relation to attending Mass. I was taught that one is to attend Mass for the sole purpose of giving full attention to God, to leave the scenarios of this world which are fleeting, to fully focus on what is eternal. To be greeted with a letter from an Archbishop calling Catholics to defend workers and unions, a topic we are all bombarded with at all hours of the day on television and in print, was an intrusion on God's time, in my opinion. I do not know if you asked for the letter to be put in the bulletin or not, but that is what happened. I found it inappropriate.
I took another breath and read the letter again. Though I completely agree with your final sentiment, "to move beyond divisive words and actions and work together", the insinuation that Wisconsin teachers are in danger of being marginalized or dismissed is misleading. From all that I have read, the terms being promoted by Governor Walker and eventually voted on in the Wisconsin legislature are terms more than 20 states now have in place for their unions. There is nothing being asked of Wisconsin teachers that others haven't been already doing for some time. I will admit, I am not a Wisconsin teacher, I have no connection to that union or any teachers union but I do come from a Catholic family of union roots. My grandfather was an electrician in the Washington, DC area. He came up as a union man and rose through the ranks. He eventually owned the largest Electrical Contracting business in the D.C. area. His union shop did all of the wiring for the White House, the Pentagon, the Capitol, and most Federal Buildings in DC. However, living in Virginia, a right to work state, he, in addition to his union shop, opened a non-union shop as well.
Though he'd always been a union man coming up, the vast difference in how a union vs non-union business operated facilitated a change in his perspective. He realized non-union employees fared better in the long run for the individual employee. The union shops had a monopoly on government work which was lucrative however, the rules and wages (after dues) made the union jobs much less attractive. He related stories of the immense pressure unions would bring upon the members, employing strong arm tactics and asking actions from workers that were less than moral. For a Catholic or any Christian to be asked to do some of these things for the good of the union can really take a toll on a person. He made it clear to all of us in the family that the unions were out for the union bosses not necessarily for the actual individual workers, though that is the unions stated reason to exist. The message I heard growing up was to avoid being a union worker, be an employee in a private business. Employees have their individual dignity and play a much bigger role in their own fate, union workers follow union rules and are at the mercy of the union bosses.
Please understand, I do not see the role of unions as inherently bad. I agree with Pope Benedict's statement which you included in your letter, regarding the importance of solidarity and protection of workers rights that unions provide. In a country like China, North Korea or even India where workers are abused, the role of unions is something we should all work to promote and bring about. What I do not agree with are tactics being employed by American union members such as disseminating the names of Governor Walker's children and their schools with a plan to protest at those schools, using children as the props. I have a hard time supporting the practice of teachers caught on video lying about being sick in order to collect a days wages while they "defend their rights". What about the parents who had to stay home from work to watch their child who could not go to school due to the teachers mass sickness? Did that parent have to lie as well in order not to lose a days wages or did they stay home, choosing not to lie about being sick and instead losing pay for that day? What lessons are we teaching the young through these tactics?
I've seen union members physically assaulting news reporters on live television, threatening a reporter with severe bodily harm simply because the reporter is there from a network the unions are not controlling the message of. I've seen Communist Workers Party banners at the Wisconsin protests standing in solidarity with Wisconsin teachers. Archbishop, I've been to Russia, I've seen what the Communist Party did to that culture, not to mention what Communism did to Catholicism. If the Wisconsin Teachers are finding themselves aligned with Communist Workers, there's a problem there.
All these tactics and alliances are straight from the playbook my grandfather talked about regarding the D.C. Electricians Union. The similarities of what Electrician Union workers were asked to do in bargaining situations were very similar to what I see happening in Wisconsin. This is beyond troubling. We as Christians support the right of these unions to associate, organize and bargain their wages (all of which would continue under Governor Walker's plan) but to use the moral concept of unions to then employ tactics that are amoral does not fly. Hiding behind a moral right while committing moral wrongs is not a cause I will ever support. As for the stance against, collective bargaining, that falls into the same logic for Anti-Trust laws. Collective bargaining, especially for civil servant jobs, is wrong on a multitude of levels. Collective bargaining enables unions to hold an entire segment of society hostage unless demands are met. This is not fair nor just tactics for the common good, in my opinion.
I appreciate the fact that you are there in the midst. You know the Wisconsin union members probably by name and hear their side clearest of all. I am glad workers have an advocate such as you. However, since your letter asks us all to evaluate the lawmakers proposal in terms of its impact on the common good, I too would first want to have the facts and figures regarding the amount of money the Wisconsin Teachers Union has given to lawmakers, specifically which lawmakers. I would like to know the terms of Wisconsin teachers current pension plans and be able to compare them to union pension plans in states that have gotten their fiscal house in better order. I would like to see the test scores of Wisconsin students and be able to compare them to states that may not provide as lucrative pension packages to their teachers. I would hope better pension packages equates to higher test scores. If this is not the case, then pension packages need to be reduced to sane levels. I would like to know if the Wisconsin Teachers Union has a rule stating tenure trumps performance where layoffs are concerned. I would hope that a teacher who is new but has performed well for the students is kept over an older teacher whose performance is lacking. If the children are the priority, seniority/tenure should not be the deciding factor when layoffs occur. I need to know this point and more. Do public sector union members make more than private sector? Civil union members have more job security, more benefits but if they get higher wages than private sector, this is an enormous problem. This is where the political money really comes into play. The tax paying public should not be in a position of making lower wages than the public sector. This is a relationship doomed to fail.
Franklin Roosevelt warned that civil servant jobs should never be unionized but apparently we have not heeded this wise warning. Do people understand why Franklin Roosevelt said this? Do the teachers in our schools bother to educate our youth about this in our History and Civics courses? It certainly wasn't because Roosevelt was anti-union. The big picture has been lost. Reality is catching up. What was fundable before, like all ponzi schemes, is not fundable now. All of the facts must be laid out if I, or anyone else is to truly, honestly, effectively evaluate the situation as you ask.
Thank you for taking the time to read my perspective and concerns. I hold on to the final words of your letter, that we will be able "to move beyond divisive words and actions and work together..."
Respectfully,
Parishioner in Virginia
I AM EAGERLY AWAITING THE ARCHBISHOP'S RESPONSE
http://www.archmil.org/News/StatementRegardingtheRightsofW.htm
After reading the statement twice, probably three times I was motivated to write the following email to the Archbishop.
Dear Archbishop Listecki,
I am contacting you in regards to a letter you wrote which our parish included in this Sunday's bulletin. The letter was referenced as a Statement Regarding the Rights of Workers and the Value of Unions. I read the letter and found myself upset. My first reaction was to disagree that this politically charged topic should be foisted upon parishioners in relation to attending Mass. I was taught that one is to attend Mass for the sole purpose of giving full attention to God, to leave the scenarios of this world which are fleeting, to fully focus on what is eternal. To be greeted with a letter from an Archbishop calling Catholics to defend workers and unions, a topic we are all bombarded with at all hours of the day on television and in print, was an intrusion on God's time, in my opinion. I do not know if you asked for the letter to be put in the bulletin or not, but that is what happened. I found it inappropriate.
I took another breath and read the letter again. Though I completely agree with your final sentiment, "to move beyond divisive words and actions and work together", the insinuation that Wisconsin teachers are in danger of being marginalized or dismissed is misleading. From all that I have read, the terms being promoted by Governor Walker and eventually voted on in the Wisconsin legislature are terms more than 20 states now have in place for their unions. There is nothing being asked of Wisconsin teachers that others haven't been already doing for some time. I will admit, I am not a Wisconsin teacher, I have no connection to that union or any teachers union but I do come from a Catholic family of union roots. My grandfather was an electrician in the Washington, DC area. He came up as a union man and rose through the ranks. He eventually owned the largest Electrical Contracting business in the D.C. area. His union shop did all of the wiring for the White House, the Pentagon, the Capitol, and most Federal Buildings in DC. However, living in Virginia, a right to work state, he, in addition to his union shop, opened a non-union shop as well.
Though he'd always been a union man coming up, the vast difference in how a union vs non-union business operated facilitated a change in his perspective. He realized non-union employees fared better in the long run for the individual employee. The union shops had a monopoly on government work which was lucrative however, the rules and wages (after dues) made the union jobs much less attractive. He related stories of the immense pressure unions would bring upon the members, employing strong arm tactics and asking actions from workers that were less than moral. For a Catholic or any Christian to be asked to do some of these things for the good of the union can really take a toll on a person. He made it clear to all of us in the family that the unions were out for the union bosses not necessarily for the actual individual workers, though that is the unions stated reason to exist. The message I heard growing up was to avoid being a union worker, be an employee in a private business. Employees have their individual dignity and play a much bigger role in their own fate, union workers follow union rules and are at the mercy of the union bosses.
Please understand, I do not see the role of unions as inherently bad. I agree with Pope Benedict's statement which you included in your letter, regarding the importance of solidarity and protection of workers rights that unions provide. In a country like China, North Korea or even India where workers are abused, the role of unions is something we should all work to promote and bring about. What I do not agree with are tactics being employed by American union members such as disseminating the names of Governor Walker's children and their schools with a plan to protest at those schools, using children as the props. I have a hard time supporting the practice of teachers caught on video lying about being sick in order to collect a days wages while they "defend their rights". What about the parents who had to stay home from work to watch their child who could not go to school due to the teachers mass sickness? Did that parent have to lie as well in order not to lose a days wages or did they stay home, choosing not to lie about being sick and instead losing pay for that day? What lessons are we teaching the young through these tactics?
I've seen union members physically assaulting news reporters on live television, threatening a reporter with severe bodily harm simply because the reporter is there from a network the unions are not controlling the message of. I've seen Communist Workers Party banners at the Wisconsin protests standing in solidarity with Wisconsin teachers. Archbishop, I've been to Russia, I've seen what the Communist Party did to that culture, not to mention what Communism did to Catholicism. If the Wisconsin Teachers are finding themselves aligned with Communist Workers, there's a problem there.
All these tactics and alliances are straight from the playbook my grandfather talked about regarding the D.C. Electricians Union. The similarities of what Electrician Union workers were asked to do in bargaining situations were very similar to what I see happening in Wisconsin. This is beyond troubling. We as Christians support the right of these unions to associate, organize and bargain their wages (all of which would continue under Governor Walker's plan) but to use the moral concept of unions to then employ tactics that are amoral does not fly. Hiding behind a moral right while committing moral wrongs is not a cause I will ever support. As for the stance against, collective bargaining, that falls into the same logic for Anti-Trust laws. Collective bargaining, especially for civil servant jobs, is wrong on a multitude of levels. Collective bargaining enables unions to hold an entire segment of society hostage unless demands are met. This is not fair nor just tactics for the common good, in my opinion.
I appreciate the fact that you are there in the midst. You know the Wisconsin union members probably by name and hear their side clearest of all. I am glad workers have an advocate such as you. However, since your letter asks us all to evaluate the lawmakers proposal in terms of its impact on the common good, I too would first want to have the facts and figures regarding the amount of money the Wisconsin Teachers Union has given to lawmakers, specifically which lawmakers. I would like to know the terms of Wisconsin teachers current pension plans and be able to compare them to union pension plans in states that have gotten their fiscal house in better order. I would like to see the test scores of Wisconsin students and be able to compare them to states that may not provide as lucrative pension packages to their teachers. I would hope better pension packages equates to higher test scores. If this is not the case, then pension packages need to be reduced to sane levels. I would like to know if the Wisconsin Teachers Union has a rule stating tenure trumps performance where layoffs are concerned. I would hope that a teacher who is new but has performed well for the students is kept over an older teacher whose performance is lacking. If the children are the priority, seniority/tenure should not be the deciding factor when layoffs occur. I need to know this point and more. Do public sector union members make more than private sector? Civil union members have more job security, more benefits but if they get higher wages than private sector, this is an enormous problem. This is where the political money really comes into play. The tax paying public should not be in a position of making lower wages than the public sector. This is a relationship doomed to fail.
Franklin Roosevelt warned that civil servant jobs should never be unionized but apparently we have not heeded this wise warning. Do people understand why Franklin Roosevelt said this? Do the teachers in our schools bother to educate our youth about this in our History and Civics courses? It certainly wasn't because Roosevelt was anti-union. The big picture has been lost. Reality is catching up. What was fundable before, like all ponzi schemes, is not fundable now. All of the facts must be laid out if I, or anyone else is to truly, honestly, effectively evaluate the situation as you ask.
Thank you for taking the time to read my perspective and concerns. I hold on to the final words of your letter, that we will be able "to move beyond divisive words and actions and work together..."
Respectfully,
Parishioner in Virginia
I AM EAGERLY AWAITING THE ARCHBISHOP'S RESPONSE
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)