Mar 31 2011

Center Rot

In recent weeks, the State of Maine has been pummeled by a series of late winter or early spring storms that wreaked havoc on the vegetation, the flora and fauna if you will, of our fair State.  Trees, in particular, seemed to have taken the brunt of the carnage.  It seems that an ice storm followed by a snowstorm with wet snow compounded by high winds was a too much for more than a few trees.  After emerging from multiple power outages, a drive down many of our back roads invoked images of war zones with trees strewn across roads, snapped in half or bent completely over, most of them still covered in glistening ice.

This columnist was surprised to see the amount of large trees, which succumbed to the weather barrage.  Ice storms usually take their toll on the smaller white birch, poplar and soft maple.  It was surprising and a little sad to see so many large stately rock and sugar maple, fir and spruce fallen over.  A closer inspection, although, yields evidence to their untimely demise.

Lying on their side, these giants showed the fatal flaw in their constitution.  While standing, these tall timbers showed a convincing façade of an impressive thick girthed tree able to withstand any tempest, but, at the very core, these trees were rotten, empty.  At last, there came a storm whose concentrated force was potent enough to expose the lie hidden beneath the well-formed images of tranquil natural strength and beauty.

Center rot is phenomena that happens throughout the forest.  Nothing is more frustrating to logger (I know, I’ve been there) than to approach a beautiful straight tree which has veneer prices jingling in his head and to drop it only to find that its barely worth pulp on the market due to the rot in the center of the tree.  This columnist does not pretend to be a horticulturalist but my years in the logging industry have given a general understanding to what causes center rot.  Disease to which some species are more vulnerable, damage or trauma that may have caused the core to cease producing growth and too much water, yes, too much water are all reasons for center rot.

This past political cycle the Democrat Party in Maine was pummeled by the perfect storm.  A voting electorate that was energized and furious, a Republican Party that was surprisingly focused and a President that had exposed to the Nation the true nature and intent of Democrat socialist policy all caused what was unthinkable in political circles. The Nation watched as forty years of Democrat Party rule in Maine came crashing down.

The inner core of the Maine Democrat Party now lies open and exposed.  The disease of corruption is there readily available for any who would care to see.  Leader after leader is either resigning or under investigation in light of revelations of corruption.  For years Mainers have wondered how the revenues from the turnpike were being spent.  Well, now we know and it is not a pretty picture.  It is amazing what truths we find when the government truly audits their books.

The recently formed Maine People Before Politics has released a detailed report showing the direct connection between the MSEA, MEA, the Democrat Party and the fiscal damage this State has endured.  It is these organizations that are now protesting the loudest against the Governor’s budget proposal, but it is their hands, which have caused the damage stopping the growth in the core of Maine.  I applaud the work of MPBP and encourage all of my readers to research their website at www.mainepeoplebeforepolitics.com.

The most appalling of all revelations is the fact that the Democrat Party has been hoarding and hiding Maine’s tax dollars for their own indulgence in a perverted cycle of drunken fiscal revelry daring the Maine people to rebuke them.  Not once did any member of the Democrat Party call their own to an accounting.  Not once did a Democrat stand in defense of the sacred trust of the represented, instead, they all chose to wallow in the swampland of their own slush fund where the disease of corruption festers and the demise of fiscal growth is accelerated.  For this, the proverbial shoe has dropped.  The severe storm of voter disdain is the Democrats to weather and the impending demise is their just due.

But Republicans beware.  History has shown that your Party is not immune to these maladies.  It will take the continued great work of MPBP and the diligence of you the voter to maintain the corrective course we are on.  There is hope that we are finally in the process to Set Maine Free!

 

Mar 22 2011

THE FACE OF DISCIPLINE

Stoic, resilient, these are words that have been rightly used to describe the Japanese people in recent days.  In the wake of horrific tragedy, there has been one description of our friends in Japan that has left a marked impression on this columnist.  That word is discipline.  The Japanese people are a people of great discipline.

This column is not intended to debate the minutia of Japanese traditional faith and family, its perceived or real flaws, and or its comparison to the Judeo-Christian value system we, as a nation, once embraced.  This columnist simply wants to examine the template of a disciplined society in the face of impending chaos.

It has been reported that, in spite of the massive devastation in the little island country, there has been no looting.  Citizens are waiting in lines calmly for hours on end to find needed food, water and fuel.  A Japanese gentleman finally reached the store to find only 12 bottles of water on the shelf.  Witnesses say he quickly grabbed them for he and his family, then stopped himself, turned back to the shelf and replaced 10 of what he desperately needed in respect for those coming after him.  No crime.  No anarchy.  Perhaps it is time we as Americans take a hard look at our lack of discipline juxtaposed against the amazing discipline of the Japanese and decide what that means for the future of this great Nation.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the “me generation” was spawned.  The rigid confines and demands of the family structure and discipline were railed against as an obstruction to free thinkers.  The intellectual elite mocked fathers and mothers, who placed strong emphasis on honor, respect and faith in their homes.  Opportunistic professors at colleges instructed the children from these homes that rebellion against their parents; authority was the only hope for society.  The strict “unbending” rule of parents was now dysfunctional.  The age of Dr. Spock was born.

A new, “better” progressive society immerged.  They raised their children with a new discipline.  Now it was all about respecting themselves, first, before others.  Just believe in themselves and all would be alright in the end.  No set standards to adhere to.  No higher justice to answer to.  Just find your own inner peace by expressing yourself in whatever way you saw fit and utopia would be on its way.

Dr. Spock would find the Japanese family hierarchy very dysfunctional.  Parents demand (Yes, I said that word…oh dear…) obedience from their children.  It is rumored that authorities actually say “no” in Japan.  Bringing dishonor to their family, their country and their faith is an unspeakable thought.  But now, we see the fruits of their belief system.

The Japanese now face these grim unfolding tragedies with the same stoic, unflinching discipline they have been trained through the generations to portray.  It is their honor and they refuse to relinquish it to disaster.  In so doing, they have been a calming influence on the world.

Here in the United States, by contrast, we watch as college students, enraged by some perceived affront, jump atop an innocent bystanders car and completely destroy it.  We watch union teachers in Wisconsin drag first grade students into the capital rotunda and lead them in anti-government and pro-union chants.  Lenin would be so proud.  Honor has been replaced with opportunism and relativism.   Standards are manipulated to accommodate the situation rather than situations being judged by an unchanging standard.  Our society believes itself far too sophisticated to be judged by an overriding moral standard that is a sounding board for good behavior.  So our nation’s moral compass continues to vacillate from crisis to crisis.

If we as Americans wish to face uncertain futures with the same strength exemplified by the Japanese, we must reestablish our strong family units.  We must do this in the face of the inevitable mockery that will come from the Hollywood, social and media elites.  Our strength does not come from government.  The strength of a nation will always be God and family.

 

Mar 15 2011

THE COLLECTIVE SETS SAIL

A ship once set sail

From the Harbor of Truth

A ship once sleek and proud

/

Sailors stout, lithe and hale

Though some held aloof

Watched the cheering crowd

/

Soon they cast off

A voyage of hope

Who knew what lay ahead?

/

Winds freedom aloft

A song in their throats

And nary a cross word was said

/

Or so it seemed

But beneath the beams

Of the ships bulwarks a meeting was held

/

A collective was formed

‘Twas out of the norm

A sailors and officers guild

/

A storm soon arose

Though weather was calm

The collective demands must be met

/

For the sake of all those

To repair and tempers to balm

Drills they must hastily get

/

Sharp bits they must have

To save on hand salve

To make the repairs on the ship

/

The officers with a laugh

Gave the whole not the half

To ensure the crew would not split

/

So with shiny new drills

And newfound skills

The collective went to work about the ship

/

Then with dismay

Amidst the fray

Came a shout, “The ships about to tip!”

/

The captain now could see

The sailors should not drill

Those holes there in the hull

/

How now to plea

Against collective will

The captain these thoughts to mull

/

“Perhaps,” the captain sighed,

“Negotiate with me?

The hull is not a place to drill a hole.”

/

“You dare,” the collective cried,

You can’t see

To drill, my right, my soul!”

/

“Standing in this swill

Trade a bucket for a drill?”

The captain with them tried to reason

/

“We are not dull!

You are hiding more hull!

To drill, our right, our time, our season!

/

So the ship sank

Every rail, mast and plank

With holes drilled through and through

/

The collective was blind

To reason and rhyme

It wanted what it thought it was due

/

But sadly that day

Some had no say

The passengers died with no voice

/

Their ship went down

Their voices drowned

They silently died with no voice

/

This poem is through

The moral is true

This allegorical device

/

If unions negotiate

They must let participate

Those who pay the price

/

A ship once set sail

From the Harbor of Truth

A ship once sleek and proud

Mar 13 2011

THE INPENETRABLE CIRCLE


Most of you will have nothing in common with the following scenario.  Understandably, when this columnist refers to frustrating memories of his childhood of being the last person standing for consideration at any neighborhood pick-up sandlot football game, there will be marked consternation amongst my readership about the validity of the imagery I present.  For some reason my hobbit-like physique did not evoke in my fellow playmates images of gridiron prowess and a young boy quickly understood that it was simply a numbers game whether I got to play or not.  If my “friends” needed another body on the field, then I was picked.  Even if I got the chance to play, the ball wasn’t coming my way, I wasn’t remotely part of the play calling and no one was aware I was in the huddle.  There is more to this diatribe than to foist my psychosis upon you the reader.

Nothing is more infuriating to an individual than that helpless feeling of be used by, but excluded from, the process.   As a small non-athletic boy, my larger more talented friends regarded me simply as a prop to stage and show their athletic prowess around.  This is natural human nature and there is really no stopping it except when the little boy realizes its time to stop being used and finds a different set of friends.  That natural human desire to form exclusionary mutual beneficiary relationships has been, these past weeks, on full display.

The role of unions in the private sector, its benefits and detriments, has been the subject of much debate with strong points on both sides.  The one telling evidence of public mood towards these specific unions has been the steady decline in membership.  The public sector unions, however, have been experiencing strong growth to the point they nearly outnumber the private sector unions.   Union leaders and Democrats have found a boon in the public sector.  Taxpayers have to play the game but they can be kept out of the huddle.

There is an old adage that if you worked for the government you might not have great wages or benefits but at least you had job security.  Now that has changed drastically.  The average weekly income for a public worker is $939 a week while the average private worker makes $855 a week.  The average yearly compensation for a public worker is $50,744, which is $1,800 more than the average private sector worker.  Now, not only do you have the job security, but also you have better wages and better benefits.  Ironically, it is the private sector that pays these wages.  So, essentially, the workers are making more than their employer.  That’s just not good business.

Taxpayers elect officials such as governors and commissioners to oversee these public workers, but the workers answer to union bosses rather than to the elected officials, again blocking the taxpayer from the process.  This was full display in New York City when the public service workers refused to plow the streets during a snowstorm to retaliate for budget cuts.  The very people who pay those truck drivers wages were blocked in their homes, some even losing their lives to union arrogance.

Unions have spent billions of dollars electing Democrats to office so that those same Democrats will set at the collective bargaining table when its time to negotiate wages and pensions.  But there is a conspicuous entity that never seems to get invited to these negotiations: the taxpayer, the wage payer.  This is why unions and collective bargaining do not belong in the public sector.

In the private sector, workers have the right to unionize and bargain collectively.  This is because the wage payer has some recourse.  The business can, if it cannot meet the demands of a greedy union, move their place of business elsewhere or they can declare bankruptcy.  There are other methods of recourse for both sides.  Workers then must deal with free market repercussions of their decision to unionize.

Public sector jobs function solely off private sector tax dollars.  Yet, the private sector is barred from the bargaining table.  Union elected Democrats set at the table with union bosses and set the wages you the employer, the taxpayer, must pay.  You, the employer, have no recourse.

Recent non-partisan reports have the national debt at the same level or higher than our gross domestic product.   A non-partisan report shows at least 200 billion dollars a year is wasted in redundant programs.  That is agencies that do the very same thing.  Many of these agencies are a direct result of public sector unions and Democrat bargains.   If we just stopped playing “Keystone Kops” with tax dollars….but… the Republicans are struggling to come up with 61 billion to cut. The President says he will meet them halfway with 6 billion….what the….halfway?  I guess that’s new math….remember…57 States…yeah.   Government needs to remember its private sector money that pays the bills and the private sector needs its money to pay the bills.