Thanks Lori

I want to thank Lori Pelletier for a recent editorial in the Hartford Current https://t.co/BTbtjoq0s1
Lori points out that while it is popular to blame public sector workers for the state’s budget problems, it missies the mark.
There is a call for the legislature to set state healthcare and retirement benefits, as opposed to being collectively bargained as they are now.
Lori reminds us that this was the way it was until state workers gained the right to bargain in the 1970s.
She also reminds us that for 32 years, the legislature failed to put a single penny into the system that it established by law.
In fact, she reminds us, in 2017, 82 % of the  payment into the pension fund was to make up for this period on non funding.

So, we see how well the legislature did in managing the pension fund.
Why would we want to return to that?
Collective bargaining forced the state to do what it should have done 32 years prior, fund a system it had itself established!

While all of this is extremely important, I think Lori’s opening statement says the most.

“All working people who work hard and play by the rules should be able to retire with dignity.”

This is not a “public worker issue,” it is a worker issue.

They say that a rising tide lifts all boats.
The fancy yachts of the rich are rising with the stock market, but what about the rowboats of the workers?
Our muscles fuel the ecconomy in the same way that our muscles pull the oars of our boats.
The rich spend a lot of money trying to convince one group of workers that another group of workers is the reason that their own boat is not rising with the tide. They pit public sector worker against private sector worker, saying “your taxes pay for their benefits.”

No, my friends.

The tax breaks of the rich are the cause.
That’s why the tide lifts the yachts but not the rowboats.

Lori finishes her editorial with this statement and she is spot on.
“These attacks are nothing more than a concentrated effort by anti-worker politicians to distract from the mess created decades ago and pursue an agenda of austerity and union busting.”

Respecting women

The idea that if a women dresses in a “certain way” that she is “asking for it” upsets me to no end.
It is simply an excuse to justify sexual harassment and assault.
It is wrong.

A guest editorial in the Norwich Bulletin, my local paper, today is titled, “Half-naked actresses warn against sexual harassment.”

It speaks of the recent Golden Globe awards and the number of actresses who spoke out against sexual harassment.
It states, “Lots of pretty actresses appeared half-naked, posing in turn for photographs, embodying the sexual temptation on which the industry is built, but this time their skimpy clothing was colored black as a protest against the supposedly unwanted sexual interest they were striving to tempt.”

“Supposedly” unwanted sexual interest?

The editorial disgusted me.

The editorial goes on to criticize CT State Senator Mae Flexor for her efforts to protect victims.
Senator Flexor has been a champion of victims of domestic and sexual abuse and should be praised for her efforts, not criticized.

Let me be very clear.
Sexual harassment and assault is not about sex.
It is about domination, it is about control.

Any inference that “pretty women” dressing in “skimpy clothing” is the problem is a further attempt of males to exert control.
It’s equivalent to saying a young black male wearing a hoody is asking to be shot.
Give me a break!

Women have the right to dress nicely, they have the right to fix up their hair, do up their nails, wear makeup and heals, without inviting sexual advances, let alone sexual harassment, sexual assault, or criticism that they may be the problem.

On top of that, evening gowns are as appropriate dress for the Golden Globes as tuxedos.

Whenever we treat another human being as an object that we can denigrate or control (be they women, Haitians, Africans, or people of color) we diminish our own humanness.
Our society needs to reject the hateful ideas of this guest writer, as it must reject the hateful ideas of our president, and embrace love and respect for all people.

While Trump Tweets

“I am a very stable genius,”’is an odd comment by any man.
But when it’s made by the President of the United States on one of the most popular social media sites in the world it’s unbelievable and embarrassing.
It can cause one to be discouraged about what our country has become.
Because here’s the thing.
We elected him!

For years, the movement of this country has been away from the ideal John Kennedy set out when he said, “ Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,”
The movement has been away from “we’re all in this together” to “look out for yourself.”
It has been fueled by people at the top of the social economic structure.
They have things the way they like them and they’d like to see things remain that way.
They have succeeded by spreading division and dispute.
They have pitted us one against the other by using hot topic issues like gun control and abortion. Issues they care not about except as a tool to divide the masses.
They have spread fear of anyone who might be different from us.
They’ve spread distrust of the government and the media.
They have corrupted what started as a great social experiment of a government “of the people” into a people controlled by “the government,” by convincing us that we cannot self govern but that, rather, the “government” is some evil third party.
And Trump’s tweets become a distraction while they change policy, appoint judges, and pass bills that further their cause.

I worry.

But I do not despair.

I see hope in the young and not so young of the Bernie movement, who still believe in a government not only of the people, but for the people.
I see hope in their activism.
I see hope in the Alabama and Virginia elections.
I see hope in Wisconsin where Randy Bryce, a union iron worker, is challenging the Speaker of the House.
I see hope in Connecticut, where progressive wings are making changes in Democratic Town Committees and winning seats on town councils and boards.
I see hope at the negotiations table of my union, where Backus Nurses are strongly advocating for themselves, their families and their patients. Where they sit as equals with a management that only 6 years ago spent more than a million dollars in an effort to derail our unionizing efforts.
I see hope in the “me too” movement, where women are standing up for themselves and each other.

Yes, we elected Trump.
But I see hope that we have rekindled the fire upon which this country was founded.

And we must not let the tweets of a “stable genius” distract us.