So public employees are immature, that is what the below church administrator is saying in his below opinion that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from a leader of Faith. Use the email address of the author so that you may have a "mature" dialogue with this person?
Democracy demands maturity
By Jonathan Rupprecht
March 14, 2011
Can we just take a deep breath? The facts have become lost in the fracas in Madison. Consider:
Fracas: Republicans are ramming through bills in a rush.
Fact: Republicans waited while Senate Democrats spent over three weeks in Illinois. The Assembly considered the bill for 60 straight hours. And the whole process began with 17 hours of preliminary discussions. So when the Democrats prolonged their pouting, action was necessary to preserve jobs.
Fracas: Gov. Scott Walker is anti-union and anti-worker.
Fact: He moved forward on the legislation in a compassionate move to avoid layoffs of public employees. And he has the courage to address the outrageous abuses that have so often resulted from collecting bargaining for government workers. (See examples at http://walker.wi.gov/journal_media_detail.asp?locid=177&prid=5676) Millions of Americans have long complained about taxpayers - excluded from this collective bargaining but paying for its end results - being held hostage by such chicanery, and finally a leader has enough courage to call a spade a spade and say "Enough already!" Failure to do so would have exacerbated the unsustainable economic fiasco facing us.
Fracas: Walker is taking away workers' rights.
Fact: The governor is giving workers more rights by eliminating forced unionism. It's been pointed out often enough - yet not acknowledged nearly enough - that collective bargaining is not a right but a privilege. It didn't exist for government workers until the last half of the 20th century and is not granted even now to federal workers. Collective bargaining for government workers was opposed by one of labor's biggest heroes, Franklin D. Roosevelt, because he could see its danger and potential abuses. Now we've seen them come to pass.
Fracas: The protests in Madison are "democracy at work."
Fact: True, but more to the point, they have been democracy at its worst: demagoguery and mob mentality with outrage prevailing over reasoned, objective discussion. Lies demonizing the opposition. Self-righteousness grossly distorting the facts. Hatred and name-calling replacing civil discourse. Police being overpowered at the Capitol. And behind all this a focus on me and myself while refusing to consider the larger picture: the need to rescue our state's threatened economy.
All of this shouts immaturity. A democracy permits immaturity, but it prospers only when maturity prevails. Many of our Founding Fathers feared this type of superficial, reactionary populism, which our Madison madness amply demonstrates. When "the will of the people" triumphs without the essential temperance of cooler heads prevailing, the people suffer. When hatred, anger and lies override an objective, intelligent evaluation of the facts, chaos ensues.
No citizen rejoices in seeing another citizen suffer a cut in pay and privileges. Yet when such cuts are necessary to avoid large-scale layoffs, mature citizens accept this without screaming and throwing mass pity parties. Let's all calm down and grow up.
Jonathan Rupprecht of Milwaukee is a church administrator. E-mail jhr12447@aol.com
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Source Link: http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/117967704.html
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Posted by Steven R. Williams
Political Education Legislative Coordinator
AFSCME Council 24 AFL-CIO
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