Tale of two cities
Dear Editor,
The zeitgeist of false pride is palpable in the raging war between the public unions and 'We the People.' The discourse in Madison, Wisconsin, exemplified by many within the ranks of the public sector unions, demonstrates a spirit that labors not to improve working conditions or negotiate a fair wage, but rather exerts a seemingly indefatigable force to institutionalize attitudes that subvert the republican process and undermine the common good. Every union member may not be cognizant of or in agreement with the deception in which they participate, still they are compelled to propagate that which promotes, directs, and preserves the anarchy of an ancient perverse spirit: "I shall not so serve!"
The right to organize to secure a fair wage and a just regard for one's honest labor is natural; but only to the extent that such undertaking comports to moral principles. It is contrary to justice to demand such compensation when the entity's ability to pay is given no heed. More destructive still is an action taken under such pretense as to subvert the welfare of the society by forcing insolvency upon its government. The result of reckless public policy is to undermine the community by making constituents desperate beneath the burden of punitive taxation--an insufferable yoke, but one inevitably required to appease the insatiable demands of an obese public sector. History proves that unchecked taxation is the omen of civil strife. Yet where is the taxpayer represented in this fight for "workers' rights"? Do not all citizens "labor" in some fashion? What of our demands? What of the pressing duty to adequately provide for our families? That duty is made increasingly difficult by the runaway taxation that invariably follows unbridled government spending--and its toxic effects upon the private sector and the economy. Such spending is made all the more obscene and harmful by the arrogance and avarice of public unions.
Powerful collectives have misused their leverage to corrupt the political process and the system to which they promised to honorably serve. Taxpayers are expected to surrender our livelihoods so to fund the insatiable living standards of unionized oligarchs. The common man is without representation in this fight because those we elect to promote the general welfare are eventually bought or compromised by public union skullduggery. Union leaders, and their willing accomplices in the press, propagate graft and corruption, so to purchase legislative fiat from elected officials--those whom we employ to uphold the common good. Until recently, the cabal of fraud went unchallenged because public unions solidified an unseemly marriage to unelected bureaucrats--our overpaid public paper shufflers, whom through misguided statute hold unilateral power over the purse (Commission on Industrial Relations--the CIR).
Unfettered union power rides roughshod over our republican form of government at all levels, and the taxpayer is expected to submit. Newsflash -- this is not an Islamic theocracy and 'We the People' will not surrender our livelihoods to a caliphate of public-sector terrorists. Every union member, who demonstrated in Wisconsin and elsewhere for "the cause" was cognizant of its nefarious goal to commit extortion against the public treasury and 'We the People.' Each participated to act as a means to an end, and did so without regard for the general welfare of the community--to wit: those of us who are the employers of these public "servants" were told to go to Hell. Does this sound familiar, McCook?
Somewhere along the way, public servants abandoned the altruistic creed to which they presumably felt called to serve; and the prize made more attractive through pride and ego became not a servant's heart, but rather the cult of personality and spirit of avarice. Greed is the true motivator behind this unhinged cacophony for collective bargaining rights within the public sector. The Devil is always waiting in the wings to satisfy the insatiable egos of unprincipled fools, those who dream big and act small. Let us hope that the sitting members of Nebraska's Business and Labor Committee, and those citizens who serve on the McCook City Council, possess better judgment then the protesting public-sector fools in Wisconsin. Time is short; the Nebraska Unicameral has rightly curtailed state spending ... Et tu, McCook?
Bruce C. Desautels
Stratton Nebraska
SW Nebraska TEA Party