TEACHER AND FIREFIGHTER UNIONS

FYI... THIS IS BEING POSTED A WEEK LATE...

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ BIRCHERS, GEL AND OTHERS BOOT AGENDA 21 FROM EDMOND
++ SPONTANEITY AT OCPAC MEETINGS
++ TEACHER AND FIREFIGHTER UNIONS


++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa Area Republican
Assembly will have their monthly meeting Tuesday evening, March 15th.
Members and friends will gather at 6:00 for dinner and 7:00 p.m. for
the meeting to start. The location is the Golden Corral, 71st street
and Mingo. The speaker this week will be Tulsa City Councilor John
Eagleston, speaking on the topic as to why Tulsan’s need to oust Mayor
Dewey Bartlett and how to get involved in the effort. This is an
opportunity for Tulsa residents to attend to find out if this is a
wise effort or does it miss the mark. The best way to find out is to
attend.

* TUESDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - Mr. Clyde Cleveland will be
speaking, 7:00 p.m. at the Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown
OKC. I won’t repeat what I said about Mr. Cleveland who will be our
speaker the next day at OCPAC. However, there are a couple of other
items of interest. First, Mr. Cleveland is a former Libertarian
candidate for the Governor’s seat in Iowa and following his talk, he
will conduct a discussion as to how we can participate in rebuilding
our State and National Republics.

++ BIRCHERS, GEL AND OTHERS BOOT AGENDA 21 FROM EDMOND

Since before last December, many members of the John Birch Society,
members of a newly formed Edmond organization known as Govern Edmond
Locally (GEL) and other concerned citizens have educated themselves
about the U.N.’s Agenda 21 which was the fruit of the 1992 Earth
Summit in Rio.

They came to understand the UN intends to control virtually every
aspect of human lifestyle and activity through efforts labeled as
“sustainability” which are to be urged on by UN affiliated Non
Governmental Organizations (NGOs) such as ICLEI (don’t remember what
that stands for).

Edmond had become a dues paying member of ICLEI in 2009 and was well
on the way toward implementing sustainability efforts. In December
well over 100 informed citizens attended a city meeting that had been
advertised as a public forum. However, these citizens found it was
actually a meeting to build consensus and implement the sustainability
agenda. These informed citizens would have none of that effort and the
meeting ground to a halt.

As a result, the city held a true public forum this past Monday
evening. Several sources told me, the presentations by these concerned
citizens were excellent. They were factual and not based on emotions.
As a result of last Monday’s meeting, the City of Edmond announced
that they were going to immediately end their participation with
ICLEI.

This just goes to show that when citizens inform themselves, have the
facts on their side and get involved, they can make a difference. Now
the battle is not over as the excessive ideas of the greenies have
quickly become ingrained in the thinking of a lot of people. However,
as the folks found out through their research, people all over America
are rising up and opposing these radical control advocates. Edmond is
not the first city to step back from such efforts. Edmond citizens
will have to stay alert and make sure their policies are developed
with reason and using the talent available locally.

++ SPONTANEITY AT OCPAC MEETINGS

Folks who attend the OCPAC meetings on a regular basis, well know a
lot more happens at our meetings than what is advertised as the main
feature on our agenda. This past Wednesday, Nate Webb brought a young
lady to our meeting by the name of Jennifer Gratz. Ms. Gratz is with
the American Civil Rights Institute which is working to amend state
constitutions to eliminate preferential hiring practices, contracting
advantages and education admissions based upon a person’s minority
status, color, sex and etc.

Ms. Gratz was the Michigan student who was denied admission to law
school in favor of minority students who were less qualified based on
performance measures. Her case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme
Court where she had a less than desirable outcome.

Jennifer is in OKC to inform lawmakers about this issue and support
legislation to bring about a vote of the people to amend our
constitution to end this unfair and unjust practice. The legislation
is SJR 15 by Rob Johnson and Ralph Shortey in the Senate and Mike
Jackson in the House if you want to check it out.

The problem with so called “anti-discrimination” laws is that they
always boil down to quotas to prove discrimination, which may or may
not represent reality. I really do look forward to the day when we
actually honor rather than just mouth Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous
speech lines when he said: “I look forward to a day when we will judge
a man on the content of his character (I might add and the performance
of a man) rather than the color of his skin.” I believe this
legislation will have a very good chance of becoming a Conservative
Index Vote.

++ TEACHER AND FIREFIGHTER UNIONS

A week ago Thursday, Glen Beck had a special program on his TV show,
where he specifically addressed police and firemen who are members of
unions. He did an excellent job of showing the many communist and
progressive influences that have infiltrated many of America’s labor
organizations.

While Beck well recognizes the proclivity of mankind to want to be
paid as much in benefits and salary as possible, he appealed to police
and firemen to determine if they really wanted to be in bed with such
an evil group of un-American influences?

This of course has been brought to light by the mob-like angry
protests going on in Wisconsin. Just yesterday, and estimated 100,000
people marched on Madison, flexing their muscle and yes they are
resorting to dangerous threats and violence. In past years public
employee union members have empowered their union bosses with a great
deal of leverage, which in some cases, has allowed for unreasonable
salary and benefits for their members. That has brought about undue
pressure on state and local government budgets.

The main expense problem in Wisconsin, as in most states, is with the
teachers. The teacher unions are almost always a problem as they are
the largest group and as such have the most power. In addition,
Americans have been conditioned to value education as the means to
economic prosperity and teachers are supposed to be an integral part
of that process.

Therefore, citizens who have very little idea of the actual process of
education, are all too willing and gullible to listen to the voices of
the education industry as we are continually told we must spend more
and more on education or the sky will fall.

In much of the Wisconsin footage I have seen, firefighter union
members have been shoulder to shoulder with the teachers in the
protests. In the past week over 800 firefighters have demonstrated in
Oklahoma demanding that their retirement plans not be touched or
adjusted. In reality, the numbers of firemen are actually rather
small, but their union is probably the second most powerful public
employee union. The are much more powerful than the police union,
thought smaller in membership. Have you ever wondered why?

Americans have a romanticized relationship with firemen, which usually
starts when we are little children. We all love to visit a fire
station and see the big rigs and hear the firemen tell about their
jobs. In addition, when we have a threatening fire, a medical
emergency or a cat in a tree that won’t come down, who comes to the
rescue, firemen of course. So we see them as good, helpers, saviors,
and really nice people.

Police have some of these same attributes, but they also arrest us,
give us tickets when we are speeding and are the functionaries
carrying out the will of city councils, as well as state and federal
government officials who act like fascist tyrants and abuse people’s
liberties by passing seat belt and helmet laws. Thus, police are only
popular when we need them, but not so much the rest of the time.

Therefore, firefighters though small in number, have become rather
spoiled when it comes to getting their way and as such, they tend to
be very active when their union bosses call them out.

However, the day of reckoning is coming for public sector union
members. In those cases where they have gained excessive powers to
extort and demand excessive amounts of salary and benefits, people are
beginning to say, no more and in some cases, less than what they
already have.

Just remember, to have good government there always needs to be a
balance between the salaries of government employees and those in the
private sector who pay their wages. In addition, there must be
efficiencies by requiring government employees to be cost effective in
their performance. As an example, if a teacher can effectively teach
35 students just as well as 15 students, then the public should demand
such efficiency.

Otherwise, public employees become public masters rather than public
servants. They end up making the citizens subservient to their whims
and desires. When it comes to firemen, I believe we should pay these
men and women a reasonable compensation. However, if we evaluate their
jobs on a supply and demand basis, we will find for every job opening
at a fire station, at least a hundred people wanting that job and many
willing to work for less than is currently being paid.

In fact, the majority of firefighters in America are volunteers and
not paid anything. While this doesn’t work well in larger communities,
it is common in smaller towns as they simply can’t afford to pay
firefighters. That is when the men and women of the community step up
to take care of their problems, through their own efforts.

Don’t miss this week’s meeting

Charlie Meadows