When I was a kid, which wasn’t that long ago, but by measure of social value seems like an eternity, cartoons like the one below from Walt Disney created for me positive static patterns that even to this day fill my mind with value. The cartoon is part two of Paul Bunyan and the song was so catchy that I still find myself humming it while I work.
This new age of educators who are creating the static patterns of our youth seem to have no grip on reality since they have become radicalized by that NEA reading list. Their motto for living is “have money, will spend,” which should have been the logo of the levy attempt at Lakota in the year of 2011. Of the Move Forward levy campaign’s total contributions, it has spent $26,180.50 to help them win a vote toward passage. It currently has a balance on hand of $15,862.40. Included in the expenditures were: Roger Effron and Associates ($2,500; consultant fee);U.S. Postmaster ($2,000; bulk mailing); Patriot Signage ($3,905; yard signs); and Triad Research Group Inc. ($9,750; community attitude survey).
Here are the two Consulting houses the Pro-Levy group spent $12,250.
I ride roller coasters so much in fact that when my publisher accepted the manuscript to my latest novel, they commented on how intense the action was, and wondered how I could write such a thing. I explained that much of the original manuscript had been sketched out on my hand while riding The Stunt Track at Kings Island, which I road again will thinking about the Hume story at Lakota East. There is something soothing in that catapult launch, and the run through the police cars that gets my blood boiling in a positive direction and organizes my thoughts. The faster the roller coasters, the more clear things become for me.And as for settings, strange creatures, gothic music, and smoke machines actually provide context for the metaphors they represent in the real world. My wife and I grabbed some steak fries from Rivertown and I pondered more of the perplexing quagmires percolating in my mind from the week. I think I like this time of year at Kings Island best simply because they don’t play all the pop music throughout the park. I prefer symphonic pieces most of the time as a musical choice, especially playful pieces themed around horror films.
A reporter called me, “Rich, not too many people like you do they?”
“No, and I like it that way,” I replied.
“You like it that way?”
“Yes, because if you are good and fair to people, yet they still don’t like you just because you are asking legitimate questions, it’s because they have something to hide. So the more people who hate me means we’re uncovering things they want to hide and their anger is the mask for which they use to hide it,” I said. “Did you call to tell me that?”
“I received a strange message from someone who didn’t leave their name or number. They were furious that I spoke to you about the school board story.”
I thought about the story that had broken earlier in the week, along with everything else mentioned. You can see the article that started the rift on the Lakota School Board at this ink:
“They said you weren’t qualified to speak about school board matters and that we shouldn’t talk to you.”
“Well, there’s your answer, it’s one of the school board members themselves. What do you think?”
“You’re the one who gave us the flyer,” the reporter said. “If you hadn’t done that there wouldn’t be a story.”
“So because I’m not a school board member I’m not qualified to look at a flyer from a school board president and see what she’s up to, trying to stack the board in her favor, and therefore the position of the union? So because you interviewed me, they are trying to put pressure on you to not speak to me in the future. Is that how you take it?”
“Sounds that way to me,” the reporter said.
“Well, do you regret talking to me?”
“Hell, no!” the reporter said. “You are a fun guy to talk to. I just thought it was funny is all.”
I laughed. “Well, if they are pissed off, it means I’m doing something right. And before I’m done, there will be a lot more pissed off people, you can count on that. Sounds like mafia tactics to me. What do you think?”
“That’s the first thing I thought of,” the reporter added before we went into another interview for a story being prepared for another article.
In Ohio the NEA (NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION) contributed $1 million to defeating Issue 2 and they are a radical organization. Look at their reading list, shown on their website. These are the books that the NEA wants the teachers you pay for to read. The NEA is the parent union to the OEA (Ohio Education Association) and specific to Lakota the OEA is the parent organization to the LEA (Lakota Education Association.) These books are listed as they appear on the NEA website.
Rules for Radicals
Saul Alinsky, Vintage Books, 1989
The classic book about organizing people, written by one of America’s foremost organizers.
Organize for Social Change
Midwest Academy Manual for Activists
Third Edition, Kim Bobo et al, Seven Locks Press, 2001
This is one of the best books about collective action and putting the screws to decision-makers. It’s about winning battles.
Building More Effective Unions
Paul Clark, Cornell University Press, 2000
Penn State Professor of Labor Studies Paul Clark applies the latest in behavioral sciences research to creating more effective unions. His insights are both astute and highly practical.
The Trajectory of Change: Activist Strategies for Social Change
Michael Albert, SouThend Press, 2002
Z Magazine’s Michael Albert has assembled a collection of thoughtful articles on ways to overcome various obstacles to social change.
Roots to Power: A Manual for Grassroots Organizing
Lee Staples, Praeger, 1984
This is a good nuts and bolts guide to organizing. It is especially good on recruiting, developing action plans, executing them, and dealing with counterattacks.
Taking Action: Working Together for Positive Change in Your Community
Elizabeth Amer, Self Counsel Press, 1992
Written by a Toronto community activist, this book is easy to read, full of examples, and sprinkled with how-to-advice.
Organizing: A Guide for Grassroots Leaders
Si Kahn, McGraw Hill, 1981, Revised 1991
This book is well organized. You can find relevant material for your situation without reading the whole book.
Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth
Derrick Bell, Bloomsbury, 2002
A gem of a book that delves into the question of “Why become an activist?” It is both thought-provoking and energizing.
Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in a Cynical Time
Paul Rogat Loeb, St. Martins Press, 1999
Provides solace for the activist‘s soul and juice for the activist’s battery
What’s happening is through radical union activity and small little rewards like higher wage compensation and benefits, grants and other perks, the radical unions are nudging their teachers to embrace radical ideas camouflaged behind carefully planted smiles and a public image. School boards are constructed to maintain that façade to the public, as the direction of the school boards is then controlled by the OSBA, the Ohio School Board Association who also reads the same types of books. School board members who don’t play nicely are pushed off the board, because the aim of a school board is to achieve public consensus. The game is a very subtle one, and for people who are more interested in watching Dancing with the Stars or picking up a magazine which features Jennifer Aniston’s newest love interest, they probably will think what I’m saying is a bunch of crazy talk. In fact, many school board members and even some superintendents might think so because their thinking is so specialized and focused on a specific task that they fail to see static patterns outside of their own experience. (TO UNDERSTAND STATIC PATTERNS AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO YOU CLICK THE LINK FOR REFERENCE.)
As I looked at all the costumes around Kings Island on the Haunt night I saw that it is the masks that the unions show us. The education institutions themselves are all wearing them and they want you to buy into the product they are selling, care and education for your children with service and smile. But what the larger organizations of union control want are teachers to pay them dues so they can use that money to inflict social change. READ THIS ARTICLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE AFTER.
To everyone else, those union types, those labor lawyers, you pretend Tea Party types who screamed for change then bailed out when things appeared, “unfair, harsh, and mean-spirited,” I will spend the rest of this article directed at you. For those unfamiliar with this battle, please forgive the language. But you must understand that this has been a hard-fought battle and tempers are at their peak.
Over the weekend the No Lakota Levy group began to put out our signs. We started with 200 beginning Friday afternoon however by Saturday morning, during the darkest part of night, 50 of those signs were gone, some of them ripped out of the ground and thrown all over parking lots. And in the yards of a couple of people who had big 4’X5’ No Lakota Levy signs driven into the ground with 2”X2” posts, those signs were completely taken and in their place hanging from a tree was the sign you see shown in the picture.
“Someone paid for your education, time to pay for ours.”
Now, who believes that these children did this on their own? I can hear their voices now while at Steak and Shake at 2:30 in the morning, “Hey let’s go help our teachers by stealing the signs of the No Lakota Levy people, those selfish, evil, corporate bastards.” See, kids typically don’t think of things like this on their own, because they don’t understand or know what the financial situation is. In the case of the message from these little vandals, “we are paying for your education! Most every house you see in the community, like the ones you trampled through with no respect to their property rights, pay a property tax of $2000 to $4000 a year and that money goes to your education! The community has been supporting a $160 million dollar budget that fleshes out to $250 million in undeclared money. Who’s not supporting your education?”
• Since you are clearly a tea bagger I will assume you have zero intelligence. Kids need a well-rounded educational experience including arts and sports. Hey since you are so smart – google it. I live in Lakota and pay more than my share of taxes. i am sure more than an ignorant SOB like you but my kids and their future are worth it. Go back to your trailer park. By the way YEAH for the kids that took the signs, Kids are aware of the greed of people like you
I was at an event the other day where many politicians had gathered. All of them knew both Cunningham and Seitz and we had very animated discussions about them. I offered that I think these guys think public education is all about football scores. They think public education is all about the Friday Night Lights which brings the community together under the banner of sports. The thought of a teachers union doesn’t cross their mind. In Cunningham’s case, the PTA groups and Lakota coaches come into his sports bar in West Chester and ask him, “please support us. You are the only one. Our children’s lives are in jeopardy.” I have a good idea what kind of talk goes on because another sports bar within the Lakota district received the threat of a boycott from one of the principals at Lakota last year working through the PTA organization, which really scared the owner. So much so she came to the No Lakota Levy group for help. The PTA argument was “We will pull our business if you don’t support the Lakota Levy.” So there is no question that similar discussions have taken place with Bill Cunningham who is a businessman first and understands that such a fight would cost him. So it’s easier to just keep focused on those Friday Night Lights, ground everyone can relate with, and ignore all the real problems.
• Huber Heights City School District: $1,273 • Northmont City School District: $1,272 • Valley View Local School District: $1,266 • Oakwood City School District: $1,249 • Northridge Local School District: $881 • Vandalia-Butler City School District: $880 • Mad River Local School District: $869 • Kettering City School District: $862 • Dayton City School District: $387 • Trotwood-Madison City School District: $383 • Centerville City School District: $311
I am willing to pay a certain price in taxes for my friends and neighbors who aren’t so self-reliant. But I am not willing to pay too much.I am not willing to support the unions which these employees are a part, because I do not support progressive politics, and the AFL-CIO is a progressive organization as defined by Richard Trumka. I do not want my money in his pocket, and if I give too much money to police, firefighters, and teachers who then give with union dues money to any group backed by the AFL-CIO, my money ends up in his pocket, which is theft from me. I see all progressive groups as detrimental to the kind of America I want to live in.
I am sick and tired of listening to moochers declare what heroes they are because they stand between criminals and the public, how they run into a fire when I run out. Such people are no different from the soldier who says to a naive 19-year-old girl in a bar just before he goes oversees, “I may be killed tomorrow, so will you sleep with me tonight?”
“Oh, you’re such a hero,” says the young girl. “Yes, I would love to be your last time.”
This is what people make in America on average by salary range.
Salary range: $20,000-$29,999
1. Personal home and care aides: $20,280
2. Manicurists and pedicurists: $22,150
3. Funeral attendants: $23,880
4. Landscaping and groundskeeping workers: $25,340
5. Dietetic technicians: $28,530
Salary range: $30,000-$39,999
6. Veterinary technologists and technicians: $30,580
7. Travel agents: $32,450
8. Dental assistants: $34,000
9. Police, fire and ambulance dispatchers: $36,470
10. Massage therapists: $39,780
Salary range: $40,000-$49,999
11. Surgical technologists: $40,710
12. Law clerks: $41,960
13. Flight attendants: $43,350
14. Firefighters: $47,270
15. Health educators: $49,060
Salary range: $50,000-$59,999
16. Food service technicians: $50,850
17. Respiratory therapists: $54,200
18. Anthropologists and archaeologists: $57,230
19. Editors: $58,440
20. Public relations specialists: $59,370
When I tell some of these local public workers that they make too much, and they used emotion, the heroics of others to get it from the public in the form of tax increases, I hear back that I’m being cheap. “Can’t you afford just $24 a month more to support your local public servants?”
“I would if they were broke, or even making a middle-class wage, but they are doing exceptionally well. They don’t need an increase. I need that money to pay for my Netflix account. That’s more important to me than giving someone who has too much even more.” Is that selfish? No, because for many, some people may not be able to pay their cable bill, or the cell phone bill, or may have to give up Netflix so a public worker can have a 2 to 3% increase on a top salary of over 70K per year. Give me a break!
Doc Thompson did a segment about this controversy and I came on toward the end of it to provide some background about how S.B.5 was born and why all public workers were placed under the umbrella of Issue 2, which Doc felt was causing much of the problems that are starting to emerge. Both sides are getting furious and undermining each other with dirty tricks.
Obviously, the repeal attempt is attempting to manipulate the public, and they haven’t even thought about what will happen if Issue 2 gets repealed. The overwhelming amount of selfishness exhibited by the Repeal People is even bewildering to me. Collective bargaining has never been a “right” yet the government employee culture has come to expect disproportionate benefits from the tax payer and they have shown they will do anything to get them, even if the benefits come at the expense of their co-workers who are under them in seniority. Without Issue 2 there will be no legal way to balance our budgets, and massive layoffs will occur, and we will lose teachers, firefighters and police. So the YES ISSUE 2 people put together the ad you see below which turns the first ad back around on that same group with truth, which caused the controversy.
I was at a GameStop the other day buying a new video game and a woman about my age was at the counter talking to the staff member who was trying to explain to the woman who if she used a special promotional offer that GameStop was offering, the woman could save $15 dollars on the game she was buying for her son. To my shock the woman said, “Do I look like I need to save money!” I took note of her large diamond rings, her very nice attire, her manicured hands, her hair, and her ear rings. I had heard her say earlier that she lived in Blue Ash so it was important to her that people saw that she made a lot of money. I have heard the same thing from parents who want me to support the school levies. “Can’t you afford $40 more a month? What’s wrong with you?” It is the same mentality.
And many people are already at that point. My wife and I were dining at Chili’s recently and I studied the people at the bar while we ate. Many of the couples there were watching the baseball playoff games being shown and were drinking large quantities of alcohol. I knew a few of them, and knew that they were putting the bill on their credit cards and that their wives secretly resented their own jobs and wished they had the ability to stay home as my wife does. But those couples came to Chili’s to meet with other friends and keep up appearances because it’s important to them to be able to say they dined out and did some socializing. I’ve told those same men that you are working too hard to pay too much tax that if you paid less tax, you could enjoy coming to Chili’s and have the money to pay for it without worry.
“But I have plenty of money. I’ll pay of the American Express in full when it comes. No problem.”
• No, I never had a teacher that guided me through a tough time. They tried, but I rejected them, so not to rob me of the benefit of self-reliance. If they helped me, I did not get the benefit of discovery. They get the benefit of teaching, so the act is more about them, which becomes a selfish gesture. I have been that way my entire life and have never once felt lesser for it. Too often moochers in life do things like building a road, or forcing through law that you take their education class, even if you are already beyond them, and then when you are successful, they attempt to take credit for your success as if to justify their work, which they imposed on you to begin with. I have little tolerance for this behavior. I put up with it for the good of my community, because not everyone is able to see things as I do, and I understand that. I pay my taxes to support those activities for my neighbors, but my children and grandchildren will be taught by better instructors under my tutelage, and that is in the instructions of self-reliance.
• I have never in my life turned away from a dangerous situation when it was in front of me. I’ve been shot at, hunted, threatened in just about every conceivable way, schemed against, virtually every human folly that the imagination can produce has found its way against my wits. And all of those attempts were initiated by the other party in anger because I would not subscribe to their system of doing things, but instead relied on self-reliance. I have seen the fury of those who claim to be brave, but still seek the safety of peer numbers which consciously justify their meager existence (thus my hatred of unions and all collectivism). I have been trapped in cave on my belly unable to move in any direction but forward into a darkened abyss with no light. I have been trapped in a tree of great height (over 50’) alone as the extended ladder fell to the ground and the trunk was so large I couldn’t even begin to put my arms around to shimmy down. The branches of the tree alone were the size of a large man’s torso. I have been in several severe car accidents. I’ve suffered broken bones, severe lacerations, and much blunt trauma such as concussions and skin that ripped open because the pressure of the blood beneath could not move away fast enough but to explode upon impact. Yet you can count on two hands the times I’ve been to a doctor or surgeon. I only attend medical professionals to patch me up or fix an ailment which I have diagnosed. Most of my serious injuries I’ve fixed myself including a broken ankle I suffered in Panama City jumping off a 20’ peer onto a not so sandy beach. My health is supreme, my blood pressure, and all such concerns stout. I take absolutely no drugs of any kind, except when they are needed to finish a work day and I need the boost to complete the task at hand. I’ve been to some of the most remote places on the plant yet never, ever been lost. In fact, I couldn’t get lost if I were dropped into the middle of Siberia blind folded. I do not need a compass, GPS, or even a map to find my way anywhere in this world. When I hear from the people of the world that they are doing something to save me, to help me, I say back, “I do not need your help. You are not more qualified at anything than me. You mind your business and leave me to mine. If you need help ask, but you will never hear me ask for it.”
• Most of the taxes I pay are not for my benefit. If there was no road, I’d make my own or not use one. I would walk, ride a bicycle, or build a helicopter in my back yard to take me where I wish to go, because if I want to go someplace, I’ll go. Terrain or other terrestrial objects will not stop me. Government builds things with my money and I use them because they are there. But my life is not dependent upon them. As to my safety, I have the Second Amendment. I pity the person who attempts to bring harm to my family or to me. It’s been tried before, and it will be tried again and those that discover the wrath of that ill-fated enterprise have been warned. I have represented myself in court more than once since I do not trust lawyers for the most part, and I have been successful many more times than once. So virtually every tax dollar I spend is not for me, it is for mankind and I cringe to watch them waste my money on neurosis. I will never take a Social Security check yet I pay it. And Medicare is not an option. I’d go bankrupt first before accepting Medicare. I’d be willing to do that because I know that as long as I breathe, I can always rebuild myself. I’ve lost everything only to start completely over again at least three times and I’d do it 30 more times before I took a government check, a government job, or help from a neighbor.
I’ve stated that I put up with it for the sake of societies majority, whom I view as weak, mentally reduced, impudent, and hopeless, I pay my taxes so those people can have their care, their social welfare. To those people I appear as “anti-social” or even “cold hearted,” because they measure social success in acts of weakness, or masked kindness. The proof that society is wrong in its measure can be heard in those 911 calls, collectivism as shown in the video below disgust me because they produce future 911 callers and higher taxes to support their public safety net philosophy.
When I was a kid, which wasn’t that long ago, but by measure of social value seems like an eternity, cartoons like the one below from Walt Disney created for me positive static patterns that even to this day fill my mind with value. The cartoon is part two of Paul Bunyan and the song was so catchy that I still find myself humming it while I work.
Well, times have changed since then. I can remember cartoons like that came on every Sunday evening at 7 pm. My family would order Chester’s Pizza and I’d watch the Wonderful World of Disney with my family while eating that great tasting pizza. And like Paul Bunyan I see that we are facing a new machine that may seem more useful, but lacks heart. That new machine is the education institution.
I have a good idea how Lakota was able to raise so much money. At the link below is the kind of donations Lakota had last year, much of it coming from the teachers union and the PTA groups.
Rich Hoffman
