Picture this...

You walk into Target, and there is a perky, young thing holding a fabric-lined basket that matches her red shirt, greeting you with, "Would you like to make a donation to our organization today?  Your contribution will allow us to buy some much needed supplies like toilet paper, light bulbs and hangers for our displays.  Otherwise, we employees have to buy these things ourselves.  Every little bit helps, so whatever you can give is sincerely appreciated...(wink)"

You think to yourself, "What?!  Doesn't management supply those basic necessities for this place through the money they collect with sales? What a cheap place, asking me for a donation over and above what I already give them when I buy stuff!  Where is all their money going? I'm outta here..."

I know what you're saying...What an unrealistic, 'way out there' scenario, Mary...where are you going with this?

Okay, now picture your local public school.  If you have kids in public school, you don't have to imagine where I'm going.  How much have you given to your kids' classroom, and the school PTO/PTA to allow the students (your kid) to have basic tools for their job (aka learning)?  Pencils, Erasers, Glue, Paper, Markers, Tissues, Hand Sanitizer, Paper Towels...Buying junk during fundraisers for the purchase of a shade structure over the playground so the kids don't burn themselves on the metal while playing when school starts at the beginning of August and it's still 100 degrees...

Why do we think it's unrealistic and ridiculous for Target to ask for donations for basic supplies to keep the place running, but we just go along with our Public Schools doing so?  I know this is a complicated issue, with teachers salaries traditionally being poverty level, but even though the education of our kids doesn't make one a millionaire, thanks to the Teacher's Union, it aint poverty, baby! The lowest starting salary for an elementary school teacher is in North Dakota at $24,872/yr, and the highest is in Connecticut at $39,259/yr.*  Since the Federal Poverty Level for a family of 4 is $22,350**, if that teacher in North Dakota is a single parent of three children just starting out in the teaching profession, I would feel for them, but if they have a spouse with another income, I'd feel better.

Since most of the households who send their kids to the local private school (and many who do not) pay taxes to support said school, I can't imagine that the teacher salaries are the problem.  (I haven't addressed the benefits, like medical and retirement, however, which far outweigh current salaries in the school budget).  I applaud anyone who can get full medical benefits for themselves and their families...I wish I had them, and don't begrudge anyone who does.  I take issue with the retirement benefits, however.

Now, before my teacher friends on Facebook "unfriend" me and banish my kid to the back of the room with a dunce cap, hear me out, please.

In order to be a teacher one MUST belong to the Teacher's Union.  Therein lies the problem, I think.  Since I'm not a teacher, and don't belong to the union, I can't speak with any certainty or intelligence on the actual day to day goings-on of the organization.  I can only say that I don't think a union should be involved in any government agency or job.  A union is not a fair institution in a company where the employees can actually vote on who their boss is...why would anyone need protection from someone he/she actually chose as a boss, and can then fire a few years?!

I don't have the answers to the question, "So what do we do to change this?"  I can only start by removing all unions from public service positions, and giving full salaries to all government employees (including politicians) ONLY while they actually have the job, and not one day later.  Take the current retirement benefits program and use it to increase current salaries, so employees can invest in their own retirement programs.  This way, they can actually build their own wealth and leave something to their families if they so desire, rather than, when they die, allowing their retirement money to simply go to some other government retiree.

The political climate is hopefully changing faster than global warming, but real change will require the realization that we are all part of a community, and some of us cannot benefit greatly by the suffering of others without major consequences - hint...has anyone's lifestyle changed since 2007?  We have already proven that the current system doesn't work, so this is a call to action for the 'powers that be' to actually study "line by line" to find the inequities, and give us, the people paying for them, a chance to fix them.  Sure, a few people will scream when their undeserved riches are take away, but since when has this been a country 'of the few...for the few...by the few'?

Wait...I guess it is right now...

If you have a better idea on how to institute Federal and State change, please share.  At least one person is listening, and that's a start.

References:
*http://www.teacherportal.com/teacher-salaries-by-state
**http://www.coverageforall.org/pdf/FHCE_FedPovertyLevel.pdf

---Mary Kathryn Johnson 2011

Serving as a Federal or State Politician is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serving their term(s), then going home and back to work. Do you know of any Politician who has actually worked at a job for more than 5 years?

I think the following should happen immediately:

1. No Federal or State Politician will receive any pension or tenure for his/her time in any political office. A Politician collects a salary while in office, and no pay from the American people when out of office.

2. Every Politician (Past, Present and Future) participates in Social Security. All funds in any political retirement fund move to Social Security immediately, and the accounts are then canceled.

3. Every Politician has the right to purchase his/her own retirement plan just like every other American Citizen.

4. No Political body can ever vote themselves any pay raise. The position held will receive a pay raise each year that is equal to 3%.

5. The only Health Care provided to any Politician is that which is also available to any other American Citizen.

6. Every Politician must abide by every law that is also imposed upon every other American Citizen.

7. Any contract made with any Politician during his/her time in office will be void as of 1/1/12, and no contract can be entered into during a Politician's time in office.

If you agree or disagree, please let me know. If you agree, please tell me how we can make these things happen immediately . . . not twenty years from now.

Next we can tackle the Unions in the Public Sector.

I know that the title of this post is oxymoronic - with the emphasis on "moronic" - but why does it have to be this way?

All your answers are flooding my Mac'Brain through it's wireless network. I know, it's the nature of the beast.

I'm too young to have seen Mr. Smith Goes to Washington when it was first released, but I can tell you that NOTHING in life is new! Cicero talked about it in ancient Rome, and The American Tea Party Movement talks about it today.

Before you judge me as some fringe political supporter, and disable my connection to your Mac or PC Brain by hitting that little 'x' in the corner, re-read the title of this post. I am referring to anything that is specifically 'Political'.

Unfortunately, the "Dictionary" link on my desktop (I have a paper version of the Dictionary on my bookshelf, but why get up and walk over there when I have it 'at my fingertips'?) lists five definitions of the word 'political', four of which support my sarcasm.

Is there anyone in existence anywhere in the United States of America that is truly Political: (adjective) of or relating to the government or the public affairs of a country?

Anybody?!

My kids (and yours) would love to have a viable country to inherit in about 10 years, so we don't have much time.

I can't believe it just happened. 

I smell rubber, hot asphalt and dusty, dry weeds.  My legs feel like they have been smashed into the pavement, and are full of needles  My whole right side is on fire, and I smell and taste my own blood.

I open my eyes and am momentarily blinded by the hot sun.  I focus, and see a yellow line on the road, pebbled and uneven looking , and I look down at the bundle in my arms, a mass of blond hair, pink t-shirt, skirt and pudgy legs ending in sparkly sandals and pink painted little toes.  No blood or odd angled limbs.  Thank God!

I hear whimpering, and whisper, "Are you all right?"

Continued whimpering prompts me to repeat forcefully, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I think tho." the little first grader lisp whimpers back as she looks up at me.  She has blue eyes like my son, light blue, almost gray.

Her whimpering starts to grow, becoming a little sob, and I adjust my left arm to brush her hair back as she starts to get up.

"It's okay, sweetie.  It's going to be okay," I whisper as I lay my head back down on the pavement, hearing screams, running footsteps and car engines idling.  I close my eyes as the distant sirens wail, and welcome the reprieve from the bright sun, but I still see the light shining through my eyelids, until, finally, painless, cool darkness.

~~~

Yes, I occasionally do cross walk duty, and actually take my life, and the lives of elementary school children in my own hands.  And, yes, occasionally, I have dreams about it.  This delusional dream of grandeur is very revealing of my biggest fear - children (especially my own) in danger.  Thankfully, I am never a victim in these dreams...I always fight, and win the safety of the child, but the cross walk fear is very real.

The insecure, inconsiderate mom/dad going around on the wrong side of the road to cut in front of everyone else.  The self-important mom/dad texting or talking on the phone while stopping traffic to cut in front of the next rightful car, then walking her/his child back to their car still talking on the phone as if the child is the grocery store clerk with whom kindness and consideration is apparently not required.  The non-parent too busy to wait, passing on the right - sometimes off the paved road to get around all this 'child pick-up mess' - and speeding through the intersection, oblivious to the cross walk monitor holding the large stop sign...hence the dream.

Always show patience and kindness in the face of the impatient and unkind.  Otherwise you become what you detest.  It is one thing to be too insecure, inconsiderate and self important to let anyone else have the right-of-way, and it is something totally different to put children in danger.

"It's all right, sweetie..."

"It's all right..."

You may argue that I have it backwards, but I don't think so.

We are all motivated by feelings.  The Sales Person who sells shipping boxes feels just as much of a high when he makes a big sale as the one who sells Ferrari's.  The high of the sale is the motivator.  iTunes and CDBaby would not exist if Musicians simply sat in their spare rooms or studios expressing to themselves their joy of making music, but having no desire to share their compositions.  The Musician puts her work out into the world, because of the feeling she gets when someone likes her music and/or buys it.

Landscape Architects, Accountants, Artists, CEO's and School Teachers are no different.  Whatever the motivation for each person to stay in his chosen career, whether for the pride in the magazine article showcasing the outdoor beauty the Landscape Architect enhanced, or the fulfillment of knowing the School Teacher positively influenced the next generation , the feeling is the motivator.

For many of us, those strong positive feelings dull with time, repetition and added responsibility.  We acquire spouses, children, pets, boats, houses and debt, and the work that gave us powerful motivating feelings actually becomes work.  That fulfillment of teaching children now becomes a desire for the security of full pay and benefits when she turns 60.

Anyone nodding their head? 

So, do we simply deal with the drudgery for the sake of security?  If so, what life will we look back upon when we face death?  What will we regret?

Ten years ago I was in the drudgery.  I had a job I enjoyed, but I was starting to only enjoy each sale for the money it brought home for the house, cars and groceries, and to be honest I was enjoying the status that came with my upper middle class income. 

Then several things happened in September, 2001 that made me "Take a Left" turn on my path in life.  I know what you're thinking, but read on.

• I got laid off due to a merger
  
• I got another higher paying job in the booming dot com industry
• I got pregnant with my second child
  
• I lost my dot com job (surprising in 2001, right?!)
  
• I got another great part time job even though I was 7 months pregnant
• I fell and broke both my legs when I was 8 months pregnant
• I delivered the baby with casts on both legs up to the knee, and cared for the newborn, toddler, husband and home hopping around using a walker
  
• My amazing, wonderful Mother-in-law whom I had known for 30 years then died of Breast Cancer

Yes, my little insignificant difficulties were nothing to the global catastrophe that occurred only six days after I broke my legs on 9/5/01, but my difficulties are forever linked to that catastrophe as I watched with my cast-clad feet propped up on a pillow the horror of 9/11/01 unfold, and my son was also born only days later.

All of my difficulties led to my feeling very confident that if I could survive all this with my sense of humor in tact, I could do ANYTHING!

I started a business, MommyLoves, and grew it to success myself - I feel proud and empowered.

I wrote a book, Say Bump and Take a Left. How I Birthed a Baby and a Business after a Huge Bump in the Road - I feel humbled, accomplished and proud that I Self Published.

I started a Self Publishing company to help all the people who approached me about their own stories, and their desires to show them to the world through Self Publishing, HelpMeSelfPublish - I feel satisfaction and contentment that I am nurturing others to fulfill their dreams.

When you give a gift to someone - not simply a store bought card and candy for Valentine's day - a real gift that surprises and overjoys them, you feel great.  You nailed it!  You gave that one in a million gift that you knew they would love, yet were not expecting.  There is no better feeling.

Today, I helped a friend embark upon the road to a dream she never even knew she had, down a road she is uniquely qualified to navigate.  Fulfilling this dream will give her the flexibility she needs to be home with her children, and the security she desires to be self sufficient.  I didn't do anything specific, I just planted a seed, showed her a way, opened up new possibilities.  The sparkle in her eyes, and the glow of possibilities radiating from her face made me feel damn good that I contributed to that sparkle and glow!

Pretty selfish of me, right?!

I can only imagine how Mother Theresa felt when she saw that glimmer of hope in every person's eyes that she had the pleasure of helping.  Again, the feelings I get from my little insignificant contribution to my friend and the people I help Self Publish are not even comparable to the joy Mother Theresa must have felt when she knew The Society of Missionaries helped thousands of the poorest of the poor in countries around the globe, and those thousands of people would not have that glimmer of hope were it not for Mother Theresa.

Thank God Mother Theresa was so wonderfully selfish.

How selfish are you?