I know, I know, it's been a long time since I posted on here.  Sue me.  Now that things have settled down a bit in Wisconsin, I thought I could take a few minutes and put in my 2-cents worth.

According to some of the main-stream media the governor of Wisconsin was intent on stripping the teacher's union in Wisconsin of their collective bargaining rights.  While there is a grain of truth in that statement, it's a grain the size of a garbanzo bean.

 First of all, collective bargaining is not a right PERIOD.  I just went over the Bill of Rights and found no mention at all of collective bargaining.  As a matter of fact I am certain that you won't find it in any of the founding documents of this great country.  That includes The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States or the Holy Bible.  Collective bargaining is a privilege that has been negotiated by the union, but it has been referred to as a "right" for so long now that some people think that it is one.  I suppose it is true that some liberal judge my somehow deduce that the "right to collective bargaining" is IMPLIED by the Constitution, but judicial activism aside, it just isn't mentioned anywhere in our constitution.

Second, collective bargaining was not "stripped away," it was just limited to salaries.  The union is still expected to negotiate salaries for the union members.  Some fringe benefits, however, were altered by the new laws.  Up until now the teachers paid nothing for their health insurance.  Nothing, Nada, zilch.  Very few of the rest of us get totally free health care, with the exception of congress and other government agencies.  They also had a retirement account that was fully funded by the state.  What?  They didn't even have to match the state funds that went into their retirement?  Sweetheart of a deal if you ask me.  And no, I don't care if you didn't ask me.

Third, not one teacher that has been working under a contract that provides these sweet benefits will loose any part of them.  Promises made will continue to be kept, but new teachers will have to pay a little bit of their insurance and retirement.  Of course if you followed the protests, the demonstrations, the sit-ins in the state capitol and the crying and gnashing of teeth that went on you would have thought that the state of Wisconsin was trying to make the teachers teach without paying them at all.

Governor Scott Walker promised when he was running for his current seat that he was going to balance the state budget.  That's why he was elected.  Cutting a little from the state's education budget is just one tool that he is trying to use.  But the response seems to be from the teacher's union, "Balance the budget by making cuts elsewhere.  We want more."  It's funny that none of the main-stream media ever used the term "Greed" when describing the actions of the teacher's union.  Notice that I said the teacher's union, not the teachers themselves.  I've taught high school and it's something that most people, even an old Marine Sergeant, are not cut out to do.  It's hard work and teachers, by and large, deserve our respect.  But the union bosses are only interested in getting a bit more from the state so that they can get just a bit more from the members.  You'd be hard pressed to find a global corporation that is more heartless than the union bosses.

Governor Walker is doing his best to accomplish a very tough job.  In this era of entitlements, cutting back on government spending is hard to do.  Especially when those that depend on those entitlements want everything that they can get for themselves.  We are all going to have to bite the bullet and do with less if we want our country to survive, much less prosper.  We'll talk about this some more in the next day or so.