Just a few items to clear up as the Autumnal Equinox washes over us all:

• During last week’s debate, Jeb Bush got some of the loudest applause of the night when he came to the defense of his brother, George W., by saying, “He kept us safe.”

Well, that he did, except for that minor hiccup involving buildings falling down and thousands of people dying that happened during the W. Presidency. I guess it wouldn’t have had that same dramatic punch if Jeb had had to add “… you know, after that first thing, he kept us safe…except for the thousands of American who died in Iraq, which I have already said that we shouldn’t have invaded.”

• My favorite (which really means least-favorite) Letter to the Editor of the entire summer comes from a dumb-ass who identifies himself as living in the Foothills, proving yet again that there is, at best, a tenuous correlation between brains and money. Anyway, Dumb-Ass David Pearse wrote “Teachers get pensions and virtually free health care.”

I have to stop right there. That couldn’t be more wrong. My wife is a teacher. She pays thousands of dollars a year for health care and neither I nor our children are on her insurance. The only people in Arizona who get virtually free health care are the members of the state Legislature who devote much of their carefree time to stamping out teachers.

Pearse’s dumbass-ery continued with, “Teachers have seniority and job security.”

Dude, were you away at some national retreat for dumb-asses the entire time that the aforementioned state Legislature gleefully dismantled all of the safeguards that teachers had earned over the past century? There is no seniority. There is no tenure. There are no unions any more. There is no job security whatsoever.

There is only lousy pay; long hours; a shocking lack of support from students’ parents; elected officials who are trying to eliminate the teaching profession; and too many public dumb-asses like yourself.

Dumb-ass.

• Tucson Unified School District Superintendent H.T. Sanchez doesn’t want the district to publicize the names of schools that are overrun with kids whose parents aren’t smart enough to understand basic science. Those would be the kids who aren’t vaccinated because their imbecilic parents heard a story from somebody about something that somebody saw on the internet about a kid who caught autism from a dirty needle. And “overrun” is defined as a school where there is even one such un-loved child.

(Didn’t you just love Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s riveting anecdote about an unnamed kid who got a vaccination and then, one day, woke up with autism? Later that night, on Fox News, Ben Carson, who claims to be a medical doctor, sort of agreed with Trump! Megyn Kelly, to her credit, kept hammering away at Carson until he only somewhat backed away from the ridiculous claim.)

Unfortunately, Arizona allows parents to have a “philosophical objection” to vaccinations. (They should be made to spell “philosophical” before they can invoke it.) Parents have the right to endanger their own children. They should not have the right to endanger other people’s children.

And H.T. Sanchez, who doesn’t want that information on the district’s website, knows that it already appears elsewhere in the public domain. It’s pretty lame.

• I was on Emil Franzi’s radio show a couple weeks back and I mentioned that I’m pro-union. What followed was a slew of calls from people who are vehemently anti-union.

Were it not for the labor movement of the 20th century, there would be no middle class in America. And many people think that unions just sprang up out of nowhere for no reason. It was as though a bunch of guys were sitting around in their air-conditioned lunch room, talking about how well-paid they were and how the bosses took care of all their health and safety needs. Then, one of them said, “Hey let’s form a union and make outrageous demands!”

Unions came about because pay was abysmal and because health care and worksite safety standards were non-existent. I mentioned that and a highly-educated man who was in the studio blurted out, “That was back in the 1900s.”

Are we to believe that Capitalist Man has evolved to the point that, if all the union and governmental safeguards for workers were to disappear, the bosses would reinstate them out of the kindness of their hearts? That’s insane. If anything, today’s corporate leaders are even worse than the Robber Barons were back in the day.

A recent Gallup poll shows that 58 percent of Americans approve of labor unions, a shockingly low number for me, but still one that is on the rise and is the highest since 2008. Even 42 percent of Republicans approve of unions. A significant majority of Americans do not consider unions—even those in the public sector—to be a threat to the nation or its economy.

This is bad news to union-buster Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who sees himself wasting away like Marty McFly on stage at the Enchantment by the Sea dance.

Just think about that for a moment. labor unions and public education are two of the main things that helped make America the greatest country of all time. And what are the two things that Republicans attack most often? Unions and public education.

This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2015.

13 replies on “Danehy”

  1. Just speculation, but it is possible that the idea for unions arose from Henry Ford’s decision to pay his employees enough so that they could purchase the products they manufactured … it could be that motivated workers in other companies to demand the same kind of consideration????? Just a thought.

    As to public employee unions, Tom, they are simply a horrible idea. The damper on union demands has to be the threat of the employer going out of business. Since governments can’t go out of business, there is no limit to the demands public employee unions can make … and get. Please comment on the impossible pensions, double dipping (because of too-early eligibility), and the bankruptcy and soon to come bankruptcy of one government after another. Tucson and Pima County are no exceptions. (You really have to strain to suggest that Walker’s poor showing had to do with his union stance. I see no connection at all.)

  2. “The only people in Arizona who get virtually free health care are the members of the state Legislature who devote much of their carefree time to stamping out teachers.”

    You may have missed it Tom, but the SunTran bus drivers – Teamsters – do in fact get fully subsidized healthcare and none belong to the state legislature. In addition, they receive fully subsidized pensions.

    “Dude, were you away at some national retreat for dumb-asses the entire time that the aforementioned state Legislature gleefully dismantled all of the safeguards that teachers had earned over the past century? There is no seniority. There is no tenure. There are no unions any more. There is no job security whatsoever.”

    There are no unions? Really? What a dumb-ass comment. Locally we have weak unions, nationally we have teachers unions in major cities with enormous clout. Think NY, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and LA for starters. If your point is local teacher unions are ineffective, compared to say, the SunTran Bus drivers, you have a point. (You can visit the TEA website at http://tucsonea.org/ if you don’t believe there is a teachers’ union in Tucson).

    The history of the labor movement is inspiring, especially in the early twentieth century. Wow that was something. then. Somewhere along the way unionism began to smell like a dead fish, from the head on down.

    But I will concede this: the teachers represented by TEA would be well advised to join the Teamsters. Pays about the same but oh those benefits!

  3. “The only people in Arizona who get virtually free health care are the members of the state Legislature who devote much of their carefree time to stamping out teachers.”

    Don’t forget everybody on AHCCCS, oh, that’s right, that’s not free, I have to pay for it with my taxes.

  5. All the right wingers came out on this Tom! Of course all spewing what they hear on Faux Snooze because research is a foreign concept for them.

  7. I was one of the luckier teachers…A university professor. Someone once ranted at me because I have a pension benefit. Few understand that the university employee pay into that benefit at a significant percentage, entrustisting the university or in my case the state of Illinois to diligently invest that money over the period of our relationship. Then in the remote possibility of excess funds, spend it responsibly. Excess….I know, hilarious. That is my money, and I worked for it, therefore I am entitled to it. The university and I signed a contract when I was hired that they would care for my money responsibly. Another fallacy regarding professors salaries is that we all make well over 6 figures. Think again. There are benefits that come from a process of strong checks and balances such as tenure. I enjoyed that benefit but again worked very hard for it. It would be a fools game to calculate hours invested vs. hourly wage…so I never attempted the math.

    The same goes for my family’s health care. I paid in for anyone in my family that received health care benefits. Not inexpensive but worth the investment especially for anyone who has children. Why not invest in my most precious recourse…my family and their future and health. It is what a state should do, by the way.

    Public school teachers are in the trenches and deserve our respect. They have discipline issues, overcrowded class rooms, parents who simply want to pawn their responsibilities to others, then bitch and moan about their child’s education. So many public school teachers dip into their pay checks to supplement their classrooms with necessary materials. A governor and state legislature that is not supportive of education is one that lacks vision for the future of our state and country. Intelligence, social skills, and progressive and critical thinking cannot happen without a sophisticated and educated populace. Life is competitive, and our governor is stacking the field with a loosing team.

  8. On the topic of unionism Tom’s column has annoyed those on the right (“Can the Weekly develop any diversity of opinion or is this just a left wing social tinkering rag?) and left (“All the right wingers came out on this Tom! Of course all spewing what they hear on Faux Snooze because research is a foreign concept for them.”

    So that’s a job well done.

    ronko, again on the same issue, makes the point that university professors and teachers pay into their healthcare benefits and retirement accounts, same as the rest of us. For most of us these payments are mandatory if we elect to use available benefits packages. Only SunTran bus drivers get to ride for free. Maybe that explains why unionism continues to held in low esteem as the public is held hostage to ridiculous demands for special treatment by public employees. Bus drivers and mechanics deserve better compensation and benefits than school teachers?

    Really?

  9. ronko…still have overcrowded classrooms? Why not promote charter and private school expansion and get the public schools down to a manageable size? They won’t cut your pay.

    Rick, it wasn’t the unionism so much as everybody that writes here sounds too much like the pope.

  10. Yeah Debbie. Imagine that pope guy saying we should protect the planet, help the poor and throw the money changers out of the temple. Who does he think he is, Jesus Christ?

  11. No. He never mentioned Jesus. But the Papal city has the toughest immigration laws on the planet.

    So nice of him to stop by.

  12. No Rick. Jesus Christ never molested young boys. But let’s not point that out, he wants to jump on the global warming bandwagen..

    Fuggetaboutit!

  13. “A significant majority of Americans do not consider unions—even those in the public sector—to be a threat to the nation or its economy.”

    How sad to even have to write a sentence like that.

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