Mr. President, Have Pity on the Real Working Man

In the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, union teachers cry out, "It's for the children", meaning, give us more money. The Jesse Jackson sycophants join them, screaming, "No justice, no peace."  President Obama sides with the union. More to the point, commentator Gary North asks if we are seeing a replay of the movie, Blazing Saddles.

But I say: Mr. President, have pity on the working man. You know, the productive class, the taxpayers, the ones who pay those hundred thousand dollar teacher's salaries. The real working man.

But there will be no pity from the president. Mr. Obama pretends that he is on the side of the working man against the evil forces that oppress the noble laborer. But he is on the wrong side of history here. It will eventually be acknowledged that it is the unions who are at war with the productive citizens. Meanwhile, as Randy Newman sang, "Mr. President, have pity on the working man!"



My, how things have changed. These striking teachers are not the poor "working man" of Randy Newman's song, who tries to elicit pity and help from an aloof president.

We've taken all you've given,
But it's gettin' hard to make a livin'.
Mr. President have pity on the working man.

We ain’t asking you to love us.
You may place yourself high above us.
Mr. President have pity on the working man.

Unions once pretended to represent the working man when most unions were in the private sector. Now that the public sector unions have ascended to power, they take from the working man to support themselves at a lofty station. The president won't admit it, but he has oppressed the real working man, by taking the sides of the parasites and the barbarians. Long live the government unions, where a government job doesn't mean actually working.


No Justice, No Piece (Of the Pie)

Ironies abound in Wisconsin union politics. Teachers there have twisted the urban street chant, "No justice, no peace", into a greed-fueled demand, oblivious of its true meaning. They don't want 'justice'; They want money, and to use government power to get it from the parents of the children they are employed to teach, most of whom make less money than the teachers do.

Maybe they could justify their pay if they were actually educating children. However, according to an article in townhall.com, the high school graduation rate in Milwaukee public schools is 46 percent. The graduation rate for African-Americans is 34 percent. Only 32% of eighth-graders are proficient in reading, per the U.S. Dept. of Education. As Dire Straits sang in Money For Nothing, "That ain't workin'."

Maybe the children and parents who are subject to such sub-standard performance by their teachers should  be out there on the street yelling about, "No education, no peace."

Is it justice to take the pay of the poor person at the point of a gun to give to richer teachers? Is it justice to demand that parents pay a teacher's health insurance premiums of over twenty thousand dollars per year, when many of the parents have no insurance at all? Is it justice to demand full time pay for part-time work, a status not enjoyed by most of those dragooned into paying for la dolce vita enjoyed by teachers?

To Mr. Obama and the teachers, 'justice' means that the state must give in to the union demands for more money and benefits. So, collecting more from the working man is the only path to peace. That sounds more like extortion than justice. Since the teachers unions made their demand for justice while illegally playing hooky from their posts at school, then maybe they should feel the sting of actual justice, and should be fired. Maybe they would learn the correct meaning of the term. When this is over, how will teachers ever have credibility in the eyes of parents and children to teach a moral world view?

When Jesse Jackson shows up at a protest, cameras following of course, and the cries of "No Justice, No Peace" begin to ring out in the street, the evil overlords are supposed to give way to the demands of the downtrodden union mooks.

It wasn't supposed to happen the way it did so far. The protesters were not supposed to be exposed as the overlords, and the taxpayers were not supposed to create a ruckus. They should pay. The state always makes them pay, so why shouldn't they pay this time, too?

The Worm Has Turned.

This Wisconsin incident has confounded the usual analysis about who are the good guys and the bad guys.  The teachers and President Obama have used the usual class-warfare rhetoric of the socialist left to fool the lumpenproletariat.  But it hasn't worked this time, perhaps because the teacher's exalted financial station has been exposed as much better than that of the guy watching the protest on TV. Can a teacher earning a hundred grand a year really be a victim of injustice?

The teachers have nonetheless attempted to portray themselves as victims, while the reality of their over-abundance has been revealed. This typically did not happen when the state controlled the flow of information, but the stubborn facts are now disclosed rather quickly to the watching public. The teachers are revealed to be out only for themselves, rather than "for the children", as that famous Clintonian justification goes. It worked for him.

Maybe none of the time-tested script will work this time. Maybe the government "haves" have finally overplayed their hand at the expense of the "working man" in a time of widespread economic trouble. Maybe the slogans will not inspire the poor and middle class to proffer yet more of their incomes to the government class. Maybe the cry, "It's for the children" won't be as effective a means to guilt manipulation as it was in the hands of the master manipulator himself, Bill Clinton.

Maybe this trend will even spread to other states, and public servants earning a hundred thousand dollars plus per year will not be able to continue to intimidate the working man who must support them on only a fraction of that salary. Maybe the worm has turned.

If Obama Really Had Pity on the Working Man

Mr. Obama, when are you going to get on the side of the real working man? You must snub the union in favor of taxpayers, but that is not nearly enough. To really affirm justice and peace, you must side with families over the state, and get the government out of the education business entirely. Then the fight over stealing from the working man would cease. It is only a conflict because of the decision to take education out of the home and put it in the hands of the state. It there was no giant pile of tax money to fight over, then there would be no fight in the street right now.

Here is the right message for Mr. Obama to deliver to the long-suffering citizens of Wisconsin if he has any pity for the working man. It would insure his re-election in 2012:

"Workers of the world unite! The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. (Tip of the hat to Karl Marx and The Communist Manifesto.)  Throw off the chains of government union oppression and breathe the air of free men. Reject the incompetent government schools who take your children and mis-educate them. I've got your back, and I will ask Congress to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, and to stop subsidizing local schools.

"Parents, you are hereby liberated from the shackles of state control of your family. You may now educate your children in the way that will most benefit them, not by our 'one size fits all' method. Justice and Peace are now yours."