February 27, 2011.
"Let me riddle you a ditty, it's just an itty bitty, little thing on my mind", so the song I'm listening to starts.
Wow, I haven't sat down and written a note in it seems like forever, and part of me says it's because I'm getting "older". That is why I try and listen to as much "young" music as I can,
to keep my mind fresh in the sounds and feelings of new writers and new sounds and beats. Hopefully, a few of these new tunes kick in while I am doing my workout to stay young and fit and it ends up motivating me and getting me thinking.
Well, that is just what happened this morning. So there I was with my IPod Nano on the treadmill listening to the band "He is We" and their song "Happily Ever After" that was a FREE ITunes song last week.
And this "itty bitty" entered my mind, and here go my fingers a'typin'.
The song is about the story of a boy and girl and the desire to rush to the end of the story to see if they "end up happily ever after" from their current adolescent age. Also, the message in the song suggest that each of us has a story to tell, which is somewhat obvious, but also obvious is that we don't get to rush to the ending of the story to find out IF happily ever after arrives, "do I end up happy?" as the last line says.
Intertwined with this song was this weekend's newspaper readings and the multiple stories being told about workers fighting for their rights, their turf, their union, their community, the American worker. And on the other side of it is the Tea Partyers and their cries for fiscal responsibility and lowering the tax burden of the American people. Peggy Noonan of the WSJ chimed in with her version of "Crisis-ism", which she suggests all of these new freshman congressman and congresswoman are fighting in Washington, because the old guard that have been there for so long think this "crisis" is the same as all the others so there really isn't any crisis (refer back to my "term limits note of March 2010!). It's always about guns and butter, and this time is no different?
Well, people occupying the state house with both points of view in Madison, WI, Trenton, NJ, and Indiana suggest those status quo "no real crisis" interpreters might be off their mark this time around.
If you have kids, and those kids are involved in school activities of any kind, but especially sports, you know this time IT IS DIFFERENT. Because schools aren't funding programs we all took for granted 10 years ago, 20 years ago, etc. Crew team in town is self-funded, after school activity is "self-funded" (this means you and I pay for it in addition to our taxes that pay for everything else, by the way). Just one example, but across our state and nation the choices are becoming increasingly complex as our fiscal burden and taxing authority measure up versus the engine we all have taken for granted, the American economic engine (you did see that Deutsche Borse is buying the New York Stock Exchange, right?).
NOW, I'm completely appreciative that one who has grown accustomed to certain benefits, privileges, and salary and pension structure considers those benefits to be sacrosanct and expected, such that they are entitled to their rightfully negotiated and earned benefits and pay. Problem is, the people who signed those agreements, on behalf of the taxpayers paying the bills, were beneficiaries of the exact same framework they were promoting for the public employees, only their (the legislators and public official) benefits are even better.
So, on one side of this story are the loyal public servants and employees who have earned and expect to receive those benefits, no matter how uneconomic or burdensome they become to the public at large (what if football or _____ (fill in your child's favorite currently funded activity) became an "option" for schools in NJ. i.e. "We don't believe the state / nation is bankrupt and we want our money"!
On the flip side, a few usually silent voters showed up at the polls this past November and at these same Statehouses to suggest that their burden is too great, that they are tired of paying for someone to lock in their pension based on their last three years pay (usually planned and manipulated strategically with overtime/appointments etc, if possible) while the real working world has already moved to a funded and defined benefit system.
So here we are, and I'm listening to this song and the last few lines talk about ...
" We all have our story to tell, whether we whisper or yell", the song says, and we all would like to know how it ends.
I know that we all have our point of view in this story, but for me the time has come to deal with the fact that for 30 years at the state and the national level, Democrat and Republican, we have burdened these same kids, the ones who have dreams about it all ending wonderfully well and happily ever after, with an economic death sentence that will, this time, be the spoiler in the story.
I want my American dream, my life's dreams, to be theirs' too. And I want those dreams to come true. REALLY.
American worker, and American people, to me are one and the same. And, our kids are OUR kids, and we have irresponsibly burdened them beyond measure, and it is time to deal with it....
because I want to know, and I want to skip to the ending, and I want someone to tell me if THEY, our kids, "End Up Happy".
WE all have our story to tell: union worker, public legislative official, Governor, teacher, retiree, executive, self-made millionaire, recipient of benefits, payer of taxes: Do I end up happy?
Author of the moment, can you tell me?
TommyT ,
PS. Credit to "He is We" for the song and its lyrics which launched the thoughts, and whose lyrics are cited and weaved in throughout- and for the kids, mine and yours, who the note is dedicated to.
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