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9/19/12 - United Dems to hold State and Local issues night 7pm at Norman King Center.
Full info HERE
 Ethicalego Speaks
Ethicalego (Kenneth Brooks) discusses current events from a critical thinking perspective rarely expressed elsewhere
Public service unions and disunity
By Kenneth Brooks
9/19/12
Americans pride themselves a society of free people. More likely, they are docile people unaware of the limits on freedom because they never tested the door of their prison.
The school year began last week. Nevertheless, an estimated 400,000 Chicago students remained at home denied their right to an education by a labor dispute. An estimated 25,000 members of the teachers' union voted to strike for more pay, better-subsidized health care, and improved working conditions. Each day of closure pits the economic interest of union members against the education and economic need of students. No matter the reason, the legal economic extortion by one group of another does not reflect the face of freedom.
The people created various tax-supported institutions-police, fire, and schools -to serve the public's interests and needs. I agree the workers they hired should receive just compensation for their services. However, public employee unions have gained control over public institutions and reset their priorities. Now, public institutions serve the economic interests of unionized public workers first and those of the public second.
We see this changing of priorities in most areas of public service and not only in public schools. Perhaps the conduct of Chicago residents should not shock me. After all, residents in many California cities accepted worse demands from public safety unions. Public safety unions demanded that residents pay more money for fewer police officers and firefighters and agree to accept reduced crime and fire protection for their families.
I do not understand why the public tolerates employee labor relations that hold the people's public services hostage to public employees' pay demands. Many cities paid for the equipment needed for their protection from fire and crime. Nevertheless, it sits idle although they have people willing to complete police and fire duties at pay rates that allow the city to employ enough personnel for full public's safety. Nevertheless, representatives of the public agree to employees' pay and benefit demands. City residents show poor reasoning ability and low self-worth that allow this correctable condition to continue.
Perhaps I make an unwarranted presumption the condition is correctable. The root cause of Americans' socioeconomic problem is the absence of unity and community that troubled American society for centuries.
Free people police themselves and pass their values to the next generation in schools taught by community members. They encourage unity by selecting community members as public service employees. Ideas of unity prevent consideration of an outsider for city manager, school superintendent, or police chief. The specter of public employees living outside a community should show the loss of unity to the least thoughtful resident.
American society asserts the value of diversity over unity as a desirable social characteristic. Residents in the same town or city feel no economic connection to others living in poverty, without health care, or with inadequate protection from crime. They do not care if outsiders run their city, police their community, or teaches their children. Laws that prevent communities from favoring community members over outsiders for public service positions indicate the level of dysfunction in American society. Those laws weaken the bond of unity in communities.
Individuals with different backgrounds live in the same area and share services. Nevertheless, they are not a community unless they share common goals and values. American society corrupted ideas of community to include diverse people living in close proximity without shared values. This is cultural diversity's false concept of community. Society can redefine the word community to mean anything. However, it cannot change the concept of shared values required for true unity. There are barriers that people cannot overcome without unity.
I would expect Americans to appreciate the value of unity over diversity given their love for team sports such as basketball and football. Each athlete brings diverse talents to a team. Nevertheless, diverse talents absent a unifying force or philosophy are more destructive than constructive. I do not know of any professional sports team that won a championship based on ideas of diversity. I do not know of any nation in history that survived based on ideas of diversity over unity.
American society's philosophy of diversity over unity is self-destructive. Adversity, such as economic challenges, easily weakens the bonds of any group that emphasizes members' differences over likenesses. One sees evidence of the destruction in all areas of society and most prominently in public service employee unions' battles with their employers.
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