Caught In The Vice

To the Editor:

There is an economic vice that has been in place for some time. Caught between its opposing jaws are us, the faces that are lost in the crowd, the ones that a lot of politicians wish would go away. We must stand our ground if we do not want to be crushed. This vice consists of the super rich and Wall Street on one hand who believe they can manipulate our government to their advantage, and its opposition, organized labor. We, the country boys and girls who pay our exorbitant real estate taxes so others can enjoy their trips to Europe and Asia as well as their ill-gotten fat pensions, are the victims. Most folks in the city do not own homes and thus pay none of the cost of education. This is the reason why it is so difficult to have reform by vote. Ohio has just voted to overturn a law stripping collective bargaining from public unions. The 40 percent who wanted to uphold the law are you and me, the folks being squeezed in the vice.

To be sure, there are labor unions who understand economic forces and will curtail their appetite at the bargaining table accordingly, but the Newtown Federation of Teachers, a/k/a American Federation of Teachers, is not one of them. They do not have any pity even for those of us who have to struggle to meet our bills.

They will tell you that they only get the same as others in the state as if this is any kind of justification. After all, the head of police of UConn makes $250,000 per year so why can’t they make half this much. Oh, I forgot. They will tell you that the more you spend on education the better it is. A total prevarication, but believed by many. Look at the SAT scores, and ask what have they learned to prepare them for the world of today and tomorrow.

So what should we do? Make plans to move out of town? I think we deserve better. I propose sitting down with the union and giving them the choice of either making serious concessions or turning the matter over to the federal court system to remove collective bargaining for public employees as a violation of restraint of trade laws as well as the present pension system and tenure of office as a violation of the XIV amendment, Section 1 of the Constitution. We must improve our educational system and bring the cost of education down to the level of sanity or else we end up creating a generation of button pushers who depend entirely on the computer to do their thinking.

Oscar Berendsohn

34 Appleblossom Lane, Newtown                        November 11, 2011