Wisconsin protests

It is a sign of the times when we see our elected officials refuse to do the job that they were elected and paid to do. I have been watching the news, more frequently lately and I am scared for my children's future when I see everything that is going on.
Several cities across America are making very difficult decisions. There are talks of terminating the employment of teachers, of fire fighters, police officers, and many more public positions.  In my state of Mt. our governor was just on the National news speaking about the cuts in our state. The programs affect our children directly. How can we all sit back and watch this. Instead everyone has planted their feet to the ground and said this is the team I am backing, and I will support whatever they say or do no matter what. Well I am concerned for our future. After learning more about politics and parties, I have definitely decided the closest label I would give my self would be libertarian. I do believe that government has grown to large to powerful, and intrusive. There is also the problem of who is really making the decisions that affect our country. Pharmaceutical companies, Unions, etc.. Because we know that they buy our politicians. So when you think about Obama care, and these massive teacher, and city worker protests, it becomes clear who is behind these decisions. You always hear the term follow the money, and when you do, it is alarming.
I grew up learning about the benefits of unions. I understood the need for them. They protected employees from discrimination, unfair pay, unequal benefits, and general mistreatment. Over the years the government listened to the public and understood the sort of problems plaguing our workforce, and several laws were enacted to protect and offer fair opportunities to employees. This should negate the need for unions. But of course unions have convinced employees that they are indispensable. They can bargain to make sure you get paid more, that your benefits are better, and that you will not be fired no matter how bad you perform in your job. Well they have done their job. Now these union members make more money and have better benefits than their private sector counterparts. And we see that in many cases substandard work is accepted because there is no choice available to have competition for a job such as an educator because they cannot be terminated. We need competition in this country. Competition brings forth the best performance a person has to offer.
I want my children's educators to be the best. I want my city workers to be the best of the best. We deserve that for our friends, neighbors, our children, and ourselves. We should demand it. Thanks to unions in many cases we have no choice at all.
Fortunately we have the choice to elect the politicians we want to represent us. Now we can make the decisions that we think are fair. That represent how we want our nation to be run. Oh wait a minute. No we don't! Now those officials we elect that are bought and owned by big business, can run away, leave the state so they cannot be compelled to do their job. Our founding fathers would be appalled, and if they can see what is happening to the government they created, they would be rolling over in their graves. They certainly would not want to take credit for any of this. These democrats in WI. are setting a precedent that I am sure they do not want to see followed if they should have the majority in office. I would like to say that they are elitist, entitled, immature, children, whom are committing fraud. Oops I just did. That is just my opinion. I am just an under educated, stay at home mom, who is fighting to live pay check to pay check. And that does not happen often. I have to get help from people when we run out of food between paychecks, when our electric bill is too high over the winter, or when their is a surprise car or home repair. Right now we have no health care and have had to take our daughter to the emergency room twice in one month, and then follow up doctors appointments. Enough about me or my family. I know that the majority of the country is in the same boat or worse.
My husband served his country and is an injured combat veteran. We have endured allot without complaint and we are now having serious issues with his benefits and pay. I am scared out of my mind about the future. So you can imagine that I have little sympathy for these union protected employees who make more money, and have better benefits than the average worker. The fact that they can take time off even if it is leave without pay to fight for what they want, not need, is amazing. My husband was written up at work for taking time off for his back injury because he did not have enough vacation or sick time to cover it, no tenure benefits here. He has been at his current job for 11 years.  I am always thanking God that I have a roof over my family's head that we have heat and are able to feed our children. I am as proud as I can be that my husband has held down a job all our married lives, so he could take care of his family, even though he cannot stand his job that he has been at for 11 years.
I am not a religious person, I am not a political activist, and I have a 10th grade education. What I can say about myself is that I have common sense, I have educated myself simply by paying attention to the world around me. I think about the past, the way this country was built, by people helping people. Teachers taught to make our country strong, firefighters fought fires to save their neighbors homes, and police helped protect their neighbors. The respect I have for these people is tremendous. And they are a just a part of what makes our country great. We as a country had so much respect and recognized the benefits of their service that we decided to pay them to do these wonderful jobs they do. And that we know is difficult in a day when many children are entitled and have no respect for authority. Thank you educators for doing that job.
I try to live my life by the Golden Rule. (do unto others as you would have others do unto you.)
I know it is rather simplistic but it works.
I am not opposed to gay marriage. I don't believe it is right for my gay friends to not have the same rights that I do. I am a believer in pro-choice. That is all an aspect of the golden rule. There is also the little separation between church and state. We all know that the only reason these laws are in place or debated is because it offends some peoples religious values. Therefore common sense dictates there should be no law governing who has the right to marry whom. And who should not be allowed to decide what to do with their bodies. These are based on religious ideas.
I have run off track. As I said in the beginning, it is a sign of the times. Speaking of these protests.
Look at the protesting going on in the middle east. They are simply demanding to have a little bit of freedom.
Imagine that just a little bit. And look at the people in America. We have forgotten where we come from and the lives that were laid down to afford them the privileges we have now.
Shame on you. I hope we can get our government back. Even those elected officials won't suffer any consequences. They still get paid to sit in their motel room and watch cable and order room service. While many people in their state suffer.
I  honestly believe if as a country we all decided to cut back, help others, be more vigilant when it comes to fraud, and abuses of the system, we can get our country back on track. Last night my husband went to the grocery store and got a few things. He was already in the car after walking through 30 below wind chill factor weather, when he looked at the receipt and saw his bananas were not rung up he went back in to fix the error. The greeter at the door said "are you serious? You're a better man than I.". Then he stood in line at the register where he checked out and when he got to the front the checker said "what? I can't believe you came all the way back, I would not get in trouble it happens all the time." The person behind him said that is so nice, they told my husband that just the other day someone dropped something and when he caught up to them to give it back the person was surprised. That is a shocking commentary on our countries citizens. I am a big karma person and my husband is very aware of that and it comes into his head when something like that happens so he does what I would do and what he would want others to do. I told him how great that was to go back and spend the couple of dollars that we rightfully owed. And told him that all those people that were so shocked he came back just might think about him if they are in a similar situation.