It's Not About You!

by Pa Rock

This election is not about you, and it certainly isn't about me. It's not even about our kids. This election is about our grandkids and their kids and grandkids.

I am so tired of hearing people snivel about not wanting to do things to contribute to the general good because it will have no immediate, personal impact on them. And they certainly don't want to spend money now on something whose aim is to build a better tomorrow. They think that those folks living in tomorrow should take care of themselves! (And maybe they could if they didn't have to worry about paying off our debt!) This tendency to vilify any plan that would require payment today for a better tomorrow is just greed, plain and simple. What most people seem to be after is immediate gratification with the bills coming due sometime in the future. It's the notion of play now and pay later, and not the other way around.

So when an election rolls around, it's very natural for politicians to pander to the public greed. They hyperventilate about cutting taxes while bridges collapse in Minnesota, whole cities get washed away by hurricanes, and students are piled in public schools like so much cord wood. They huff and puff about ending government waste and eliminating earmarks, then rush to to public trough to grab goodies for their home district so the folks will remember them at election time. (Earmarks are only wasteful when they go to someone else's district!)

And politicians never, ever tell you the truth.

Here is some of the truths that don't get told:

1. Public services cost. If you want paved roads, bridges, schools, prisons, a standing military, law enforcement, hospitals, emergency services, clean air and water, mail delivery, Internet, telephones, railroads, indoor plumbing, and border fencing, you pay! You pay with taxes. Living in a civilized country that offers services to its citizens is a privilege. Paying the taxes that support those services is an act of patriotism.

2. If you are unhappy about the priorities that the government sets in spending your taxes, you become politically active and work to have your priorities moved to the front of the political agenda. If, for instance, spending a bazillion dollars on a phony Oil War that can't be won strikes you as wasteful, and you would rather see your money go toward something useful such as universal health care, get off of your tired butt and support candidates who think the way you do. If you sit back whining about all politicians are the same and it doesn't make any real difference who gets elected, then you deserve to live in a land where greed and patriotism are interchangeable concepts, and crap like Dear Leader rises to the top of the Federal Government.

3. Politicians play to your basest instincts: greed and fear. They are going to cut your taxes, send you a rebate, or put a major highway near land that you own. And while they themselves might not call their opponent a gay, Muslim, child molester, people connected to their campaign or their causes will see that stories like that get around. Politicians nearly always stand ready to fan the coals of baseless innuendo and lies. It is much easier to tear the other guy down than it is to build your own case through positive appeals - and Americans prefer gutter tactics anyway.

If you want change, make change happen! If you're happy with the way things are, check your meds!

Sweden (1)

by Pa Rock
World Traveller

I have gone on at length about the social work tour of Russia that I was fortunate enough to be a part of in 1999. After spending over a week in Moscow and St. Petersburg, our group boarded a plane for a short hop to Stockholm, Sweden.

Those of us who weren’t in a hurry to get to the hotel and unpack were given an opportunity to go to the University of Stockholm for an orientation to social work in Sweden that was presented by the Dean of Social Work. The dean, an older lady, said that the three main functions of the school of social work were to educate social workers, teach research methods for social work, and do actual social work research. She said they were also educating social workers abroad, primarily in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Bosnia.

The University of Sweden, in 1999, had 30,000 students. It was a public university that did not charge tuition. The school of social work had 400 graduate students, including 50 in the doctoral program, and 800-1,000 undergraduate students. Students in the masters program were established social workers, and their curriculum was built around problems that they brought to the program. The masters program also taught managerial skills to social workers who wanted to move into social work administration. The school had a staff of 125, thirty-five of whom were pure researchers or administrators. Seventy percent of the teachers were women. The student population of the school of social work was eighty percent female.

The dean identified three major programs within the school: children at risk, elder care, and alcohol abuse. She said that were also two emerging areas of interest at the school. First, would the welfare state have the ability to survive? (Sweden had cradle-to-grave free healthcare, but the income tax rate was sixty percent.) And, second, what should society’s response be to the refugee situation. (Eighty thousand people had fled Bosnia within the preceding few years, and many of them had come to Sweden where they were experiencing a total lack of integration.)

The dean also talked about women’s issues in Sweden. She said that the country had new legislation regarding battered women aimed at insuring that male abusers were brought to court. If a woman declined to press charges, the police could do it if there was an established pattern of abuse. She also said that the country had established special clinics for young girls so that they could get medical advice and treatment without telling their parents.

As we were leaving the presentation we found that our tour buses had not returned to pick us up. Several members of the university staff pitched in to give us rides to our hotel in their own cars. I was one of three to ride with the dean in her older Volvo sedan. As we started up, I noticed that the engine sounded somewhat strange by American standards, and I asked her if it was a diesel. “No,” she laughed. “It just sounds like one!”