Well, the governor and state legislature have passed their bill basically punishing 500,000 public employees for the government’s failure to balance budgets properly for the past decade. I am sick and tired of being told that it's a good thing to screw public employees so that private workers and millionaires can have a tax break. Let’s get a few facts straight here:

• the governor has done nothing to balance the state’s budget. All he does is lie about it;
• teachers traditionally have accepted considerably lower salaries than private employees, with health and pension benefits making up a small portion of the difference;
• it is incredibly selfish and greedy that most citizens want to take away teachers’ health and pension benefits, but are not willing to make up the difference in salaries;
• I am sick and tired of hearing lies that teachers “work half a year.” Most teachers I know work 50 hours per week for 36 weeks, while other employees work 40 hours per week for 45 weeks. Do the math, folks;
• it is not surprising that legislators, a particularly greedy, self-centered bunch, have realized they can screw several hundred thousand teachers, because the few votes they lose cannot compare to the huge number of citizens who falsely believe they are gaining financially because of this;
• everybody should look closely at the budget cuts the governor made the night of June 30th, knowing it was too late for the legislature to override him. He has again proven that all he cares about is protecting “rich, white males” (in the word of one opponent) at the expense of everybody else;
• surely there are not enough “rich, white males” in the state to re-elect the governor. Does this mean the rest of the state’s private employees are so fooled as to believe he is actually on their side? If so, I feel sorry for the future of this entire state.