Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Rally behind the new president
From the RoundTable blog
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G. E. Haydt
Haydt is a retired telecommunications worker and police officer. He lives in Mouth of Wilson.
I recall the last major crisis we, as a nation, faced. It was Sept. 11, 2001, and we all were reeling from a devastating attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York. This occurred within a short time of President Bush taking office as the 43rd president of the United States.
When our president stood on the rubble of the fallen twin towers and proclaimed that we would find those who perpetrated that heinous act and bring them to justice, we all -- Democrats, Republicans, independents, Libertarians, old, young, whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Northerners, Southerners and Westerners -- stood with him and supported him completely and unequivocally. As the world stood in solidarity with us, we were in a position to eradicate terrorism from the face of the Earth.
The support was there. All we as a nation had to do was to pick up the ball and run with it.
Somehow during the intervening years, that support from virtually all Americans and the united voice of a world that proclaimed "we are all Americans" was squandered by the distraction of Iraq.
Now, with the swearing in of a new president, we face another major crisis as our economy spirals into meltdown following years of deregulation and supply-side economics.
While the CEOs and top-tier management of our global corporate structure waltz to their Cayman Island bank accounts smirking, smiling and hoarding their billions in all manner of foreign investments to avoid detection as well as any fair taxing of their "hard-earned" money, the rest of us are trying to make it to the next payday, if we are fortunate enough to have a payday.
It's somewhat amusing that some of our Southern conservative representatives quickly blamed the workers in the auto industry for the financial failure of that industry. They cite figures conjured up by misleading and ridiculous calculations.
For example, they add up all the money spent on wages, health benefits, overtime and vacations of active employees then they divide this by the total number of hours worked. This comes out very close to $30 per hour.
Fair enough; I can accept that. Then comes the deceiving part. They then add the amount paid out in pensions and health benefits for that year to retired employees onto the total paid to active employees. Because these retired employees did not work a single hour, that total amount is again divided by the amount of hours worked by the active employees. Bingo! These lucky guys are now making $70 per hour.
The conservative Republican answer to this dilemma is to lower the wages of these greedy, lazy workers. Factory line workers don't deserve those enormous sums of money, do they? Especially when those tattered, sweat-drenched, hard-working CEOs are making only $1,000 to $50,000 in an hour.
By the way, that does not include the use of luxury corporate jets and spa treatments at extravagant luxury resorts. As an active employee a few years ago, I was making $20 per hour. I feel so guilty.
I can only hope we as a nation can once again come together as one, united in our support of our 44th president to not only bring justice to those responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11 (albeit seven years late), but also to solve this debacle of a declining economy, stagnant wages and the loss of millions of jobs.
We all -- Democrats, Republicans, independents, Libertarians, old, young, whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Northerners, Southerners and Westerners -- owe this new president nothing less than that accorded his predecessor. It is fitting to give him a fair chance at solving, resolving and uniting, especially the last.
