My Letter to Governor John Kasich (R) Ohio

Governor, You must follow the example of Wisconsin and other states and reduce the collective bargaining rights of unions. Teachers should contribute to their health care plans and pensions if they are not already. It would be a good thing to take away tenure and give them incentive pay instead. They should be paid according to the results they achieve.

Higher pay will attract better teachers, and motivate others to better educate our students (who have already fallen behind many other industrialized nations). One of the main problems with unions now, and one of the main reasons jobs either leave our state for other right to work states, or get sent overseas is because of union groups that fight for increased pay above and beyond the inflation rate. In order for big business to compete on a global scale, which is what they have to do in order to create new jobs they have to be able to sell products and services at reasonable prices.

The only way to do that is by lowering the cost of goods sold, and you can only do that by having labor cost at reasonable levels. Labor cost in the United States are far and away higher than nearly any other country in the world. As long as unions are able to man handle labor wage negotiations or threaten strikes and force companies into paying their overblown and bloated demands, the way they have been for decades, US based firms will continue to ship jobs overseas. Why wouldn't they? Pensions are not only dismantling what was once the greatest manufacturing country in the world, they are also making it close to impossible for state and federal governments to balance budgets.

Why should a teacher, a police officer, firefighter or DMV worker get paid a salary during their retirement years and have all of their benefits paid for without having to put some of their money in the pot? (at least an amount equal to what non unionized workers must pay. They make more money, and why should they be exempt from paying what is a fair share simply because they belong to a certain club?) Simply because their club has banded people together, and can demand ridiculous things or threaten productivity? This is nothing more than glorified mob rule. Not to mention in certain states people do not even have a choice in the matter. They either join a union and pay dues or they cannot work at all.

How is this democratic? I am forced to join a group and pay them money, or I cannot work, even though I may be politically or even morally or religiously opposed to what this group does with my money or who they support with it? Why shouldn't they be putting portions of their salaries into retirement accounts like private sector employees have to in order to fund their retirement? Burden ends up being lumped on the backs of the hard working Americans who saved for retirement and didn't make other people's taxes fund their retirements, how is that fair?

The teachers love to use the ploy that our kids are going to be affected by poor teaching (which has nothing to do with money only ability), how about leaving a deficit so large that they have no way to fix it and state services begin to dwindle to nothing? Then there will be no public schools to worry about because they won't be able to pay for all of the retired state workers and still be able to hire new ones to replace them. The system is not broken, but Unions have crippled and abused it beyond measure. They have the most powerful lobbyist in the country, even above big business. Unions as they currently operate are the problem, and they must be forced to change as they are not willingly going to change themselves.

It is like the old debate over term limits for Congress. Everyone knows they are needed, but good luck getting them voted in because Congress members are not going to pass a law that hurts them. They must be left no alternative. If we want more businesses to grow and return to our states, it must be made attractive and profitable for them to do so. One of the biggest ways to do this is to cut the power of the unions to make unnecessary and ridiculous demands on them. Once this is done, wages between public and private sector workers will be slowly equalized, and companies will once again have the power to compete. Do not bend to union or democratic pressure governor.

We voted you into office to restore our Republic. It is past time for hope and change, it is now time for drastic measures to save the greatest system in the world, that has been thoroughly corrupted and brought to the brink of failure by corruption and greed. Stay the course governor. The voters have spoken and we will speak again if necessary to save our Country and our beloved State. Thank you.

A Letter to Muslims

An open letter to Muslims

Dear Muslim,

There is undoubtedly tension between Mulims and non-Muslims in the world today, especially in America. In an effort to possibly reduce this tension I offer some observations, take them for what you will. I stand only for myself and my opinions expressed here are my own.

While I do not believe people should be singled out or persecuted based on their faith, I do believe an examination of the radical elements within that faith is in order. As an example, I am a Christian. As a Christian I am responsible for my own actions and should be allowed to practice my faith in peace. However, if my faith was being hijacked by a radical element, and some people claiming to represent Christianity were spouting hatred (think Westboro Baptist), I would have to stand up and denounce them openly, not defend them or their actions, and take care that other Christians were not swayed by their ideology, and also that I was not swayed myself.

That would be a cause for singling out the ones who advocated and protected them, and publicly and privately renouncing them. I would not do this and then secretly be helping or funding them just because they were my "brothers". This however does not seem to be the case with alot of Muslims. We see pictures, and statements, and video of the "extremist muslims" and then see some of the same activity or support for that activity coming from the mouths and actions of so called "normal or moderate muslims".

Either you are or you are not. You can't support them and yet claim you are distant and different from them. It doesn't work that way. We see instances of Muslim extremists saying death to all Jews and Christians, and then we see supposed moderate Muslims saying the same things. What are we supposed to think? If they are truly distorting your faith then do something besides agree with them. As further example, we look at the treatment of Muslims here in America, where they are free to do as they wish, go to school, own businesses, practice their faith, ect, (often special treatment is given during certain times when Muslims are allowed to block streets and impeded traffic for their prayers without fear of reprisals or fines) yet we see Christians persecuted and murdered without reason or trial in Muslim dominated countries.

We can't even send news crews there, or Christian missionaries, without them being beaten, harrassed or killed, yet Muslims are free to practice and convert non Muslims as they wish. We do not see supposed moderate Muslims coming to the murdered Christians aid against their extremist brothers, we often see aiding them, covering up for them, or complete indifference, if they are not openly in the streets dancing and singing "Death to America" while they celebrate.

Just as all Christians do not agree with or aid their more extreme brethren, we realize that all Muslims may not either, but so far it is their actions that speak the loudest. The truth right now is that the Muslim Community as a whole "is" a target for radicalization, and extremist Muslims do recruit a vast majority from their own faith radical or otherwise. Until we see a large movement of the non-extremist "peaceful" Muslims stand up openly against this supposed minority of the extremists, then most people will indeed lump you all together. You need to be the ones to set yourselves apart from them by deed and word, as true Christians do from our more radical elements.

The ball is in your court. We have yet to see you do anything with it but pass it back to the extremists through direct word or deed, or by refusal to stand united against them. The fact is that radical Muslims do indeed plant subversive elements into our society. They do place radicalized cells with the sole intent of causing disruption, chaos or outright harm. We cannot tell you apart because you all say the same thing "outwardly", so for the time being, we are intolerant of you all by necessity of survival and common sense.

Show us you are different. Show us you do not stand with them, and then we will stand with you against them. Americans are just that way. We will go out of our way to help people be free even if some of them have proven themselves to be our enemies. Right now we mistrust Muslims, and with good reason. Give us a reason not to.