State worker job cuts

            In the Austin American Statesman there was an article concerning some new proposed legislation that will cut thousands of state jobs. The main point to the article is how the state employees are upset that they will be losing some benefits and possibly be pushed into early retirement. The article is saying how these state employees might want to jump ship and find employment elsewhere in the private sector. I do feel for these people, our current economic situation is dire and depressing. My opinion of this article is what are these people thinking? Don’t they know that the current economic problems are affecting the private sector, too?
            Every sector is dealing with budget cuts and downsizing. In my opinion, they all should take pay and benefit cuts to help balance budgets. Encouraging state employees to jump ship does not seem like the answer. As the old saying goes the grass is not greener on the other side. I was laid off from a job in the home building industry and had to take a job at half the pay just to because I couldn’t find one in my field at the same pay. Considering how high the unemployment rate is, having the additional job seekers unnecessarily in the market will only make it worse. This is our current situation and we have got to just accept it and move forward the best we can.

Our country has been living high off the hog with nice big pay checks and comfortable jobs, spending money frivolously for a very long time. We could pick and choose between whatever job we wanted.  Now we have to be much more careful with our spending and learn to appreciate the simpler things in life. These days, just having a job is a blessing and much more appreciated than before, similar to the people that lived through the great depression in the 1920’s. We are all learning to respect money and to live life frugally.  The silver lining in this situation is if we can adjust and make it through this current economic down turn we will all have a greater respect for what we have not how much we have.

“Are We Really Giving a Helping Hand?”

Harry’s commentary on the United States involvement in other countries called “Are We Really Giving a Helping Hand?” makes a lot sense to me and how I feel about things that have been happening lately. Why are we always the country that has to go out and save the poor abused inhabitants of other countries? Sure it sounds like the noble gesture of a kind and caring country, but it seems to always come back to bite us on the hand. Just the ones in my lifetime have been pretty bad examples of giving a helping hand. Vietnam was a huge mistake and a total failure. We probably abused their citizens and caused more destruction then their government ever did. I know that we did do some good over there and saved some lives, but was it worth all the American soldiers that were killed for very little? Iraq and Afghanistan are going in the same direction as Vietnam. Have we really learned from the past or do we just keep repeating the same cycle.   What about all the money that is spent on wars, does that help us a home or not? Could we not take care of our own home front a little better such as providing a little more security to our education system and those involved in the preparation of our children and their future? So I agree with Harry and say stop increasing the national dept trying to save the world. Fix the problems in our own county before giving a helping hand to others.

No guns on campus!

No guns on campus!

The current debate about allowing guns on college campuses or anywhere in public is pretty scary to me. I don’t have a problem with protecting your home or property with a fire arm, but I don’t think it is a good idea out in public places. I would support a higher level of a security force on our campuses verses a 18 year old or anyone having a concealed hand gun on campus. I think that the time and maturity that it takes to be able to respond correctly and safely to a threatening situation takes years and the kind of experience that you are not going to get, or want to get in a concealed hand gun class. Let’s leave the job of public security to the professionals, not your everyday citizen with a few hours of hand gun training and no psychological evaluation.

Most police officers don’t even fire their hand guns in their whole career due to the extensive training that they have and by using more diplomatic means to calming a threatening situation instead of pulling out a gun and blasting away till the situation becomes stable. We have been influenced by too many Hollywood movies were the poor victim saves the day by shooting down all the bad guys and then going on with life like nothing ever happened.  

I have never been in a situation where a gun or a shooting took place, so I am not able to comment on someone’s view on that side of the debate. The people that had to be victims of some of the recent school shootings is horrific, and I truly feel for their pain and loss.  Would the outcome have been different if guns were allowed on campus? My thought is probably not. In fact, in some cases there may have been more casualties. All I know is that once that bullet leaves the gun the damage cannot be undone or easily fixed or replaced. Bullets can travel very long distances’ and go through walls, so even if you were able to hit your intended target the bullet can still go on and kill an innocent bystander that you may be trying to protect.  

We have millions of our solders that have come back from war suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. This seems to prove that when people are in an environment where guns and violence occur is a very traumatic experience. If we allow students, who are mostly immature, the right to carry arms it could create a hostile/unsafe environment and should be avoided at all cost.