2011 Fill the Boot

Scheduled for April 14th, 15th, & 16th

?worker chorus.?elected Governor Rick Scott, in Florida, has followed Governor Christie’s lead, blaming public employees for that state’s problems. He also conveniently neglects to mention that his state’s pension fund for fire fighters is 90 percent funded.?worker lawmakers and Wall Street bankers want to convince the nation that workers are the problem. We don’t like the sound of that.

Harold Schaitberger is general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Too bad they’re all off key.

Wall Street’s recklessness, not public employee pensions, caused our nation’s financial collapse. Scapegoating workers won’t solve anything.

We so desperately want easy explanations for complicated problems. We want someone to blame.

So when Governor Christie began pointing fingers at public employees, many people were eager to accept his fiction as fact. But the governor conveniently neglects to tell people that his state routinely failed to make payments into their pension plans. Workers made their payments without exception, but since 2001 the state of New Jersey has never made more than 58.8 percent of the required annual pension contributions to the pension fund for police and fire fighters, and it completely skipped making payments from 2001

Newly

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, another Christie disciple, conveniently neglects to mention that his state’s pension fund for fire fighters is funded at 105 percent.

The governors and others who want to use the recession as an excuse to skewer public employee pensions are opportunists with little regard for the truth. They are taking their direction from greedy Wall Street bankers, who desperately want to convert defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans so they can have access to the billions of dollars of retirement savings that they can’t touch now.

In 2005 they tried the same thing with Social Security – which most fire fighters are prohibited from collecting – and we barely fought them off. Now they’re setting their sights on fire fighters and other public employees.

Like so many governors, Newt Gingrich also is using the recession as an excuse to take aim at public employees. He believes that letting states file for bankruptcy so they can abrogate collective bargaining agreements with public employees to skewer wages, pensions and benefits will solve our nation’s problems. But it’s a recipe for disaster. The former House speaker’s bankruptcy scheme would cause more fiscal carnage than the economic devastation we’ve witnessed over the past two years by destroying the retirement security of middle class workers, the economic foundation of our great country.

Our nation needs a conversation about important issues that affect the middle class. We need to create jobs.

We are public servants, not public enemies. But a growing chorus of anti

Governors are singing the wrong tune

By Harold Schaitberger

An increasing number of governors are joining New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s anti

Midland plays role in reuniting grieving mom with son's dog

Posted: Monday, November 8, 2010 8:28 pm | Updated: 9:37 pm, Mon Nov 8, 2010.

Shanna Sissom
Midland Reporter-Telegram | 0 comments

Last week in this space, a story was shared about a truck driver far from home, passing through town with his two dogs on a cross-country haul when tragedy struck.

The out-of-state truck driver was killed in a split moment on I-20 just east of the airport. The other driver, charged with intoxication manslaughter, survived the crash.

But from the tractor-trailer wreckage, firefighters found one of the trucker's dogs alive and pinned inside. The firemen rescued the dog -- which they nicknamed "Lucky" for having survived the crash -- and took her back to the station where she slept with them that night.

Then, firefighter Martin Phiffer decided to provide a temporary home for the basset hound/beagle mix, at least for the weekend. The next Monday, the fireman called the Pennsylvania veterinarian listed on the dog's tag, and before long, it became clear the grieving mom of the deceased man was hoping to get his beloved pet. The firefighters learned the dog's name is "Daisy," and they started calling her "Lucky Daisy."

After the story was shared here, a kind and generous reader called, wanting to pay all expenses in flying Daisy to the man's mother in New Jersey. It never ceases to amaze me what Midlanders are willing to do for total strangers in need, as has been reported often in this column.

But by the time I put her in touch with the fire house, the Professional Firefighters Association of Midland had already jumped on board and committed resources to help.

"We humbly turned her down with sincere appreciation," said firefighters association President Lee Wise.

Midland firefighters talked with the Newark, N.J., Fire Department, and a captain there who lived not far from the truck driver's mom also agreed to help.

The firefighters took Lucky Daisy to a veterinarian, purchased a kennel and were fully prepared to pay about $200 for the dog's plane ticket. But at Midland International Airport, an American Airlines employee aware of the situation got approval to waive the airfare and charged only $10.

Even the airlines got in on this good deed, though so many people were involved in making it all happen.

So on Friday, in a place called Kenvil, N.J., a fire captain delivered Lucky Daisy to a grieving mother and her disabled granddaughter.

"Into their extremely grateful care," as Lee, our local firefighter association president explained.

This mourning family in the northeast now have their loved one's beloved pet.

"I thought the results were too neat not to share with you, especially since everywhere along the way, people were happy and willing to help out," Lee wrote in an e-mail. "It all goes back to (MFD firefighter) Martin, though, for his intervention at the accident."

The man's funeral is taking place this week far away from Midland.

And somewhere out there, Lucky Daisy is right there alongside the trucker's mother as she mourns.

Indeed, Midland played a small role in comforting that mom.

Along the way, some of us got to meet Lucky Daisy.

City Editor Shanna Sissom can be reached at ssissom@mrt.com.