Michael1942's Blog

Most of us are familiar with the “Star Wars” saga. I have observed an activity which parallels the story in some part. A Non profit in Springfield, IL. hired a retired state worker to administer one of their many programs. This person through some machinations much like the Senator (who became Chancellor) from “Naboo” rose to the position of COO. Once in that position the real personality emerged in the form the “Dark maiden”. This new seemingly omnipotent entity has almost singlehandedly gutted the Head Start program. This has been accomplished by firing tenured teachers and other seasoned workers. There are also the cases of health issues in the buildings that have caused grievous harm to teachers and children. Unfortunately the ” Union(Freedom Fighters)” do not have a hero to lead them and the fear of the “Dark maiden” lays heavily over the Head Start program like a blanket. The underlying problems are as deep and pervasive as gas leaking from a broken line. The costs to run the program have been subverted to legal fees to fight the Union instead of using those same funds to improve the program and it’s clients. To date over 50 workers have been eliminated with one poor excuse or another while still racking up huge legal fees to the detriment of the program. The public is unaware of the extent of the problem as the evil empire has taken great pains to contain all information that would illuminate their process. Hopefully there are still other forces at work that might at some point expose the true nature of this beast.

What will it take for the voting public to pay attention to what our representatives are not doing for us? The local Illinois representatives want to maintain secrecy over open government. These “servants” of the people are busily keeping some constituents happy and others are left in the cold. A vote is the driving force behind all elections and to achieve that goal our representatives will say anything, agree to anything to stay in office. It all comes back to the voters allowing our representatives serve(?) more than 2 terms in office. There is no better way to for voters to have control over their representatives than limiting the time they serve. If these representatives cannot accomplish what needs to be done in 2 terms, then why do we need them? If there were no political parties, no PAC’s and no special interest groups  then maybe the elected representatives could work as a cohesive unit to get the work of the people done. We as voters have been advertised into electing the same mistakes time after time and regretting it each time yet we forget each time we hit the polling booth. Change is only accomplished by the voters and not the person running for or serving in the office.

I am hoping more people will progress beyond the sports page and comics in the daily paper. As I read the opinions from everyday folks, I am encouraged that we are all not as naive as our elected officials would like us to be. The loud braying of our electorate has served to overshadow any questions as to their compensation and retirement, Which they enacted in as much secrecy as they could manage and still call it open debate. Which is worse a representative who outright lies or one who lies with the purpose of deceit? We have had Governors who were good at the job and some who were not even some who were marginally effective. They all have one thing in common, they were not very open in what they do. This comes back to the real movers and shakers “the Legislature”! The legislators have been in place for more years than several Governors combined and by that fact are worse than the worst of the Governors as they have had time to perfect their cover-ups while corrupting the newer members of their group. This is not about parties or associations, it’s simply about real people who are elected to do the best for ALL of the people and being reasonably compensated for the work. What it has come to is a group of men and women who for the most part have become a major part of the problem as their personal greed has overshadowed the reason people elected them. How can people who were elected to serve the people do anything towards that end when they are serving themselves first? This is as improper as a dinner host serving themselves before their guests.