With the Christmas holiday season and the end of the year upon us we should all be looking forward to the next two years. In 2012 President Obama will be running once more and many democrats in the house and the senate will also be running for reelection.
Now is the time to define what we expect from our party leadership as Mr. Gonzales runs to be reelected to lead our party into those elections. We want it made clear that education should be about our children and not top educational administration. We would even take help from the republicans if we could just put an end to outrages salaries of these people while local colleges cut programs and support services to the students. When colleges and universities demand higher tuitions all the while making deals with coaches that they know they cannot afford. Paying school presidents outrages salaries while cutting the pay of the people who work directly with the students to ensure their success.
Now the ERB wants to raise the amount paid by people making less then $25,000 a year but more then $20,000 a year. These employees are forced to pay into a plan that may or may not pay them back when it comes time for them to retire. These are the working poor who struggle daily to keep a roof over the heads of their families, food on their tables and a car running to get their own children to school and home. Where is the Christmas spirit from the people running this board. The board was forced by an outraged set of teachers to hear from them on the issue of increasing their retirement age by 10 years. Most employees who have worked for 10 years would be back to square one if that retirement age was increased by 10 years but all the board cares about is paying their own legal fees for the mismanagement of employees retirement funds. Clearly State Senator Tim Keller is right when he says that reform is badly needed when it comes to that board and how it handles retirement investments.
Mr. Gonzales should be reminded that it is not all about making people vote for the wrong candidates but instead holding government accountable for protecting the voting public and its employees that provide valuable services. Our party will only take power if the voting public strongly believes in its goals, its missions and the candidates who represent those goals/missions.
Our party should be about leading our state into a position where people have a quality education, better pay along with job security. We need to produce jobs for all New Mexicans rather then producing jobs that will advance just one party or a small elite group of people who are well connected. The time has come to define what values matter most to all New Mexicans and not just a few fringe groups.
We need to support a strong court system to provide justice to all in order to protect honest hard working families. We need support services for the courts that work so that offenders do not repeat their past mistakes and harm innocent people. We need a District Attorney’s office which does not need to delay cases because of lack of funding. Bake sales are not the answer to the financial shortcomings for the courts and their related government jobs that form the whole state justice systems. Neither is raising court fees so that only the financially well off criminals can afford to bond out of jail.
We need to protect the environment from large corporations who could care less about the health of our children and the quality of our water. We need strict laws that protect our environment but that present a fair and straight forward method for companies to follow allowing them to make sound business decisions based on firm predictable laws that clearly spell out the consequences of violating those laws.
All of these goals will take money and tax dollars but in order to achieve this jobs from all sectors will be required that result in employees being able to pay taxes. It will need higher wage earners to pay their fair percentage share of taxes on their whole gross pay so as to benefit the community they live and work in while providing services to their families and their neighbors.
Personal Note: This is my last posting for the year because tomorrow I start an internship that will not allow me to speak out publicly on politics. I will finish the first part of it by the end of the year and be able to post at the start of the New Year. So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my readers.
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Quotes:
Senator Edward M. Kennedy (Teddy)
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die."
The O'Coilean (O'Collins)
'A great host with whom it is not fortunate to contend, the battle-trooped host of the O'Coileain."
Abraham Lincoln
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
From NPR Radio
"Rosa sat so Martin could walk.
Martin walked so Obama could run.
Obama ran so our children can fly!"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new."
Unknown
"Friendship is loving someone no matter what is in their past. It is accepting the fact that they are human and that they have made their share of mistakes over a life time. Trust is being able to tell your friend the most private secret knowing that they will not judge you. A life is not lived well without that one true and trusted friendship."
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
"My job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"
Albert Einstein
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
Will Rogers
"I don't belong to an organized party--I'm a democrat."
President John F. Kennedy, Democrat
“If by a ‘liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties—someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a ‘Liberal,’ then I’m proud to say I’m a ‘Liberal.’”
Martin Luther King Jr.
"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase."
Lora O'Brien
"All I can do is share one person's experiences on her own path, not tell you how to walk yours. If a guru is what you are looking for, find another! If I am a teacher, it is because I am already walking the path that you, Dear Reader, may wish to be on. Although each of us must make our own way, I can put up signs at least, and make the way slightly less hazardous for those who wish to walk a similar path."
C. S. Lewis
"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives."
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die."
The O'Coilean (O'Collins)
'A great host with whom it is not fortunate to contend, the battle-trooped host of the O'Coileain."
Abraham Lincoln
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
From NPR Radio
"Rosa sat so Martin could walk.
Martin walked so Obama could run.
Obama ran so our children can fly!"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new."
Unknown
"Friendship is loving someone no matter what is in their past. It is accepting the fact that they are human and that they have made their share of mistakes over a life time. Trust is being able to tell your friend the most private secret knowing that they will not judge you. A life is not lived well without that one true and trusted friendship."
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
"My job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"
Albert Einstein
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
Will Rogers
"I don't belong to an organized party--I'm a democrat."
President John F. Kennedy, Democrat
“If by a ‘liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties—someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a ‘Liberal,’ then I’m proud to say I’m a ‘Liberal.’”
Martin Luther King Jr.
"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase."
Lora O'Brien
"All I can do is share one person's experiences on her own path, not tell you how to walk yours. If a guru is what you are looking for, find another! If I am a teacher, it is because I am already walking the path that you, Dear Reader, may wish to be on. Although each of us must make our own way, I can put up signs at least, and make the way slightly less hazardous for those who wish to walk a similar path."
C. S. Lewis
"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives."
A Female Democrat
1/1/10 A new year and a number of future elections to cover. The budget will be a major issue this year and we must work hard to protect the core values of our party.