Here's hoping for a little more common sense from those in the local, national political arena in 2005

January 03, 2005 (postpaper.com)

Unless the information printed in the calendar hanging on my wall was compiled by staff members from one of the other local newspapers, chances are the New Year is just around the corner.

Unlike in December 2004, however, this time around, instead of blathering on incessantly about some delusional self-improvement resolution I have formulated in an attempt to make myself a better person -- it's a lost cause, just ask around -- I decided I'd rather discuss some of the many situations I believe a host of other people besides myself handled poorly over the course of the past year.

First of all, depending on whom you ask, there's been a series of missteps at the Cherokee County Board of Education (BOE) in the past few months.

Hundreds of bus drivers, lunchroom attendants and janitors felt like they were unfairly left out a few months back when board members decided to grant a $2-per-hour pay raise to a dozen or so maintenance workers and mechanics, despite a more moderate 6 percent pay hike the board members had already agreed to give all the support personnel, including the bus drivers and janitors, just a few weeks before.

I've been inundated with calls, both at work and at home, since we ran a story in The Post on Nov. 22 detailing the specifics of this sequence of events.

Several of the callers -- all of them school system employees -- asked me to conduct a more investigative-type report into what they claim is a spending spree of "gigantic" proportions at the BOE.

A majority of this money, they claim, has already gone towards pay raises or will soon be spent on salary increases for other board employees, none of whom are teachers.

Patsy Richardson, a longtime bus driver and the current president of Education Support Professionals, recently presented me with copies of salary schedules for every category of employee at the Board of Education, and the numbers in some of these publicly available records are unsettling.

For example, in 2001, the school system's transportation supervisor was making $33,158.

By 2004, the salary for that position had shot up to $47,198 -- that's a 42 percent pay increase in three years, in case your calculator is broken.

It's also $6,000 per year more than the Cherokee County BOE pays a teacher with a master's degree.

I understand former superintendent Kay Davis's argument for the $2-per-hour raise.

As she explained it, the mechanics and supervisors were underpaid compared to the salaries of people who hold similar positions in several surrounding counties.

She said the decision to grant those separate pay raises was made in an attempt to keep valuable employees from taking higher-paying jobs elsewhere.

I believe the pay raise was an honest attempt to do the right thing, but the current pay raise plan seems lopsided.

If you don't agree, do what I did: spend some time talking with a few of the 250 or so workers who feel they got lost in the shuffle when the BOE attempted to reward one group of employees they considered to be more deserving than another.

It seems to me that if someone in a leadership position wanted to keep everyone pulling on the same end of the rope, it would be a good idea to treat all employees equally.

By singling out the mechanics and maintenance men for a $2-per-hour raise, the BOE managed to split the support staff into rival camps, creating unnecessary animosity among a group of people who should be free of any such type of emotional burden, especially since they already have the nerve-wrenching (seems to me) responsibility of educating our children.

There's no doubt in a lot of peoples' minds that this situation was handled sloppily, and based on the evidence I've seen and heard I'm inclined to agree.

Seems to me that anyone who voted for this disproportionately distributed pay raise either wasn't wearing his thinking cap or wasn't concerned about the fallout -- and there's been plenty of it.

Maybe the next time the BOE decides to dole out thousands, they'll choose to spend it reimbursing teachers for the hundreds of dollars of their own money they fork out every Fall to buy the supplies they need to do the jobs they are so horribly underpaid to do in the first place.

Or maybe that's asking for too much? How about this: My hope is that the members of the Board of Education will use a little common sense before they cast their votes in 2005.

Also, I hope they will exercise a little more restraint with the millions of dollars they are entrusted to spend and show a little more consideration for the long-term benefit of the thousands employees and students whose best interests they are charged with overseeing.

There also seems to be a disturbing lack of common sense among the 44 percent of Americans who recently indicated to Cornell University pollsters that they favor restrictions on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans.

The researchers at Cornell said most of this 44 percent are Republicans who described themselves as highly religious.

The poll showed these people were more apt to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or the less religious.

Surprised? I'm not.

Even before reading this disturbing information, there was no doubt in my mind that all the brother Billy Bobs out there are a lot more excited about the reelection of George W. Bush than any American citizen named Abu or Mustafa, for obvious reasons.

Sadly, the acceptability of restricting the civil liberties of anyone whose god doesn't look like everyone else's, or whose style of dress is different, or who comports himself or herself slightly differently from the majority is becoming a popular pastime in these right-wing conservative-dominated times.

Yes, 44 percent of this convoluted crowd favors restrictions on Muslims, Another 27 percent said they think all Muslims should be forced to register where they live with the federal government, and 29 percent said it's OK to unleash undercover agents on Muslim civic and volunteer organizations to keep tabs on their fund raising.

Well, Billy Bob, that form of government is called fascism -- a pretty apt description of we're supposed to be fighting against! The idea of belligerent nationalism and overt racism didn't work in Europe the 1930's and 40's, and I sure as hell hope there's enough common sense left in this country to keep if from happening here anytime soon.

I don't know, though. There do seem to be an awful lot of right-wing conservative Fox News junkies running around these days.

Another area of the political arena where there has been barely an iota of common sense of late emanated originally from inside whichever dark conference room the GOP came up with its latest argument against allowing less expensive prescription drug imports from Canada and Europe.

Even in the wake of the colossal failure of the federal government to ensure adequate supplies of influenza vaccine and its failure to protect the American public by keeping potentially harmful drugs like Vioxx, Celebrex and Aleve off store shelves, Uncle Sam still has the gall to argue imports aren't prudent because the government cannot ensure they are safe for domestic consumption -- even though they are predominantly the EXACT same drugs that sell for three times the price in the States.

At this point, as far as I am concerned, Uncle Sam is in no position to take a side on the aspirin debate.

Add to this ineptitude the coziness with big drug companies that Republicans like President Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist have blatantly displayed in the recent past (last year, Frist refused to allow a Senate vote on a bill that would have allowed imports from Canada; last week, the president vowed to veto any legislation authorizing imports, despite campaign promises to the contrary), and the true reasons for the failure of any meaningful discussion on the matter of imported drugs becomes less difficult to discern. Simply stated, it's all about politics.

It seems the recurring themes I encountered researching this article dealt with politicians and a lack of common sense.

There are certain exceptions to this rule, naturally.

Richard Lindsey, Larry Means, Mike Rogers and Kirk Day are all politicians whom I can say for a fact possess way too much common sense to be, well ... politicians.

Too bad there aren't more like 'em.

I know common sense is a gift you can't give to others, so in 2005 I'll settle for a little lump of hope that there are other politicians out there with enough common sense to make wise decisions in 2005.

Sadly, though, if the majority of my past experience in dealing with politicians is any indication, the safe wager is that my other hand will fill up faster.

Weitz & Luxenberg is no longer accepting Celebrex cases.

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