Susan S. Carpenter
245 Grove Street
Bluffton, OH45817
Thursday 3 March 2011
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This letter was addressed to Ohio lawmakers, specifically Governor John R. Kasich, Senator Keith Faber and Representative Matt Huffman.
We've had another flood here in northwestern Ohio. The creek is now safely between its banks, the waters in basements are being pumped out, and I am exceedingly grateful for the people with jobs and expertise to once again do what was needed. There is not enough gratitude these days for those who keep our communities functioning; please join me in recognizing them.
Gratitude to everyone who cleans up dirt and shards the rest of us leave behind.
Gratitude to the maintenance crews, the plumbers and electricians, the road workers, the tree-trimmers and the gardeners.
Gratitude to the EMTs, the Firefighters, nurses and nurses' aides, and special gratitude to the people who work on the emergency room late at night with soap and mops and disinfectant.
Gratitude, a thousand times, to the public school teachers with the impossible job of reaching too many children at once, who nonetheless continue patiently to lead, direct, and coerce them into new skills, new knowledge, and increased respect for themselves.
Gratitude to law enforcers who confront (while the rest of us look elsewhere) whatever leads people to drive while drunk, to steal others' property, to hurt each other with knives and guns. Gratitude to those who wade into a private home and try to stop the violence.
Gratitude to people who maintain highway rest areas. Gratitude to all those who clean office buildings and lavatories, clearing space for work to continue.
Gratitude to people who repair stoplights and crossing signals, school buses and police cars, and also to the paper-pushers.
Gratitude to those who collect trash and deliver it to a central place; special gratitude to the people who sort that trash so the materials can be used to make new things.
Gratitude to those who keep records so, decades later, we can learn when Ohio citizens were born, when they were graduated from school, when they married, when they bought a home, when they sold that home, when they served on a commission, when they met to make decisions, when they appeared in court as plaintiff or accuser, when they died.
Gratitude to the people who work two jobs to keep the payments going, who come home exhausted every day, whose vacations are short opportunities to eat a good meal or visit family. People work so we can live our daily lives, keep up with our plans, go to work and come home.
We will never be able to thank them enough.
All this work deserves your gratitude, and what do you offer?
Senate Bill 5.
You ask public workers to give up even more benefits and work for even less pay than they have. More drastically, you intend to eliminate or reduce their right to collectively bargain or to strike when working conditions become untenable.
Senate Bill 5 will not bring money into state coffers, nor will it create jobs. It will not improve schools, clean streets, facilitate public health, prevent and put out fires, or enforce the law. Rather it will build hostilities between workers and legislators.
Willing public servants whose good work matters to citizens of Ohio will become silent, terrified, and resentful as they watch state legislators cripple their ability to make ends meet and know that they will have no recourse.
I have worked in both the public and private sector for the past forty years. What I know: when our bosses' best interests are aligned with the workers' best interests, there is mutual support. We all work with good will. When, on the other hand, we see our politicians and legislators increasingly aligned with the 1% of Americans who own 42.7% of the wealth, or with the top 20% who own 50.3% of the wealth, then we 80% of Americans who own 7% of the wealth get annoyed when asked to give up more disposable income - and any kind of control over our wages, salaries, or working conditions.
There are other ways to solve Ohio's (and the nation's) budget problems: one of the most obvious is to increase taxes for the few Americans who own more than half of the national wealth. Follow the lead of President Ronald Reagan; he increased taxes on the most wealthy six times.
If you vote to pass Senate Bill 5, you show no interest in your legislature's alignment with the people who keep Ohio's cities, townships, and counties thriving in a civilized way.
In attacking the security and the disposable income as well as the bargaining rights of those workers, you show disdain for them - and by extension, for all of us who constitute the 80% of American people who own 7% of the wealth. If Senate Bill 5 becomes law, we will all live poorer lives.
Sincerely,
Susan S. Carpenter
Bluffton, Ohio
