The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.
The three candidates for Oak Creek Mayor, Dick Bolender, Dimity Grabowski and Mark Verhalen, will appear at a joint forum between 6:30 and 9 tonight at the Oak Creek Community Center. Julie Becker of Oak Creek Now is running a liveblog, and I will be there with my voice recorder in hand to capture the whole thing.
Revisions/extensions (10:48 pm 2/11/2009) – The Community Center was rather packed, which was always good to see. Several other local candidates were there handing out literature.
The audio is now up. I’m still using the old Sony digital voice recorder, so the quality isn’t exactly broadcast quality.
Bandage your heads up tight before you watch this video:
Moving past the Messiah assignment that Julio is doing, Julio is the perfect example of your brain on stimulus!
First, where did the expectation come from that college students should have well paying, high benefit plans? The purpose of college, if you choose to go, is to learn skills that will enable you to get well paying, high benefit jobs.
Second, note the mentality that says “because I am here, I should get paid. In fact, because I am here a longer time I should get paid or benefited more!” Julio obviously has never heard of “pay for performance.” It’s a nifty little concept that says that your compensation is determined by the value you bring to the organization not the length of time you’ve managed to walk through the front door of the organization.
Julio is a perfect example of the “I’m owed something” mentality. He has already determined that he is a person who will be perpetually disadvantaged, not because of any choices he has made or skills he does or doesn’t have, but because “the system” is fixed against him.
As we continue the full out run towards Socialism you can expect to see more Julios. As the government spreads its net of benefits over more of the population, more and more people will become just like Julio, slaves of the state and unable to take responsibility or act without some action or provision from the government. Of course, along with the net of benefits comes the governments ability to dictate how you live and work. Doubt me, just ask the banks and the auto companies.
This country has always been about the taking and rewarding of risk. There is little the the Founders of our Country, the folks who risked their lives and livelihood for a chance in the “New World” or those who spanned out to settle the West would have had in common with folks like Julio.
It’s unfortunate really, Julio may have talent and ability but he’ll probably never know. Julio and those like him, are waiting for the next drop from the government gruel bucket. They’ll eat the gruel, never being fully satisfied but justifying their situation as being “better than nothing.”
