California, Trombones and Euchre

I was sitting in Valhalla in UW-La Crosse's Cartwright Center, waiting for the start of a concert with trombonist Wycliff Gordon at the La Crosse Jazz Orchestra's jazz festival, when I asked my wife a very important question.

"You see the trumpet player in the back row?  He graduated a year or two before me from Central High School.    Do I look as old as he does?"

The trumpet player I was referring to had an oblong head with thinning white hair, and his face looked tired, maybe from a full day of practice or maybe because La Crosse was in the midst of an unbearable heat wave that was sucking the life out of everyone in town.  He also happened to be one of my son's high school band instructors.

"Ummm, yes?" she responded, then hesitated as she realized it was not the answer I was hoping for.

"What do you mean?  I still have a full head of hair and it's only beginning to gray on the sides!"  I couldn't believe it.  Just wait until she asks me if she looks good in those new pair of jeans.....

I was thinking of that exchange this morning as I was running around the Central High School track, preparing for my next Oktoberfest 5 Mile run.  As always, my mind wanders to things that have nothing to do with the monotony of running -- such as some of the fun things I used to do as a kid growing up in a river town on the Mighty Mississippi.

 

Which led into some fond memories of two classmates (who must also be looking old) that I have been lucky enough to know for most of my life.  Paul Mundinger and Doug Schoenfeld have been friends for almost four decades, which is a long time. Long enough to be apart of some of the most important events in my life, including middle and high school, some college, dating, marriage, employment, vacations and even three deaths.

Little did I know that the new kid in the neighborhood who was knocking on my door (wearing a Bart Starr football jersey) would some day stand in my wedding as best man.  I trusted Doug enough to travel 2,000 miles (to California and back) in a beaten down, cramped-for-space, Chevy Vega right out of high school.  Better yet, our parents trusted us  (yes, Paul, even my mom) enough to let three 18 year old boys drive halfway across the country through Nebraska,  Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and back through Nevada, Utah, the Dakotas and Minnesota.  I spent hundreds of hours learning how to play euchre with these two guys, most often on the same team, but occasionally against.  I could be offered a number of choices, but I would still pick Doug in a game of two-on-two football against almost anyone.  Even though we'd be against all odds to win.  I guess you could say I have faith.

Faith has always had something to do with our friendship.  Paul is a senior pastor at a local church and Doug and I are pretty active in our respective churches.  Our common, Christian beliefs and understanding of where we stand in the universe keep us humble and true to our families, wives and children.

But I think we also have faith in each other to be there for each other when needed.  We have all lost our fathers, with Paul losing his when he was still in high school.  I was at his house when his father fell down the back steps after suffering a stroke.  I will never forget the shock and frustration his family felt as we waited helplessly for the ambulance to arrive.  I always looked at my own father differently after that, and was thankful for the extra years he and I had together.  My father passed away 10 years ago from complications of Parkinson's, and while it wasn't as traumatic, it was difficult to see him go.  While greeting people before the funeral, I was surprised to look up and see Paul standing there.  How the word had gotten to him I didn't know, but he had traveled some distance to offer his condolences.  And just this past year, Doug's father lost his battle against cancer.  In the year prior to his death, Doug had wanted to buy a boat to take his dad fishing and to spend more time with him on the river.  My best memories of his dad are from high school and years later at annual pig roasts held at Doug's house.  Whenever a smile was needed, Doug's dad was game.

Other events have kept us close through the years.  Including weddings, and perhaps more importantly the bachelor parties that preceded them.  In one memorable night (that still angers his wife), we had planned on spending a few hours on the river in a houseboat celebrating Doug's dying bachelorhood.  Shortly after beaching the boat on a sandbar, one of the summer's worse storms hit the area threatening to swamp the boat and those of us still aboard.  Perhaps distracted by the storm, we ran the boat's battery down so low that we couldn't get it started when it was time to head back.  After some creative mechanical maneuvers, we did get enough supplemental power to turn over the engine.  As a result, we didn't get back to the marina until close to four o'clock in the morning on the day of his wedding.  I believe the fire in his wife's eyes during the wedding is still smoldering to this day.

 

Through the years we've ridden motorcycles (I'm not sure if Paul's Honda qualifies), cars, and boats to destinations that have been long forgotten.  Perhaps some day we will add a plane to the list -- how does jumping from a plane to celebrate our 60th birthday sound, guys?   We've laid on a country road at two o'clock in the morning, staring at the stars, pondering what we will do after high school and whether we can get a date with that that buxom girl with frizzy hair.  I can remember a high school basketball game that Paul and I (as part of the pep band) were playing at.  I don't know whose idea it was, but Doug joined us -- "playing" an extra trombone even though he didn't know how to play a note.  You would have thought the band instructor would have wondered what Doug was doing there.  But I can't remember him saying a word.

Music was a big part of Paul's and my younger years.  We both played trombone (one of us better than the other).  It allowed us to share many hours playing in concert band, marching band and jazz band, culminating in the recording of two albums during our junior and senior years.  Paul continued playing in college, while I continued my search for the perfect rum and coke.  There are memories of our time in Madison, sitting at a State Street bar waiting for John Cougar (later Mellencamp) to perform only to find out an hour before the performance that the drummer had broken a leg or something, and the band wouldn't be playing.  I still laugh when I think about the day we walked into Metamorphosis Records in downtown La Crosse and had tee-shirts imprinted with our favorite drummer, "Neal Pert" from the greatest rock band ever -- Rush.  It wasn't until months later that we figured out that the correct spelling of his name was Peart.

Some of our best memories are on the Mississippi River.  During one stormy night, we were coming back to La Crosse through the upper locks and because of a faulty motor, we were almost smashed against the wall by the Mississippi Queen which was trying to tie up before going through the locks.  At the last minute, the motor fired up and we were able to pull away from the oncoming hull, as a driving rain poured down on us.  Our friends, watching from another boat, thought we were goners.

One of our favorite things to do on the river is take a friend's houseboat out for the night and play cards until we can't think straight any more.  Regardless of who wins (and we know who that is), we take time to relive Saturday nights in high school playing euchre.  Our wives love to shop, and will spend a weekend at the Mall of America finding the right pair of shoes.  But if you ask me, there aren't many things better in life than drinking beer and eating brats, beans and a salad while listening to Packer's preseason football while beached on a sandbar beneath a sky full of stars.

This year marks the first time when none of us have any children living at home, which has allowed us to spend more time together riding bikes along the muddy Root River in Minnesota, spending a weekend at a lake house while lightning etches the night sky with an approaching storm, or training for fitness events like the La Crosse Fitness Festival and Oktoberfest Maple Leaf 5K walks and runs.

You might wonder why I'm bothering to mention any of this in my blog, when our nation is faced with a debt crisis that threatens to bankrupt the greatest nation on earth.  Or when the world's last Super Power is engaged in far too many wars, and the prospects of world peace seem more impossible than ever before.  Or when Wisconsin is faced with recall elections from an angry group of union officials and teachers.

Perhaps, as I get older, the world looks a lot different than it did when Doug, Paul and I were three kids growing up in God's country, with nothing more to do than ride dirt bikes, play trombones in band and do floaters on the Mississippi.  And maybe it does my soul good to look back on those carefree days, and find a reason to believe that there are still many good things to appreciate.

Even if your wife thinks you're looking old.

Pay for Play

In June, 1965, the Fraternal Order of the Eagles donated a monument bearing the Ten Commandments in honor of the youth who helped fight one of the worse floods in La Crosse's long history.  The gift was placed in Cameron Park, which is a downtown park, surrounded by a bank, food coop, restaurant, bakery and, during the summer, a farmer's market.  The monument, which stands about 5 feet tall, is maintained by the Eagle's club and its members.  For most of my life, I didn't even know the monument existed, even though I walked through the park on various occasions.

Thou shall not display!

In 2002, a group known as the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit against the City of La Crosse, claiming the monument violated the First Amendment establishment clause separating church and state.  In their lawsuit, the non-profit atheist/humanist organization from Madison, WI demanded that the city remove the monument which was causing "sleeplessness, visible discomfort, and modified behavior"  in the listed plaintiffs.

After months of debate, and after causing far more discomfort in the majority of La Crosse residents who objected to the assault on their beloved monument, a judge allowed the Ten Commandments to remain in the park after it was sold back to the Fraternal Order of the Eagles.  (To this day, I'm thrilled that members of the Food Co Op must shield their eyes as they leave the grocery store, hoping to avoid contact with the "vile" monument.)

Similar disputes have become commonplace around the country as these "civil liberty" groups pursue a leftist agenda that includes censoring prayer and recognition of God in public places, fighting illegal immigration reform, defending racial discrimination and promoting free speech for porno- graphers, same-sex marriage advocates and terrorist organizations.  In every instance, the leftist organization sues for legal expenses to pay for the time and damages brought forward in their lawsuit.  It seems to me to be an incredibly easy way to make a living:  find a supposed Constitutional violation that is strongly opposed by the majority of people, threaten to take them to court if it's not changed, and then collect a hefty paycheck when a carefully chosen, liberal judge finds in favor of the leftist organization.

Groups like the Freedom From Religion, the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and others unfortunately cause far more harm to the moral fabric of our society and founders of this great country than just the millions they win in their bogus court cases.  I've searched the internet for a few of the more aggregious attacks on our Constitution and list them here for your torment:

.  The ACLU demanded $2.3 million in fees for challenging a law AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.  The city of Hazelton, Pennsylvania had passed an ordinance which prohibited landlords to rent to illegal aliens, fined businesses who hired illegal aliens, and required government documents  to be in English only.  The ACLU persuaded a federal court judge to declare this ordinance to be unconstitutional, even though other courts had upheld earlier laws.  The Mayor of Hazelton had this to say about the case which is currently in appeal.  "This demand illustrates the circus the ACLU brought to this case.  They had 20 attorneys sitting in the courtroom at a time, 16 of them doing nothing but running up the bill."  To say nothing about the illegal aliens who were in our country breaking the law.

.  The ACLU often argues IN FAVOR OF PORNOGRAPHY before courts and administrative boards.  They recently forced a Nampa, Idaho public library to return two books to the shelves that many parents found offensive:  The Joy of Sex and The Joy of Gay Sex.  With very graphic illustrations and photos of sexual activities found in chapters entitled "Daddy/Son Fantasies," Exhibitionism and Voyeurism," "Sex With Animals," and "Tearooms and Back Rooms," parents fought in court for over two years to keep the books out of the reach of young children, but to no avail.  Bryan Fischer, one of the parents asking to get the books removed, said, "It's an abysmal state of affairs when a single letter from cultural thugs can undo two years of patient and pain-staking work."

.  In 1999, the ACLU developed a hatred for all things related to the BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, a charitable organization for teenagers, after they enforced its policy against having openly homosexual Scout leaders.  The civil liberties group filed a lawsuit to prohibit the Boy Scouts from using an Army base in Virginia for a quadrennial gathering known as the Boy Scout Jamboree.  Even though the Boy Scouts had been using this government property for over 70 years for similar events, the ACLU claimed that the Scout's oath of "duty to God," violated the First Amendment's establishment clause.  Therefore, the government should not be sponsoring this event for the Boy Scouts.  A federal district court originally ruled for the ACLU, but the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit eventually overturned the ruling.

.  In 2008, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sued President George W. Bush, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino and others associated with the NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER.   The administration argued FFRF had no legal standing to sue and that the tradition of the National Day of Prayer dated back to 1775.  Nonetheless, on April 15, 2010 senior federal District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled the 236 year old tradition to be unconstitutional.  She sited, "It is because the nature of prayer is so personal and can have such a powerful effect on a community that the government may not use its authority to try to influence any individual's decision whether and when to pray."  She added, "The same law that prohibits the government from declaring a National Day of Prayer also prohibits it from declaring a National Day of Blasphemy."  Her decision is currently under appeal.

.  Since 9/11, the Center for Constitutional Rights has challenged a number of cases involving the Bush and Obama administration's DETENTION AND INTERROGATION PRACTICES of detainees in Guantanamo Bay.  In 2010, the CFCR brought a lawsuit (pro bono) which seeks to remove reputed al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki from the U.S. targeted killing list.  For those who don't know, Anwar al-Awlaki is an extremist Muslim cleric who corresponded with Major Nidal Hasan prior to the Fort Hood shootings and whose teachings may have inspired both the "underwear bomber" and Times Square bombing suspect.  Repeatedly al-Awlaki has called for the killing and assassination of American soldiers and officials throughout America and the world.  The CFCR case has been criticized by many supporters of the organization who ask how it can "stand silently next to an advocate of American assassinations.  The Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics and Political Science recently stated, "Does a highly respected organization, founded in the midst of historic struggles for civil rights and racial justice, now wish to be perceived by some as al-Qaida's legal team?"  Apparently the answer is yes.

As an adult with children about to enter the harsh realities of the real world, I can appreciate the value of having someone protect our rights under the U.S. Constitution.  But it seems to me that too many far left groups -- under the guise of protecting civil rights -- are removing many conventional, traditional and dogmatic institutions in favor of "protecting" chaos, anarchy, disorder and lawless behavior.

Isn't it time to push back against these assaults on our national freedoms?  At the minimum, we need to have the ability to charge these bogus leftist groups for court fees and damages if they lose a court case.  That will make them think twice before defending the rights of illegal immigrants, sexual deviants and atheists/freethinkers.

If not, it is clear that these groups will continue to hamper our rights, while maintaining their tradition of playing for pay.

Total Recall: Taming of the Union Shrew

In the La Crosse area, the "Recall Election of 2011" begins next week with the primary contest between Jennifer (Jen to her friends) Shilling and James Smith, a protest candidate supported by Republicans.  The winner takes on (the Prince of Darkness) Senator Dan Kapanke, a two-term Republican and local businessman.

Why the recall?

Just in case you've been under a rock somewhere, the recall effort is in response to Democrats who are fighting mad at the Republican-controlled legislature in Madison for passing a budget repair bill that includes changes to collective bargaining by public employee unions.  As a result, they want to throw out anyone responsible for voting for it, which by the way, balances the Wisconsin state budget.

Here's what the union-backed Democrats are mad about:

.  employees must pay at least 12.6% of the average cost of annual health insurance premiums
.  5.8 % of employee salaries goes toward their pension plans.

Changes to their collective bargaining include:
.  total wage increases for union members cannot exceed inflation
.  contracts are limited to one year
.  employee units are required to take annual votes to remain certification as a union
.  employers are prohibited from collecting union dues
.  employee units are not required to pay union dues

In addition, the repair bill prevents limited term employees from being eligible for health care and pension benefits.  It also allows appointing agencies to terminate any employee who is absent for 3 days without approval, or who participates in an organized effort to stop or slow work during a state of emergency.  Finally, the bill restructures Wisconsin's debt, increases revenue to Medicaid to cover a $153 million deficit and $22 million to address state prison budget shortfalls.

What did he do wrong?

Sounds pretty heartless and devastating, doesn't it?  Seriously, these people need to get a real job, then they might have something to complain about.

So does this sound like something worthy of recalls?  Typically, recalls are designed to remove people from office who had engaged in unacceptable behavior, not just because you disagree with their vote.  Recalls are not very common in Wisconsin.  In fact, there have only been four attempted recalls in our state's history.  Recalls were in 1932, 1990, 1996 and 2003 (two of which failed).  So it's really historic that there are nine recalls on this summer's docket.  And there's already efforts being made to recall Governor Walker later next year.

The answer to my earlier question -- why the recalls? -- is because public employee unions, specifically their powerful leaders and tag-along members, have much to lose if they are removed from the bargaining table.  Through union-negotiated contracts, they have used our children and schools to pad their pockets with nice working conditions, pay and benefits.  When challenged, they threatened to remove athletic and music programs because they didn't have the money.  Seriously -- we all know that the majority of school cost is in benefits, not extra-curricular programs!  Teachers claimed they were getting paid less than their private sector counterparts, despite many in my son's school earning more than $67,000 for nine months of work.  "Save the children!" they cried, all the while taking more taxpayer money for special education, more teachers, longer vacations, and low out-of-pocket health insurance.

While schools have benefited mightily from collective bargaining, other public employees have done quite well through contracts that encourage waste, fraud, and union abuse.  For example, union contracts have allowed some city employees to benefit from higher salaries through overtime, sick days and vacation pay (a Madison bus driver earned over $159,000 due to a clause in his contract that awarded him overtime pay).  In another example, a Wausau, WI school was forced to hire a paid, union crossing guard when it was discovered that an 86-year-old volunteer crossing guard didn't have proper liability insurance.  To hell with school budgets, they need to follow union orders.

Common in all collective bargaining contracts is the control by unions to set the pay, working conditions, alternative choices and cost for health care and pensions.  These monopolies have allowed unions to benefit through higher cost and control of the bargaining process.

And they protect themselves by electing powerful union bosses and school board members who support existing collective bargaining contracts.  Not only do they get to make the rules, they also get to vote on them.  And until Governor Walker and Republicans like Kapanke put their foot down on reckless spending -- unions got their way.  And like all bullies, when they were threatened, they got in our face and shouted us down to put things back in order.

Photo courtesy of Huffington Post

One of the reasons Democrats are so eager to have these recalls is because they are afraid Walker's plan could be successful.

An example of this is what's happened in the Kaukauna Area School District.  Unlike many school districts who scrambled to extend existing union contracts, the Kaukauna school board waited.  As a result, they have been able to renegotiate contracts (without fear of union threats) resulting in higher contribution rates to pension and benefit packages.  Immediately, the district had enough cash to reduce class size and provide merit pay to teachers.  What was projected as a $400,000 budget shortfall before Walker's budget bill passed, has turned into a $1.5 million surplus overnight.

Another example of the savings now available to state jurisdictions can be found in the city of Racine, Wisconsin.  County officials, unfettered by union claims of jurisdiction over certain menial-labor tasks, have put jail inmates to work performing landscaping and maintenance.  Since they don't have to pay high-earning union employees to do the work, the county now has new ways to save money.  (Six months earlier, a similar effort was crushed by a judge who ruled in favor of union complaints that having inmates work around the county courthouse violated a union contract.)

A final example is in the Hartland-Lakeside School district, which for years was required to purchase health insurance for their employees through the (Wisconsin Education Association) WEA Trust.  The WEA Trust was charging the school district significantly higher rates than available through the open market.  Changing to a different insurance company,however, was prohibited by the union leaders, because then the WEA Trust would lose the money that came with the insurance.  Governor Walker's law (removing collective bargaining) has changed that.  So now, freed from the expensive WEA Trust deal, the school district has changed insurers -- resulting in savings of about $690,000 in 2011-2012.

The new law also has the potential to improve labor discussions between teachers, city employees and public employee administrators.  When it comes time to sit down at the table to discuss contracts, administrators will now be able to openly discuss benefits and merit pay with all employees, not just a small group of teachers and union directors, who controlled what their members could and could not hear, much less decide.

It is truly amazing that some many people don't see the benefits of what is happening in Wisconsin.  National organizations supporting these unions are putting everything they have into making sure it's portrayed as bad for the working, middle-class family.  When in reality it's the best thing to happen since many of them got their first public employee paycheck.

That's why these recall elections are so important.  If the public employee unions bosses and their whiny, controlling members are successful in getting their people back in Madison, the union gravy train will continue down the tracks.  Leading us and future generations over the cliff to financial bankruptcy.

The recall battle begins on July 12th.