The Union Disaster

It's getting pretty hot up in Wisconsin for this time of year.  The union debate is on and Republicans that have been given the majority role are taking up an issue long avoided by both parties - unions.

Once upon a time the union of workers was needed to combat low wages and poor working conditions in this country.  That time has long since passed and what we're left with now is one of the leading triggers of the unsustainable and artificially overvalued economy of the United States.  Ive stated before that a socialist based economy cannot co-exist with a capitalist based economy and that opposition is exactly what we're seeing play out now.  The natural tendency of socialism is to grow the collective.  The unions (public and private) have consistently demanded more and exist now for three reasons: Power, Money and Votes.  That can only go on for so long until there is no more to give.

Our still largely based capitalist economy can and will determine job value.  Too low of pay and it will be hard to find workers.  Too high of pay pushing profit margins too low will close businesses causing unemployment.  The market as a whole finds that happy medium.  When you introduce forced negotiations beyond market value things can only go downhill and you always end up with one party or the other not satisfied with the outcome.

Does any sane individual actually think a union is necessary to keep working conditions safe anywhere?  OSHA is already up in every one's business and anyone can file a complaint.  Beyond that look around...the internet and 24 hour news absolutely prohibits injustices of nearly any scale.  Do you think 80 hour work weeks for below minimum wage and no overtime would not make the news?  Give me a break.  People need to be paid what their personal job performance is worth.  That would restore the lost art of personal responsibility and pride of a good day's work that has long been lost by too many Americans.

I hope the Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana Democrats will stop their childish behavior and let a small piece of a large wrong be righted.

A.J.

Burn, Baby, Burn!

I'm a lucky guy.  I stopped into city hall yesterday morning to check in and see what was going on and I ran into our fire chief, Wayne Baker.  He was on his way to have some lunch with some fire fighters who were conducting training through a local training service at the Johnson County Emergency Services District burn building in Cleburne and invited me along.  I was hungry so that sounded like a good idea, but the bonus of hanging out with some fire fighters for a little while was more than enough to get me to hop in the truck.

Those of you that follow my coverage of the Johnson County ESD will appreciate what could have been a tense situation when we arrived to find ESD president, Jack Watson, a part of the training instructor crew for today.  I was actually glad to see Jack there.  I sat across from him over lunch and enjoyed some small talk and getting to know him a little better.  It was good to spend some time outside our regular circumstances and I enjoyed seeing him in action later.  Jack retired from professional fire service with over 20 years under his belt so I'm sure he brings a lot to the education of the trainees.  Joshua's own Battalion Chiefs Brad Hargrove and David Garay were also instructing yesterday so it was nice to get to spend some time with a couple of our guys as well.

It was a lot of fun to see these guys in action knocking down flames and making mock rescues, but what stood out to me as soon as they got started was the way they moved about the scene. I expected a frantic dash to get the fire out, but what I saw was deliberate action and careful execution of what they'd been taught. The trainees were divided up into engine companies and worked as a team to achieve the goal.  Their training is impressive, their equipment is impressive and their dedication is impressive.

It was mentioned to me that after some basic training there may be  an opportunity to go in and feel the heat on a future training session there.  I think that will be an opportunity worth taking advantage of so stay tuned.

A.J.

Cleburne Times-Review 2/13/11

The Cleburne Times-Review finally printed a significant story about the Johnson County Emergency Services District with Joshua's point of view.  I wish they had taken more of an interest six months ago when this started since most of Sunday's article was quite historical in nature and a month after the original article was printed that told former ESD Directory, Joey Reed's, perspective.  Still I'm glad they've finally taken an interest. It was a story worth telling and now most of it has been told. I hope they follow the ESD business more closely going forward since I'm sure they have a large readership affected by the decisions made by that board.  At this point though we've all moved on to executing the business of public safety to the best of our abilities per the current agreement.

Now that the ESD has a new interim director and a new board president they're interested in talking with the City of Joshua again to see if we can we can forge ahead with some kind of an agreement to once again cover an area larger than the city limits of Joshua with automatic aid in the next contract.  We've always been open to that discussion and we'll gladly see what they have in mind now, but as the elected body that represents the citizens of Joshua they have to understand our city council will work in the interest of the people of Joshua first.  That's our job.

A.J.