AN OPEN LETTER FROM WISCONSIN

[Botany]

I am proud to call the author of this letter my friend.



He really is outstanding in his field. :rofl:



AN OPEN LETTER FROM WISCONSIN
March 4, 2011

Hi. My name’s Neil Diboll. I’m the owner of a small business called Prairie Nursery in Westfield, WI. We grow native flowers and grasses to help people restore habitat and create healthy natural landscapes here in Wisconsin and the Midwest. I believe that businesses can and should make a positive contribution to their communities, their employees, and the environment, while earning a fair profit.

I don’t normally get involved in politics, but there have been some deeply troubling developments in our state government lately. In particular, our new governor, Scott Walker, has been using tactics that seem both unfair and divisive as he attempts to advance his Budget Repair Bill through the state legislature, while allowing little opportunity for discussion among the affected parties.

Governor Walker is blaming the public employee unions for much of the 3.6 billion dollar state budget shortfall in Wisconsin. He has demanded that they make concessions in their benefits, and give up their collective bargaining rights. The employees have agreed to Governor Walker’s terms for increasing contributions to their health care and retirement plans. But they are understandably reluctant to give up their collective bargaining rights, especially after taking a 6% to 8% cut in their pay as the governor has demanded.

Many public employees in Wisconsin have also foregone raises in the past five years, and some have had their wages cut by 3% to 5% through mandatory furlough days in the past 18 months. The net effect is a wage reduction of between 6% and 13% for most public employees.

Now I am not a big union guy. It’s easy to look at public employees with great benefits and be jealous. I know, because I’ve done it myself. But when you actually look at the facts, the vast majority of government employees make significantly lower salaries than private sector workers in similar jobs with the same level of education. Historically, the state has attempted to compensate for this disparity by providing excellent health care and retirement benefits for public workers.

We’re going through some very tough economic times. People are losing their jobs and even their homes. My business has struggled to stay afloat the past few years. I make less money today than I did ten years ago. Lots of my friends who own small businesses are in the same boat. It’s not a pretty picture.

We all have to share the pain, and our public employees have agreed to do what Governor Walker has asked of them. But he isn’t satisfied with that. He wants to cripple the public employee unions by revoking their collective bargaining rights, saying their wages are the primary cause of the budget shortfall. Except he’s got his facts all wrong.

The present budget crisis was not caused by overpaid, wasteful public employees. It is the result of 30 years of fiscal mismanagement by both Democrats and Republicans alike. But the single largest cause of this crisis is a steep drop in tax revenues due to the worst recession since the Great Depression. Did public employees cause that? No. It was precipitated by irresponsible big banks, mortgage lenders, and speculators, playing fast and loose with our money.

Some of these are the same people who donated tens of thousands of dollars to Scott Walker’s gubernatorial campaign, and paid for countless advertisements to help him get elected. And now Scott Walker is blaming the public employees for a problem largely caused by the very corporate interests that paid to get him elected. Sounds pretty fishy to me.

I moved to Wisconsin in 1974 when I was 20 years old. I had never been anywhere like Wisconsin before. The people were like one big family. I wanted to live in a place like that, and I’ve been here ever since. But now there’s a bully in our family. His name is Scott Walker. He adamantly refuses to sit down and talk with the public employees that plow our roads, staff our hospitals, and carry out all the jobs we have come to take for granted. Just like a schoolyard thug, Scott Walker says it’s his way or the highway.

This is simply not the way we do business in Wisconsin. Our family of citizens is too important to be divided by one man, who seems to care more about his national political aspirations than about the people of our great state. He may think that his refusal to sit down and work together is a sign of strength, but it’s actually a complete and utter failure of leadership when we need it the most.

Scott Walker says he idolizes Ronald Reagan. Perhaps he should listen to what President Reagan said to the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners at their 100th annual convention in Chicago on September 3, 1981:

I can guarantee you today that this administration will not fight inflation by attacking the sacred right of American workers to negotiate their wages. I want to express again my belief in our American system of collective bargaining and pledge that there will always be an open door to you in this administration.”

Perhaps Governor Walker should pay heed to these words of the Great Communicator. He could put aside the threats and grand-standing, and meet with his fellow citizens to solve our pressing budget problems. Then we could all get back to the business of creating jobs and fixing our economy, instead of fighting among ourselves.

Neil Diboll, President
Prairie Nursery, Inc.
Westfield, WI

[rzemanfl]

1. K & R. Except for calling Reagan the "Great Communicator"-

which may have been tongue in cheek, I agree with everything he said.

[malaise]

2. Outstanding in his field

:rofl:

Great post - rec

[rzemanfl]

3. Actually out squatting, but where's the laugh in that? n/t

[ngant17]

4. the guy really gets to the root of the problem

casting the blame on the unions is like blaming the victim for the (economic) crime. Public unions did not cause the economic recession, it was directly the result of Wall Street and big banking collapse.

The Repugs are trying to use the economic crisis as an excuse to dismantle workers' rights. If they are successful in Wisconsin, it will accelerate their attacks on the rest of the states in the Union.

It's psychological warfare against the common person. I just hope the majority of Americans won't buy into this propaganda coming from the right wing.

[Martin Eden]

5. K, R, and a favor:

Could you provide a link independent of DU?
Thanks :yourock:

[Botany]

6. No link

Neil really is a friend of mine and sent me that
letter as a PDF.


I can give you this link to show that he is legit.

http://www.prairienursery.com/store/