Brookfield Basics

Only in government could such a notion as the stockpiling of unused sick days in a taxpayer-funded "bank", with the value of these "days" to be paid out upon retirement, be even seriously debated, much less firmly established as legitimate operating practice.

Stop for a minute and think about this. All of us get sick. And when we do, we should not have to fear for our livelihood regardless of who we work for. But that is where the similarity ends. Employers in the private sector pay for employees to have a modest number of sick days each year, but the strong expectation is that only a few will actually be used. And they certainly do not allow their employees to "bank" their unused days, accumulating their significant worth year after year, to be paid out upon their retirement. Under such an absurd system, the employee gets paid twice for the same day of work: the day he/she came to work, and the days they didn't take off as a sick day. Further, they are wrongly incentivized to come in and work on days they have no business doing so, both for their sake and the sake of their fellow associates.

The reason private employers don't do this is because, A.) It doesn't make any sense, and B.) They can't afford it. If they can't afford such largesse for their own employees, then why should government be able to offer it to theirs? The worm is beginning to turn, and sooner or later politicians will have to accept the reality that what the private sector cannot afford, the public sector cannot afford and should not offer.

It's not about politics anymore; it's about the fact that such programs are simply no longer fiscally sustainable.

Ted Kanavas and a few others are to be commended for their stance on this issue. We need to openly call on ALL politicians to renounce such silly and out-dated programs. There are two simple reasons for this. First, it's the right thing to do. And second, if they can't bring themselves to discontinue such ludicrous, self-serving programs as this, what makes you think they will be able or willing to tackle the REALLY tough issues that lie ahead.

As Wisconsin begins to wrestle with a defecit measured in the BILLIONS, we need to be able to make the easy decisions quickly.

This decision is a no brainer, no matter how "sick" it may make some people in Madison.

Amongst so many others, one of my favorite aspects of the Advent and Christmas season is the music. I break the music into two categories: hymns (spiritual in nature and content), and carols (secular in nature). My favorite hymn is Oh Holy Night, with its beautiful ascent and its simple, clear telling of the gospel story. My favorite carol is Silver Bells. Written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, it debuted in the movie The Lemondrop Kid, where it was sung by Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell.

No disrespect to those two, but my favorite version of this song was done by Tanya Tucker. Her rich, redolant southern alto, and the slower pace of her recording gave an entirely different characterization to this classic.

I find myself inevitably humming or singing this song at this time of year, and letting my mind wander in and surrender to the wonderful images the lyrics evoke.


Silver bells, silver bells, it's Christmas time in the city.
Ring-aling, hear them ring, soon it will be Christmas Day.

Strings of street lights, even stop lights - blink of bright red and green,
as the shoppers rush home with their treasures.

Hear the snow crunch, see the kids bunch this is Santa's big scene,
And above all the bustle you'll hear.

Silver bells........

Always it is Tucker's voice I hear; and always it brings my heart back to the simple foundations and realities we should strive to stand on and capture at this time of year.

In the immortal words of Charles Dickens' character Tiny Tim, "Merry Christmas - God Bless us every one"!!

Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations since 1996, is stepping down in January.

He gave his obligatory farewell speech at the Truman library in Independence Missouri last week, a sad irony to see this paper diplomat standing in the intellectual and historical shadow of Harry S. Truman. The contrast could not have been more stark: Truman, the man of few words backed with mighty action, versus Annan, a man to whom action has always been distasteful and odious, but who always provided an endless stream of empty, meaningless rhetoric.

At best, the UN under his management has been inneffective. At worst it has been hopelessly corrupt. Looking back over his adminsitration of this once great body, one searches for a significant achievement to associate with his stewardship; a legacy to be left. One finds none.

I recall endless urgings to the Israelis to "take a risk for peace", while not even once in the years could he bring himself to urge restraint upon Yassar Arafat, or to condemn the years of calculated violence that great terrorist directed against innocents and civilians.

I recall endless condemnations and smug reproachments for the United States, all the while remaining silent and moribund regarding the ethnic cleansing and atrocities raging across the continent of Africa, a conflagration which remains unabated today. And for all his scorn for the United States, he never hesitated to take our billions, while simultaneously chastising us for not giving him even more.

As for Iraq, he was busy presiding over what has been the largest and most sickeningly corrupt scanal in history; the notorious "Oil for Food Program". At best his defenders claim he was was ignorant of the corruption in his organization. At worst, he was at some level conscious of it. The first scenario damns him as an incompetent, while the second damns him as corrupt beyond our imagination.

While always insisting that only the UN had the "legitimacy" to act in matters of international affairs requiring strong intervention, he simultaneously gave renegade and violent regimes voices, seats, and votes in the UN. Thus equipped to prevent any actions contrary to their interests, these regimes have been free to follow their courses of repression, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

It is time for us to stop evaluating the United Nations for the high-minded principles upon which it was founded, and start evaluating it based on the effectiveness of its programs and the capability of its leaders. Under Mr. Annan's leadership, it flunks on both counts. Sadly, the United States continues to pour billions into this obese and corrupt body.

I face the future with the hope that his South Korean successor will do better. And I do so with a certainty he cannot do worse.

No doubt Mr. Annan will immerse himself in a wealth-encrusted retirement, from which he will occasionally issue more meaningless and inneffective communiques, full of condemnation of the West.

Happy New Year to you sir, and good-bye.

I did something over the Thanksgiving Holiday that I very rarely do - watched a morning network TV news show. One of the stories reminded me of why I make this such a rare activity.

The entire foundation of the ten minute spot was the supposition that there is an actual syndrome or disease out there that people can contract, and the name of this syndrome is "Holiday Rage".

The premise was that all of the pressures of additional spending, too many parties to attend or places to go, mourning a lost loved one, and the other familiar stresses that are attendant with the Christmas and New Years season, somehow combine to form a syndrome that we either "catch" or "don't catch", as if it were some form of microbial bacteria or the common cold. The reporter atually interviewed a man in New York City who was seeing his psychiatrist because he had a bad case of "Holiday Rage", and was being "treated" for it. They discussed this with the same level of somber analysis that more serious people might have reserved for pancreatic cancer or kidney disease.

It was yet another sad illustration of how our society has forfeited the notion of individual responsibility. This man couldn't actually be held accountable for his own actions for heaven's sake! He was simply the unwilling and powerless victim of a "syndrome".

Now I do not dispute that the Christmas season is conducive to added strains and difficult emotions. But let's recognize that rage of any kind is nothing more than unrestrained anger which manifests itself in unacceptable behavior.

But most of alll, let's stop this nonsense about calling it a "syndrome". We are human beings, created with thoughts and emotions that can too frequently become dark and conflicted. But along with those thoughts and emotions, we were given the ability, and indeed the responsibility, of MANAGING them.

There is a cure for this "syndrome" and it is far less expensive than a Manhattan psychiatrist. How about we all recognize that our personal conduct and behavior is our own personal responsibility, and that we are not subject to the whim of the latest malaise that our pop-culture saturated media has foisted upon us.

How about we all try a little harder to act like ladies and gentlemen? THAT is the cure for Holiday rage. And in addition, it's a nice Christmas present for everyone on your list!

Many peolpe have asked me why I don't blog about School Board issues. That's a fair question, and all I can say at this juncture is that I want to use this column for other purposes. As a Board member, I have plenty of opportunity to voice my views at the meetings of the Board and Committees, and I believe it is more appropriate to do so in those venues.

But I will bring this issue up for consideration. If you follow local news with any scrutiny, you know that the Board is in the process of evaluating the matter of District wide implementation of a program that would provide kindergarten for four year olds.

If you are not sure what your position is on this matter and feel you need more information, then contact your Board representatives or the District office. Most importantly, please familiarize yourself with the findings the District has brought forth.

If you believe this is a needed and valuable program, then come to the meetings and tell us that. Contact your Board members, whose email addresses and home phone numbers are listed on the District's web site.

If you are opposed to this program, then do the same. Contact us and come to the meetings and tell us that you are opposed, and the reasons why.

Board members want to hear from you, regardless of what your position is.

Literally translated from the language of the ancient Hawaiians these two beautiful words mean "water of pearl", and it is what those ocean-faring people called Pearl Harbor. On Thursday of this week we look back sixty-five years to the day that the Empire of Japan, led into conquest by its Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, attacked the United States Navy at Pearl Harbor.

I can remember my father, by all accounts an educated and articulate man, reflecting back on the event decades later, and trying to put into words his reaction to the attack. His inability to adequately do so told me more than any words could have. He would ultimately serve as a lieutenant in the Navy that was attacked that day.

There were 3,581 American casualties, with hundreds of planes and ships lost. It could have been worse, as the entire cadre of US aircraft carriers, which might have been at idle anchorage, were all out on training missions, thus avoiding certain destruction and the death of their enormous crews. The most devestating loss was the USS Arizona, whose memorial stands today as one of the most simplistic and beautiful war memorials in the world.

Although this date marked the United States' entry into World War Two, the war had already been raging for nearly two and a half years. Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, and Greece had already fallen to the German Blitzkrieg, and on that December morning, Hitler's hitherto invincible legions were at the gates of Moscow. Protected by her Channel, the RAF, and the invincible spirit of her Prime Minister Winston Churchill, only England had stood alone against the Nazi Fuhrer.

It is difficult today for us to imagine a world in which the US was not even involved, much less a superpower. Everything changed with Pearl, however. The United States entered the war with both feet; vowing an objective of total victory, the only satisfactory measure of which would be the unconditional surrender of her foes. It was America's time, and she would wage war on two global fronts, on a scale never seen before or since. In a little more than three years we would travel from a place of isolationism and total defeat, to victory and world prominence.

For the Allies the war in the Pacific began as it had in Europe, with a series of unmitigated defeats. After knocking out our Pacific fleet at Pearl, the Japanese would invade and conquer the Philippines, Manchuria, Malaysia, and Singapore; the stain of her conquest spreading like ink over the map of the Pacific, and lapping at the shores of Australia. Their occupation of those countries and treatment of their POW's would demonstrate a level of barbarism and savagery that was every bit the equal of the Nazis. America was blessed to have Douglas MacArthur, the greatest military genius and field commander in our nation's history. His towering genius and intrepid leadership rewrote the strategies of warfare, and would win victories that bedazzled and confounded his Japanese opponents. In the spring of 1945, he would accept the surrender of Japan aboard another battleship named for a State; the USS Missouri, home of the virtually unknown new President Harry S. Truman.

The tide would not turn towards towards victory, however, until the battle of Midway. There the courageous pilots of the US Dauntless dive-bombers located the decoyed Japanese carriers, and flying straight into certain death, attacked. Most would die, but not before destroying the heart of the Japanese fleet. Thinking back to Pearl Harbor as he watched the Japanese carrier Akagi burn and sink, US Airman Wilmer Gallaher exulted into his radio, "Arizona - I remember you".