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Christian Witness, Perspective, Political, ,

Justice, a helping hand, and human potential

From Newsday: LI immigrants fight to win wages they say they are owed

The immigrants came in one after another. One said he was owed $6,000. Another said he was docked $3,000. Three others said they were owed $1,900, $648 and $270.

In the North Fork Hispanic Apostolate headquarters in Riverhead, Sister Margaret Smyth and attorney Dan Rodgers counseled the men for upcoming court appearances.

“If they ask you about your immigration status, you have no obligation to answer,” Rodgers said. “The only reason we’re in court is to obtain wages for work you performed.”

Advocates say many more immigrants are filing claims for unpaid wages on the East End than last year – nearly 140 so far, already exceeding the total for all of last year.

Five immigrants came to Smyth’s office Thursday, saying a painting company owes them $5,000 each. “Every month, we have 30 or more cases,” Smyth said. “Some of it’s the economy. Some of it’s just people being bad people.”

Federal and state law says workers – regardless of immigration status – are entitled to be paid for work performed.

“The fact is that the worst thing you can do is steal a man’s labor and that’s what’s going on more and more,” said Rodgers, who does the cases pro bono.

Roberto Rodriguez, 46, said he was owed $648. He was so desperate, he pawned a gold chain for $200, he said. “I just want to be paid my just wage.”

Nationally, some groups say they’ve seen a similar increase, though the Workplace Project in Hempstead said it has not noticed a rise in complaints.

“This is a big problem that existed but is being exacerbated by the bad economy,” said Raj Nayak, a staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project in Manhattan.

Advocates say while most cases filed in local courts are won on paper – usually by default, when the defendant doesn’t show up – the judgments are difficult to enforce.

When defendants do show, Rodgers tries to negotiate a settlement. But in many cases, only one or two payments will be made. “It’s never-ending,” Smyth said. “I have a whole pile of cases where they didn’t pay.”…

Wage theft, especially from those with the fewest avenues available for seeking justice is rampant in the United States as is the intentional misclassification of workers.

More on this in What Workers Face This Labor Day (see also Low-Wage Workers Are Often Cheated, Study Says from the NY Times)

On Monday, President Obama will celebrate America’s 127th Labor Day by giving a speech on “jobs, the economy and maybe a little health care” at the annual AFL-CIO picnic in Cincinnati, OH. Despite positive indications that the U.S. economy is beginning to “climb out of the worst recession in decades,” Obama’s speech will come at a difficult time for America’s workers as job losses continue. In the current recession, 6.7 million jobs have been lost through July, with another 216,000 jobs lost in August. Even those who are still working are facing significant challenges. Earlier this week, a new report financed by the Ford, Joyce, Haynes, and Russell Sage Foundations found that labor protections in America “are failing significant numbers of workers.” According to the survey, which was “the most comprehensive examination of wage-law violations in a decade,” 68 percent of the low wage workers who were interviewed said they were subjected to pay violations in their previous work week alone. This included 26 percent who were paid less than the minimum wage and 76 percent who didn’t receive legally required overtime pay. In all, the researchers discovered that “the typical worker had lost $51 the previous week through wage violations, out of average weekly earnings of $339,” adding up to a 15 percent loss in pay. The report “clearly shows we still have a major task before us,” said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in a statement, promising that the Department of Labor in the Obama administration “will be marked by an emphasis on the protection” of the rights of America’s workers…

I was at a conference on unemployment and workforce issues last week. During the conference nineteen state workforce agencies joined in a call to extend unemployment insurance benefits.

The news at the conference was sobering. Panelists like William D. Rodgers, III, Ph.D., Professor and Chief Economist and Carl E. Van Horn, Director and Professor of Public Policy both of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University and Lawrence Chimerine, Ph.D., Managing Director and Chief Economist at the Economic Strategy Institute all point to a recovery that is underway; with economic indicators pointing to a sustained recovery. Unfortunately it will be a jobless recovery (see U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio from the NY Times for instance). We may not see job gains or low unemployment again until 2018. People will be desperate and there will have to be significant changes in the way we assist and work with these folks. These workers will need training to prepare themselves for this new environment and for the jobs that are available — an investment in their potential.

The assessment that struck home for me was a review of our investment in human potential. The value of our investment in the people of this nation has declined for decades (see here for instance). What we pour into education, health, wellness, culture, family, and leisure points to a wholly wrong set of priorities and an ethic where human life is considered cheap — life as just another cog in the machine. Funny how people of faith, calling government, industry, and society on the carpet over this, have spoken the truth here. Too bad — the message has fallen on deaf ears and over relatively the same period of time.

Oh, and speaking of people who do not invest in or respect human potential, Senator Michael Enzi of Wyoming is near the top of the list. He believes that people shouldn’t be empowered to take care of themselves because they just might form unions. As with many Washington insiders he thinks that people should seek the approval of business and/or government before they do anything. I can’t believe he’s from the west.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , , , ,

For my fellow amateur genealogists

From Ancestry Magazine: Russian, German, and Austrian Ancestors in Poland by Raymond S. Wright IIIRaymond S. Wright III is a professor at Brigham Young University, where he teaches genealogical research methods, European family history, and German and Latin paleography. He writes regularly for a variety of genealogy publications and gives conference lectures. Professor Wright is the author of The Genealogist’s Handbook (Chicago: American Library Association, 1995).. The footnotes are mine.

Why do many Austrian, Russian, and German emigrants to America identify home towns that are in Poland? The answer is that Poland has been both an autonomous state and a collection of provinces under German, Austrian, and Russian rule. Norman Davies, author of God’s Playground: A History of Poland (2 vols., New York: Columbia University Press, 1982) suggests that today’s Republic of Poland is not the successor to previous versions of a Polish state. Each incarnation of Poland was unique in its boundaries and in the makeup of its society.

The nation of Poland traces its origins to the Slavic tribes living between the Oder and Vistula rivers on the northern European plain that stretches from the Atlantic in the west to the Ural Mountains in the eastThe country was officially “formed” with the baptism of Mieszko I in 966.. In 1563, through the union of the kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania, the authority of the Polish crown extended to an area that included all of modern Poland, Lithuania, White Russia, and Ukraine. And yet, by 1795, Poland had ceased to exist as a nation.

Divide and Conquer

In the last half of the eighteenth century, Polish nobles, seeking to fortify their power, vetoed any attempt by a king to establish a strong central authority. Poland’s neighbors, seeing her weakness and fearing that one or the other of them might gain an advantage by taking over Poland, decided to divide it among themThis is a very limited description of the situation. A prime impetus for invasion and division was the establishment of the Constitution of May 3rd in 1791. The monarchs of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia saw this as a direct threat to their rule, something that had to be stopped.. The partitions of 1772, 1793, and 1795 left northern and western Poland to the Prussians (West Prussia, Posen, and Mazovia), southern Poland to the Austrians (Galicia and Lodomeria), and eastern Poland to Russia (including Lithuania, White Russia, and Eastern Ukraine). Twelve years later, in 1807, Napoleon nullified the partitions by establishing the Grand Duchy of Poland. After Napoleon’s defeat, the Treaty of Vienna (1815) restored Posen to Prussia and Galicia to Austria. Most of the Russian partition was returned to Russia. At the Congress of Vienna the central region of Poland, with Warsaw, was created as a kingdom, popularly known as the Congress Kingdom of Poland. The Emperor of Russia was made the king of this new kingdom. Continual uprisings by the Polish against the Russians led to complete incorporation of Congress Poland into the Russian Empire by 1874.

The city of Cracow and its environs, in northeastern Galicia, was not returned to Austria by the Treaty of Vienna. Instead, the treaty gave the area autonomy as the Republic of Cracow. It remained the only independent part of Poland until 1846. A peasant uprising against landowners in 1846 invited Austrian intervention, and the Republic of Cracow was annexed to Austrian Galicia that year.

United at Last

Until the end of the First World War, Poland remained an idea rather than a nation. Then, from 1918 to 1921, wars and plebiscites produced a new Polish republic in control of virtually all of the regions that were lost to Russia and Austria in the partitions. This republic also included the former German-ruled areas of Posen, northern Silesia, and a corridor to the Baltic Sea that cut a swath through what had been the western borderland of West PrussiaPrussia being a term co-opted by Germany for the purpose of land grabs. Germans are not Prussians in any sense. Prussians as a distinct ethnic group had ceased to exist. What was formally Prussia, the territory of ethnic Prussians, was always part of Poland either directly, as a dukedom, or a fief..

The Republic of Poland’s life was a short one. On 27 December 1939, Poland capitulated to German invaders; the Germans divided their spoils with their Soviet allies, who had invaded Poland from the east. By 1945, the tables had turned, and the Germans surrendered Poland to the Soviets, who were now in league with the United States, Britain, and France. The stage was set for the birth of a new Poland. Ukraine, White Russia, all of Lithuania, and the northern half of East Prussia were excluded from the new Peoples’ Republic of PolandThis became the Kaliningrad Oblast- never part of Russia, but part of Poland with its main city being Królewiec.. Its northern border extended to the Baltic and its southern border to the Carpathian Mountains. The western border followed the Neisse River north to its confluence with the Oder River, continuing north along the Oder and then north-northeast to Swinoujście on the Baltic coast. Poland’s southeastern border intersected the boundary with Slovakia where the San River originates in the Carpathian Mountains. The border then followed a line north to the Bug River and paralleled the river on its northward course. Then, at Brest, the borderline ran in a northern direction another 160 miles before turning west to end in the Baltic Sea near the Polish city of Braniewo. These boundaries have endured to the present day, although the Peoples’ Republic of Poland has not. As the Soviet Empire collapsed, the Soviet-supported government in Warsaw also dissolved. The Republic of Poland was born in 1989. Today Poland is led by a popularly-elected government and is eager to assume its place in the community of independent nations.

Records Recovered

During the first years after the Second World War, non-Polish minorities fled Poland, leaving it a nation whose citizens were almost all Polish—“unlike any of the Polands of the pastVery true – Poland was multi-ethnic and much more like the “melting pot” often used to describe the United States.. As the inhabitants of post-war Poland cleared away the rubble of their destroyed cities, they discovered that many of the records created by past rulers of Poland had survived the war. A national system of state archives was established to preserve and organize these records. Archives were established in capital cities and in other cities in each województwo (province). These state archives were (and still are) administered by the National Directorate of State Archives in Warsaw. Each provincial archives’ office gathered and preserved the historical records created within the area now encompassed by the provincial boundaries. All records older than one hundred years were to be turned over to these archives. Most civil agencies complied, but churches were reluctant to participate, preferring to keep their records or turn them over to central church archives.

While identifying records, archivists discovered gaps in record series. At first it was supposed that these records had been destroyed or lost. As communication with archivists in neighboring nations improved, however, it was discovered that many records had been taken out of Poland during the post-war exodus of non-Poles to neighboring countries. Consequently, family historians must sometimes seek ancestral records in several locations. During the Second World War Poland fell first under German control and then, at the end of the war, under Soviet authority. Records relating to the war years, as well as alienated records from earlier periods of history, may be found in German, Russian, White Russian, and Ukrainian archives today. The archives in these countries are managed by central archives administrations, the addresses of which can be found in these publications: The World of Learning (London: Europa Publications, 1948—”) and Ernest Thode’s The German Genealogist’s Address Book (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1997) See also Polish Roots by Rosemary A. Chorzempa..

Provincial Archives

Each province in Poland is named after its capital cityThis is blatantly incorrect. See this map.. Each of these capitals houses a state archives which preserve records from the area covered by the province. Some of the records are housed in branch archives at several locations in the province. The map at left shows these provincial capitals. Researchers will find records for ancestral home towns, or at least directions about where they are, by communicating with archives staff in provincial capitals near their forebears’ towns of origin. Rather than guess which archives to contact, family historians can also write to the National Directorate of State Archives in Warsaw. For many years, this office has coordinated all inquiries from genealogical researchers. The archives’ staff in Warsaw will direct researchers’ letters to the appropriate archives. The address for the headquarters of the Polish state archives is Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych, skr. poczt. 1005, ul. Długa 6, 00—”950 Warsaw, Poland.

Until recently, family historians wanting to use archival resources in Poland were required to obtain written permission from the office of the National Director of State Archives in Warsaw. Today, the directors in provincial state archives have authority to grant access to the sources in their archives. Family historians should write to request permission to visit the archives well in advance of visiting Poland.

Church Records

Today, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, UniateActually Greek Catholic – Churches under Rome, and Protestant churches in Poland generally preserve records at the parish level, although some are in central church archives. To learn where parish records are, a letter to the archdiocese or diocese for the area is necessary. Addresses can be sought in the publications noted above, or through a researcher’s nearest Polish consulate or embassy…

Before family researchers write to archives, it’s best to learn whether the Family History Library in Salt Lake City has microfilmed church or other records from the town in question. The library has a large collection of church records from Poland. These records can be found using the locality search option in the Family History Library Catalog. The records are described in the catalog under the applicable Polish, German, and Russian names for each locality.

…

Understanding why German, Austrian, and Russian ancestors came to America from towns now in Poland will help researchers discover where ancestors’ records may be found today. Genealogists should visit their local libraries, especially college libraries, to search for atlases of the German, Austrian, and Russian empires published before 1918. The maps contained in these books will aid efforts to locate exactly where ancestors’ home towns were. German, Austrian, and Russian gazetteers from this same time period will describe smaller communities and help simplify the search for towns in atlases…

Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political,

A Pole in the E.U.

From the NY Times: For Poland, a Milestone in Choice for European Post

The job brings no real power and no extra pay. But the election Tuesday of a new president of the European Parliament was a significant moment for the 27-nation European Union, and certainly for Poland.

Jerzy Buzek, a former center-right prime minister of Poland, was elected president of the assembly with 555 votes out of 713 votes cast, becoming the first politician from an Eastern European country to hold one of the bloc’s high-profile posts.

—Once upon a time,— Mr. Buzek told the Parliament on Tuesday, —I hoped to be a part of the Polish Parliament in a free Poland. Today I have become the president of the European Parliament —” something I could never have dreamed of.—

Never mind that the position is largely ceremonial. It carries prestige, a few perks and a lot of symbolism, and Warsaw wanted it badly.

The vote Tuesday was the culmination of months of lobbying by the Polish government, which wants to silence those who argue that the former Communist nations are underrepresented in Europe’s decision making.

Before the vote, Eugeniusz Smolar, senior fellow of the Center for International Relations, a research institute in Warsaw, said that the election of Mr. Buzek would —be symbolic to many people in Central and Eastern Europe of an evenhanded approach —” and that the old-boy network ceases to be in place.—

Poland’s minister for Europe, Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, said, —The fact that Buzek can become the president of the European Parliament is proof that enlargement of the E.U. has been a resounding success.—

Even some political opponents agree, and before voting, deputies from the Green Party had promised to back Mr. Buzek, not because they agreed with his center-right politics, but to send an upbeat political signal as part of the Parliament, which has grown in power even as turnout for elections has declined. Only 43 percent of eligible voters participated in elections to the assembly last month.

As president, Mr. Buzek will serve as chairman of parliamentary sessions. The job also involves representing the Parliament at summit meetings of European Union leaders and international events. All official travel is paid, and the president has the V.I.P. trappings of an international leader. The president also has a cabinet, which totals 39 members, including support staff and advisers.

…

Mr. Buzek, 69, is expected to bring to the post a new focus on Europe’s eastern neighbors, including Russia. Certainly his career contrasts sharply with that of his predecessor, Hans Gert Pí¶ttering of Germany, who has been a member of the European Parliament since 1979 —” a time when Mr. Buzek, then an academic and chemical engineer in Communist Poland, was about to join Solidarity, the movement that helped overthrow the government.

Born in the border region of Silesia, which at the time was a German-occupied part of Czechoslovak territory, he is a Protestant in a country where Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion.

After coming to power in 1997, Mr. Buzek became Poland’s first post-Communist prime minister to serve a full four-year term of office, enacting a series of domestic reforms.

Mr. Dowgielewicz, a political ally, said Mr. Buzek has a good domestic profile: —He is seen in Poland as someone who worked humbly in the European Parliament even though he is a former prime minister. Instead of searching out the TV cameras he was working hard within the Parliament.—…

Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , , ,

The Polish American Community in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities Conference

The Polish American Congress has announced its National Conference program: “The Polish American Community in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities (Polonia Amerykańska w XXI w.: Wyzwania i Możliwości).”

The PAC National Conference to be held October 15 and 16, 2009, in Chicago, Illinois at Northeastern Illinois University. The theme of the conference is “The Polish American Community in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities, The conference offers leaders, activists, and all persons interested in a vigorous Polish American community an opportunity to exchange experiences, share aspirations, and discuss best practices with others from across the United States.

The two-day conference, beginning at 9:00 am Thursday, October 15 and concluding Friday evening, October 16, will feature both general and issue-specific sessions. Elected leaders and representatives of Chicago, Illinois, the United States, and the Government of Poland are expected to address the conference’s Opening Session. Representatives and guests from Poland have been invited to join in selected sessions.

General sessions will examine the profile of the current Polish American community (often referred to as “Polonia”); leadership development; relations between the United States, the Polish American community and Poland; and the future of Polonia and its organizational challenges and opportunities.

Issue-specific sessions will address a range of topics, including: educational partnerships, teaching and learning; the role, importance and need for ethnic organizations; increasing political involvement and influence in the American political process; preservation and promotion of Polish culture and heritage in the United States; opportunities for participating in business between the United States and Poland; and networking in the community through sports, charities, and professional and social networks.

A reception and recital of the music of Chopin and Paderewski will conclude Thursday’s sessions. A concluding reception on Friday will afford participants an opportunity to network and socialize. Displays of information about the Polish American community, organizations and contributions will be featured around the university’s conference center.

Information about the National Conference, registration, arrangements, and opportunities for supporting the event is available from the Congress’ conference site or by contacting the Congress at 1612 K Street NW, Suite 410, Washington, DC 20006, Tel.: (202) 296-6955, Fax: (202) 835-1565.

Current Events, Media, Perspective, Poetry, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , , , , ,

The latest issue of The Cosmopolitan Review

The latest edition of The Cosmopolitan Review has been published. The Cosmopolitan Review is published by the alumni of Poland in the Rockies, a biennial symposium in Polish studies held at Canmore, Alberta. This editions features include:

EDITORIAL: Between Past and Present, Poland and North America

This summer at CR, we took the time to slow down and to bring you an eclectic mix of warm delights to enjoy while sipping that glass of chilled white wine or licking the last of your strawberry sorbet. In this issue, travel back in time with architecture critic Witold Rybczynski when he visits Poland for the first time in 1967, discovering his parents’ homeland for himself…

…and more including events, politics, reviews, travel, and spotlight.

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, ,

Holy Memory – Prof. Leszek Kołakowski

From the BBC: Polish anti-Marxist thinker dies

The Polish philosopher and historian of ideas, Leszek Kołakowski has died in hospital in Oxford, England. He was 81.

One of the few 20th Century eastern European thinkers to gain international renown, he spent almost half of his life in exile from his native country.

He argued that the cruelties of Stalinism were not an aberration, but the logical conclusion of Marxism.

MPs in Warsaw observed a minute’s silence to remember his contribution to a free and democratic Poland.

Leszek Kołakowski was born in Radom, Poland, 12 years before the outbreak of the World War II.

Under the Nazi occupation of Poland school classes were banned so he taught himself foreign languages and literature.

He even systematically read through an incomplete encyclopaedia he found.

He once said he knew everything under the letters, A, D and E, but nothing about the Bs and the Cs.

After the war he studied philosophy and became a professor. Seeing the destruction wrought by the Nazis in Poland he joined the Communist Party.

But he gradually became disillusioned and more daring in his criticism of the system. In 1966 he was expelled from the party and two years later he lost his job.

Seeking exile in the West, he eventually settled at Oxford’s All Souls college where he wrote his best-known work, the three-volume Main Currents of Marxism, considered by some to be one of the most important books on political theory of the 20th Century.

In the 1980s, from his base in Britain, he supported Poland’s pro-democracy Solidarity movement which overthrew communism in 1989.

For many of its leaders he was an icon.

Along with a photographic retrospective, Interia carries the following quotes:

Czeslaw Milosz: “how could Leszek Kołakowski, philosopher, positivist, materialist and Marxist become Kołakowski the wise, turning against the philosophies of all the isims?”

Fr. Józef Tischner: He was “the spiritual master of the liberal intelligentsia”

From the Professor: “How to be a Conservative-Liberal-Socialist.”

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political

Catholic when convenient

Anthony Stevens-Arroyo dissects Roman Catholic pundits who love the Bishop of Rome when he speaks their creed and who cast him into a corner when they disagree. True, the Pope can and does err, and Roman Catholic dogmas never declared the Pope infallible in his personal pronouncements, his personal political views, or even his personal theological perspective. That said, he does speak for the Church and is charged with teaching things consistent with the Catholic faith. Sometimes he teaches things people just don’t like. A person’s personal likes and dislikes matter little in the face of such teaching.

From Mr. Stevens-Arroyo’s Washington Post column: Vatican Insiders and Outsiders

Like most large organizations, the Catholic Church experiences both insiders and outsiders… The insider role to the Vatican has been played for more than a decade by George Weigel, the official biographer of Pope John Paul II and a trusted spokesperson for the conservative right-wing in U.S. politics. But in the law of political changes, today’s insider can become tomorrow’s outsider. That, I think, has been the turnaround for Weigel.

Named official biographer for Pope John Paul II, Wiegel was given unparalleled access to the Vatican and to the persons and places surrounding the pontiff. But Weigel was not content in producing a quality biography (Witness to Hope, 1999): he decided to parlay his access with the church into an influential role among neo-conservatives. His insider status with the Vatican allowed him to wax expansively in the conservative media about “what the pope really meant.” Almost without exception, Weigel considered the pope’s thinking to be in line with Republican Party politics.

Weigel then set up shop at Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, one of many “think tanks” within the Beltway. His opinions were regularly posted by the National Review, the birthplace of “Mater, Sí­; Magistra, No!” While no doubt his political job paid the bills, it also aligned him with the authors of the classic Cafeteria Catholic dismissal of papal authority in matters of social justice. The compromise was painfully evident when first John Paul II and then his successor, Benedict XVI, condemned the invasion of Iraq. Weigel voiced the line that “abortion was an intrinsic evil” which meant no deviation was possible, but that waging an unjust war or supporting the death penalty were areas where good Catholics like himself could openly differ with papal teaching. Weigel’s postings became more ideological and less insightful, I think. Clearly, with the majority of Catholic voters supporting Barack Obama for president in 2008, Weigel had been turned into an outsider in Washington. Then Weigel’s response to Pope Benedict’s social justice encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, revealed that he had been turned into an outsider for Vatican goings-on as well.

Weigel apparently believed that he could accept the parts of the encyclical with which he agreed politically and dismiss the rest of the pope’s teaching. He inferred that Pope Benedict had not been honest with the world’s Catholics but instead had succumbed to ideas foisted on him by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace According to Weigel, Pope Benedict produced a document in which certain passages were “golden” (as in GOP) and others were “red” (as in Communist). When discussing the pope’s call to lessen world poverty through international cooperation, Weigel opined that “it may mean something naïve or dumb.” Weigel concluded that rather than an expression of the Ordinary Magisterium of the Church, Caritas in Veritate was “an encyclical that resembles a duck-billed platypus.” One wonders if the inability to find coherence in a papal document is the fault of the pope or of prejudgments from analysts like George Weigel…

The mixing of politics and faith leads to an internal dichotomy and eventually to self-serving philosophies and theologies. Perhaps Mr. Weigel and those similarly situated should reconsider what it means to be Catholic, and particularly Roman Catholic. Catholicism often entails hard choices and a reordering of perspectives.

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, ,

Pennsylvania politics

An interesting analysis of Pennsylvania’s political geography from the Daily Kos PA-Sen and Gov: Western PA

Actually the full title should be the rest of PA outside Metropolitan Philadelphia. But mostly I’m writing about Western PA. Which is generally important in PA politics and maybe even more so in the Governor’s race in 2010.

…

There some small steel cities in the valleys and a few small towns and then there are a lot of rural areas. The valleys flood. Johnstown, in Cambria county would be the most famous example. It didn’t just flood in 1889, it also flooded several other times including 1936. This is the reason for the tax at Pennsylvania state stores. Western PA is still very much an ethnic Catholic area. My mother remembers that after Vatican II, the churches went from Latin to Polish, Croat, Slovak, Romanian and Czech. No one under 50 could understand the mass. The French and Indian war is the major source of historical tourism. Steel and Coal mining used to be big, but not anymore.

Central PA-East of Bedford County to the Susquahanna and Lancaster County has a large concentration both conservatives and Anabaptists (Brethren and Mennonite folk.) Moravians, on the other hand are in the Northeast around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. The more common names in Lancaster and Dauphin county include Schlosser, Royer, Stoltzfus (or Stoltzfoos), Myer and Hartmann.

Demographically Pennsylvania is full of Seniors with the second oldest population in the country, and Union members. Pennsylvanians join the National Guard and Reserve in higher than average numbers…

Perspective, Poetry, Political, , , ,

June 25 – Political lunacy NY style and Lunatics All Around Me by Ryszard Riedel

A few comments and observations:

Lunacy 101a — Tell them you’re a what?

I work with a lot of very reasonable, hard working, excellent folks. They put their heart and soul into their work and are not beholden to the political elite. It is one wonderful aspect of the civil service merit system (there’s a lot of bad too), i.e., a glaring lack of hacks. The same is true of the people at the top, while appointed politically, they generally serve with dignity and do so responsibly, carrying out the mission of the agency.

In studying the sociology of bureaucracy you learn that those at the top can do little to change the bureaucracy, and what they can do is often on the fringes, externals as it were. The best leaders enable the workers in the bureaucracy, providing them with the means to carry out the mission more efficiently and effectively. They don’t shy away from change, but make change organic. The bad leaders are the ones who take advantage or who actually think they can rule with an iron fist.

Interestingly, the bureaucratic system often changes the leader to a far greater extent than the bureaucracy is changed by them. The leaders take an ownership interest, and the best leaders meld in, adopt the bureaucracy, because the bureaucracy adopted them.

All that being said, somewhere near the top lie the “true believers,” the hacks, political mercy hires, and other assorted hangers on. If you want to have fun with these folks, tell them what you believe. The true believers proudly carry the “conservative” or the “egalitarian” card with honor (their brand). It is their badge of courage.

When engaged in conversation I love to mention my libertarian streak. This sort of pronouncement takes folks completely off guard because they either don’t know what it means, or they only know it as a caricature. The twisted facial expressions are priceless. It’s really great with the egalitarian crowd because they so believe that they know what’s best for each person and culture. That comes with so much baggage, so many preconceived notions (prejudice really), that their heads practically explode when you say that people are best off when left to determine their own fate.

Lesson One: Begin your adventures in New York’s political lunacy by telling everyone you’re a libertarian.

Lunacy 101b — Use the bigotry of power.

As you may know, New York’s Senate is split with 51 Republican/Republican sympathizer votes and 51 Democrats. Both sides are vying to control the Senate floor. There is no tie breaking vote because we do not have a lieutenant governor. He became governor when the last one resigned, and New York’s Constitution make no provision for replacing the lieutenant governor.

The struggle for control is best exemplified in the fight over the Speaker’s Chair. In the past few days the Democrats snuck in and took control before the Republicans could get there. The reverse happened in the days prior. The Democrats made a big show of placing females in the Speaker’s chair, they being guarded in their position by the Sergeant-At-Arms.

I don’t think anyone noticed this angle, or at least I haven’t read it anywhere, but isn’t that simple bigotry and prejudice on display. They placed women in the spot because the other side wouldn’t dare to physically push them out of their position at the rostrum. They basically determined that “traditional” deference to a woman (and aren’t the Democrats supposed to be the party of equal rights and so forth) would win the day. So to Senators Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Diane Savino, thank you for your portrayal of the “weaker-sex” and for allowing the nice burly Sergeant-At-Arms to protect you.

Lesson Two: Enhance New York’s political lunacy through the exploitation of a person’s sex for political gain.

Lunacy 101c — Agree that you’re a libertarian too.

I actually love what’s happening in the State Senate for several reasons. First, it has created a lot of rubrical fun in relation to parliamentary procedure. The geeky parliamentarians (or here) among us are in heaven and have been weighing the relative merits of Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure versus Robert’s Rules of Order. Second, and most importantly, nothing is getting done.

Casey Seiler of the Times Union writes in Hitting bottom? Senate sessions go from bad to worse:

I kept waiting for some distinguished veteran lawmaker — somebody who knows that this will be his or her final term in the chamber — to burst into tears, collapse to the floor and call out for heaven’s punishment to fall on the chamber immediately.

I include that for the sheer humor, and because it would be interesting to see (both the call and the actual punishment), but more to the point:

So that was bad. But what happened in Thursday’s faux session was even worse — rock bottom.

Instead of a procedural rugby match, we witnessed a much more genteel flouting of the governor’s renewed call for a productive special session. The Democrats gaveled in and gaveled out in three minutes, and then left the chamber. Then the Republicans and breakaway Democrat Pedro Espada Jr. arrived, and repeated the exercise in about 150 seconds. Amazingly, no legislation was passed.

It wasn’t “A Chorus Line” or “Cats,” but it was a carefully choreographed show designed not for value or entertainment but to allow both sides to avoid another car-crash spectacle. This elaborate gavotte was obviously worked out in advance by both parties, who have otherwise failed to agree on anything in two and a half weeks.

To be clear: As time-sensitive legislation languishes, the only matter that both sides can find common ground onNot necessarily true. Both sides signed the necessary paperwork to assure that legislators continue to get paid. Priorities you know. is that they don’t want to look like bozos. When their collective vanity is at stake, they’re willing to take immediate and decisive action.

That’s really the best part in all of this. Not “Amazingly, no legislation was passed,” but ‘Thankfully, no legislation was passed.’ Nothing is happening. No more freedoms are being taken away and the so called “time-sensitive legislation,” which is merely authorization for local tax increases (because in New York the State has to grant authority to local governments to do local business), isn’t getting passed.

The euphemisms for authorizing tax increases is wonderful. They call it “home rule messages” or “noncontroversial pieces of legislation.” It should be controversial and failure to do these things means that hard choices will have to be made. I hope they argue forever, and in true New York form are returned to office to keep arguing. Government would do nothing, no tax increases, no more invasive legislation for the common good, and then…

Lesson Three: New York’s political lunacy would be best enhanced through the forcible conversion of everyone into libertarians.

The Polish musical group Dżem as a song from their album Lunatics entitled “Lunatics All around Me” which I have translated for you. Enjoy….

Evil dreams have no illusions
The dreams all men fear
Blackest night, the city sleeps
No one can wake up
A cat on the roof, a rat in the gutter
The moon tempting in a white garment
No green light

Ref: The lunatics surround me Ooo!

Apartment buildings casting black shadows
and like a white tear, an empty open window
The Lunatics flee
The Lunatics flee
In love with you
From around that same window
I see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing

Translated by Dcn. Jim

Sen to zło, nie ma złudzeń
Sen ogarnął wszystkich ludzi
Czarno wokół, miasto śpi
Nikt nie może się obudzić
Kot na dachu, szczur w kanale
Księżyc kusi mundurki białe
Zielonego światła brak

Ref: Lunatycy otaczają mnie O, o, o !

Bloki czarne cień rzucają
A z otwartych, ślepych okien jak łzy białe
Lunatycy uciekają
Lunatycy uciekają
Zakochani w sobie
Wokół same lustra otaczają ich
Nie widzą nic nie, nie słyszą nic, nic nie czują

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