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Steven Barrett
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| Joined: | Tue Nov 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | Hadley, Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 1162 |
| First Name: | Steven | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic, Episcopal communicant, Baptist, Catholic |
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Posted: Thu May 15th, 2008 02:08 pm |
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How're the good earthly Doctors of the (albeit) quite unofficial but certainly NOT schismatic --or schizophrenic -- heretical, or (Americanized brand of modernistic/relativistic) dissident and very small-c "catholic church" doing this a.m.? I bet that gotcher attention!
Seriously, I'm in a little bind. The other day I was asked to speak TONITE before the Amherst (MA) Human Rights Commission. (Author Tracy Kidder said Amherst was the only town to have its own for. policy, so it might as well have its own State Dept. with Hum. Rights Commission.) Here I am, an Amherst ex-pat Townie speaking tonight on behalf of my wife's soon to be outsourced cafeteria workers dept, ("Lunch Ladies.")
These women are clearly getting a RAW DEAL (like so many other Lunch Ladies across the nation) and it's primarily because they, and the janitors/bus drivers/maint. staff, i.e., non-educators, in any school system tend to be in the weakest position in the very classicist pecking order in our ivory tower realms. (I thought I've seen nearly all the examples of social/academic snobbery, but watching this drama unfold has had the effect of opening my eyes with a 2 x 4.)
Thankfully the women are picking up support, but it's taken too long and admittedly, here I am with tin cup in hand more or less at the last minute.
Originally I was just going to speak from what the WORLD would call a more "practical approach" -- dollars, cents and just plain old arguments against the injustice of shafting the lowest folks on the totem-pole perspective. That'd be effective, esp. coming from somebody who's regarded around here as a "right winger" of sorts. (Just being remembered as "anti-choice" and pro-defence in any way shape or form in this cushy vale will land you in this ideological dungeon.) And while I was sincerely invited to speak by the women's advocates, I'm sure there'll be some snickering that I'm speaking from a personal perspective. (WELL, DUH, I do have some grounds.)
But I saw something that grabbed my attention in a very sharp way. It appeared in "Reason" magazine's online website in the form of a paean to outsourcing. Some p.s. official justified outsourcing Lunch Ladies and other non-academic school workers sarcastically saying "Where do you think the money comes from? From God?" (Thank you Pontius Pencil Pusher!)
Heck, even ol' Forrest Gump could figure this out. Hell yeah, it comes from God, but we don't do a nice job of using it properly. My first reaction was to chuckle thinking of the reaction I'd get, esp. in the press if it's there to cover the hearing. Now the pro-lifer's gone Fundy, or just GONE crazy, somewhere out of my mind, chasing for nuts instead of potential supporters.
What the heck, since all authority, including that to levy prop. taxes to run local schools DOES come from God, not to mention mint and print the stuff through our government -- that's the route I'm going to take. But not just from right/wrong or greed/need duels. Thanks to the a recent infatuation upon discovery of that not so recently coined phrase "social justice," by public officials in Amherst, I've decided to rely on the Experts in this field. Our Magisterium. No doubt they'll love hearing that they didn't invent the term "social justice, " nor find it all of a sudden on Wikipedia, or get it from somebody who decided it was a nice phrase to use during a faculty senate lunch. But I'll break it to them [gently.]
I understand Pope John Paul II touched on outsourcing in his last economic encyclical. Do you recall what he had to say about it? I believe he was against it (at least as a means of dumping workers in order to "save tax dollars" (i.e., provide the chimera of prop. tax relief for the wealthiest while a heavy doasge of real pain for the poor) and/or dumping erstwhile higher paid employees just to line one's pocket. (I'm sure he wasn't speaking about meeting obvious necessities and having to buy them on the market. Nobody's actually believe the Vatican makes its own pens. And even Benedict buys Prado loafers!)
I just hope nobody on that commission's read any of Dorothy Day's writings about Cardinal Spellman's "insourcing" methods of busting the gravediggers union by giving seminarians shovels and a chance to get some exercise and breath clean morning air, not to mention the joys of being called "scabs." (Scripture said it was one thing to receive abuse for Christ's sake; but union-busting prelates weren't mentioned; not even in Acts.) But I'll have a good comeback: His Eminence of not-so-(always)-pleasant-memories, is no longer disposed to explain this senior moment when it came to implementing at least the spirit, if not letter, of Catholic Social Teachings and Social Justice!
Which is a hell of a more than I can say for a college town's secular school department that just discovered what's been around for 2,000 years at least. So much for ID in some burghs!
Your help, prayers, and (everyone's) prayers in this matter will be greatly appreciated. Ruth has succeeded in keeping her job for two years at least. But she's fighting hard for the rest of her fellow sisters in the department and they can certainly use a lot of lobbying for Strength and Solidarity from Above. Thanks!
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"This Old House's" motto is "Measure twice, cut once." My new motto is THINK at least twice or thrice, then you only have to write once, and maybe apologize nonce.
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David W. Emery
Network Helper
| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Brownsville, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 2260 |
| First Name: | David | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic |
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Posted: Thu May 15th, 2008 06:04 pm |
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Steven, I don’t have time on my lunch break to research for you, but have you checked the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church? It’s not going to yield more than general principles, but its probably the best anyone can do within hours of the hearing. Be sure to check out the Analytical Index at the bottom of the table of contents.
DavidLast edited on Thu May 15th, 2008 06:14 pm by David W. Emery
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Steven Barrett
Member
| Joined: | Tue Nov 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | Hadley, Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 1162 |
| First Name: | Steven | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic, Episcopal communicant, Baptist, Catholic |
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Posted: Wed May 28th, 2008 06:40 pm |
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Update on that earlier posting:
If it's a "sin" to "disrupt" a public hearing that's been rigged to cut down on the amount of questions to be asked of elected members of a local school committee, then I'll gleefully "confess" to the deed. I remember what St. Paul said about respecting the lawful authority, but I also think some people on this committee might've taken what Jesus said about all authority coming from his Father more than a mite too far.
Perhaps herein lies the rub: these are public officials, thinking they are beholden to nobody but the taxpayer. Take this reality, throw into the mix of a very secularist major northeastern college town and watch what DOESN'T happen, despite its recent infatuation with "social justice."
I'll put it in terms even the most self-envisioned infallible "education school" know-it-all professors (who are fond of using local boards as extended hobbies, resume builders and "learning experiences." More like hobbies and resume builders)
When it comes to "social justice" these bozos -- who'd spike the jobs of 19 loyal (not a single turnover in decades!) town employees and hoist them on to the tender mercies of the not-so-socially-just free market -- don't know jack.
Unfortunately, these infallibles and social justice experts will all of a sudden demonstrate they are indeed falllible in matters of demonstrating food faith in bargaining, common decency, common sense, (what's that to book smart/street stupid academic amateurs at play in local government?) not to mention even the most basic fundamental understandings of civics and social studies when in all seriousness you hear them say they could "never" implement the best teachings on social justice because of constitutional restrictions steming from the "wall" separating church and state.
If there's any "wall" involved here, it's a mental version of Berlin's Wall separating mental laziness (inspired by lofty-sounding Jeffersonian rhetoric arising from a letter he wrote to a church, ironically enough) from reality.
It's a damn good thing Frances Perkins and FDR weren't nearly so fallible when they relied upon the good offices, graces and street smarts of Msg. Charles Ryan who "wrote the book" on Catholic Social Justice teachings to suit American needs.
Ah, but let's just face it: if you still believe in matters of social fairness, justice and fair play, you might well paint "antique" on your foreheads!What the hell else could we have learned by now to expect from some influuential fellow baby boomers who seemed to forgotten the inheritance we received from our Depression-era parents and Greatest Generation parents? After all, how else could they look at themselves in their mirrors after dumping these long-serving women and diminishing the hard earned retirements they deserve no less than any academic.
Oscar Wilde was partially correct when he said Americans "know the price of everything, the value of nothing." However, there's no way you can say this about not only Amherst's "lunch ladies," custodial workers, but all the rest of the now-deemed "little people" toiling at the ever-widening south end of the economic measuring stick. And they continue toiling not knowing for sure if they'll have a job from one day to the next. When workers in a regional chain of Wendy's restaurants in western Massachusetts can all of a sudden lose their jobs overnight because of a greedy crooked scalawag living in the mid-west, it's loud reminder that there's no security whatsoever in the private sector for people working in the lower levels of employment. Zip!
Let's see if today's secular experts on "implementing social justice" in public schools have the guts to see the injustice and turn it around.
Despite the fictional wall Jefferson described to the Danbury, CT Baptist Church, there's nothing fictional about Catholic Social Teaching and the overall concept of "Social Justice" that public schools like Amherst think they're up to implementing. The fiction comes into play when their officials can justify treating loyal employees like dirt demonstrates fiscal responsibility -- much, much less the kind of civic decency and respect for everyone at all levels we want our kids to learn in class.
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"This Old House's" motto is "Measure twice, cut once." My new motto is THINK at least twice or thrice, then you only have to write once, and maybe apologize nonce.
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