Blogging Blue

So says James T. Harris, one of those right-wing talking heads from over at WTMJ620. In a recent blog entry, Harris seems to equate fatherhood with slavery, with himself as slave master. Here’s what he has to say:

As some of you know, I’ve got a little girl. She is the baby of three kids and the only girl I have. That’s right, I said “have”; she is mine. My child. My girl. I own her.

She is not free to do as she pleases.

Not now, not ten years form now, not until the day that she leaves my house as a married woman, will she be “free” of me.

Do you know what that means? That means that I have a say in what she wears, eats, plays with, watches, listens to and sings along with. Every aspect of her life is and will be controlled by me. If I don’t like it, it doesn’t happen. If I don’t desire it, it will not be done. If I don’t choose him, he will not be chosen.

I am her father.

Evidently, Harris isn’t content to simply “own” his daughter; he wants to control every aspect of her life as well, including dictating who she’ll marry. Now I’m the parent of a little girl, and while I certainly worry about the decisions she’ll make when she gets older, I’m also confident that my wife and I raised her to make good decisions, as opposed to ingraining in her the belief that a man should make her decisions for her. As someone who works with domestic violence offenders and their victims, I’ve come to understand that it’s the kind of misogynistic viewpoint James T. Harris supports that allowed women to be treated as property by their husbands for so many years, even in the face of brutal abuse at the hands of their husbands, because outsiders believed women belonged to their men, and thus, had no room to complain.

As a father, I know I don’t own my daughter, but I am confident I raised her to be an independent, smart young woman who will no doubt be able to make good decisions both on her own and with the guidance and support of her parents. Evidently, James T. Harris doesn’t seem to have the same confidence in his daughter or in his abilities as a parent.

capper over at Whallah! is talking about it, and I think his entry is worth taking a look at.

And for those who are interested, here’s a link to the original entry on James T. Harris’ blog.

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So the folks over at Channel 4 did a little digging into how former Milwaukee Police Chief Nanette Hegerty spent her last months as Milwaukee’s Police Chief, and here’s what they found:

Over the past summer - the months from June to September - Hegerty took more days off than she worked -by far. Here’s what TMJ4 found out:

June: 9 days
July: 15 days
August: 9 days
September: 8 days

Of all the days Hegerty took off, not all were vacation or sick days; in more than a few instances she was off traveling to conferences and whatnot. Even though I’m not a resident of the City of Milwaukee, this story bothers me, simply because the summer, which is obviously the busiest time of the year for the police, is not the time to be taking more days off than you work. As the city’s “top cop,” Nanette Hegerty should have known better.

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This past weekend, I blogged a bit about some of the crazy stuff happening at the Milwaukee County House of Corrections and its work release facility, CCC. I noted the fact that when asked about inmates being allowed to stay up until 3:30 a.m. on the weekends, Ron Malone, the Superintendent of the HOC, declined to comment, saying he wasn’t familiar with inmate hours. I noted how odd it was that the Superintendent didn’t know the policies and procedures of the facility he was charged with supervising, and so you can imagine my surprise when I happened across an article in today’s MJS that notes the inmate “all-nighters” on weekends have been cancelled, effective immediately.

What’s most curious about the change is a comment by Superintendent Malone, who said the change was made in part because of the MJS’s previous article on the inmate late nights, but also had been under consideration and would likely have been made by January in any case. So only a week ago Ron Malone said he didn’t know the inmates’ curfew on the weekends, yet now he’s saying that changing curfew had already been under consideration? What’s more, the President of the corrections officers’ union told the MJS Malone told him he was adamantly opposed to changing the policy during a recent meeting with the union.

I’m willing to bet this policy wasn’t already under review; it just got changed because the HOC’s management - and no doubt the County Executive - can ill afford more bad publicity in an election year.

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In thinking of the controversy surrounding the coexist bumper sticker, as well as
comments made by Daniel over at GOP3.com - not to mention his own ham-handed attempt at a “CONVERT” bumper sticker - I’m reminded of one of my favorite passages from the Bible:

“Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke [reason with] thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.”
– Leviticus 19: 17-18 (KJV)

In this passage originates a powerful idea: that you should treat your fellow as you yourself would be treated. This is perhaps the oldest definition of empathy, and it’s something folks like young Daniel from GOP3 and all the right-wing talking heads here in southeastern Wisconsin would be wise to keep in their minds and hearts.

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That’s something I’ve been wondering about, in light of a recent editorial in the Fond du Lac Reporter by Paul W. Sylvester, president of the Concerned Citizens of Fond du Lac County. In his editorial, Sylvester seems to argue Wisconsin’s public employees are overcompensated - by way of the benefits they receive - especially in comparison to the benefits received by workers in the private sector. Sylvester notes, “state-local government employees in Wisconsin received an average of $12,171 in fringe benefits in 2005, exceeding benefits for private sector workers by more than 50 percent,” but what he doesn’t take into consideration the pay that state and local government employees receive - pay which often fails to keep pace with the private sector. In response to Paul Sylvester’s editorial, Marty Beil, the executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, wrote an editorial of his own.

As the recent hostage situation at Waupun Correctional Institution demonstrates, the public employees who staff our correctional facilities face dangers in their workplace that most of us wouldn’t want to confront for any amount of money.

But Paul Sylvester’s Nov. 15 commentary isn’t concerned about the modest pay, short staffing and dangerous workplaces correctional employees face. He’s concerned only about parroting one-sided statistics peddled by the corporate-directed Wisconsin Taxpayer’s Alliance, whose wealthy board members have a vested interest in maintaining the loopholes and special breaks they enjoy under Wisconsin’s skewed tax system.

In trumpeting the Alliance’s attack on public employee benefits, he leaves out an important part of the story. Looking at benefits in isolation doesn’t present anything close to an accurate picture. Like all working people, public employees are compensated by a mixture of salary and benefits.

For decades, most public employees have given up the potential for higher wages in exchange for maintaining health care that protects their families and retirement benefits that allow them to retire with the dignity they deserve.

Good people have been attracted to public service and have been willing to accept lower pay than they could have made in the private sector in exchange for a degree of stability.

Beil goes on to note the negative impact skyrocketing health care costs have had on the cost of benefits to state and local government workers, noting:

As one who has negotiated many contracts, I can tell you that the cost of supporting the health insurance bureaucracy is rapidly outpacing all other factors at the bargaining table. Public employees have been taking smaller and smaller cost-of-living increases (typically less than inflation) to offset the raging costs of health insurance.

It seems like anybody truly interested in saving money for taxpayers would be spending a lot of time and energy on pushing for a solution to the health care crisis.

Instead of blaming working people for simply trying to maintain decent coverage for their families, truly concerned citizens groups would be asking why Americans spend more money for health care than anybody else in the world.

Why do Americans pay far more but get statistically poorer outcomes than other industrial nations? Why do we pay more while leaving more than 47 million Americans with no coverage? Why are we willing to watch 30 cents of every health care dollar get gobbled up by a duplicative and inefficient health insurance bureaucracy?

The answer to those questions isn’t really that hard to find; one only needs look at our nation’s health insurance companies and their all-powerful lobbyists and trade groups to figure out why our health care system is as dysfunctional as it is. Too often, our elected officials are unwilling to confront the behemoths of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies that are profiting mightily from the current health care system. Instead, some would rather spew talking points about how health care reform will result in “socialized health care.” Ultimately, the answer to skyrocketing health insurance costs isn’t to try to take coverage away from those who still have it - the answer is to commit ourselves to finding ways to make health care more affordable and accessible for every American citizen.

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