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July 9, 2007
State of the State
Pennsylvania is taking turn after turn for the worse. It's dizzying, really. Living in the capital now, I feel like I'm walking amongst the angriest bunch of folks as I go to work in the morning, all because of the unrest on various issues, the biggest one being our state's budget.
Our governor is making history by furloughing about 25,000 state employees today, all because elements he stands firm on with "his" budget for "our" state are causing a few head butts.
An editorial from one of the many furloughed employees says it best:
In short, thank you for using me and more than 25,000 other of your employees hostage to your agenda. I'm sure that the 25,000 other workers would give me a hearty "Amen!" for putting us on the street temporarily, with no income. I'm sure they would thank you for every day that we sit at home, doing nothing to help Pennsylvania's most vulnerable citizens. I'm sure they will sing your praises for every day of wages lost while you stand by your principles. -David E. Estes
I love how some people's jobs are being called "non-essential" in this whole ordeal. I wonder what it's like to know that your job isn't really that important...
The television news keeps insisting that the problems exist between the parties at the capitol, taking turns interviewing various representatives from each party on why things are the way they are; however, it's also been said that the Democrats are ready to just get an interim budget together, for something like two weeks, just so the state isn't affected (even though, as of today, it already is). One of the biggest problems that keeps coming up is about the state run slots--if those actually close the estimate cost to the state is about $2 million each day. That's money that can never be accrued again if it's missed (and while I certainly do not think gambling is the best thing for our state, I realize that we're beginning to rely on this funding and see the need for this income).
I'll be anxious to see how this gets resolved (not as much as some, though, like those whose pay is suspended). Without a doubt, the state is not going to be the same.
Other downhill slides in our state include the recent contract signed for the state universities. While I'm glad students taking summer courses didn't have any delays with their courses, I'm disappointed to know that a feature of the contract includes health care benefits for "same sex partners" of professors. What an invitation for health care abuse. Much like the upcoming movie "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," this kind of thing strikes me as somewhat of an open door policy for anyone to take advantage of the terms. Now I admit that I have no idea what is all entailed in such a partnership, neither do I mean by this that I expect teachers to actually abuse it, but it does invite abuse and I will also be anxious to see how its use comes into play within our state. I haven't looked to see if other state university systems permit the same thing... but I'm sure there are some.
Finally, perhaps the most light-hearted but heavy-hitting of the concerns facing the Keystone state is the aluminum baseball bat issue. Legislators are considering making it that only players over age 18 would be allowed to use metal bats in our state. The metal bats are made lighter, and are, thus, easier to swing (especially for youngsters playing earlier forms of the sport like tee-ball). This would be a huge change for all Little Leagues and Pony Leagues around the state: they would incur huge costs in refitting every single team in the league--boys and girls, ages 4-18--with new wooden bats. This all goes without mentioning that players would have to relearn how to swing the bats, which could seriously affect their performance in the batter's box. I'm supposing this would also apply to school-run sports, too. Didn't think of that till just now... How would that affect players whose performance could be affected and their "recruitability" to college and university teams (especially if these higher-ed teams continue to use metal bats, which I assume they will...)?
Our state is known as the host of the national and international Little League championships, held annually in Williamsport, PA. How would that affect the tournament? Wouldn't that unnecessarily invoke our legislation upon national and international competitors?
It's been pointed out that the representative who has suggested the law has "done his homework," but that it's "Common sense, not legislation, that's needed." I couldn't agree more. There are better ways to deal with the problems of metal bats--face guards on batting helmets and the possibility of making pitchers wear helmets (like a close friend of mine chose to do after a life-threatening accident at her high school). I'm no expert, but I would be sad to see the game change so drastically in our state.
Posted by KarissaKilgore at July 9, 2007 12:25 PM