This morning in my email, I received a MPA Campaign Vote! Candidate Questionnaire. Naturally, I looked at it and made a copy that currently sits near me as I write this.
My, my, my! Such a huge list of “wants,” and each one could conceivably require millions of dollars in investments by the State for the people of Maine. As I peruse the list of 20 items, the thought hits me that all of them are unconstitutional! I would ask you, in what part of the Constitution are these items covered?
Let me tell you a bit about my background and that of my great grandparents coming to this country. My great grandfather came to this country from Sweden. He migrated with others to northern Maine and settled in the area of New Sweden. He worked and set aside money for his wife and children to follow him to this great country where he could farm, be free, raise his children and become an American.
Their path had to have been an extremely hard one. They tilled fields that had never been tilled, built shelter, tended animals and worked them. They dealt with disease, learned a new language (eventually) and customs, and either purchased or bartered for tools and materials for the needs of the family. All of the immigrants were in the same situation – they shared, worked together, worshiped together and lived a full life.
When my great grandfather had saved enough money to bring his wife and children to this great country of opportunity and freedom, he sent for them. The mother and children arrived and were processed and they made their way to northern Maine. When my great grandmother arrived with the children, her husband (in the meantime) had become sick and died. As the story goes, the community took care of the needs of those most unfortunate.
When I was growing up, school was such that children were expected by their parents and teachers to learn basics – English writing and expression of thoughts, math skills including the times tables, geography, history, handwriting, music, science, current events and, yes, homework. Lots of it.
Education has radically changed since then. Now it appears (I haven’t been in a classroom for years), that most things are based on “how you feel.” Our teachers are teaching anti-bullying and whatever other good-feeling trends are popular at the moment.
Now, we hear that the curriculum is too stressful as kids shouldn’t have to learn the times tables (because they have a calculator), can’t even write a sentence – with the excuse of “Well you know what I meant” and “I don’t want to write cursive because it is old-fashioned or too hard.” Our kids are coddled and the parents and teachers allow it.
We have parents that don’t really want to be a parent. They want to be a buddy and/or a pal. The parent can be a buddy and/or pal when the children are thirty. These kids are, in many cases, out of control and everyone in society is supposed to deal with the rowdy behavior, because the parents are not going to set ANY boundaries on their darlings. The classrooms must be a nightmare with all this commotion and confusion.
Getting back to myself, I attended college and graduated. Most people paid their bills by WORKING and receiving the money for it. During those days, if you wanted to get somewhere you worked hard to achieve your dreams. We didn’t expect anyone to pay our way or expect to beg for money to meet a goal. We worked… what a thought.
Obviously, I am now retired and my funds are very limited. As prices rise, my availability to meet my “wants” is stressed (or non-existent) and instead the resources are used for “needs.” Currently, I am blessed in that with budgeting, I am doing okay. I don’t ask, nor expect, for the taxpayers to pay the way for:
- Debt-free higher education
- Universal childcare
- MaineCare (this is my taxpayer $$$)
- The development of food hubs
- The development of municipal immigrant integration centers
- Support of legal abortions (murder)
- Preventing employers from inquiring about criminal applicants’ crime records
- Eliminating legal status requirements for drivers’ licenses
- Universal paid family and medical leave
- Investing in solar energy*
- Health care as a human right
- A minimum wage hike to $12/hour
…and I could go on and on.
From what I have been told, IF a person or couple with children takes advantage of many of the programs already in place (and this includes the federal subsidies), it would be an equivalent of more than $60,000. That is far more that I earned while working and far exceeds my annual retirement income. Yet, you want me to support losing even more of my retirement income to support free loaders?
Evidently their education taught them how to suck off hard-working people, so that no one has to be a productive member of society. Sucking off other peoples’ hard work is much easier, if you have no self-worth.
*solar energy – the science is not yet ready to make solar and/or wind energy viable. It is about time that these new technologies stand on their own rather that expecting the taxpayers to waste hard-earned money by the millions year after year, chasing something that NEVER ever will break even.
To view the full MPA Candidate Questionnaire, click here.
Elains,
I am curious about your Swedish ancestry. Mine involves ancestors arriving in New Sweden, ME from Sweden and the same working hard on farms, etc. and community help. We lived in Woodland until I was 3, then moved to Washburn.
My grandfather was Andrew Sponberg, my Dad Ernest E. Sponberg
Do you work for the Maine Heritage Policy Center?