Blogging is a new "feature" of the internet. It allows an easier way to update web pages and gives a "log" type setup with some automatic features. This is the second Blog I've created, the first can be seen here.

 
It's not often but every now and then The Times-Picayune actually is on the right side, politically speaking.

In the April 11, 2005 newspaper, the editorial comes out in full force behind Senator Walter Boasso's Retirement Preservation Bill (SB-7). The opening paragraph puts the current retirement system out in front so everyone can understand how it operates today.

If Louisiana's teacher retirement system is going to be available for teachers who need it in the future, educators must think of it as money available to them after they retire -- and not as a clever way to get a late-career raise.

I know full well that teachers are underpaid. If the public school teachers want to cry about pay, they need to look at the pay scale for teachers in the Catholic School system. The headaches for the teacher is still pretty much the same, although they may worry a little less about a student bringing a weapon to school or fighting, the salary can be $10,000 a year different or more.

And, there is no great retirement system to look forward to. Catholic educators contribute to Social Security, like everyone else, and have to fund their own 401k if they want any type of retirement savings at all.

I do not think high school graduates look at a retirement system when deciding their career goals. Retirement is still way too off in the future.

Sen. Boasso's bill is only asking that teachers stop double dipping. Think about, St. Bernard Parish School Board Superintendent Doris Voitier is a "retired" teacher. This means she is collecting from her state retirement account, based off of her last three years salary, when she was Asst. Superintendent.

Now she gets a nice salary as superintendent, but she also gets her state retirement.

Of course she is not the only one doing this. The St. Bernard School Board voted and approved not only Mrs. Voitier but also 17 other administrators.

Unfortunately, we can't go back and look up the minutes of that meeting, or any other school board meeting easily. They are simply not available on the Internet. Best I could find was minutes from August of 2003. Someone really needs to get with the times on this.

But I digress. Again, let me repeat to you, call your state representatives and tell them you support the passage of Senate Bill 7. This is the only way to prevent the taxpayers from getting into an even deeper hole with regards to education.

Back on March 16 I posted an entry that talked about people who overdosed on drugs and where taken to the hospital. In that post I made a rather hard statement:

Some may view me as uncompassionate, but my feeling is, if they are going to swallow twenty pills out of thirty, let me help them by giving them the other ten.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not backing down at all from this statement. I still firmly believe it.

Apparently Mr. J. Frank (he's created a profile on Blogger but hasn't posted any Blogs of his own) read my post and didn't like. He left the following comment:

As I began to read your blog post , at first I thought that you might have some intelligent commentary.I was soon disapointed.Your comments on the prescription drug overdose problem were pathetic.I pity your family member who survived the overdose . It is plain he will get none from you.An old Chinese proverb states that if one's words are no better than silence then one should keep silent.

People keeping silent is what is leading this country into the mess we are in. If we had someone willing to speakout about the abuses of the system and the ruining of peoples lives by pain clinics, the parish council would not have to worry about placing a moratorium on licensing new ones.

If people were willing to report any drug activity that they witnessed to the Sheriff's Office, we could get the dealers off the streets and behind bars.

I have witnessed drug abusers since I was a kid and it did one thing to me, it made me frightful of drugs. If I have a headache, I will suffer before swallowing an aspirin or Tylenol. If the directions say take no more than two every four hours, then that is what I do.

I have no compassion for drug abusers, whether prescription or illegal. No one is forcing them to swallow the pills, they do so of their own free will. I'm not buying into the addiction excuse either. They were not addicted when they swallowed that first pill.

If I'm going to help someone it will be someone who could not make a choice about their condition, not someone who put themselves in harm.

Be good to yourself,
Westley Annis
westley@da-parish.com
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posted by Westley at 4/12/2005 12:18:00 AM