Is it the new 75-cents per month phone tax on most of us, or the free cellphones for the poor that has Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia upset?
Both.
Vos is objecting to a partnership between the TracPhone Wireless Company and the federal government that offers a cell phone plan with texting, call waiting, voicemail, and rollover minutes, with the first 60 minutes per month free, "and all for the price of zero dollars." Do you qualify? As long as you use Badger Care, Food Stamps, participate in the W-2 program or your income is within 35 percent of the federal poverty level, you do."
“You have to ask about priorities,” said Vos, “when the government is paying for free cell phones but leaving people hanging on unemployment, on job training, and on health care. I must have missed the part where we discussed why texting is a higher priority than worker training and jobs.”
Vos notes that the 5 million Wisconsinites who don’t qualify for the free phone are instead paying a new 75-cent per month phone tax, which started Thursday, and a 56-cent increase in the government fee (Universal Service Fund) that pays for a similar program for low-income phone service here in Wisconsin. He blames Democrats, saying that earlier this year, Gov. Doyle and the Democrats expanded the Universal Service Fee to cell phones for the first time.
"Just because the Democrats couldn’t help themselves from raising your cell phone taxes,” Vos said, “doesn’t mean the government should be in the business of handing out free cell phones.”
The federal government’s low-income phone program, called Lifeline, has been in place since 1984. In Wisconsin, the state Universal Service Fund covers the portion of basic telephone service charges exceeding $15 per month for low-income individuals. According to the state’s Public Service Commission, more than 547,000 Wisconsinites are eligible for the TracPhone free cell phone program – more than 31,000 in the Racine/Kenosha area alone. The total cost of the free cell phone program could be as much as $5.4 million.
“Adding a hint of irony,” Vos said, “is that one of the qualifiers for getting a free phone is participation in the ‘Wisconsin Works’ program. W2 was created to end Welfare freebies and provide a hand up, not a handout – looks like the Democrats are taking us right back to the days of something for nothing.”
How many times do you see people using a Quest card in the grocery store that have an I-Phone? Those phones are anywhere from $200-$600 The correct question to Representative Vos is have you checked out how much Trak is charging the Government? This could actually be a savings to taxpayers if it is managed correctly.
ReplyDeleteNo point helping poor people with phone service. They're unlikely to get call-backs on their job applications anyway, right?
ReplyDeleteFrom the Safelink Wireless website:
ReplyDeleteNo one in your household currently receives Lifeline Assistance through another phone carrier. If someone in your household is receiving Lifeline Assistance you must cancel the service before applying for Lifeline Service through SafeLink Wireless.
Isn't this just an alternative to the traditional Lifeline credit you could apply to your landline phone if you meet the income requirements. I would think most people should get the credit for their landline phone. Look how much extra minutes cost for the TracFone.
It lookd like I need to suspend my family iPhone and BlackBerry Bold service to jump to Lifeline. I need those referrals for my new windfall daycare business.
ReplyDeleteThanks taxpayers!
Vos is on target here. A cell phone is a convienient luxury, and not a fundamental necesssity.
ReplyDeleteI want to see Vos's birth certificate.
ReplyDeleteRandolph, move out of your luxury digs and into the hood with me. Then you can point out all of the people using their cell phones for job applications. I'm fed up with you elitists spouting off about the "poor people" you know nothing about.
ReplyDeleteVoss Is Right. Next it will be free computers and Internet so it is more convenient to file for unemployment.
ReplyDeleteVos is right because he asks about job training instead of phones. We have to get smart about spending money on the correct things. The headline could have been better.
ReplyDeleteI am not happy that they stuck the extra tax on the rest of us.
I almost always disagree with Tim The Shrubber, but this time he's got it right, and so does Vos.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with my taxes supporting the (true) poor (those who can't work or provide for themselves due to physical or psycological challenges) with the necessities of life (i.e. food, shelter, heat, electricity, water, trash pickup, clothing, education, health care, etc.). But telephones and, particularly, cell phones are not required to maintain life. They are, as Tim has correctly stated, conveniences, not necessities
We need to eject the liberals from holding political offices in this state and roll back some of the absolute waste and nonsense they have enacted during Dummy Doyle's reign.
Anon 10:05, I understand the cynicism of your remark, but am reluctant to laugh too soon at it. I think there is more truth to your remark than you might think. You can bet that if the liberals get this cell phone foolishness passed, it won’t be long before they are screaming that it isn’t fair that some families can afford computers and internet access for their children at home, but that lower income families can’t. And therefore, we need to tax those selfish, hard working middle class bastards even more so we can redistribute their wealth to provide computers and internet access to the less fortunate. In fact, this is not the first time we’ve heard this argument. Down with the liberals!
ReplyDeleteThe pauper whom you spurn today could be you tomorrow. In our sick, slick so-called free market, the rich enjoy the privilege of outsourcing jobs to Third World countries while we have the liberty to strive and starve. Smug comfortable bourgeois twits should remember that their jobs and middle class lifestyles could go overseas or South of the Border at some corporate porker's whim. Let's support programs which help the poor because WE could be down and out in the near future.
ReplyDeleteHow did we ever live in this country without cell phones?
ReplyDeleteWe should also tax sodia and candy bars so those who cant afford grills can get them
Too bad Boss Vos can't spare seventy-five cents a month to help the poor. I can imagine how he treats his wage slaves at that popcorn place he owns.
ReplyDelete"Let's support programs which help the poor because WE could be down and out in the near future."
ReplyDeleteI am all for policies that help the poor, but cells phones are not the solution. This policy is like handing candy to a starving person instead of the good food they really need.
If you think that taxes shouldn't be used for cell phones, chill. It's not taxes that funds this but a monthly fee added to phone bills that's been in effect for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.
ReplyDeleteThe only difference is that the new program recognizes reality and provides cheap, low-end, non-glam cell phones instead of land lines.
No harm. No foul.
"It's not taxes that funds this but a monthly fee added to phone bills that's been in effect for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS."
ReplyDelete1. That fee is a tax. The govenment is not providing me with a direct service or product as a result of the payment, so it is a tax.
2. In effect for 25 years? Hmmmm...but Pete refers to a new 75 cent per month fee in addition to a 56 per month increase in the Universial Service Fund. That seems to indicate that at least part of this is a brand new fee entirely. And regardless, we are talking about nearly $16 more in taxes per year on each cell phone.
I don't like cell phones. I don't like phones in general. But I am 70 years old and have been paying that lifeline tax since the beginning. My son wants me to have one for emergency use. So I got one. A FREE ONE. Thank you all. I am on assistance so I qualify. I have no idea how to use it but I think I can dial 911 if I had to. Give some of us a break. Mine is just a phone...no texting, blogging, etc. It is also a refurbished one. I think it is a great idea. FINALLY the regular people are getting SOMETHING!
ReplyDeleteMore info is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/lllu.html
OrbsCorbs,
ReplyDeleteI'm very proud of my home, thank you. I just haven't forgotten what it's like to be too poor to have a telephone, that's all.
Amen!
ReplyDeleteWhy is our middle class so resentful of any programs which help the less-fortunate members of our community? We ought to help all our fellow-citizens. Given the way that jobs are disappearing from this toadish town, we should remember that we could wind up unemployed and unable to afford a telephone. Let's use our hearts as well as our heads and be good to each other.
ReplyDeleteFood Stamp bums.....Get a job you lazy bums!
ReplyDeleteSome people are even too stupid to be considered any part of the intelligent human species on this planet. What makes you think that only the middle class to upper class are the ones paying the additional 75 cents per month on their phone lines? Is there something the rest of us don't know about? I thought EVERYONE had to pay, but some idiot here seems to think it doesn't affect the lower income people who DO have cell phones.
ReplyDeleteAnd, no, the middle class is not resentful of any programs which help the less-fortunate members of our community, only the ones that that are this stupid. We can't afford to support the "necessity of life" programs that currently operating in the state and you mindless bleeding hearts want to throw away even more money on something as unnecessary and ignorant as this?
I'm with Anon 8:08. I'm tired of paying for generation after generation of sub-human scum that refuses to work and just sits back with their hand out because they feel society "owes" them a living. Enough is enough! Get a friggin' JOB you lazy bums!!!
Unfortunately, we have very few jobs which pay a living wage in this sorry city. And when such jobs are available, the poor lack the education which prospective employers and other tin gods require. Instead of dumping on the poor and blaming them for their plight, we should be taxing treasure tyrants like Boss Vos down to size and using the nation's wealth to help all our people.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we have very few jobs which pay a living wage in this sorry city. And when such jobs are available, the poor lack the education which prospective employers and other tin gods require. Instead of dumping on the poor and blaming them for their plight, we should be taxing treasure tyrants like Boss Vos down to size and using the nation's wealth to help all our people.
ReplyDeleteDon't ever call anybody a "Food Stsmp bum" because YOU could be on that program someday. Contrary to our Yankee arrogance, people are NOT in control of their destinies and are NOT completely responsible for their misfortunes. If some high-income hog sends your job to the Third World, YOU could be poor through no fault of your own.
ReplyDeleteTwo World Wars taught the Western and Central Europeans that ordinary people are victims of circumstances imposed on them by a corrupt elite. Accordingly, the Western and Central Europeans elected progressive governments and built cradle-to-grave social safety nets for all their citizens. If the current depression knocks the can-do cockiness and arrogance out of our middle class and teaches it compassion for the rest of us, maybe we'll join the civilized world and help our people too.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Boss Vos so damned tight? Seventy-five stinking pennies won't send him to bankruptcy court. Maybe if we boycott his popcorn, he'll learn some respect for regular people.
ReplyDeleteWhy shouldn't the poor have free computers? If we can blow dough on yuppie art and a worthless space program, we can certainly afford to give our less-fortunate fellow citizens computers. Since computer literacy is necessary for so many jobs, a free computer program would pay off in the long run. (When I think about the bucks our richie-poos waste on a tax-shelter-cum-modern-art-museum and a silly fountain honoring an astronaut, I could puke. Let's help our ordinary people by giving them cell phones, computers and anything else they need to function in society.)
ReplyDeleteSomebody should sell that Nic Noblique sculpture to a metal scrpper and donate the dough to the free cell phone program. At least the folks in the 'hood can use the phones. However, the modern art (which the wealthy inflict on us) is worthless and should go.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for not spelling "scrapper" correctly. However, what I said about the arty-tarty crap in this badnews burg still stands. If the privileged classes want to help the rest of us, they should provide us with free phones, computers and other useful things, NOT their ridiculous modern art. We need fuel assistance, not Waxtrash-approved tomfoolery.
ReplyDelete"If the current depression knocks the can-do cockiness and arrogance out of our middle class and teaches it compassion for the rest of us, maybe we'll join the civilized world and help our people too."
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ. We are talking about free cell phones for the poor, and it is absurd to imply that this is a standard for having compassion for the poor.
In our society, a cell phone can be a necessity rather than a frill. Buddy, YOU try applying for a job without a telephone number and see how far you'll get. Because some members of the middle class dream about becoming millionaires, they resent paying taxes to help the poor. Believe me, seventy-five cents per month won't break those would-be elitists. Even so, they scream bloody murder and call their unfortunate brothers "Food Stamp bums." Someday a people's government will divest the bourgeoisie of a lot more than seventy-five silly pennies a month.
ReplyDelete"In our society, a cell phone can be a necessity rather than a frill. Buddy, YOU try applying for a job without a telephone number and see how far you'll get."
ReplyDeleteHmmm...last time I was out of work I did get a job without a cell phone...I used this thing called a landline phone which was much, much cheaper.
---
"Someday a people's government will divest the bourgeoisie of a lot more than seventy-five silly pennies a month."
...and then nobody will have cell phones.
Not necessarily--Western European nations have semi-socialistic economic systems AND cell phones.Seriously speaking, our smug, smarmy elitist middle class needs to learn that it's no better than the downtrodden people it calls "Food Stamp bums."
ReplyDeleteVos, will be at the Racine tax payers association meeting on Sept 8 at 12:30 at the YMCA. We can talk to him about the budget then.
ReplyDeleteLet's tell hin to stick to what he knows best--peddling popcorn!
ReplyDelete"Seriously speaking, our smug, smarmy elitist middle class needs to learn that it's no better than the downtrodden people it calls "Food Stamp bums.""
ReplyDeleteQuite a red herring there. Opposing a measure for providing free cells phones is a far cry from considering someone a "food stamp bum".
If tax money is going to be used, then it should be used in the most efficient and useful was possible. Failure to do so betrays both the taxpayer and the recipient of the government aid. I do not see cell phones as meeting that criteria.
I think some of you will uncritically support almost anything if it is to "help the poor". This is a shame since not everything to "help the poor" actually helps the poor.
I would rather err on the side of excessive generosity to the poor than deny them something they may need and could use constructively. By the way, I'm not on any government program. However, when I see how well such programs help ordinary people in advanced nations like Sweden, Norway, Denmark and France, I'm ashamed of our hardheartedness here. America can and should do more for its citizens!
ReplyDeleteAnon 5:30, what you are predicting will make us ALL poor. Without the middle class, there will only be the "haves" and the "have nots." In your idiocy you may call us the bourgeoisie, but with out us there would only be the rich and the poor. Let me guess which one you'd rather be.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young and couldn't afford a phone for my 1-room apartment, I put my parent's phone number on my applications. My friends who's parents couldn't afford a phone used the number of someone elses parents as a contact. And every child DOES have access to computers. They're in every school room and library. Don't try and BS me that cell phones and home computers are necessities of life.
And why does it always have to be the taxpayers that foot the bill for all of this nonsense? If the not-for-profit organizations weren't prohibited by the government from collection computers, maybe they could be redistributed to low income families. Or what about donations from the private sector and businesses to help provide them. Why does it all have to be government controlled and taxpayer funded?
I'll tell you why it has to be done by the government--the damned private sector doesn't give a hoot about ordinary people and their needs. The private sector is all about making the rich even wealthier than they are and tossing a few choice crumbs to the middle class to keep it backing the rich and their agenda. On the other hand, politicians need the poor man's vote so they'll pay some attention to him.
ReplyDeleteThis is Labor Day Weekend, a time for reflecting on the tragic history of our workers. In this sorry country, the elite and its middle class imitators see toilers as peasants to exploit. Here in the U.S.A. our wage slaves put in obscenely-long hours for peanuts. By contrast, civilized nations with strong governments answerable to the workers through frequent and honest elections cap the work week at forty hours. Some enlightened lands even cut it back to thirty-eight or thirty-five hours. Because politicians want to be elected and re-elected, they care about the laborer and protect him from the rich and middle class social parasites who grind him into the muck. (By the way, one reason we've got the crazy Constitution we have is James Madison's fear that a strong government would respond to the demands of the poor majority and tax oligarchs of his ilk down to size in order to obtain the votes of rank-and-file citizens.)
ReplyDeleteI can tell you very honestly that my own sad experiences in life have taught me to respect the government and despise the private sector. Whenever I applied for scholarships, decent grades plus financial need got me government grants. On the other hand, if I tried to obtain aid from the private sector, I received nothing but insults or catty comments about my appearance. By and large, government treated me humanely while the blasted private sector gave me less consideration than I'd bestow on a stray dog. Most of us who haven't been invited to the filthy private sector's money party will tell you the same thing.
ReplyDelete"...the damned private sector doesn't give a hoot about ordinary people and their needs."
ReplyDeleteUltimately, neither will a government bureaucracy...it will only care about the 'people' so long as it advances the interests of the bureaucracy. That is the nature of organizations, private or public.
True--but as long as government bureaucrats require the poor man's vote, they'll pay some attention to his demands. All I know about the private sector is what my negative encounters with it taught me. We've got a nasty class war in this sorry country, the war of the rich against the rest of us. Even though it isn't perfect, government is the only ally we possess. I live and work for the day when a people's government crushes the oligarchy and lifts our citizens up and out of poverty.
ReplyDelete"...we have very few jobs which pay a living wage in this sorry city"
ReplyDeleteWho do we have to thank for that? Let's try the city council and the RECEDC who make it almost impossible for new businesses to come to Racine, and our city council and state reps that over tax and over regulate businesses right out of town.
"...the poor lack the education which prospective employers and other tin gods require"
What a stupid statement. Whether or not a person is rich, middle income or poor has little or nothing to do with the education they receive in a public school. Rich and poor alike are in the same classroom, learning the same things from the same teacher. The problem is which student applies themselves and which ones don't. It has little, or nothing, to do with their economic situation. I've seen many, many poor kids do well in school and many "rich" kids fail miserably because of how they apply themselves. When I read in the newspaper that the math and science portions of a state and/or federal test is dropped because the students perform so poorly in them, I have to ask myself, "Who are the idiots running these tests and programs? Why not concentrate more on math and science education, instead of dumbing down the kids by dropping the questions from the tests?" That is down right anti-productive. This is why you have a work force in this city that can't perform. The education is there for the poor just as it is for everyone else, but it's the schools that are not properly preparing any of them. It probably isn't the teachers fault. The blame lies more with the school board, the state and the Fed.
"Instead of dumping on the poor and blaming them for their plight, we should be taxing treasure tyrants like Boss Vos down to size and using the nation's wealth to help all our people."
There you have it folks! An outright addmission of redistribution of wealth from those who work hard for a living to those who won't. Just because someone makes more money than you does not make them a "treasure tyrant." This is a capitalistic society that we live in. EVERYONE has the same opportunities to go for the brass ring as everyone else. The poor even have a leg up in many cases over the middle class and rich in that much is funded free for them due to their economic status. So quit with the crap about "dumping on the poor" when they have more doors and avenues open to them than the rest of us.
If things are left to go in this Obamanation as they are, soon enough you will have only two economic catagories: the Obama elites (the "haves") and the poor (the "have-nots"). We will have here exactly what they had in Russia under communism. Is that what you liberal/socialists want?
No,we want the compassionate social system presently enjoyed by the people of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France and other enlightened countries. As for Boss Vos as a treasure tyrant, my family lived near his home before he cadged his mega-stash and I can tell you that he had no use for the less-fortunate unless he could find some way to exploit their cheap labor. Our so-called middle class is a pack of greedy entrepreneurs who can't wait to grab that evil brass ring and clobber the rest of us with it. "Free enterprise" and its predatory proponents caused our economic malaise: socialism will cure it.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if poor kids had all the opportunities you said they enjoyed in our public schools. Unfortunately, most of my poor friends were ignored or bullied by their teachers, who doted on the well-dressed middle class youngsters. Because I was poor, I was made to sit in the back of the room and I was never allowed to ask questions in class. Until we stamp out bourgeois snootiness and racism, our poor kids will be receiving an inferior education.
ReplyDelete"Until we stamp out bourgeois snootiness..."
ReplyDeleteBourgeois snootiness? {giggle} I so totally remember Marx being so pissed about the snootiness of the bourgeoisie. Means of production and capital...heck, that was all secondary to that middle/merchant class attitude.
So, Anon 7:01 admits to being a Nazi socialist. Nice.
ReplyDeleteAnon 7:27, what you report is illegal. The resolution lies in ostricizing the teachers who act like that, not moving the government into a socialst/Marxist regime.
Perhaps a socialist regime would be far from perfect. Even so, it would protect ordinary working people and the poor from the oligarchs and their bourgeois imitators. Socialism works well in some European democracies as well as certain Canadian provinces and New Zealand. Even Australia, with its hardscrabble frontier heritage, has a mixed economy with some socialist features. As a victim of our vicious system, I would not weep if capitalism and its privileged classes were to fall from power.
ReplyDelete1:55 - I would not mind if people like you continue to fall through the cracks - quit whining and do something to improve your situation.
ReplyDeleteBuddy, more and more us are going to whine and win! Once the working class organizes and lets the politicians know what ordinary people need for their survival, the politicians will provide a social safety net because they'll want the laborers' votes. If you enjoy torturing the less-fortunate, take your sadistic self out to some Third World country where those sick games will remain legal for a while, but don't play them here in the U.S.A. Within a few years, America will join the ranks of civilized nations and protect its toilers from the predatory propertied classes.
ReplyDelete4:52 - ordinary people, with ordinary lives and goals. Ordinary people go no where no matter how many of them there are. They just get in the way, but we'll walk over them to achieve greatness - who wants to be ordinary???
ReplyDeleteSounds like this is a quick text
ReplyDeletemesseging scam for Obama so he can "get out the vote" for local and national elections in the future, (ie ACORN) rember he is a community originizer and ACORN member.
Dear 12:33 P.M., Who died and made you God? Ordinary people are your brothers and sisters, fellow members of the human race. As for what you call "greatness," it's just greed lurking beneath another name. Wake up, Buddy--Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ayn Rand and the rest of the arrogant elitist tribe are history. Whether you like it or not, the current depression is teaching millions of ordinary people that individual excellence is worthless and collective class struggle is the way up and out of the mire.
ReplyDeleteDear 3:22 P.M., Great oaks from little acorns grow. Someday we'll hang capitalism from such a tree and build a decent socio-economic system in our land.
ReplyDelete5:08 - It amazes me that you want to be ordinary - you have very low esteem. If that is the case move over before you are trampled - there is no room for low esteem people. They bring down our whole society.
ReplyDeleteIf people possess low self-esteem, it's because the oligarchy and its yuppie lackeys have destroyed their sense of self-worth. However, what downtrodden people cannot do as individuals, they will do as members of a mob. Sooner than you and I care to think, the capitalist system will go down in blood and fire.
ReplyDelete10:02 - don't you get tired of spewing that mob mentality. You people are not smart enough to pull anything off. You'll be saying the same thing 10 years from now. The elitist will continue to rule in our capitalistic society - the way it should be.
ReplyDeleteWhen social justice finally arrives in our sad land, we'll see who enjoys the last laugh. Our so-called Great Experiment is a sick joke to the rest of the civilized world. Sooner or later, it's going to collapse--the indicators are in place. As a Christian I pray that you and yours may survive unscathed.
ReplyDeleteIf the elitists would stop trampling on the poor, ordinary folks wouldn't hate them as much as they do. Cease tormenting the less-fortunate: the lives and fortunes you save may be your own.
ReplyDeleteYOU must have pretty low self-esteem or you wouldn't get your jollies by bullying disadvantaged people.
ReplyDeleteDear 10:02 A.M., What do you get out of badgering the poor? If I were you, I'd find a finer form of recreation. Besides, in a few years, your unwholesome hobby could bring you grief galore when the bourgeoisie's victims exact their revenge. (This is not a threat. Rather, it is advice from somebody who saw a mob destroy entire blocks of businesses during the Detroit Urban Insurrections of July, 1967 and April, 1968.)
ReplyDeleteThe disadvantaged should be bullied until they do something productive instead of living off the rest of us. And 11:06 - you are a joke and I'm laughing at you and will continue to do so for many years to come.
ReplyDeleteIt may shock you to learn that the disadvantaged often put in a longer workweek than their oppressors do. Because they have rotten minimum wage jobs, they have to toil sixty hours or more each week to survive. For Heaven's sake, grow a heart and remember that ordinary people are your brothers and sisters.
ReplyDelete12:24 - give me a break. I'll tell you that salaried workers put in more time than the ordinary people and they are not getting time and a half while doing so.
ReplyDeleteI'll concede that what you've said is true of some salaried employees. However, I know scads of wage slaves who put in sixty or more hours per week doing chimp chores for chump change. Most of them are angry as hell at their oppressors. They want a better life for themselves and their families but they know that the richie-poos won't let them rise up and out of poverty. What the poor cannot do as individuals they shall do as members of a group. We may very well live to witness the end of Emersonian individualism and self-reliance. Good riddance!
ReplyDelete5:23 - you said "I know scads of wage slaves who put in sixty or more hours per week doing chimp chores for chump change. Most of them are angry as hell at their oppressors." With that defeatists attitude, that's just where they belong.Again you say "what they cannot do." They can do whatever they want, but if they are anything like you, it will not happen.
ReplyDeleteDon't count on it. Many of the poor are far more ruthless than you can imagine and they will do what is necessary to punish their oppressors. When the galleries go up in flames and your ruling class comes down to earth, please don't say I didn't warn you.(No, this is NOT a threat. It's merely a prediction by a person who saw the poor fry every Asian-owned business in Detroit's Cass Corridor and roast a so-called historic district in Boston. Anyone who thinks that it can't happen here is living in La-La Land.)
ReplyDeleteHoly left-wing hate-speech filled diatribe, Batman!
ReplyDeleteMust suck to be him/her!
No, Robin. It's just a prophecy concerning the fate of the dire tribe responsible for the misery of our rank-and-file residents. Alas, I saw what Working Joe and Jane could do during several urban insurrections. Believe me, they knew how to destroy whatever their bourgeois exploiters enjoyed and they did not hesitate to shoot their oppressors. Back in April,1968, I watched in horror while a Detroit mob used a well-to-do shopkeeper for target practice smack dab in the middle of Woodward Avenue. It wasn't pretty.
ReplyDeletePete and Dustin - Turn 9:04's comments over to the police. He keeps on threatening the community.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall that guy's comments correctly, he's never threatened anybody. However, the toxic economic and social problems here are a threat to Racine's survival. Then there's our negative image throughout the Midwest. Because Racine's associated with crime, gangs, poverty and a dysfunctional public school district, my friends from Illinois and Indiana shun our city like the plague.
ReplyDeleteDear Boss Vos, We already have what you call "something for nothing"--corporate welfare. Why can't you let the little guy get something from a system which allows your class to exploit him?
ReplyDelete