Rensselaer
County Taxpayers Association
September 1998 Volume 3, Number 5
September Song
Falling leaves and fond memories bring nostalgia but we are quickly shaken back to reality by the thoughts of a chill in the air, an odd fall shower and the relentless inevitable school taxes which dampens the best of spirits. But be of good cheer. The great majority of citizens are wising up to the antics of academe in their grasping ways.
The last East Greenbush bond issue passed by only 23 votes. This, with many on vacation and little publicity to alert the populace. What maneuvers must we next encounter? Have you noticed that the recent technology bond issue passage has decreased the level of unemployment in the state by two?
Associations Combine
With the mutual consent of members of the Rensselaer County School Tax Resistance Group and the Southern Rensselaer County Taxpayers Association (SRCTA), the individual associations have combined membership and resources and been renamed the Rensselaer County Taxpayers Association (RCTA).
The growth of the organizations and their desire to encompass the entire county is an established fact. Currently lines of communication are being explored to invite other taxpayer groups to join a county-wide organization or to encourage other interested individuals to form associations in their communities. With strength there is power.
A Product Of Our Time
Many Americans today remember the baby boomers born after WW II. We had a GI Bill, factories were humming, and youngsters were to have "everything" – said the survivors of the depression and terrible war. Government under Lyndon Johnson came up with the "great society."
Our schools were inundated with plans and money and a specious Education Department. A wave of hippies, alcoholism and drug use swept across the country. The colleges experienced a radical, anti-war element. After the expenditure of billions of dollars, we have today the highest crime rate in the civilized world.
Our schools have a permissive attitude that does not face up to discipline, alcoholism, drug use, graffiti and tardiness. They expound a "save the world" agenda with allegiance to the United Nations, to the detriment of our future security and position in the world. They have substituted fun and games for tougher Regents courses and push self esteem in place of character building and adherence to principles of right and wrong.
We cannot pinpoint all who have gone astray but there is one who stands out as a perfect example of all that is wrong with our society – namely, William Jefferson Clinton Blythe, a product of our time.
Listen Up
The jackpot, not for crack pots. Once again Thomas Sowell, PhD, Standford University, in a Times Union article of August 15, 1998, hits the nail on the head. He says, "A single word in a recent letter from a 15 year old boy epitomized what is so wrong with such premature presumption. He said that American military leaders "over estimated" the casualties that would have resulted from an invasion of Japan in World War II so that we were justified in dropping the atomic bomb instead."
Dr. Sowell continues, "Here is someone in the safety and comfort of a classroom issuing pronouncements about assessments made by someone (General MacArthur) who fought on the battlefields of two World Wars and left a record of stunning victories with low casualties that have caused him to be ranked among the great military minds in history."
"Educators who are constantly chirping about how this or that is "exciting," ignore the reality that education is not about how you feel at the moment but how well the young are being prepared for the responsibilities of the future. Classroom letter-writing assignments are not just silliness. They are a dangerous betrayal of the young and an abdication of adult responsibility by self indulgent teachers."
We are indebted to Dr. Sowell for writing so clearly and effectively on issues of great importance. It is a pity to have our children while away their time on fun and games and miss a once in a life time opportunity to really prepare themselves to be productive, useful citizens.
Our academic standing among all industrialized countries is at the bottom of the list. If we are unable to compete with other nations, our future can be in jeopardy.
Public Opinion, A Force To Be Reckoned With
It is as though the expansionists and improvers are all over the place. In Guilderland, an oversized mall is looking to double its size. Downtown Albany is attempting to attract more businesses and state workers into their Fibber McGee’s closet of confusion. They fight over parking space that does not exist.
In the suburbs the same expansionist mentality has permeated the New York State Highway Department into widening highways that are better left alone. Our suburbs and small communities were created to satisfy the needs of our citizens.
Sow the seeds of discontent and you will reap a whirlwind. Was there ever a time when our NYS Highway Department was not working on the bridges over the Hudson River?
Economics 101
The United States has the greatest form of government in the world. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were and are the greatest documents ever conceived by human beings. They are responsible for a land which offered unlimited opportunity to millions of people who had never, in their history, been permitted to be more than serfs.
People arrived in this country with nothing but a family to feed. After working like dogs, something they were accustomed to, they found that they had actually saved a few dollars, something they were not accustomed to. With these few dollars they were able to find some bicycle wheels and a few boards and they made themselves a push-cart.
They were able to find some wearable clothing, or buy some vegetables, or other merchandise and they walked the streets offering their wares for sale. They then found that they had more money than ever before. This was called profit. None had ever heard of such a thing before. Profit? Impossible, they were peasants, serfs, and slaves only a short while ago and look, we have a profit. One day they found a little store for rent. They moved their stock into it. Now they could sell every day, regardless of weather. And they did.
The next thing they were known as R.H.Macy, John Wannamaker, Marshall Field, Etc., Etc., Etc., employing tens of thousands of people and building an even greater society.
Now, however, a generation or so later the magical word, profit, has turned into an epithet, a dirty word. Only cruel, hard hearted landlords or CEO’s make profits. If you are at all successful you are ridiculed in the media, attacked, insulted and vilified in the schools and conversations in public places.
People point out how much better things are in foreign countries. Somehow, though, no one ever leaves the U.S. to live in those countries but people still come from those countries in hope of finding a better life in the U.S. People who have had good jobs for many years curse their bosses because the bosses earn more than the workers do. Yet none of the workers could run the business and none of them ever leave their jobs to open their own business. They would go bankrupt if they did.
This article is entitled Economics 101. Why? Because it teaches, or at least tries to teach a basic economic fact. One which is not taught in our schools. The fact is we have become great because our system offered an opportunity for success to everyone. The social programs which have been sold to the public may sound great, but they either deny the individual the opportunity to achieve, or there is no incentive to be successful.
Social programs reward people for failure. Governments which destroy initiative draw the blueprint for their inevitable collapse.
Clever Manipulation
We are grateful to Tom DeWeese, President of American Policy Center of Herndon, VA, for this report of the "Delphi Technique."
"The technique of "consensus" is quickly spreading into use in almost every public meeting including school boards and city councils.
It’s a technique used by those who want to achieve a pre-determined goal and employ specific tactics designed to create the impression that the whole body participated in molding the final outcome. In truth, only a selected few made all of the decisions. One of the eight stated purposes of goals 2000 is "increased parental involvement in learning." Yet parents have experienced a strange phenomenon when they have tried to follow the goal and actually get involved. They are rejected.
Here is a sample of how the Delphi Technique is thrust on a group. At a regular meeting of a parents group organized to stop Outcome-based Education, for example, a new "concerned" parent makes his appearance. He may be a well-known civic leader that the other members are excited to have on board. His presence adds needed credibility and contacts to their efforts.
He sits and listens and he watches members as each expresses his or her opinion. He will begin to ask questions and play "devils advocate" as he points out possible objections to the group’s positions. He warns them that they could be perceived as too extreme to be taken seriously by other community leaders. He’s concerned because he just wants to see the group succeed. He poses as everyone’s caring friend.
As he observes the group he begins to evaluate the positions of each member, watching for those with the strongest opinion and those who may be a little hesitant in their convictions. The weaker ones become his target. He begins to question the position of the leaders, playing on the doubts or fears of those with weaker convictions or differing opinions. Finally, he begins to drive a wedge between them - always, he says with, "the good of the group" in mind.
Soon, as a result of his manipulation, dissension breaks out in the group. Its goals become clouded. Eventually, it will break up completely or take a radically different position on the issue. The outcome that the Educrats wanted is achieved."
Is this a page out of the Communist Manifesto?
Warning
A number of years ago this following article seems to have been very insightful in its vision of the America we now experience. The article reads:
"In the May of 1919 at Dusseldorf, Germany, the Allied Forces obtained a copy of the "Communist Rules for Revolution." Now almost 80 years later compare this list to our present day America.
Quite a list! The similarities are frightening!
RCTA
PO Box 145
East Greenbush, NY 12061
A Timely Quote
"Every time (the president) talks about trust it makes chills run up and down my spine. The very idea that the word ‘trust’ could ever come out of his mouth after…the way he has trampled on the truth is a travesty of the American political system."…So said Bill Clinton of George Bush in 1992.
Vox Pop
Harrison Ford? Wasn’t he a president? Averill Park eighth
grader.
Averill Park Resident
The New York State Conference of Mayors is taking the blight
of graffiti very seriously. They believe it represents contempt for authority.
Luther Road Resident
In reference to vicious murders in schools by pupils, the
Times Union quote by Linda Rosenblatt of the New York State Teacher’s Union,
"Something is wrong." How profound.
North Greenbush Resident
Can this be true? An East Greenbush teacher is forcing pupils
to submit reports typewritten? How about those who do not have typewriters?
East Schodack Resident
Coming Attractions