Getting Political

I don't do this often - comment on politics. A lot of it is because I am a journalist. We're supposed to be objective. We're supposed to remain unbiased in the name of reporting the facts justly and letting our readers/viewers/listeners make their own informed decisions. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's downright impossible. I'm not going to lie - when you deal with political stories and their fallout and implications every day it is extremely hard to keep your opinion to yourself. But, I think I generally do a good job.

Today I'm at the end of that rope. If you're not aware (which, for anyone living outside of Wisconsin, that is completely understandable), Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is trying to push through a budget repair bill that would strip public worker unions from having collective bargaining rights on benefits and limit their collective bargaining rights when it comes to salary. By "push through" I mean he announced it on Friday, there is a public hearing happening right now and he expects it to pass both houses on Thursday so he can sign it on Friday. From announcement to a signed bill in seven days. Wow.

There's a LOT more than just collective bargaining rights in the bill. And there are implications concerning all workers (not just public ones) packed into the 144 page bill. He does exempt some public workers - most police departments (not all) and firefighters.

Also - he has not been shy to say "I will not negotiate with unions" all week.

I get it. The state is in financial trouble. So are the other 49 states in our union.
I get it. The solution is not an easy one. It never is.
I get it. Drastic measures need to be taken to get our budget balanced, to get us back on track.

But, are these the right measures? Are these the right concessions? And will this *really* fix the budget mess Wisconsin finds itself in? I don't know. I'm not the best at mathematics (I'm a journalist for cripes sake) and I'm not a policy wonk and I'm not in charge of a state full of people who find themselves struggling to make it through the recession.

While I don't have the answers - I will say that I sincerely doubt that these drastic changes will be the fix that Walker says they will be. I think they will have much broader impact on the state's economy (in more of a negative way than a positive one) than Walker is admitting. And I think it will definitely deter good, hard workers from looking in Wisconsin for work.

I'm not saying that public workers should not make concessions. I'm not saying that unions are perfect. What I am saying is that Walker and the Legislature should take a little more time to consider additional options and that the bulk of the budget burden should not be shifted to public workers who (in the majority) work very hard and have given concessions at every turn.

They (mostly) do not have cushy jobs with incredible benefits and wonderful pay. The public workers I know (the teachers, the nurses, my mother) work long hours without overtime. They do the jobs that the rest of us won't do. They teach our children. They help us return to good health. They make sure the people who cannot take care of themselves get taken care of. The police officers and firefighters literally keep us safe. And they do it without complaint.

 Do they make great salaries? No. They don't. We all know it. If working in the public sector made people rich - we'd ALL work in the public sector. Do they get thanks from the rest of us? Not usually. In fact, based on the calls I've been taking from non-public workers I'd say many of us have no gratitude for any one - let alone the public sector workers.

Benefits is the big thing that I hear private sector workers harp on when it comes to the public/private sector debate. Yes - taxpayers foot a larger portion of public sector benefits than most employers foot for private sector workers. That's true. But it's also the concession we've made to make sure people who do those important jobs can afford the benefits they deserve on the wages we pay them. A teacher friend of mine put it very eloquently to me on Friday how he feels about the difference between private and public sector wages and how he feels about the benefits public sector employees get:
In the good times - the teachers/nurses/firefighters/government workers are below the private sector average.
In the bad times - the public workers are above the private sector average.
(In summary - they're the baseline - they're the constant)
When it comes to benefits - he doesn't feel he deserves "better" benefits - but he feels he should be afforded the ability to pay for the *same* benefits as the rest of us.

I think he's right. If he's putting in extra hours away from his family to make sure my kids are getting a good education - then he should at least be getting similar benefits to the rest of us.

All of this is being "debated" very publicly in Wisconsin. But, my biggest issue with the entire thing is this: there has been no negotiation. No compromise. In fact, Walker outright refused to talk to the unions to see what they were willing to concede to help balance the budget and "save" Wisconsin.

They'd already offered to pay more towards retirement and health benefits. They've been asking Walker to sit down and talk about what concessions needed to be made since before he was even sworn in as Governor. And to the best of the public's knowledge - he refused at every turn.

We live in a Democracy. Part of the Democratic process is compromise. There is no compromise in Wisconsin right now. There's a lot of grandstanding. A lot of accusation from both sides. A lot of hurry up and get it done. But there is no compromise.

I think it will be at the detriment to our state. In many, many ways.

I think if the Governor were willing to sit down with the labor unions he might be surprised at what public workers are willing to sacrifice for the state. They already sacrifice for us every single day. In many different ways.

Here are some resources to read more about the bill, the protests and what is expected to happen:
Walker's Budget Repair Bill - http://legis.wisconsin.gov/JR1SB-11.pdf
Wisconsin State Journal coverage - http://host.madison.com/wsj/local/govt_and_politics/
WKOW coverage - (each story should be linked to related coverage) - http://www.wkow.com/Global/category.asp?C=123750
WisPolitics - http://wispolitics.com/

My (less) Sugar Adventure

This weekend I started a new nutritional adventure: no added sugar.

I've decided to do my best at adding ZERO sugar to the foods I eat - and to limit the high-processed sugar items I do eat (soda, candy, sweets, etc.).

So far, so good.

Yesterday (day 1) I even managed to avoid chocolate cake and cupcakes at work. (That's a HUGE feat, trust me). Today I also managed to avoid cupcakes and convinced myself to not take a Reese's peanut butter cup from a co-worker's stash. That should be mucho impressive - since Reeses are practically a food group to me.

Here's what I've eaten in the past 2 days:
Monday:
8 oz Acai/Pomegranate juice (mixed w/ 4 oz water)
English Breakfast tea (no sugar, no honey, no cream)
Greek yogurt w/ a small teaspoon of honey, raspberries and a small handful of Kashi "Go Lean" cereal.
                  **In the future I'll nix the teaspoon of honey. The fruit gives enough sweetness to make the yogurt taste great. Also the Kashi has honey in it.
Mini whole wheat bagel with approx 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
Orange
Ground beef concoction (browned beef sauteed with snow peas, onions and mushrooms over white rice with a dallop of cream cheese)
Small glass of milk
Chips & salsa dip (salsa mixed with cream cheese & shredded colby jack)
I also had at least 32 oz of water.

Tuesday:
English breakfast tea (no additions)
Poached egg
1/2 mini whole wheat bagel w/ 1/2 tablespoon peanut butter
Banana
Salad (romaine, white onion, red pepper, snow peas and plain chunk tuna tossed with olive oil, garlic powder and ground pepper)
Chai latte (roughly 8 oz, 1/4 chai mix, 3/4 skim milk)

I'm hoping the extra infusion of fruits and veggies will give me more energy and make me feel better than I have in the past several weeks. That and make exercising a much easier endeavor (thanks to that extra energy I'm hoping for).

So, why'd I embark on a no soda, no extra sugar adventure? Well, I thought about it and realized that I was already getting more than enough sugar from the things I was already eating (peanut butter, fruit juices, etc.) and that the extra sugar I was adding through literally adding it as well as processed food I was probably causing my blood sugar levels to go on crazy swings that really only serve to make me sluggish after a sugar peak.

Now the challenge is to keep it going... I'm not saying never another cupcake, never another soda - but I definitely hope that I get a good start and can continue to limit all that extra sugar.

Next nutritional challenge: cut out complex carbs. THAT is going to be hard for this pasta and bread lovin' lady...

Long week following a longer week

Hopefully, now that the Super Bowl is over, things will slow down. It's been a long couple of weeks/months with so much going on at work.

This past week was slightly less hectic - but ratings is underway and the Governor made a pretty stunning announcement on Friday that a lot of people in the state are trying to wrap their heads around. Watching it all unfold will be interesting - but will probably not make things any calmer inside (or outside) of the newsroom. It's been 2 days since the announcement that Governor Walker plans to strip collective bargaining rights from all state workers. He's been saying for months that he wants to decertify unions in Wisconsin. It will be interesting to see what happens as things push forward.

I finally started feeling better this week - after a much needed trip to the gym on Tuesday. That makes it much easier to keep going - having instances like Tuesday to point to and remind myself that working out really is worth it. It really does make me feel better. I have just under a month until the Shamrock Shuffle - so a big goal for the next week is to add in more running (outside while bundled up as well as inside on the treadmill) to my workout routines. It'll be good to bet back to running.

In just under two weeks we'll be spending the weekend with my parents, Rick and Lora - and I'm very, very excited to see everyone - as well as the chance to get away for a few days. We'll be in a cabin out in the woods enjoying each other's company as well as the wilderness as a way to celebrate our parents' 30th wedding anniversary together.

I don't have too much to blog about this week, so I guess that's it!

What a week

This week was... not wonderful.
Last weekend I was sick for pretty much the entire weekend. Then it snowed. And snowed. And snowed some more. At the worst possible time.

Tuesday night was the Sate of the State address. Wednesday we had a news crew that was *supposed to fly out to Dallas for the Super Bowl. We got the State of the State covered. Our crew never got off the ground to get to Dallas.

The weather and feeling sick were both detrimental to sticking to any kind of workout plan - let alone my plan to add some new things to the routine. Tuesdays and Thursdays Chris and I go to "body sculpt" class at the gym. Tuesday we didn't go because of the whiteout blizzard conditions. Thursday I had terrible back pain and could hardly sit or stand up with out serious pain - so weight lifting and other working out sounded like a bad idea. I'm planning on getting back into the swing of things next week.

Today we did get a little exercise in - it was the MDA Muscle Walk! In fact, it was the first annual Madison Muscle Walk. We walked for 45 minutes, enjoyed a performance by the UW's men's acapella group "The Madhatters" and had a generally good time for an incredibly good cause. I'm looking forward to seeing how the event grows next year! (That's right - I'm ready to sign up for next year's walk!)

Unfortunately, after the walk I started to feel under the weather again - and my back is once again hurting, so I've spent the afternoon reclined with a heating pad trying to relax away the stressors of the week - and the pain between my shoulders. Maybe I'll get through part of the next book on my reading list - Wicked.

Here's to feeling better tomorrow - and to having a less crazy world in the coming week.