Skewed priorities

As a twenty-two year veteran of the state agency that ensures the safety & well-being of children and families, I am highly incensed. My colleagues and I, hard working, caring people all, have been given a paltry 1% pay increase effective at the turn of the fiscal year. I'm sorry I don't happen to be a football, basketball, or baseball coach at one of our public universities, where the contract of one such individual has now been extended beyond when my youngest will finish her four year degree...with a salary approaching TWO MILLION dollars a year!

Cue up the 1932 hit song: "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (Bing Crosby croons it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaZ04GL6gNw)

This news, coupled with having had one of the busiest work & on-call weeks I've had in many years, trying to secure safe placements for children under the age of 18--to wit, two consecutive Saturday nights' slumbers interrupted rudely by the need for me to either travel nearly 200 miles round trip or to wake other people by making telephone calls well past midnight, numerous children being removed from their biological families during the spring break week for our local public schools, and disruptive teenaged boys who refuse to follow rules in placement A for whom finding a placement B has been akin to locating the Golden Fleece...especially when they refuse to part with prized electronic possessions to be accepted into a bed!

From the SC State Employees Association web page, I share the following information:

The picture is not so rosy for state employees in South Carolina. The integrity of the employee classification and compensation system has not kept pace with inflation or market conditions through either legislative appropriations or by increasing the flexibility of agencies to manage pay policies. Employees have taken on more duties and responsibilities but are earning less. Changes in employee health insurance premiums and changes in retirement have further eroded the employment venue. The current system is plagued by severe salary compression and market lag behind private sector and local government for most jobs. By the Numbers: 35,173 Total Number of Employees in Band 1 to Band 10 30,790 Employees Earn Less Than $50,101 (87%) 26,026 Employees Earn Less Than $39,692 (74%) 18,425 Employees Earn Less Than $32,448 (52%) The most recent figures from the South Carolina Department of Administration Workforce plan below, shows that roughly 75% of state employees earn below $40,000 annually.

Someone please explain WHY ball-sport coaches at USC & Clemson, FELLOW STATE EMPLOYEES, command million dollar-plus salaries per year for, effectively, playing games, while other state agencies are fortunate to even be considered for a paltry 1% raise? Are state government's priorities just a tad out of whack here, that they won't pay people who look after our next generation of South Carolinians but they managed to burp out handfuls of hundred dollar bills to COACHES?!

Something is definitely askew when we pay grown men a fortune to play with balls but do not prioritize the needs of vulnerable children.

Pondering Progeny & Pond Ripples

Parenthood is NOT for everyone.  I know this is true; I have many friends who for one reason or another are childless.  Some chose this circumstance, others have medical issues that utterly derailed plans, and still others tried unsuccessfully to overcome such obstacles.  No judgment here; I wish success to those who are still trying.

I happen to be a parent (of four, as I'm sure most of my audience knows).  I've never had aspirations to be as fruitful as Abraham (see Genesis 15:5  "And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’").  Innumerable progeny would be far beyond the scope of my personal parenting abilities!  ;)  Yet it would seem that the lives touched by hubby and myself around our four children (their ten cousins and all of their many friends) are stretching toward such numbers now that our youngest is in her last fifteen months of high school.  We as pebbles in a pond have caused ripples on the water's surface that encompass innumerable youngsters in such fields of endeavor as our children's schools, their Scout troops, tae kwon do classmates, swimming teammates, Sunday School and church youth group peers, DeMolay, Rainbow, etc.  This doesn't even include the youths Greg & I have worked with in our respective careers in education & social work!

If I look at it that way, then perhaps the influence DOES begin to edge toward the number of seeds in a pomegranate, or the smaller numbers of those stars God showed Abraham long ago.  That thought is humbling to say the very least!  ~:o

Politics = Bacterial? ;)

Sunday was our wedding anniversary & Valentine's Day.  On Thursday I began a rather distracting sinus infection, which was about as unwelcome as the sudden uptick in political advertising on our local stations.  Hubby was likewise recovering from an infection (his antibiotics were already finished), so our "celebration" wasn't much more than just being together feeling crummy.  About the only other thing we were able to agree on (besides firing up the wood stove & keeping it fed all weekend) was our shared avoidance of the attack ads by the various candidates.

For some time now, I've been valiantly avoiding watching the news, as I'm already weary of ads and news stories about the Rogues' Gallery that make up our field of Presidential candidates this year.  In particular, I'm sick of hearing anything about the perpetually petulant "Republican" front runner, who I fervently wish would retreat into the Manhattan high rise that bears his name and just.  Shut.  Up.  Already!  All he's doing is playing on the fears of people who would really, REALLY regret making him POTUS if it came to pass.  I'm finding it even worse at the moment because here in my adopted home state, the Republican primary is tomorrow.  I cautiously hope the vitriol and diatribe may fall off once that's over, but realistically I'm sure it'll continue to be aired on the national news until November 9, 2016 (yes, there are more than SEVEN MONTHS before this election is behind us!). For me, that means I'll continue each evening to watch Jeopardy, then find a movie to entertain myself with on evenings when I'm actually at home.  Or read a lot of books, complete tons of crossword puzzles, listen to a great deal of great music, etc.  Thankfully television isn't my only outlet for edutainment!  (Wonder if antibiotics would clean up the media as miraculously as they knocked out my sinus infection?)  ;)

Renewals

OK, so I need to get on here and post more regularly; I admit it!  :)

Today is Ash Wednesday; the earliest it's been in my life.  Easter will be on March 27th, which is why Ash Wednesday was so early.  I was the good Episcopalian and went to get my ashes at lunchtime.  This led to my being questioned by no fewer than three (3) people at a residential facility where one of my young charges stays about the "smudge of something" on my face.  (I'd expected it to be asked by my client; had not anticipated the staff looking at me askance!)

I figured today was as good a day as any to make a good faith effort toward getting back into the swing of several things I've gotten out of the habit of doing:  daily exercise, daily blogging, and daily meditation and yoga practice (for mind and body).  I know I won't always be able to blog on a daily basis due to other commitments (job, ferrying a teenager to activities out of town, other family obligations), but I CAN try to get moving again on a regular basis.