Curmudgeon's Corner

We have 132 elected members of the state Senate and Assembly. Only three of them even admitted being aware that they had a sick time benefit that carries forward until they’re no longer in office, and then remains available for their use to defray medical expenses for so long as the money lasts. This is troubling to me since we rely on these folks to run our state for us; I’m not feeling too comfortable with their apparent ability to do those jobs based on this disclosure.

Even more astounding is the fact that seemingly none of them were ever sick since no one has claimed any sick days…in years and years for some. Maybe this is the core of that adult stem cell pool we’ve been agonizing over since they’re obviously the healthiest single group of people in our state. Isn’t it a coincidence that they’d all end up as elected officials?

Seriously, why is it that once we send someone to Madison too few seem to remember what we sent them there to do, and simply seem to set out to get as much for themselves as is possible? How can any of these people, with a straight face, claim they were unaware of this perk? It seems obvious to me that they feel we can be played for the fools that we apparently are…and they seem bent on doing it over and over again!

And, worse yet, this is the fault of you and me and every other citizen for not shining the light of day on our officials, for not insisting they remember who we are and why we elected them, and for not voting them out of office any more often than we do! Have you ever talked to one of your elected representatives or visited their offices in Madison? Do you ever tell them your position on issues of the day?

And all this on the heels of the fiasco called an election that was just recently completed. Or are there still recounts underway? I’ve lost track.

Now party heads on both sides of the aisle are working to help we poor unwashed understand just how important this perk is to us since it gives us the very best representation available. We all need to understand that every one of them could earn more money in private life, but have chosen instead to do you and me the favor of serving us. Several have now disavowed the accumulated sick time. Others still have told us they’ll introduce legislation to take care of this problem so that we can ease our troubled minds and forget about this subject as it is slid gently back under the rug.

They have seen time and again in the past that we’ll forget this incident as we’ve forgotten all those gone before. We are notorious for not unseating elected officials. Our judges are elected to virtually lifetime seats. The oddity of a young man running against our established assemblyperson and garnering far more votes than anyone but him imagined possible was just that…an oddity. Will that lesson be well-learned by the incumbent or has it already begun to dim?

Apparently it is true that we get the government that we deserve. I never before understood just how deserving I am!