Money Isn't Everything (the Only Thing)

"Supporters say it would give professors a greater say in the direction of the university and in how money is spent."

Actually, it would give the union president the exclusive say in the direction of the university and in how the money is spent. The university professors would surrender their right to speak for themselves -- which is what they are voting to do. They would lose all rights to speak for themselves in any matter -- except to their union president.

For a group of people already at the top making 3-5 times what the average citizen (who pays their salary) is making, is actually undermining the much more valuable right to speak as their own sovereign entity. And then like the lower school teachers, they will complain tirelessly and mightily that they have no say in designing how education can be conducted -- because they voted for the union president to do all their thinking and talking for them henceforth, and the only right they now have, is to carry the signs and repeat what the union president tells them to do -- demanding even more money and benefits than the other citizens have.

Once you're making considerably more than the median, the greater benefit and value is whether one becomes respected in their own right for speaking for themselves -- rather than to become like all the assembly line workers allowing their union president to do all their thinking and talking for them henceforth.

What did they become university professors for?

Government of the people, by the people, for the people

Every revolution in history was against a few government workers who thought they should have their jobs for life -- despite the fact that many had no ways of securing a livelihood at all.

Many wanted and expected George Washington to be president for life -- but he rightfully thought that 8 years was enough, and the country was better served if more different people got a chance to "serve." That was the original concept and strength of public service -- that as many people as wanted to, got a chance to be a part of government -- instead of establishing a permanent, exclusive bureaucratic/technocratic class who demand that they are entitled to their sinecures for life.

That's why people are no longer as excited and involved in government -- because it has become "professionalized" rather than being something everyone can be involved in so that they don't create these bureaucratic fiefdoms answerable only to themselves. That's how people lost their government, and the few careerists naturally demand that they should get more than everybody else -- permanently. And so many retire from government service with pensions higher than those who actually still do those jobs -- which shouldn't make sense, as though they were forced into those jobs and were working for free, or even less than the comparable median for all workers.

Surely that should disturb people rather than proclaiming themselves "liberal" and wanting more for everybody else too -- but that opportunity doesn't exist in any other enterprise where they can just demand more infinitely. The way to ensure fairness is to share or rotate these jobs among as many of the populace as possible -- in the noble tradition of the founding fathers, and to restore the American spirit of government belonging to all the people.

Not How Much, But How

By now, many people have exhausted themselves and been demoralized by the realization that their best laid plans for the coming year (and beyond), have already gone awry -- and so-called "experts" merely advise them to keep on doing what is obviously not working -- in the misguided notion that if one merely continues doing what one has been doing with disastrous or no favorable results, the results will miraculously turn out differently the next time -- or some future time, as though that was how anything actually worked.

When something actually "works," that truth is self-evident, and not some preconception of what one would like the results to be -- despite the obvious self-evident truth of it that every individual can see for themselves -- instead of what the experts tell them they must believe despite all evidence to the contrary. "Studies" they proclaim, have proved it so -- and they are the self-appointed and self-certified experts on such matters, and nobody else must be allowed to question what they say -- because that is what they say.

That mentality is reminiscent of the "dark" or medieval (middle) ages, when one person determined the truth as told to them by God Himself -- and they further sanctioned the designated propagators of the "truth," on punishment of death and torture for non-believers. So it is not like it hasn't been done before -- to enforce the conformity (socio-political correctness) of everybody -- because it follows this singular hierarchy of authority that allows no other alternatives to be considered, rather than the strength that such knowledge can withstand all challenges from anybody, at anytime, under all conditions -- and not just the special case of their one (secret) laboratory conditions, usually to prove what somebody has already paid and told them to "find."

Nowhere is such "findings" more common and plentiful than the field of exercise and "conditioning" -- to believe the correctness of the day that somebody has already paid for -- in the various media outlets whereby an oft-repeated untruth, develops the ring of truth because it has been repeated so often -- as some catchy jargon or buzzword. The most famous of course, is "No pain, no gain," -- as though pain was a reliable guide of what to do, rather than the built-in safeguard of what not to do.

Thus many people can be fully convinced that everything that isn't true, is true, and everything that isn't false, is false -- and they have no way of knowing and determining for themselves, the truth of any matter -- because their entire education (socialization), has been not how to think for oneself, but what to think because the duly-self-appointed experts tell them it is so -- because they too, have merely learned the jargon and buzzwords they mistake for actual insight into the investigation of any phenomena.

Among those who did poorly in every subject but physical education -- often because they were allowed to beat up all the other competitors, a particularly intriguing word they believe implies knowing anything, if not everything, is that their exercise is superior because it is "cardio" -- as though any exercise or movement could not involve the cardiovascular system -- at all times, in everybody, under all conditions if they are alive -- as the basic precondition of life. That is, one could not design an exercise that does not involve and engage the cardiovascular system -- since such people boasting of such expertise, think nothing is related to anything else -- and they alone, are the experts in getting anyone's heart pumping -- because they do not think that is what hearts do and have evolved perfectly for -- without their instruction.

The self-evident obvious truth of the matter is that the best and only way to get into the shape one wants to be -- is to articulate (express) that shape as one's focused effort and objective -- while effecting the full range of expression from fullest relaxation to fullest contraction -- by those muscles expressly. In other words, one cannot make the biceps peak, just by making the heart beat faster. The bicep actually has to articulate the fullest range of its capacity to lengthen and shorten -- or change its appearance directly and momentarily -- just as competitive bodybuilders do in maintaining their constantly contracted state.

What they have to learn is achieving the opposite effect of relaxation -- that allows them to effect the appropriate muscular state as a task requires, because it is the appropriate response to the varying challenges of change and conditions, which conveys their greatest fitness, and not simply doing one thing, maintaining one state of contraction or effort, more and longer -- as in a pose or posture. Like the heart, it is the changing from one muscular state to the other, that gives every muscle its value and usefulness -- and not simply more of one without the other -- which results in death, and the inability to change anymore.

Why Is There No Hope for Hawaii

You really need to get the unions out of government -- so that government once again belongs to all the people, and not just the union leaders serving themselves at the expense of all the people.

Otherwise, the government's only solution for all the problems that cripple the economy and society, is to give themselves higher wages, privileges and entitlements the rest of the citizenry don't have -- which is the reason for government and government workers -- and not just to ensure higher pay than everybody else -- because of their "sacrifices."

The way they talk about their sacrifices, you'd think they're working for free -- instead of twice the median for everybody else, and demanding that status for life -- after which Senator Dan promises, "After I die, you people can have it all, but until then, I should be your leader for life."

With that as an example of selfless public service, it is no wonder all the government workers have that same attitude of self-service -- while the people get nothing and increasingly are homeless.