Toledo Public Schools: May 4, 2010 Levy Request

The May 4 Ohio primary election is one week from today. This election applies to both state-wide and local elections.

Not only does this primary election provide the opportunity for people who identify with a political party to choose the political party candidates to run in the November 2, 2010 general election, but it also provides the opportunity for all registered voters, whether they identify with a political party or not, to vote on the issues.

The registered voters in the Toledo Public School District will have the opportunity to vote for or against a school levy which appears on the May 4 ballot. This proposed levy is Issue 3, a three-quarter percent earned income tax levy.

Below is the exact wording for Issue 3 as it appears this date on the web page entitled May 4, 2010 Primary Election of the web site for the Lucas County Board of Elections:

Issue 3 – Toledo City Schools Current Expenses

PROPOSED SCHOOL DISTRICT INCOME TAX

TOLEDO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

A Majority Affirmative Vote is Necessary for Passage.

Shall an annual income tax of seventy-five one hundredths percent (0.75%) on the earned income of individuals residing in the school district be imposed by the Toledo City School District, for a continuing period of time, beginning January 1, 2011, for the purpose of CURRENT EXPENSES?

Even though I am a registered voter in the City of Toledo, and even though I served 3 elected terms for a total of 12 years on the Governing Board of the Lucas County Educational Service Center, formerly known as the Lucas County Board of Education, I will not vote on Issue 3, the Toledo School levy.

Incidentally, I have read elsewhere on the internet that there are two organizations who are not in favor of Issue 3. Specifically, a page on that website (ref: wtol.com) stated "Two groups have come to rally against the levy." Those two organizations are the Greater Toledo Urban League and Toledoans for Public Trust. That specific web site page also states "TPS leaders also acknowledge the school system will face cuts regardless of whether the levy passes ..."

Perhaps, you might find the audio/visual clip with its associated written story TPS levy push: Both sides speak out about Issue 3 from 13abc.com to be of interest.

I encourage all registered voters in the Toledo Public School District to become informed on Issue 3 and to turn out and vote. Vote whatever way you want, but at least vote with an informed decision.

Oh, for those of you who wonder why I will not vote on the TPS levy Issue 3 is quite simple: While I live in the City of Toledo, I do not live within the boundaries of the Toledo School District; I live in the Washington Local School District. Consequently, not being a resident of the Toledo Public Schools district, I am not allowed by law to vote on Issue 3.

Cross Reference:
Public Education and Knowledge or the Lack Thereof

If you are interested in more about the May 4 election in Lucas County, I suggest you visit the Lucas County Board of Elections May 4, 2010 Primary Election web page.

Lucas County Government: Say What?

Here it is Sunday, April 25, 2010 and this morning as I was having my coffee and reading today's edition of The Blade I read two articles with great interest.

The two articles which you can also read by clicking on the embedded links are:

Frustrations trigger government overhaul; Executive, 11-member council to take reins by Joe Vardon, Blade Projects Editor

Could it happen in Lucas County? Charter setup worth examining, some say by Tom Troy
Blade Politics Writer

Oh, if you wonder why I think these two articles are interesting, I refer you to the following (again, just click on the embedded links for each to read them):

Change Lucas County, Ohio Government!, August 8, 2007

Ohio: Lucas County Commissioners and Political Posturing, April 9, 2008

Reinventing Ohio's Lucas County Government, July 30, 2008

Lucas County Government, April 22, 2009

Take Back Toledo Should Take Back Lucas County, August 11, 2009

Ben Krompak, Lucas County Commissioner candidate, and Police Proposal, March 22, 2010

So, tell me what you think. Don't hold back now. Let it all hang out. Yell it from the rooftops.

Government: Do we need it?

Preface: In order to obtain the full benefit of this Roland Hansen Commentary, you need to click on all the embedded links.

I have heard many people say and I have read many people write that government is too big, that the problem is the government, that the government is to blame, that government should not be involved in this or that, that the government has too much power, that government should be run like a business, that the government ..... BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.

I wonder how many people understand that of which they criticize. Government or "The Government" as some like to call it is that which we, you and I, have devised and have allowed. What is government all about, anyways?

In checking out several places on the internet, I found the short answer to the question What is government and what is its purpose in a society? to be somewhat interesting.

I also found an extremely interesting essay by Blupete on the internet that states in its introduction, in part, "The central questions asked by this paper are: What is government? And, What is a government's purpose, its powers, and its perils." to be quite informative. You really should click on over to read "An Essay On Government" for some enlightenment. Come to think of it, I do believe our world needs a modern set of enlightenment thinkers.

So then, let's move on, shall we? Why is government necessary?
The Federalist No. 51 states, in part, "But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions."

What then is the purpose of government?
I direct you to two different sources for the answer to that question. One source, Fact Index, has a web page The purpose of government that not only is explanatory but also contains quite a few embedded links that take you to other informative web pages. The second source is Suite 101.com and the answer is its web page What is the Purpose of Government?, The United States as a Nation of Laws Not of Men.

There you have it. What more can I write? Oh, I know.
How about an inflammatory, opinionated comment from me directed at a certain group of people for whom I have nothing but disdain? You got it.

To all those "less-than-well-knowledgeable-about-government" people who constantly hammer away with their ill-informed, half-assed, negative criticisms about government, I say "You ignoramus. Why don't you gain a better understanding based on factual information and a bit more complete knowledge of the subject of government before you go spouting off on that of which you know little."

Judicial Activism, Judicial Restraint

Should local, state, and federal judges and the Justices of the United States Supreme Court be practitioners of judicial activism or of judicial restraint? The responses to that question have often demonstrated that it is a very polarizing issue?

Should our judges and the Supreme Court Justices intrepret the meaning of local and state statutes, of federal laws and regulations, and of the state and national constitutions? Or should they take the regulations, laws, and constitutions literally word for word without any intrepetyation at all?

There is an entry over at Writes Like She Talks that starts out with the following:
"I’ve written on defining “activism” before but this op-ed in today’s New York Times is superb, as an op-ed and as an argument for why U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is as activist as was the late U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger. From professor of law, Geoffrey R. Stone (University of Chicago – yeah yeah yeah where President Obama taught) who also is an editor of The Supreme Court Review, ..."

I highly recommend highly that you click on over to read Judges, Conservatives, Liberals: We Are All Activists as written by Jill Miller Zimon.

Caucasian Majority Disappearing in United States

For the past several decades, I have been hearing and reading sociology futurologists profess that the majority population in the United States will no longer be lily-white. First, I had heard futurologists say that the largest minority was no longer going to be Blacks but was going to be Hispanics by 2020 and then Hispanics as the largest minority were going to be replaced by those of Asian background.

The latest stories I have read seem to indicate the accuracy of the futurologists' predictions. I refer you to the following report as cited in several web pages:
Minority births in U.S. rising
More Minority Babies Will Be Born Than White Babies This Year
More Minority Babies Will Be Born In 2010 Than White Babies, Demographers Predict

When I was a young boy, it seemed to me that all the elected officials were older, white males. The civil rights and ERA movements were in full swing during the years that I was a teenager and a young adult. The political landscape has slowly changed over the past 50 years to be more inclusive with more racial and gender representation. While there has indeed been progress in the areas of female and racial minorities participation and representation in American electoral politics, we still have a ways to go. I wish I could live another fifty years to see the gender-blind rainbow of politicians and elected officials in the United States of America. And while I do believe, America has made progress in regards to gender and racial minorities when it comes to electoral politics, I do not believe the same is true when it comes to religion. In my opinion there is a prevailing intolerant attitude in regards to non-Christian religions. Not only have I personally been subjected to religious prejudice and discrimination, I have seen and heard so much religious prejudice and discrimination in all aspects of our American society that it sickens me. As has occured and continues to occur with gender and racial minorities, I can only hope that a much more tolerant attitude with corresponding electoral behavior will also see more inclusion of various ethnicities and religions in political participation and in our elected officials.