Dale Roose Blog

We educate PwDs (persons with disabilities) to give them the knowledge and basic skills needed for gainful employment. This policy reflects an increasingly common belief that the sole purpose of education is to achieve gainful employment, but does education offer anything else of value?

Without sufficient education, whether formal or informal, citizens cannot understand the operations of their government. If citizens cannot understand the operations of their government, they cannot make informed rational decisions when they vote. Unable to make informed rational decisions when they vote, there can be no democracy. Education is necessary for democracy.

Jesus of Nazareth wanted followers to understand and remember that having limitations on abilities or resources is not an excuse for failing to work for the good, so he left them with a narrative now called The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-28).

In this parable, he likens the judgment day to a story about a master of three servants. The master is described as a merciless (hard) man who takes what he hasn’t earned (reaps where he doesn’t sow). Before the master goes on a long trip, he leaves each of his three servants a significant amount of money according to each servant’s abilities.

Many states require motorcyclists to wear helmets to reduce the cost to society of providing long term care for persons with head injuries. Libertarian conservatives complain that these laws infringe on their liberty to decide for themselves what chances they want to take with their own health. Suppose helmet laws were found to be unconstitutional and a motorcyclist with a head injury from not wearing a helmet was living in a coma on life support. What would be the libertarian conservative position about pulling the plug once the motorcyclist’s personal savings could no longer pay the high cost of providing life support?

For several years, the federal government had been giving huge tax cuts to the wealthy claiming that it would make the economy strong because as Mr. Bush explained: “It’s counter-intuitive.” Nevertheless, Congress and the Administration decided that in this election year, the wartime economy was in urgent need of stimulation.

Released details of the House version indicated that rebates would be doled out based on earned income, and that retirement and disability income would not qualify as having been earned. I, and I’m certain others, quickly wrote to Representative Gabrielle Giffords complaining that this Social Security income was earned.

A Republican controlled Congress and Administration bestowed upon the wealthiest Americans tax cuts that will cost an estimated $287,000 for each millionaire in the U.S. over a ten year period.

Our current Democrat controlled Congress awarded to the middle class a tax cut that Congressperson Gabrielle Giffords estimated will save $4,127 for a married couple with 4 dependents earning $100,000.

The House voted 385 to 35 to pass it’s version of an Economic Stimulus Plan that gives each wage earner from $300 to $1200, leaving workers with disabilities and retired workers out in the cold (perhaps literally in light of increasing energy costs).

Being close to an international border, Pima County’s local law enforcement carries a disproportionate burden from criminals entering the country both legally and illegally.

In response, Congressperson Gabrielle Giffords is asking Mr. Bush to reimburse Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik’s department “for incarcerating criminals who are in the United States illegally.” If this request were about local cops dealing with crime committed by aliens, then why wouldn’t Rep. Giffords ask for reimbursement for incarcerating criminals who entered the United States legally? No, it’s about asking the federal government to pay local cops to enforce federal immigration laws.

Republicans gave the wealthiest Americans billions of dollars in tax cuts which garnered their support in elections. Democrats gave tax cuts to those in the upper middle class who make more than $100,000 per year saving them more than $4,000 per year. Now in the name of an economic stimulus package, a bipartisan group in Congress agreed to give the working class rebates of up to $300 per person. They left out of the plan the poorest disabled and retired workers leaving them only with higher prices for consumer products and services that will result from the inflation caused by the economic stimulus package.

On Tuesday, the Pima County Board of Supervisors sent back a request by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik to deputize at least one Border Patrol agent for a border crime team in rural areas. Several citizens expressed concern that many people would be afraid to report crimes or cooperate with police because they wouldn’t know when they called police if the person to show up would be a deputy or an immigration officer. Others were concerned that mixing local law enforcement with the duties of Border Patrol would lead to increased racial profiling as has happened in Maricopa County under Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Still others were concerned that the county could be financially liable for the actions of the Border Patrol which already has a bad reputation for violating the rights of residents.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors today had on their agenda for executive session (behind closed doors) a decision about appealling a judge’s ruling to release a database of election results. The Pima County Democratic Party had sued the county for release of these databases to investigate discrepancies and help determine if a recent election had been hijacked. About 40 citizens at the meeting demanded to be heard and by the end of the meeting with particular support from Republican Supervisor Ray Carroll, the board had decided not only to give up the appeal , but to go beyond compliance by providing not only the database that the judge had ordered released, but instead all the databases from that election.

Mr. Bush sent back to Congress a major defense spending bill for the reason that it contained language that would allow the victims of the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein to freeze the assets of the Iraqi government in the U.S. While Mr. Bush could have dismissed this part of the bill with a signing statement, he felt that removing it was important enough to place in jeopardy funding for the troops fighting the Iraq war. Does the current nation of Iraq bear responsibility for the past deeds of the Iraqi government or is this a whole new nation? If it’s a whole new nation with no liabilities for past acts, does the current nation have any claims on the assets of the previous nation (eg. oil)?