Thank you MFRE Union

You continued sacrifice shows your commitment to our town. Thank you for pitching your hats into the ring. It is appreciated.

Thank You MPD Union

On top of doing your job each and every day, thank you for making an extra sacrifice this year. Your decision shows integrity, compassion and fairness.

JI: Manchester police, staff agree to wage freeze

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2009 Hockanum River Race

Thank You For Meeting Me Half-Way

Four unions have stepped up to the plate so far, and I want to say thank you to them.

JI: Manchester town workers offer to skip raises, saving $350,000
HC: Manchester Town Workers Agree to Forego Wage Hikes

I hope to see the other unions follow the example set by these four. (Ahem... BOE unions, Police, Fire). We are all in this together.

Based on the majority of the opinions I was listening to all night at the budget hearing, most taxpayers are willing to accept a modest tax increase to keep town services at current levels. It appears that the town employees and unions are coming on board to share in our sacrifice. Now it is up to the BOD and BOE to do their part. Do not use these concessions to further reduce my tax increase for this year. Keep services at current levels.

To be absolutely clear on my opinion, I am not endorsing carte blanche any inefficiencies in the system. I always expect to get the best bang for my buck. These are times that bring much needed citizen focus on the "business" of town government.

"The purse of the people is the real seat of sensibility. Let it be drawn upon largely, and they will then listen to truths which could not excite them through any other organ."
~Thomas Jefferson

"I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

"Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt

Unsolicited Plug

First, I would like to say thank you to Mr. Jim Farrel of the Hartford Courant for mentioning the Silk City Independent in the Hartford Courant iTowns blog. Check it out and subscribe to the feed. His focus has narrowed to Manchester and East Hartford. I have added a link under the Blogg Roll on the left column. I wish him all the best.

Thank You For The Memories

Enjoy your retirement. Next stop: Cooperstown, New York.

Are We Preparing Our Kids For Tomorrow?

What does it all mean? That depends on you.

What this means to me: how can we even think about cutting any technology education? Especially at the sixth grade level.

From The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman:

So if the flattening of the world is largely (but not entirely)unstoppable, and holds out the potential to be as beneficial to American society as a whole as past market evolutions have been, how does an individual get the best out of it? What do we tell our kids?

There is only one message: You have to constantly upgrade your skills. There will be plenty of good jobs out there in the flat world for people with the knowledge and ideas to seize them.

I am not suggesting this will be simple. It will not be. There will be a lot of other people out there also trying to get smarter. It was never good to be mediocre in your job, but in a world of walls, mediocrity could still earn you a decent wage. In a flatter world, you really do not want to be mediocre. You don't want to find yourself in the shoes of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, when his son Biff dispels his idea that the Loman family is special by declaring, "Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!" An angry Willy retorts, "I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!"

I don't care to have that conversation with my girls, so my advice to them in this flat world is very brief and very blunt: "Girls, when I was growing up, my parents used to say to me, "Tom, finish your dinner --- people in China and India are starving." My advice to you is: Girls, finish your homework --- people in China and India are starving for your jobs."

This is the world I work and compete in everyday. We can't throw money at this problem either. It's time to put aside petty differences. Our education system in Manchester has to become more efficient, and provide a better value. Not just a better value for our tax dollars, but more importantly a better value for our children's future. We have to help our children compete in tomorrow's world. It's hard enough to compete today.