One Thousand Paper Cranes

Akron’s Financial Dilemma

18 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment

by jmommy08 in The Juice, What I Believe in Wednesdays

You may or may not know that I work for the City of Akron.  Like most other cities in the country right now, the City of Akron is yet again experiencing financial difficulties.  The City of Akron is a little different in that, financially, they’re doing just fine until August.  August rolls around and all of a sudden we’re millions of dollars in the red.  There are several speculations as to why this keeps happening and also what can be done to solve this dilemma.  While I won’t speculate on the reasons why, I thought I would put in my two cents in respect to the solution.

In June 2009, several citizens brought a recall of the mayor forward to the voters.  Our fine mayor has been in office since 1987.  Having grown up outside of Detroit, I have to say it is remarkable that the city was not driven into the ground as Detroit was under the almost 20 year reign of Coleman Young.  However, I am also a proponent of term limits.  Because being a politician has become a career (it never was meant to be a for-profit position) there needs to be a limit to terms so that said politician is not always doing what he needs to do to be re-elected.  With term limits, an elected official would have one term to do what he felt was right for his constituents instead of what was right for the polls – his last term.  I digress….

In the process of being recalled unsuccessfully, it became very obvious there were people who were not happy with the mayor’s actions in office.  Since then, laying off police officers and fireman has gained him a few more enemies.

What does this have to do with solving the financial dilemma?

Can you imagine how much money the city could raise if Mayor Plusquellic and some high ranking members of City Council volunteered for a dunk tank?  Run it for a couple days a week for a couple of weeks and the city’s financial problems are solved!  The best part is that the fire department has one that could be used for free!

Have I planned this out a little too much?  Maybe.  But my incredible skills at planning came from paychecks that have been shortened because of furloughs – when you have to make less money stretch further than the regular paychecks had to (did I mention the sewer and water rates have increased – along with everything else?) you become quite efficient at planning.  You plan menus, bill pay dates, where you’re going to scratch up the money for the sitter, what you’re going to do if you get a layoff notice, and exactly what you’re going to say if you get behind to the point where bill collectors are calling (we haven’t gotten there yet – thank goodness).  So, I have put my expert planning to good use and solved the city’s financial problems.  Now onto the country!  Do you think we could get Obama to volunteer for a dunk tank?

You’ll notice there is no What I Believe in Wednesdays Blog Hop.  I figured out that it just isn’t the type of blog hop people want to participate in.  That’s okay – maybe I’ll come up with something else.

Pretend it’s Wednesday

17 Jun 2010 3 Comments

by jmommy08 in The Juice, What I Believe in Wednesdays

Okay, I wanted to post this post yesterday, because it truly fits into What I Believe.  Unfortunately, I was crazy busy yesterday and didn’t get a chance.  So you get a double dose today and for this first post, pretend it’s still Wednesday and my life isn’t so hectic as to squash my blogging ambition!

Recently, my blog friend (first blog friend ever!  How cool is it that she is in Australia?) Miss Prudence brought up an issue that hits a little close to home when you have a little girl running around – The Social Paradigm of Beauty.

I cannot tell you how many times I have winced at what a girl walking down the street is wearing or what is hanging on the racks or models at the stores in the mall and Walmart.  The bear-all, be nothing but sticks underneath idea of beauty that has become socially acceptable in our generation, I find to be abhorrent.  That a woman is not only required to be thinner than dental floss but also have everything hanging out is disgusting to me.

Maybe I’m even more affected by this because of my size.  I’ll admit it – I was fat in high school.  You want to torture someone?  Make them 240 pounds walking down high school halls.  Tell you the truth, I think middle school was more brutal, but either way, it was damaging.  I actually fully avoid fashion because I know it was not meant to fit my body (which Miss Prudence happened to list out as an average healthy woman – I love her!).  Aside from making me dread my high school reunion, that experience really destroyed my self confidence.  So my goal with my little girl is to make sure she knows that she is beautiful no matter what the tag in the back of her dress says.  (Side note:  I actually had a dress one time that said 16 FP on the tag – what does the FP stand for?  I was convinced it was “Fat Person” – how nice is that?)

How does one do that in a society that throws images like Angelina Jolie and the Olsen twins (who just look emaciated – remember when they used to be cute?) at you?  (Don’t even get me started on how to mold her values with a society that glorifies the immoral….)  Maybe this will start a discussion and we can get some good tips going.  Here’s the topic:

How do you raise your daughter to love herself no matter her size in a world that is convinced emaciated, unhealthy, gaunt women are beautiful?