In a severe economic downturn, everybody has to make sacrifices. But not everybody deals with it equally. There's the civil, gracious way:
John Dickerson, executive director of Arc of Indiana, says the recent announcement of nearly $90 million in state funding cuts to services for people with developmental disabilities is a call to action. The cuts can spur much-needed change in the delivery and oversight of those services.
“We're not trying just to survive. We want to thrive. We don't want to get back to where we were. We want to take things to the next level.”
It's tough out there, so instead of crying about the money, let's find a way to be even better without the money. Classy.
Then there's the approach of IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger, who used a speech in Indianapolis to lash out at politicians who are "using the economic crisis" as an "excuse" to cut fire department budgets and mistreat firefighters just like they apparently secretly wanted to do all along anyway. He was also unkind to the media:
Newspapers across the country, he said, are distorting the truth over firefighters' salaries, pensions and benefits.
Newspapers across the country are now finding it a field day to attack the fire service on their front pages, according to Schaitberger.
Yeah, we see those stories every day don't we, all those front-page smears trying to take down the brave fire departments? Firefighters do such heroic work and are so well-liked by the public that it's hard to even imagine a backlash against them. Have to give this guy credit for trying so hard to create one.
