Monday, May 27, 2013
Today is a day for honoring heroes and their sacrifice. But right now these are the heroes that I feel the need to honor.
I am certainly not taking anything away from our fallen vets, or their sacrifice, but to me these brave public servants have redefined heroism.
What they did to protect their children, while being vilified from the Right and underpaid for their efforts, is truly inspiring.
Yet while we rain much deserved praise down on their heads for their bravery let us not forget that Oklahoma is still represented by callous assholes like this guy:
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) reiterated on Sunday that he won't support additional disaster relief funding without spending cuts elsewhere -- even after tornadoes ripped apart his own state last week.
"We've created kind of a predicate, that you don't have to be responsible for what goes on in your state," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation" while discussing the success Oklahoma has had in using state and private funds after the tornadoes.
Coburn said he doesn't oppose any federal money going toward the state, however.
"Big storms like [Hurricane] Sandy, or like this tornado -- there's certain things that we can't do that we need the federal government to do," he said.
The Oklahoma senator has been consistently opposed to disaster funding without offsets, but some expected that to change in the wake of the devastation to his state. But Coburn's office quickly confirmed after the tornado that he would not be supporting disaster aid without offsetting the spending.
"That's always been his position [to offset disaster aid]," Coburn spokesman John Hart said Monday in a statement. "He supported offsets to the bill funding the OKC bombing recovery effort."
I guess Oklahoma can decide who they want to be the face of their state, but if it were up to me I would rather it be any one of those teachers from Plaza Towers Elementary rather than this Koch sucking windbag.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No, you asshole, what 'we've created' is a country where our government helps those in need, regardless of geographic location, race, religion, political affiliation or economic status! We don't take food out of Johnny's mouth to pay for a band-aid for Mary.
ReplyDelete(And, Gryphen, as a teacher, I thank you for recognizing those Oklahoma educators for their heroism. For the hours they are in our classrooms, your children are OUR children and we will protect them as such.)
A safe and peaceful Memorial Day to all those in OK and throughout our country.
Those teachers are true heroes, and yes, they should be honored every day for the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I am okay with Gomer's idea. OK doesn't get any federal help and they can tax their own citizens in the state to pay for a tornado fund.
ReplyDeleteSame with any other state of morons who don't want to have the feds give them (or anyone else) aid. Those who do accept aid, well they can have it as the rest of us who are United States citizens will gladly pay taxes to help out.
Can you believe Coburn is/was a physician??? These assholes like him and the Paul's represent the medical profession in a very bad light. Then again, I'm a doctor who went into medicine because I enjoy healing people and I like science. I can't imagine choosing politics after being a health care provider. It tells you a lot about them.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the positive way to look at it is that he no longer is responsible for the direct medical care of patients.
DeleteUnfortunately, he now has the ability to indirectly cause pain to a lot more people with legislation.
Heartless bastard!
Thank you for mentioning the heroic teachers in Moore. I hope that the teacher bashing in this country comes to a screeching halt.
ReplyDeleteAs for Coburn....he has stated that he will not run for re-election. At this point I don't think he could even if he changed his mind. Maybe he can become a Fux news guy.
Oklahoma doesn't need him. There are so very many of us that are tired of him. I think this may be his proverbial last nail.
It never fails to amaze me.
DeleteWe trust teachers to protect our children's lives against rampaging gunmen and devastating tornadoes, but we don't trust them enough to know how to teach a five-year-old to read.
They MUST constantly have some bureaucrat in a state education office or a mega-corporate publishing company (neither with any first-hand classroom experience) looking over their shoulder and telling them exactly what to say and when to say it, regardless of the circumstances or the individual needs of the children in front of them.
The citizens of OK deserve better Sen."in name only" can start with cutting his salary and perks earmarked for the Senate and that clearly would be enough to offset the necessary funds. What a sad state of community we are witness to these days.
ReplyDeleteThere are many day-to-day heroes who do not wear a uniform, and they are largely unacknowledged. Thanks, Gryphen...
ReplyDeleteWe seriously need to reevaluate how our educators are compensated for the work they do to fuel our kids love of learning and molding the minds of tomorrow's society. Listening to these teacher/heroes who've been forced to face great natural and man made adversity while selflessly risking their lives to save other peoples kids speaks volumes of their character and heroism.
ReplyDeleteYes, we memorialize and honor our fallen war dead and recruit kids to become trained killers and we should honor their valor. They knew the risks when they signed up (not an excuse nor meant to disrespect their memory and service in any way)
When is the day we set aside to honor educators who go above and beyond what's expected, yet never get compensated adequately for the work they do? They're responsible for molding the future of our society.
Not ONE tweet out of Tundra Turd today re. Memorial Day, or was there one?
ReplyDelete