Mike Sauers

I’m writing this post from sunny Florida where I’m enjoying a well deserved vacation. So far it has been very relaxing and enjoyable. However, no matter where you call home, the mind continues to wrestle with the world. The following are my thoughts and experiences on a group of topics that occupy my mind from time to time. Some are more bothersome than others but all are important. I believe that if we shine a light on the truth, not hide from it, we will find justice and wage peace. They are not prioritized.

True to my heart is the expression, “children are the future”. I have heard many leaders say this but they have struggled to prioritize it. As a former elementary school teacher, I have had first hand experience with the elements that affect a child’s ability to realize their potentials and be successful. Appropriate funding for knowledgeable and discerning teachers, competent administrators and school boards, safe buildings and facilities and up to date learning tools (texts, computers, labs, etc.) are important. I have worked in several Pennsylvania School Districts that have struggled with the above and the whole issue is now before the Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg. This issue has festered for decades. It is finally in the Court and this legal process has been going on since 2014! My experience has led me to believe that, while the above is critical, class size is the real priority. Of the twenty four years I taught, I had class sizes that ranged from 16 to 35. The year I had a second grade class of 16 students stands out like a bright light. These 16 children began together in kindergarten, stayed together in first grade and advanced to my second grade classroom. It was obvious that their individual needs had been addressed in K-1. They benchmarked in every literacy and math category at the beginning, middle and end of second grade. In fact, they excelled. This never happened with any other class I taught where the class size was 22 and up. These kids got the attention they deserved and it showed. Class size matters!

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of cargo ships are anchored off the coasts of Los Angeles and other U.S. ports. Most are filled with consumer goods that once provided family sustaining, manufacturing jobs in the United States. This should anger and upset you but, most importantly, it should inform you. There are several reasons for this and all of them punish American workers and consumers. While the seeds were planted in the 1970’s, I think a reasonable starting point is in the 1980’s when President Reagan breathed life into a laissez faire approach to business economics. This took the form of business deregulation, cutting business taxes, cutting investment in America and putting share holders first at the expense of workers and consumers. Throw in a business penchant for cheap labor and lax worker safety and environmental regulations and you have the perfect storm. Was labor ever consulted? No! Were consumers ever considered? No! I’m old enough to remember manufacturing jobs leaving the union organized Northeast for the South. The labor was non-union and cheap and the regulations were lax. Then they moved to Mexico/Central America and finally to Asia. Remember, the basic tenet of capitalism is to make as much short term profit as possible. Please read, “The Financialization of the US Corporation: What Has Been Lost, and How It Can Be Regained” by William Lazonick.

I am a survivor of a tragic automobile crash. An out of control police vehicle, traveling approximately 113 mph, collided with the car I was driving. My wife, Carola, was killed and I was seriously injured. In the eyes of the State of Pennsylvania we were victims. Throughout the criminal prosecution of the police officer, Carola and I were revictimized by plea bargaining. Due to a conflict of interest my case was turned over to the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General. The police officer was charged with homicide by vehicle and aggravated assault by vehicle, both third-degree felonies, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment, both misdemeanor counts, and five summary offenses. That is a total of nine charges. In the end the officer pled guilty to four charges. I was consulted and I vehemently protested. I wanted a jury trial on all nine charges. The Office of the Attorney General ignored my protestations and went ahead with the plea agreement. The officer got three months in the county prison and two years of probation. He has a felony on his record. Again, much to the chagrin of the AG Office, I vehemently protested. I considered this to be a slap on the wrist for the police officer and a gut punch for my family and me. Plea bargaining allows criminals to deflect charges and escape punishment. It allows lawyers, judges and court systems to not do their jobs. It saves the Court time and money but denies justice to victims. It denies victims a jury trial and forfeits their right to appeal. This experience seriously eroded my confidence in the criminal judicial system. If the judicial system can’t do its job, then, perhaps, we should reorganize the courts and hire more judges. Justice delayed is justice denied. Revictimizing victims through plea bargaining is disgraceful.

Let’s talk space junk. According to the US Department of Defense’s Global Space Surveillance Network there are millions of pieces of floating space junk. They range in size from smaller than 1 cm up to 4 inches and larger. Space junk is an ever present danger to all viable space satellites, vehicles and the space station. Many near misses and some actual collisions have occurred scattering more and more space junk. We are told that NASA scientists are brilliant. We see commercial space flight beginning to develop. How could this problem have been allowed? One would think that the human garbage problem on Earth would have sent up red flags. Apparently not! Don’t worry. US taxpayers and taxpayers in China, Russia, France, Japan, India and others will come to the rescue. Experimental clean-up and recycling programs are being developed and launched. Our ancestors told us to keep the barn door closed but, as brilliant as we are, we are slow learners.

Eminent domain is land taking without the owner’s consent. Yes, the landowners have some procedural rights and they must be compensated but it breeds distrust in government. It is highly controversial. When it is strictly used by government to appropriately enhance and better the lives of all citizens or for true national defense it has some merit. When corporations use their significant and disproportionate influence to prod governments to initiate eminent domain proceedings that directly affect their profits it is a disaster. This has been done with housing, highways, shopping centers/malls, industrial developments, etc. It has devastated and partitioned entire neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are overwhelmingly poor and racially diverse. Most recently, eminent domain has been used to construct pipelines that benefit oil and gas companies. We, the people, should take a new and closer look at eminent domain and its applications. Private property owners and governments that have stewardship over parks, forests, rivers, lakes and other public treasures need to be able to say ,”No!” It needs to be tightened up and redefined.

Inflation is in the news. Inflated debate over the causes seems to blame government spending, higher wages and supply chain problems. All of these play a minor part in the inflation puzzle but the real reason is simply profit taking. This is not rocket science. Beginning in the 1980’s and up to the present moment American industries have participated in predatory capitalism. They have eliminated or incorporated their smaller competitors. The result is that American industries are more concentrated and powerful. Even the casual observer recognizes that corporations and their associated think tanks, congresspeople, bureaucrats, and pundits control the US government. It is not the unions, although some unions pick up crumbs. It is not non-profit community groups, religious groups or even hard working, tax paying, law abiding, citizens, some of whom vote. No, corporations have the power and they exercised it by keeping antitrust legislation and enforcement to a bare minimum since the 1980’s. We can see this in energy, consumer staples, food, fast food, social media/internet and large retailers. Too few companies control the markets. For example, Procter & Gamble and Kimberly Clark corner the market for consumer items like diapers and toilet paper. PepsiCo and Coca Cola control soft drinks. Walmart, Amazon, Kroger, Costco and Target dominate retail sales. Corporations cry crocodile tears over higher labor costs and supply chain issues all the while they are making record profits. All of this corporate concentration squashes competition, denies labor a living wage and abuses consumers. All the while corporations laugh their way to the bank which, of course, they control. Boycott! Protest! Vote! Practice environmental shopping! Talk it up! Consumers are the 800 pound gorilla in the room and corporations fear an organized consumer movement.

So, the above are issues that I think are important. As always, I urge you to research these issues. I believe that they affect our lives and those of our children, grandchildren and beyond.