Amplifier Blog: Lassa Thinks Manufacturing Skills Lacking in Marshfield

Lassa Thinks Manufacturing Skills Lacking in Marshfield (From The Amplifier Blog)
http://scottkennethnoble.blogspot.com/2012/01/lassa-thinks-manufacturing-skills.html

Come on, really?  Aren't we taking things a little out of context here?  How about completely out of contexts!

Marshfield felt the recession like most other communities.  We were spared the deep impact of the recession felt by other communities, such as Wisconsin Rapids, because of our diverse business and industrial base, but we had our share of businesses closing too.  We do have many unemployed people from businesses such as Wick Homes, still searching for their next job.

What we have found in Marshfield, and in every other area of the state, is that businesses that are looking to hire people are looking for very specific skills.  Even traditionally "Blue Collar" jobs have become skilled labor.  It may be the need to work in a CAD application or the need to use a computer to run machinery that used to be run manually, but there are specialized skills that are needed for a lot of the New blue Collar Jobs.  Even mechanics and maintenance positions are using the internet and computer solutions in their daily jobs.  Think about the last time you thought about changing your own spark plugs or working on your car.  It's not as "technology free" as it was 25 years ago.  Times have changed.  Like cars, successful businesses have gotten leaner, more efficient and more reliant on technology.  As a result, they need employees that can do the same.

This article seems to imply that Sen. Lassa believes Marshfield workers not only don't have the skills, but don't have the capacity to learn them...at least that is what he is trying to imply.  That isn't true at all.  What we do need is a program for taking displaced workers and training them (quickly) to continue to do their good work in a new, more high tech environment.  This isn't a partisan issue for most people.  It is a fact.  The Senate passed it with one dissenting vote, the assembly has stalled the bill.

Let's stop the partisanship and fix the problem.  Help develop programs to retrain displaced workers so they can get these new jobs.  If this bill isn't the solution for you, that is fine, give us your idea.  But please, stop with the stonewalling and name smearing and let's get something done.

Not to be hypocritical, here's an idea.  We have great Technical Schools and a world class University System in this state.  Let's use them.  Not only can they provide the training people need, but they can customize it for any particular business.  There will be a cost (GASP!), but don't forget, there is a cost if nothing is done as well, and that cost is far more substantial and on-going.

The Do-Nothing approach accomplishes everything it's name implies.  Absolutely nothing.  The Stand-on-the-sidelines-and-mock-others-who-are-trying approach accomplishes even less.

This is why I started this Blog

One of the reasons I started this blog was to respond to comments made on another blog of a local resident and former politician, Mr. Scott Noble.

Scott has pretty strong views on most things, including me.

Here is a link to his blog, it won't take long to find a story about me, he writes about me a lot. http://scottkennethnoble.blogspot.com/

Scott was a former Alderman, appointed by the Common Council to fill the term of a former Alderman who resigned.  he was appointed to the 4th District Council Seat in mid-2009.  In 2010, Mr. Noble ran for election for the seat he had been appointed to and lost to Alderman Gordy Earll.  Mr. Earll is a favorite target of Mr. Noble as well.

Usually his posts about me revolve around the facts that I am "Anti-Walker" and that I "Ran around Madison with a poster of Governor Walker with a Hitler Mustache".  These are untrue.

I've met Governor Walker and he is a likeable guy.  I think we'd probably have a good time talking over a beer, but not about politics.
I will be striaght up honest here, I don't agree with everything Governor Walker has done.  More specifically, I don't agree with the way in which he did it.  As a State Employee, it is easy to assume I am bent out of shape about collective bargaining, but honestly, that isn't nearly as big of a concern to me as many of the other priorities and actions put forward in the last several years (including those before Governor Walker was elected).  I actually supported reforms to collective bargaining, but didn't think it needed to be irradicated. 

The actions that have me the most upset have nothing to do with Collective Bargaining.  They have to do with something the Republican's have always been protectors of until recently, local control. 

I am a big fan of keeping big government out of our lives.  I understand and accept the role that Federal and State laws have in our everyday lives, but when control is removed from the local governments, then the local residents lose their ability to govern their communities.  They elect fellow residents to serve on City Councils and School Boards so that they can have their voices heard and specfic actions taken locally to design their communties and schools the way they see fit.  That is slowly being eroded as the State mandates controls that municipalities must follow.

Now, it's tough to argue that some change wasn't needed...it was.  I don't think everything Governor Walker has done was bad, but the manner in which it was done it is not right.  It might be legal, it might even be democratic, but it isn't right.

When you are the majority party, you have the ability to do whatever you want, something we have seen in Madison.  That doesn't mean you should.  Ignoring the minority party and playing partisan politics is a fast road to nowhere.  We need compromise more than ever and I don't see it. At all.  on EITHER side.

Does that make me a Democrat?  Probably not.  Those who have engaged me in political conversations know that I certainly am not a extremely liberal or conservative.  As this blogs title may imply, I fall in the middle.  I lean to the left on social issues and to the right on fiscal issues; most of the time.

Did I signt he recall petition?  No. 

Why? 

Because as Mayor, I represent all residents, those who support the Governor and those who don't and even those who don't care.  Personally, I think recalls are wrong.  When elected the last thing you should be worried about is a recall.  I said the same thing when Senator Lassa was being recalled, though that recall was hugely unsucessful.  You are elected and you serve.  If you do a good job, you get re-elected, if you don't, then someone else gets a chance.

Mr. Noble is free to post whatever he wants.  He has the freedom to do that and I support that.  I will do the same.  However, when he posts things that are blatantly false or convey incorrect facts in an effort to steer opinions his way, I will respectful rebutt his claims, and I'll provide facts.

Religion and Politics…

How about some chocolate covered cauliflower?  No? 

How about some pickles and lemonade for an appetizer? No? 

Why not?

Some things just don’t go well together.  That’s true of politics and religion too.

Every time I see a politician talk about their religion I instantly get turned off.  It’s not that I don’t think it is important, I actually do, but it is personal.  I also don’t care what their favorite food is or what particularly weird things they are into.

So why do politicians insist on tell us that they are “born again” or “have accepted Jesus Christ”?  It is because it does matter to some people.  It shouldn’t, but it does.

Here’s my quick rundown on religion.  They are all the same, at their core.

Every religion teaches tolerance, acceptance, understanding, and compassion, even the “evil ones".  Take a comparative religion class sometime and prepared to be stunned.  Muslims and Christians are pretty much the same.  Different players in the stories, but in a lot of ways, they are the same.

When you study different religions, you get the sense that you are reading one of those “Choose your own adventure” books that we had when we were younger.  “If you choose to do X, turn to page Z”.  The various religions are just different versions of the same story.  See Gilgamesh vs. Genesis (http://www.religioustolerance.org/noah_com.htm)

But because some people need to elect one of their own, they need to know.

My rule is this, you can tell us you are religious and that you practice in your own way.  You can say you are Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu…whatever, just leave it at that.  Once you start discussing how your religious biases will shape your decision making, you’ve lost my vote.

After all, I believe in a God that gave me a brain to think critically with and do things that are in the best interests of all people.

Besides, politicians that advertise their religion come off as fake and hypocritical.  Next time just sit around chomping on a shrimp cocktail while talking about the evils of homeosexuality. (see Levitius 18)

Matthew 6:5-6: "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men....when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret...."

Who Am I?

If you are stumbling across this Blog in the grand agglomeration that is the Internet you may be wondering just who the heck I am...or maybe you were just bored because Wikipedia is down today and you had nothing better to do. In any event, welcome.

Here we go...

I'm no one and I am everyone.

I'm an average guy, 35, living in my home town of Marshfield, WI. I have four great kids a good job and have an incurable addiction to politics. In fact, to feed my addiction, I ran for and was elected to the Common Council in Marshfield in 2005. Two years later I ran for and was elected Mayor of my home town.

Local politics are the essence of what politics are supposed to be about. Average people being elected to lead their community and represent the views of their constituents. No one makes a career out of being a member of a common council in small town America. When I was on City Council I was paid slightly more per month then when I was 12 years old and had a job delivering news papers for the local paper.

Even being the Mayor is a part time job, as it should be...that is for another blog, some other time...

So, why blog? Who cares about some small town Mayor's view on politics?

Good question. Besides the people who live here, probably no one; and honestly probably less than a handful of the people who live here care what I think about politics.

However, over the last several years I have watched as politics have changed in our country.

Let me start by saying that I am not a Republican, Democrat, Constitutionalist or Libertarian. I'm not a left-winger or right winger. I am somewhere in the middle. Closer to the right on somethings, closer the left on others. That is why I am writing this blog; because I think a lot of Americans are like me. They don't see a political party they can identify as strongly with as they may have in the past. The Common Sense Party doesn't exist anymore, if it ever did. People who believe in compromise are seen as weak.

That's wrong.

I have often stayed away from expressing my point of view on national politics because honestly I have many supporters as Mayor from both political sides and I have many family members and friends across the political spectrum. I have been habitually concious that my views would undoubtedly tick someone off.

That fact is, no matter what your political affiliation, you should be plenty ticked off right now.

So, if you want some average persons view on politics, please, check back often, comment if you wish and enjoy.