Bedrock

I am not a Republican although I have been in the past. I was actually a precinct delegate for a couple of years during the Reagan Revolution. Like many others, I sought to give a voice to my convictions. I experienced, first hand, the hostility of the so-called moderates, whom we had displaced from controlling the party in this state and throughout most of the country. As citizens, we have the right to engage actively in the political process. Today, however, the GOP has not represented my views and the views of many other social and economic conservatives very well. Many will be tempted not to vote or to vote against Republicans. I understand their feelings, but I hope they think carefully before doing either. As we move toward the November elections, we get an eyeful and earful of campaign rhetoric. Frankly, I wish there were a law that required ads to be truthful, although I realize that “truth” is relative to most people. We could get rid of a great deal of the worst lie

Should a person who does his job poorly get a raise? Can a company that makes a tool that breaks when you use it or a machine that fails to do what it was made to do raise its prices and increase profits on its defective products? Would you be willing to pay a car mechanic or plumber when they have failed to fix the problem, over and over again? Would you be willing to guarantee your grocery store regular price increases, even when you regularly buy milk that is sour, fruits and vegetables that are half rotten, and meat that is spoiled? I suspect most of us would answer all of these questions with a resounding, “No way!” Amazingly, that is exactly what the public education establishment expects us to do. In Michigan, next month, the voters will have the chance to guarantee annual increases to the state education budget, by-passing the legislature’s budgetary responsibility. Of course, that money would be on top of what federal funding, which feeds billions into a public education syste