Fond du Lac Council Member Jeff Ruedinger on Our Responsibility as Citizens

City's website provides limited information about council members.

LINK

Guest commentary: Citizens should be part of city budget process. (Fond du Lac Reporter, 11/20/2011.

Excerpt: The problem is that when things get tough, the easy solution is to cut the quality-of-life issues because not everyone sees them as necessary. The reality is that when the economy is tough, that is when the quality-of-life issues are needed the most.

Taylor Park Pool and funding for the library are both quality-of-life issues that are a necessity for the people of this city. [My emphasis.]

Elected officials do need and want to hear from the citizens they represent on issues. It is easier to vote on an item when input from both sides of the issue is presented.

We as citizens have a responsibility to contact the elected officials; we are the people who gave them the responsibility. Even if we disagree with the decisions they make, we need to continue to give our opinions.

[The essence of Ruedinger's message.]  Please stay involved with your local, state and federal elected officials; that is our responsibility as citizens.

As an outgoing city councilman, I encourage you as citizens who care about the city in which you live to become involved.  [It appears that FdLPL is losing a council advocate.]

Hopefully, this next election will have several members of the community stepping up to the challenge of keeping Fond du Lac a great place to work, live and play.

In my view, the most important aspect of this involvement is relationship building -- more specifically, not being seen as a constituent who is only there to ask for something at budget time.

Dear Art, please stop watching Fox News

Letter to the editor:  Recall nonsense gets too much publicity.  [Green Bay Press Gazette,
11/20/2011)

Excerpt: This recall nonsense has me so upset. Here is this noisy, radical group that is about to reverse the will of the voters in order to get back the power that was taken away from them.

Here's a Facebook post from former library board member, who certainly doesn't fall into the category of radical. Huge turnout at the capitol for the Recall Walker rally -- people of all ages, professions, and walks of life, who are being affected or will be affected adversely by Walker's regressive ideas.

Goodbye, Golden Years

A trend that's been developing well before the Great Recession.

Goodbye, Golden Years.  (The New York Times, 11/20/2011)

Excerpt: Consider the difference between today’s extended work life and the average American work life during the mid-20th century in the midst of what was, in retrospect, a retirement boom. Again, the numbers present a vivid picture: from the ’40s to the ’80s, the percentage of men who were 65 and older in the labor force fell precipitously — from 47 percent in 1949 to 15.6 percent in 1993. By the 1980s, retirement at age 65 was nearly universal for American workers. Today, however, 36.5 percent of 65- to 69-year-old men are still part of America’s labor force. (The number of working women in this demographic is slightly lower.)

Although the economic downturn certainly plays a role, the article points out other factors that are involved.

• Social Security no longer penalizes those who continue to work.
• Work is less arduous; fewer workers in heavy industry.
• Elderly are healthier than previous generations.
• Retirement is not affordable.  (Currently, 40% of Americans 55 to 64 years of age don't have retirement accounts.)

But at least we'll always have David Bowie.