The conversation goes like this. “Isn’t it against the law for public employees to strike? Yes it is, but no charges have been made … it’s up to negotiations.”
OK, the law is broken but there are no arrests, just “negotiations.”
I commit a crime; I don’t get cited, arrested, tried, fined or imprisoned? I get an unlimited time to negotiate a compromised outcome that meets my demands?
The reluctance of law enforcement to do their job may be due to the idea that making strikes illegal is a form of forced labor, and “involuntary servitude” was outlawed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The media would have a circus if that issue was brought up in open court. But I really wouldn’t worry too much about all that.
Here’s the key: The country went almost 100 years before it was forced to throw slave owners under the bus. That lack of immediate compassion for the enslaved back in 1776 is still reflected in the amendment provided to rectify the situation. There is a crucial loophole in the document: It states that slavery and involuntary servitude shall be banned “except as a punishment for crime ...”
So there’s your solution. In striking, teachers are committing a crime. Arrest and imprison them. And since our children are already becoming used to the idea of being treated like criminals every day — what with armed guards, lockdowns, searches, mass detainment at gunpoint — lock them up too! For their own safety, you understand.
Merge schools and prisons into one entity; get rid of those petty and inconsequential distinctions. Put both the students and teachers to work. Teach them respect, obedience, humility and a useful trade.
Our tax money should go toward the economic development of private prisons for profit, not to socialistic, anachronistic public schools.
“Negotiations?” You’ve got to be kidding me. Enforce the law, or repeal it. No more pussyfooting!
Dennis Shain
Centralia
