BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, MARCH 17-19, 2017) — We begin this weekend on St. Patrick’s Day and end on St. Joseph’s Day. There’s a lesson somewhere in that, although, spirituality being what it is, we won’t attempt to decipher it. We are not yet ready for the guru thing. We’re saving our Bhagwan gig for Hawaii and the future.

Not that anyone noticed, because if they had THE PLANET would have been called out.  We slipped another pun disguised as a typo in yesterday’s headline. Check it out: We rendered “SNOWFLAKES” as “SNOWFLAKS.” We did so for obvious reasons when you consider what we mean by calling someone a “snowflake” and a “flak” (sometimes spelled “flack”). One clue should have been the John Krol item!

We love JK, seriously. Politically, his time won’t come for another two years, after mayor Linda Tyer calls it a day. Count on Krol running for mayor with an in-place organization, a hefty bank account, and the kind of political ambition that puts stars in one’s eyes. If we had to call the game plan today, we’d bank on the usual:

1. Say how you believe in the city and its future (convenient, since the future never arrives).
2. Talk endlessly how you believe in public education (code for placating the greed in the Pittsfield School Department).
3. Avoid taking a stance on lowering taxes but speak in vague terms about it.
4. Bank on low turnout. This is the key to all city elections. The vast majority of the electorate — rendered in its helpless state of angst, anger, and apathy — pose no threat if they do not vote. Suppressing turnout elects and re-elects politicos from the same mold: tax-and-spenders who will grow city government on the school side, skimp everywhere else, approve any projects that take care of “Joe’s Brother-In-Law,” and shuts out ordinary citizens.

Collectivism on Parade

It ranks as a pity of the first order, one that would move Gene Pitney to song, that Pittsfield has been hijacked by a tiny but powerful cadre of nest featherers, led politically by the United Educators of Pittsfield, who control mayor, council, and school committee. Each year 1,200 school department employees get their step raises. These come on top of the raises negotiated by contract. The latest pact, as THE PLANET proved, awarded school personnel pay hikes of 16-to-18% over three years. They are now asking for more.

The UP represents unionism at its worst. THE PLANET readily concedes that collectivism made sense in the early part of the most recent past century, when employers held sway, demanding back-breaking toil for peanuts. Union might helped correct the injustice. For a brief period from the late 60s to early 80s, the balance seemed right. In bargaining, both sides pressed, realized that no one gets everything, and managed for the most part to settle equitably. In 1969, for example, striking workers at GE Pittsfield forced to company to make positive changes in wages and benefits that kept the local transformer division profitable and competitive for the next 20 years.

In the mid-80s, however, too many union workers at GE began to take the good life for granted. Stories were told of guys sleeping behind machines or in an out-of-the-way nook on the shop floor … gals putting out for bosses to get the cushy jobs and the fastest promotions … buddies punching time clocks for each other so they could leave the plant and go drinking on company time. Management tried to tell the work force that if productivity didn’t improve, the business would be kaput. The union didn’t believe it. We all know how that one turned out.

Ice Princesses Strike

Speaking of the collectivist folly, have you heard about the U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team? The ice princesses pulled out of the upcoming 2017 IIH Women’s World Championship. The tournament is set to begin March 31 in Plymouth, MI. The gals waited until this late date to make their announcement, hoping to catch USA Hockey, the parent organization without options, issuing unrealistic financial demands. With stipends and incentives for medals, the girls could receive $85,000 apiece over the training and performance period (six months). That’s not enough, however.

Fortunately, USA Hockey hasn’t yet blinked. Yet. THE PLANET recommends they hold firm.

The president of USA Hockey, Jim Smith, said, “In our role as the national governing body, USA Hockey trains and selects teams for international competition. USA Hockey’s role is not to employ athletes, and we will not do so. USA Hockey will continue to provide world-leading support for our athletes.”

Smith’s kicker came when he said that strike or no strike, USA Hockey plans to field a tournament team. Practices begin on March 21. You can be sure the alternates have been called.

From John Krol to U.S. women’s hockey isn’t the stretch that it seems. Why is Krol like women’s hockey? Who can answer that riddle? The stage is yours, as THE PLANET opens The Comment Line.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

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“I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.” — Rodney Dangerfield

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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