Protect public workers' retirement

"Long ago in days of yore it all began with..."

...some politicians on Capitol Hill deciding that if state and federal employees and their families got Social Security benefits in addition to their pension or retirement investment that it was "double dipping," never mind that everyone else in the US is entitled to both a pension and Social Security benefits, never mind that Social Security is their own money in both cases.

This affects ALL state and federal employees - not just me and all public higher ed workers from faculty to facilities, not just my mother (hoping to retire in 2 years) and all public K-12 teachers and employees from secretaries to security, but even firemen, cops, many EMS workers, garbage men, and so on. Of course there probably won't be any Social Security left by the time I'm eligible for it, but think of all the Baby Boomers out there who have put in 40 or 50 years of faithful service to the public (around 50 in the case of my mother), fighting fires and crayons, who are now told as they approach retirement that they deserve less than the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Because of this legislation, the widows of firefighters killed in 9/11 were likely told six years ago they will not, in fact, receive the Social Security benefits that their spouse earned with his or her sacrifice.

So what can you do about it? There are two pieces of federal legislation that my union (the NEA, National Education Association) is working to repeal, called GPO and WEP (Government Pension Offsets and Windfall Elimination Program). The way they are doing this is by bringing pressure to bear on Congressmen nationwide through petitions and letters. What you can do about this is to send a letter online. The letter is already written for you, so it will take less than 10 minutes of your time to fill in your personal information, and you'll be making a difference. Tell your friends and neighbors to participate too.

If you want more information, here's a summary from my State-level union. Spread the word.

dates....

Hm, I think I got my dates wrong. I think the lunar eclipse was early this morning, not early tomorrow morning. Oops. Stupid UT.

Things I Am Not Allowed To Do At Hogwarts:

( Things I Am Not Allowed To Do At Hogwarts: )

Yoinked from l0stmyrel1g10n

Gabe Leashed

( boring stuff about bird harnesses )

And here's the photos you actually want to see.

Harness from the front.

Notice how it settles in between her feathers for the most part, and you can't even see it. Doesn't mean she forgot it's there though...

Harness from the back.

According to the literature, the leash should just slide around to the bottom/front when she's standing, but it doesn't happen. I'd have to tug on it to make it happen.

From the side.

Note the loop around my wrist. It goes on my wrist even before the harness goes on her while I'm still inside. I'm paranoid I'll forget that crucial step, so it happens before everything. And it goes on my left wrist so my right one (I'm a righty) is free to react if she flies into danger and I need to scoop her up.

And a final cute shot of her on my shoulder.

Pecking at the harness as she tries to do continually... Hopefully with time she will get used to it, and she'll get more curious about the things going on around her instead of nervous about them. You'll also note in this shot that she's not fully flighted - I'm slowly growing out one feather at a time, haven't done a big clip since a year ago, working on a balance where she has a little flight but not a lot. She still lands awkwardly at times, but is getting better.

x-posted to parrot_lovers, cockatiels, and my own journal