The Politicians’ Bible: Bringing in the Receipts by Walter and Rosemary Brasch

by Walter Brasch and Rosemary Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
October 25, 2010

It will be cold tonight in Pennsylvania, but that means nothing to dozens of politicians who are in their final week of a ubiquitous campaign to get a government job.

There isn’t a household in Pennsylvania that has active voters that hasn’t been subjected to at least two dozen TV political ads each day, several robo-calls a week, and a dozen or more direct mail full-color 8-1/2-by-11 inch postcard campaign ads. Many households have already received three or four dozen such ads in the past month.

Hammering Out a Contract: Exploiting Low-Paid Workers at a Vo-Tech School

by Walter Brasch and Rosemary R. Brasch
Featured Writers
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
April 27, 2010

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Art Welch, the in-school suspension supervisor at the Columbia-Montour Area Vocational Technical School (Vo-Tech) in Bloomsburg, Pa., earns $8 an hour, only 75 cents above minimum wage. In the six years he has been at Vo-Tech, he has never had a raise.

Mary Avery, who has worked in the cafeteria for 28 years, earns $9 an hour; some years, she only received a nickel an hour increase.

Wendy Zajac, who also works in the cafeteria, has been employed at Vo-Tech seven years; she is the only one of a bargaining unit of 25 workers who received a raise in four years. She now earns $7.25 an hour. The school’s management had no choice except to raise her salary so it would be in compliance with the federally-mandated minimum wage.

Stories We Prefer Not Having to Write—But Will by Walter and Rosemary Brasch

by Rosemary and Walter Brasch
Featured Writers
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
January 12, 2010

It’s a new year, and we’ve been trying to find new topics for our columns.

In reviewing the columns over the past few years, we wrote against racism and animal cruelty. But, there’s still racism and animal cruelty, so we’ll still have to speak out on these critical social issues.

We wrote about tolerance and the acceptance of all races and religions. But, a large number of Americans apparently didn’t get the message, so we’ll have to try harder this year.

We wrote about the continued destruction of the environment and of ways people are trying to save it. Environmental concern is greater, but so is the ignorant prattling of those who believe global warming is a hoax.

Late Breaking—Sometimes Broken—News by Rosemary and Walter Brasch

by Rosemary and Walter Brasch
Featured Writers
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
September 14, 2009

WNEP-TV, a large regional station in northeastern Pennsylvania, led its noon news, Friday, Sept. 11, with the announcement that there was finally a compromise on the state budget.

The legislators have been playing politics, stalling, and delaying for more than two months, leaving Pennsylvania the only state without a budget. To the viewer, it seemed that the executive branch and the legislative branch finally figured out that the people’s money needed to be budgeted and used. This would have been great news–except that in the same story, we also learned there were still some details to be worked out.

A Bunnies’ Tale by Walter and Rosemary Brasch

by Walter and Rosemary Brasch
Featured Writers
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
Aug 25, 2009

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Forget everything you learned about Bre’er Rabbit, the brightest, most cunning of all animals in West African folklore and Joel Chandler Harris stories.

Disregard what you saw Bugs Bunny, the Brooklyn–born wise-cracking Br’er Rabbit spinoff, do to mentally-lame hunter Elmer Fudd and a host of cartoon characters.

Peter Cottontale, Peter Rabbit, and Roger Rabbit. Thumper, the March Hare, and The Easter Bunny. All are smarter in fiction than in real life. Even the average Playboy Bunny is brighter than the average rabbit.