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Mr. President: Let the BART firings begin

Updated on October 22, 2013

He's pro-Union, but no one's fool.

In other U.S. States it is illegal to disrupt an entire community's infrastructure the way BART 's strikes have done; enough is enough.

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As a longtime resident of the San Jose Bay Area, as well as regular user of BART - on and off spanning decades - I can definitely take pride in watching this remarkable community grow, change and develop; notably since about 1978. After living around the planet and throughout several U.S. States, I have made this Northern California enclave my sort of de facto "home."

It ain't always perfect. Getting accustomed to California requires both flexibility and understanding. But how understanding can citizens be when greed and ineptness are disguised and mis-marketed to the public under a false banner of ‘social consciousness’?

Enter the crusty old fossil known as BART, or the Bay Area Rapid Transit system.

BART, both an above-ground and below ground railway system, is just a simple mass-transit people mover, nothing fancy. It is a publicly-funded (through our taxes) railway system typified by rude employees, offensive odors, nondescript upholstery stains, and frequent delays. When their management isn’t busy hiring private, gun-bearing security guards to murder innocent riders -reference Oscar Grant and the Fruitvale injustice- BART enjoys the shell-game of shuffling about under a guise of 'progressivism' while claiming to be "for the people." It is a game played equally by workers and management alike, and at the expense of Bay Area residents. The sad irony is that many of BART's riders rely heavily upon the rail system to get to and from employment which, by their own self-identification, places them at or below the 'livable limits' for the out-of-control, high cost of living San Jose Bay Area.

I don't care about the finger-painting: BART management says unions are responsible, BART employees point back at BART mismanagement. I really do not care BART, you are all equally culpable at this point.

Are BART union employees becoming as greedy as the very management they claim to oppose?

Both of you -management AND union alike- take heed- We The People are on to your nonsense... ENOUGH of this shell game.

We see what is going on here and in this age of telecommuting, of mass social migration, of government downsizing, the crusty old public transportation fossil BART really does need a reality check.

BART is part of the infrastructure, and therefore part of the eminent domain. Why, or how, it is permitted to still operate via union is beyond anyone.

And now here we have yet another strike. Really... Really!?

It's time to call the B.S. when we smell the B.S.

  • To Spoiled BART employees: Your 1%er greed is beginning to show. In times when good jobs are still at a premium- be appreciative of having an already great job with great benefits.
  • To inept BART management: 2% wage increase is not a realistic increase for survivability in this area. Bring your employees up to Federal GS pay guidelines and then grow some gonads and order your employees back to work... or fire them all.... DONE.

A social media friend of mine posted a pretty interesting FaceBook declaration a few weeks back that really set me to thinking. In his post he said that he’d pretty much had enough of all of these BART shenanigans and that, as a publicly-funded agency drawing revenues from OUR TAXES they shouldn't even be ALLOWED to strike.

Yup, I agree. I'm now pretty fed up too.

These BART-union Nazis now holding we the taxpayers hostage with their threats and greed tactics need to take heed that there isn't a repeat of 1981 when President Reagan terminated 13,000 UNIONIZED air traffic controllers.

Indeed, President Obama is all hope and change and brave new world and whatnot, but Mr. Obama is also all business. As such, this coveted liberal demagog we all elected in 2008 -and then again 2012- isn't quite so liberal as mistakenly assumed; so unions take heed.

Everyone –including bullying unions intent upon holding the infrastructure hostage with BS strikes and stall-tactics- need to remember that a President’s only agenda, regardless of politics, is ensuring that a smooth and effective government prevails; be it Federal, State or local. As such, whether taking out the world’s most-wanted top terrorist, or rushing to a small town decimated by a class-5 super-tornado, this President will set politics aside to safeguard the best interests of his nation’s infrastructure…at ALL levels.

BART, I know you think you are “all that” but check yourself for a moment…

13,000 suddenly terminated air traffic controllers proved that no union is so powerful that a President can't or won't intervene... As 'important' as BART possibly is or was in the Bay Area’s history, BART is nowhere near as important as the nation's airlines; then or now.

BART union officials may soon awaken to an Obama ultimatum followed by Reagan-esque pink-slips.

Amidst all of our new progressiveness, our cultural migration and technological rapture, one very old fossil keeps lumbering around, ever reminiscent to San Jose Bay Area commuters of just how progressive things were... circa 1978.

Mr. President, let the BART firings begin.


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