JCOER Is a Joke

 

This morning the Joint Committee On Employee Relations, or JCOER (which everyone pronounces "joker") was meeting to vote on the raises the legislature had already voted to give all us state workers. We were supposed to get 4% effective July 1, so back pay, and another 2% this coming January 1. I like to see how the sausage is made, and I had some brief remarks planned, so this morning Travalon dropped me off at the Capitol, and I finally found my way to Room 412 with the help of a guy who also asked me if I wanted to speak. He said to fill out a yellow card, but they had taken university employees' raises off of the agenda, so I wasn't sure I'd be allowed to say anything. I went in and listened, and different groups (like law enforcement and electricians) talked about why they needed this raise to stay competitive. Now I'm sure they do, and these raises don't even keep up with inflation, but I guarantee you that cops and electricians are paid much more than the custodians and food workers at the universities, who now will not get a raise. I won't either. This is because certain people in the legislature are having a snit over DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives at the universities. So why punish custodians, or even me? We have no control over such things. At one of our staff meetings, I said, "Imagine being against equity and thinking you're the good guy!" and another coworker sent around a comedy clip of one Nazi asking another one, "Are we the baddies?" Imagine what the history books will someday say about these guys keeping low-paid workers from getting raises because they don't like what the administration is doing. Of course, as we have seen in Florida, maybe their descendants will just ban the history books that talk about such things...

On a more cheerful note, there is finally some color in our neighborhood.

And the most spectacular color of all, the sunset my aunt and uncle saw in Colorado.

Isn't it funny how orange and purple look glorious together in a sunset but would look terrible if, say, you wore orange pants and a purple top? Or would that actually be a beautiful ensemble? Maybe even I, a lover of bright colors, have been too conditioned by our weird society that prefers people wear black and beige and paint their houses gray and white. That's what I love about the Caribbean - they have all those colorful houses! It seems like everyone loves that, but yet if you painted your house like that up here, your neighbors would run you out of town. Why? Why do so many people hate bright colors? So weird.

Famous Hat