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Obama’s purple shirted SEIU cronies are his favorite people. They’re his most frequent visitors, after all, and they stand ready and willing to do whatever Comrade Obama asks of them. If you want to know what direction this country is headed in, just look at the shenanigans the Service Employees International Union thugs are pulling.
For example, Obama is supposedly all about volunteering. He wants young people to be willing to devote their lives to service. He likes that idea so much, that he even floated the idea of instituting a Hitler youth brigade, and for all I know, is still keen on the idea. But Obama and his SEIU pals are only fans of volunteer service performed by young people if they toe the Obama line. Boy Scouts, for example, are far too traditional and they cling to such old, antequated, conservative values — and therefore, they must be destroyed.
Starting with a seventeen-year-old boy who was doing volunteer work to try to earn his Eagle Scout badge.
In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.
Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city’s largest municipal union.
Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.
“We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails,” Balzano told the council.
Balzano said Saturday he isn’t targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city’s decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said “there’s to be no volunteers.” No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.
“We would hope that the well-intentioned efforts of an Eagle Scout candidate would not be challenged by the union,” said Mayor Ed Pawlowski in an e-mail Friday. “This young man is performing a great service to the community. His efforts should be recognized as such.”
Balzano said Saturday the union is still looking into the matter and might cut the city a break.
“We are probably going to let this one go,” Balzano said .
The possible entanglement of a local Boy Scout in a union dispute underscores the frustration and anger SEIU members feel after being the lone city union to suffer layoffs in the ongoing financial crisis. It may also serve as a preview of future labor battles as the city tries to outsource some necessary jobs as a result of the layoffs.
Anderson, a junior and varsity soccer player at Southern Lehigh High School, is a member of Boy Scout Troop 301 of Center Valley.
He got the idea for the trail while taking hikes along the partially complete, 165-mile Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. He noticed there were a few missing connections to the trail in Kimmets Lock Park, which is on the Lehigh River near Dauphin Street. He already has logged 250 hours trying to carve out a walking and biking trail along the river.
“I decided to do my part in completing this part of the trail. In that way, others could enjoy walking along the river, without having to walk on the busy road,” Anderson said in an e-mail Friday.
Selfless service? Apparently, this poses some kind of imaginary threat to SEIU workers. And if Balzano isn’t targeting the Boy Scouts, then what is he targeting? People who just do things for the sake of others without asking anything in return? This is typical of liberals to attack the Boy Scouts and a teenage boy trying to do a good thing. And what comes next? Will SEIU members be the only people allowed to mow our lawns? Paint our walls? And then of course, if we do it ourselves rather than letting Obama’s crony pals do it, will Balzano threaten to come after us, too?
Balzano said that he would let this one go — because of the holiday spirit. It’s more likely that he let it go because of all the bad PR he’s getting. It’s sad, though, when you think about it. What would’ve happened if he hadn’t been threatened by bad press filled with the holiday spirit? We all know the answer — he happily would have persecuted a seventeen-year-old kid who was just trying to do a good thing, and Obama would just look the other way. And if we don’t stand up to their thuggery, then our capital could remain looking like this.
Hat Tips: Moonbattery and Michelle Malkin
I am keeping an eye on this story. I live outside of Allentown, but my son is a Scout in the same Council, so it has a direct bearing on what he and his fellow Scouts may encounter.
How absolutely shameful of SEIU. And Obama’s “service” actually overlooks many of us that have already been doing service to our communities for many years. For too many people, just doing a “day of service” is enough to convince themselves that they’ve actually given back. Far too many talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk.
Do these Purple Shirt thugs have any shame?? Wait that’s right, they don’t have any. Unbelieveable.
Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened.
A few years ago, a group of volunteers cleaned up a stream in a local park into which trash had been dumped for years. The union which was supposed to have been doing the work actually billed the city for the labor-hours of the volunteers.
I wish I could find the story.
SEIU is pretty pathetic. Technically I belong to this union (it’s required for the university position I’m in), but I have nothing to do with them whatsoever. I see some of my co-workers with those stupid purple shirts on and I want to induce vomiting on them whenever it catches my eye. They’re also pretty worthless as a union too (not that I’m a particularly huge union person anyway), but it seems that the money they take out every week goes anywhere than what it’s supposed to go to…kinda strange…
this guy is an idiot. what a way for an adult to act let alone a president of a uinon. If I was in his member ship I would vote him out and than with draw my membership. You my friend are an a… it is people like you that make this world the hell hole that it is. I hope you rot in hell
Chuck,
Most of the goofballs in SEIU don’t know who their leaders are (and let’s face it, most people in general aren’t aware of what’s going on around them anyway) and if they do know, SEIU usually spins some garbage about how they’re protecting them and such. I’m not saying everyone in SEIU is like that (I’m certainly not) but a lot are pretty fanatical (power to the proletariat and nonsense like that).
AFSCME is the same way. They defend Democrats and big government in general at all costs. It is completly lost on them that almost all layoffs of public employees happen after Democrats create huge budget defecits with their out of control spending. Then they blame the Republicans for not supporting tax increases.
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