We need to demonstrate something here in this school district. We need to demonstrate that we can be humane to each other. We are all tied in a single garment of destiny, and if one worker suffers, if one custodian is down, we are all down. If the CCEA teams up with the Teamsters to say that, it is a good, even a holy thing. Collier County, even though its population is permeated with retired corporate executives, needs to show respect for the dignity of labor. We often overlook the worth and significance of those who are not in high-paying jobs. But whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity, it has dignity. One day Collier County will come to respect the custodian. For the person who picks up our garbage, who cleans our floors and our restroom toilets, who scrapes up our hundreds of pounds of chewing gum, who mops up our spilled lunches, in the final analysis, is as significant as the physician, as significant as the superintendent. The custodian deserves his pay. He deserves health insurance. He deserves a pension. We need to remind Naples and the nation that it is a crime for people to live in a rich town and face the loss of their jobs because of decisions made by the wealthy bosses. We understand that this is the plight of people all over America. All of us are living through a time when there is high unemployment and underemployment. But we who are living on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder have our work itself regarded slightingly, have our time and our families not even taken into account at all. There was a time when man went to Hell because he didn't see the poor. His name is Dives. There is a man by the name of Lazarus who comes daily to his gate in need of the basic necessities of life. Dives doesn’t do anything about it. He ends up going to Hell. Dives doesn't go to Hell because he is rich. Dives goes to Hell because he passes by Lazarus every day, but he never really sees him. Dives goes to Hell because he allows Lazarus to become invisible. Naples, and America too, is going to Hell, if we don't see our custodians, our common laborers, as people of worth. If Naples does not use her vast resources to end the vicious cutting and killing of jobs in our schools, she too will go to Hell. We built gigantic buildings to reign over all from the sky. We built gargantuan bridges to fly over Airport road and connect Golden Gate Boulevard to I-75. Florida’s spaceships assemble an enormous space station beyond the stratosphere. Our visiting dignitaries come and go in Gulfstream-V airplanes that are able to dwarf distance and place time in chains. President Bush is even flying in tomorrow for a haves and have-mores event. But it seems that I can hear the Boss of the universe saying, "even though you've done all of that, you fired 250 custodians and asked them to reapply for their jobs so you could pay them less and give them fewer benefits. You cannot enter the kingdom of greatness." We’re going through a gas crisis, a mortgage crisis, an ICE crisis, an authority crisis, not to mention a never-ending war crisis. We are saying, "Now is the time." Now is the time to stop using the newest crisis as a bludgeon with which to beat your fellow countrymen. Now is the time to acknowledge that people are more important than money. Now is the time to learn to balance the budget without hurting people.