That’s been the warning cry from the earliest looks at the 2010 budget for Erie County.

Cuts in state funding, picking up steam as they rolled downhill, blew deep holes in the local budget, where many programs required by law carry no accompanying dollars.

The result is a tax increase to pay for fewer services, and that’s just for county programs.

Other state shortfalls could remove the Captain from the Niagara, lifeguards from the chairs at Presque Isle State Park and other losses to the arts, public health and more.

Would County Executive-Elect Barry Grossman even run for office if he knew the full extent of the mess he was inheriting?

I would go on, lamenting our literal sorry state, were it not for several rays of light I’ve witnessed over the past few days; proof, perhaps, that sometimes it takes the worst of times to bring out the best in us.

For years WICU-TV has partnered with the Second Harvest Food Bank for a one day Holiday Food Drive.

This was the first year I was able to see the process first hand; car after car, pulling up.

Some handed over just a few cans of beans; some gave entire boxes.

One lady handed over six frozen turkeys, giving six families the cornerstone piece of a real Thanksgiving dinner they might not otherwise have.

There’s no question that the need has grown.

But so has the response, and there is hope in that.

C’mon, you could argue, aren’t we just proving that the gap between who has and who has not is just growing larger?

Perhaps, were it not for the other program I’ve seen this week.

On the WSEE-TV side, we partner with the Food Bank through a program called Read ‘n Feed.

The idea came about through the complaint that kids who come to school hungry can’t learn.

So schools throughout Erie spend one week raising both food for the Food Bank and books for the school’s library.

Of course the goal is also to raise awareness about those issues with the kids and their families.

Totals are kept so that organizers know which classes raise the most, and then a little reward (like a pizza party) is thrown to say thanks.

Obviously the more affluent areas would do the most, right?

Would you believe that each year, the largest totals come out of some of the hardest hit areas of the city, areas where one in four families live below the poverty line?

Maybe the problems are more real there.

Maybe the Food Bank is more directly connected as a solution there.

But maybe, just maybe, it’s that the harder the circumstance the more fierce the response.

That’s not paying more to get less, but giving more and getting more.

That’s neighbors with a little more helping those with a little less.

And there is hope in that, too.

Make sure you have the right batteries.

Nothing says disappointment more than a kid with a brand new toy who can’t play with the darn thing.

At our age think: New car, no gas.

I’m afraid that’s how County Executive-Elect Barry Grossman is going to feel in the not-too-distant future.

Imagine going over and over things in your mind until you know exactly what’s wrong with the world and exactly how to fix it.

Imagine planning for the day when you can implement that vision: raising money, meeting power players, knocking on doors and attending debates.

Imagine spending election night surrounded by family wringing your hands as a little known opponent gets right to the edge of your vote lead.

So you roll your eyes as seven previously uncounted districts are found and you reassure yourself that absentee ballots usually split the same way the main vote total does.

At long last, days after the election, the sun shines and your opponent concedes a long and hard fought race.

It must feel like Christmas morning and you’re getting the keys to the chocolate factory.

Only one problem:

County government’s bank account works the same way yours does.

If you have money you can do things.

If you don’t, you can’t.

By any estimate out there, the 2010 Erie County budget will do less but will cost more.

Grossman’s legacy inevitably begins with both layoffs and a tax hike.

The bad news is: You can’t get going like that.

The good news?

When you finally do get going there are few other places left to go but up.

So, shortly after the holidays are over, Barry Grossman will finally get the steering wheel to the ride called Erie County government in his hands.

But, like that kid at Christmas with no batteries, for now at least, he can only spin the wheel furiously, make loud “varooming” sounds to those nearby, and dream of the day when he can actually go some place.

Just a lot of questions, about what lessons can be learned from a small handful of off- off- year races that ranged from the curious to the bizarre.

By far the biggest impression we come away with is how few of us even cared.

Barely one fifth of those even registered to vote bothered to do so, at a time when American lives are at risk to buy those same rights for people in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

Where was the great Obama Tsunami, the wave of mainly young, eager people who swelled registration ranks determined to change the world from within the existing power structure?

It takes more than one election, one candidate to change a world, people.

Indeed, one of this week’s teachable moments is the power of either a single candidate or a single issue to rouse a small but determined voting bloc.

Consider Mike Kerner, a hard working but little known business guy who ran for County Executive on a platform of holding a tight fiscal line.

He was running against Barry Grossman, a restaurant owner and former political science teacher who came to the dance better battle hardened, better known and better funded.

But Kerner stuck to something of a singular message; we can’t afford a community college or any new spending right now.

As of this writing Grossman holds a slight lead going into the absentee ballot count, further proof that voters have little stomach for running up the bill right now.

The let’s-try-something-else mood also rose up in Millcreek, where a former police detective named Rich Figaski arrested the political career of incumbent Larry Curtis.

Some may have voted for Figaski on the issue of uneven water rates in the township; some may just want to see Figaski join a body that once suspended him from the force, a decision later overturned in court.

Either way it sets up to be interesting theater for those Tuesday morning meetings.

But for sheer show look no further than the baffling 6th District for Erie County Council, which represents the southeast corner of the county.

Incumbent David Mitchell decided he didn’t want to do it any more and didn’t run in the spring primary.

Then he saw who was running and changed his mind.

His write-in campaign was admirable but ultimately doomed.

Enter Ebert Beeman, a self-proclaimed anti-government man now paradoxically sitting on one of the most powerful political bodies in Erie County.

Beeman’s goal is to dismantle the machine from within, slashing programs and virtually eliminating taxation.

Would anyone like to go in with me on a concession business for those meetings?

It would be one hot sell; a little popcorn, a cold drink and what will undoubtedly be a great repeat performance.

No beheading, no lynching and no rampages, at least if you discount the political ads.

This year’s local election would then have to be seen as something of a quiet coup; even though two of the biggest jobs are up for grabs, the excitement has not been breathtaking.

Normally it’s seen as something of a victory if Republicans even field a candidate in the democratic-vote laden City of Erie Mayor’s race.

But this year’s challenger to Mayor Joe Sinnott is no stranger to the process; retired cop Jack Anderson is making his fifth run at the post.

While many think of Anderson’s attempts at office as the proverbial tilting at windmills, I prefer to believe that it’s important for people in retirement to stay active and have a hobby.

Clearly, running for Mayor is Mr. Anderson’s respite for the past twenty years.

When incumbent Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio lost his own party’s primary in the spring, the possibility arose of an exciting race between two political newcomers.

It hasn’t really played out that way.

Barry Grossman, the democrat who knocked DiVecchio out, has proven to be the more visible and better funded candidate.

Republican newcomer Mike Kerner, a businessman looking to bring a fiscally conservative approach to the office, is finding a steeper hill in generating name recognition and funding.

That doesn’t mean that he can’t do well, especially in a race where shoe leather still counts, but the smart money isn’t betting on it this time around.

That leaves, of all the rest, the battle for Millcreek Supervisor between incumbent Larry Curtis and challenger Rich Figaski.

Here there have been some sparks; most notably over a planned forum that Curtis contends was to be put together by County Controller Sue Weber, a former political foe and supporter of Figaski’s, a 30-year Millcreek police veteran.

It went so far that a poor television technician was hauled in front of everyone and asked just who requested television coverage of the face off.

In the end Curtis sat it out, giving Figaski a chance to contend to the television cameras that his opponent was running scared.

And so, Tuesday will come and Tuesday will go, a quiet coup that will inevitably alter the local political landscape.

Maybe it will change a lot.

But don’t bank on it.

Given the choice between alienating his new underlings or risking the ruffling of the feathers on a few County Council members in public, Jack Daneri sided with the working folks.

And he quietly gave those council members a chance to look good to the taxpayers too.

What I’m working on now is this:

Is he really that smart?

The death of former District Attorney Brad Foulk is giving the former First Assistant the chance to run the office his way.

I can tell you from personal experience that it is not always easy to rise from the ranks to become a supervisor as people often find it easier to respect a stranger as opposed to a former equal.

The domino effect of staff members switching positions is causing some salary shortfalls as assistant DA’s climb the ladder of responsibility with the same pay scale.

So Daneri offered Council a plan that looked good on paper.

Pay the people more than union scale but less than what predecessors were making.

The result could have been better pay for the staff and a savings to the taxpayers of $26,000 to boot.

Win-win, right?

Well, no.

Council is wrestling with the budget shortfalls brought about by the Commonwealth’s 101 day budget impasse; programs for the library and other county services are being slashed sideways.

That has led to speculation that council members will be forced into the political twin nightmares of reducing staff AND raising taxes.

So even if the numbers are there, there’s no political will to grant pay raises to anyone in that kind of atmosphere, savings or no.

Yet Daneri’s willingness to try brings him much needed staff “cred” as he works to reshape the former Foulk administration, while at the same time starting off his relationship with council by giving members a chance to look like fiscal watchdogs to the taxpayers.

Win-win, right?

He didn’t win because of what he has done.

He didn’t even win based on what he might do.

Not really.

President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize based on who he is not.

He is not George Bush.

Let’s think back to those days in early 2009.

The recession was already underway but was just beginning to sink its teeth into Middle America.

There were concerts in the Mall.

There were balls with fancy dresses.

More than anything else, there was hope.

Hope that the country was finally moving in a new direction.

Hope that issues long downplayed by one side of the aisle would now be championed by the other.

Hope that we just might be better off tomorrow than we are today.

In places like Europe, that hope turned almost euphoric, that the man now in charge of the 800 pound gorilla of world politics was not looking to pick a fight.

The discontent had grown as allies were pulled into conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and there was talk that Iran might be next.

If there is one thing people in Europe know, it’s this:

If missiles start flying in the Middle East, Europe is a lot closer to action on the field than America is.

This is not to say that the world was a more dangerous and less peaceful place with George Bush in the Oval Office.

But there is an overwhelming case to be made that many in the world BELIEVED that they were less safe with Bush in office.

Sum up the overriding emotion in Europe with news of a new American president?

Relief.

Consider:

The deadline for nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize was only 12 days into the first Obama administration.

Sure, there may be some who hope that a Nobel Laureate may choose reductions and diplomacy over build ups and aggression.

The judges said as much.

But clearly, choosing Obama when they did says much about who the President is, but perhaps even more about who he is not.

If it really happened, then it could only happen somewhere else, some major city where people who live these kinds of lives really exist.

But it couldn’t happen, not really, at least not in a quiet place like Erie.

Ah, but wait.

Monica Abate and three of her employees are charged with trying to bilk an elderly man out of nearly fifty thousand dollars.

Okay, so that’s not so out of place, greed after all is universal.

They are alleged to have tried to convince the man that one of the women had been kidnapped in Detroit and they needed the money to free her.

Okay, this starts to get a little closer to the TV script.

Oh, and the women work at a massage parlor and the 66-year old guy is a regular customer who believes that the alleged kidnap victim, a 22-year old girl named Shelly Hanner, is really his girlfriend.

Now we’re getting out there!

Monica Abate is denying any wrongdoing and none of this has been proven in court, but let’s look for a moment at what the police are saying.

They say that these women went to work every day; customer service reps who like anyone else in business works to service the customer.

Okay, maybe not like ANYONE in business.

Anyway, all the while they are keeping an eye out; looking for that certain someone with that perfect combination of soft spot and hard cash, someone who could be talked into the scheme and then talked out of the dollars.

And you know what?

There’s one of them born every minute.

Those who read of this will inevitably fall on different sides of this case.

Some will point out that women in these kinds of jobs often come from backgrounds of abuse and excess, a place where self esteem is doled out by eye dropper.

Others will feel pity for an elderly, lonely man set upon by hardened opportunists, someone looking for what Bruce Springsteen calls “a little human touch” in an otherwise harsh existence.

Whether the charges are born out or not, what is left revealed is one sordid mess, a place where everyone appears to be broken and no one has any trouble climbing over the other to get to the crumbs.

It’s hard to believe that it is being alleged in Erie.

It’s also hard to believe, that this storyline won’t one day find its way onto our favorite crime show.

Staggering statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau reflect that more of us feel that weight than ever before, as nearly one of every four of us living in the City of Erie is living in poverty, more of us by percentage than any other major urban area in Pennsylvania.

The Great Recession of 2009 continues to conjure images of the Great Depression of 1929; billions of dollars in bailouts may have prevented the bank collapses but are doing little to keep the bread lines from quietly growing in soup kitchens across the country.

This is not to say that anyone in poverty is hopeless or doesn’t try; surely the true frustration must come from those trying with everything they have just to find themselves once again going nowhere.

Estimates revealed in the Times News show some 38,000 people in Erie County below the poverty line, some 13,000 of them under the age of 18.

That’s a pretty harsh lesson learned at a pretty young age, years that should otherwise be among the most carefree we get to enjoy.

Still, while those who “have” can feel the weight OF those numbers, we have scant experience to feel the weight FROM those numbers; the weight of failure at not being able to support your kids or make a contribution to the world.

Tellingly, as these numbers were being released, social workers and community leaders were taking part in a role playing table top exercise aimed at increasing understanding as to what people in poverty face.

They took on roles far different from themselves; a middle age college graduate for instance playing a 17-year old pregnant teen.

They tried to find food, housing and opportunity for their characters only to be rebuffed at every turn.

They felt the frustrations and the cold shoulders; they saw the social machinery they themselves operate viewed from the bottom instead of the top.

But in the back of their minds, they knew that at the end of the day they were getting into their cars and going home.

Because of that they never really felt the weight.

There is no answer here, no witty turn of phrase that will snap the pieces neatly in place.

For those of us who can, we must do what we can; a couple of bucks here, a sandwich there, one less latte or Friday night draft.

We must remember the faces behind the numbers and search out ways to provide safe passage where we can.

If the three above the line can find a way to help the fourth struggling below it, we really could lift the weight of the world.

President Barack Obama chose Pittsburgh for the model of what he sees as the recipe for a new future; a former Rust Belt has-been reborn by high technology into economic prosperity, a society that was once carried by blast furnaces now riding the Era of the Gigabyte.

Thousands of protesters will gather in Pittsburgh as well this weekend.

The public line is that they will be there to get the attention of the world leaders to hear the truth about their causes.

You and I know better.

Those leaders attract thousands of television cameras from around the world, and it is to that audience that the protesters will make their cases; about AIDS, and global warming, third world debt, the War in Iraq and universal health care, a cause carnival that sooner or later teeters on the brink of melee.

There are already guys repelling off the Sixth Street Bridge in front of a big sign about carbon emissions.

I don’t know about you, but that would make me stop were I the focus of some 15 vehicle motorcade.

My sister-in-law lives in Glasgow, Scotland and was there when the leaders of the G-8 took over a castle there.

She tells the tale of how her accounting firm made arrangements for the staff to leave clothes at the company and told the employees not to go outside carrying a brief case or back pack.

Ordinary professionals who would otherwise not warrant a second glance were now under scrutiny on every street.

Perhaps it would be best, the boss thought, to just spend a few days at work and order in.

City and County leaders around Pittsburgh expressed open glee upon learning that the President of the United States had chosen their spot above all others as the place to bring the movers and shakers of the world’s top economies.

Shortly after that, City and County leaders broke out in open warfare over who would be footing the bill up front until the federal reimbursements flowed in.

Still, a chance to showcase your achievements to the entire world must surely reap benefits that would last years.

It will be curious to see, when the time comes to sweep the confetti and settle the bill, if the people of Pittsburgh still feel the same way.

But there they were, sitting around the newsroom at CNN Washington when the scanner suddenly goes off:

A suspicious boat was working its way up the Potomac near where the President was engaged in a memorial service.

The Coast Guard gives chase; suddenly ten rounds are fired and the scanners go quiet.

The date is September 11th.

The staff instantly jumps into overdrive; as some start pounding out copy for a Breaking News report, others get on the phone to verify.

Could this be some kind of gag?

“We have no reports of any activity, planned or otherwise, taking place on the Potomac,” the Coast Guard spokesperson tells the reporter.

“We have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Faced with a vacuum of confirmation and the pressure of reporting a massive news story first, CNN broke the report shortly after 10 am.

Reuters and Fox News either did not or could not verify yea or nay but decided to tell people that CNN was telling people what they heard.

Thirty minutes later (an eternity in our Twitter universe) CNN had to tell its viewers that it had all been a practice drill.

No boat.

No shots fired.

No story.

Media critics are using the moment to lament all that is wrong with journalism and the CNN staff deserves the slings and arrows for the leap of faith, but let me add this:

I would still rather have aggressive journalists who occasionally overreach as opposed to not knowing something when it actually is happening.

I’m not defending what happened.

I’m just remembering that some people around Chernobyl were never told why their hair was falling out.

The Coast Guard is also hearing from its share of detractors, for keeping the plans secret from members of their own branch and for not telling others (like members of the press).

Volunteers hold drills all the time around here and usually someone calls us so that the reporters here know it’s not real.

And I’m sure someone thought it was a great idea to practice on September 11 since that may be the day someone decides to start something.

But a practice on September 10 or September 12 could be just as effective with a lot fewer scars.

Some are calling it ready-fire-aim journalism.

Others call it a military meltdown.

It looks to me like a Comedy of Errors, one that could have been avoided with a little communication tinged with a touch of common sense.