On March 25, 1911, Frances Perkins was visiting with a friend who lived near Washington Square in New York City when they heard fire engines and screams.
Thank you for sharing that. I did not know and went to the Frances Perkins Center website. Yet another great lesson from the professor on history as she is interviewed at the center. Well worth watching.
We Mainers are very proud of Frances Perkins--well, with the exception of former guv LePage. LePage was so anti-labor that he had a commemorative mural, part of which featured Frances Perkins and other significant events in Maine's Labor history, taken down and hidden in a closet. The mural had been in the entrance area of Maine's Department of Labor, but LePage declared that it was too inimical to business people entering the building and had it taken down and tucked away.
Thankfully the panels comprising the mural have been restored to an appropriate spot and we can celebrate our workforce history and accomplishments.
When I drive through Maine and see bumper stickers and signs for LePage, I am saddened because it means more Mainers are informed of what it took to get here. Men like LePage did not build this country, they just live off what others accomplished.
Republicans live off of the working class ‘sweat labor’, and refuse to give credit where credit is due. To the Democratic base that pays their salaries!
Trump proved to be a huge "loss leader" and vulgar LePage would never have won once, let alone twice if there hadn't been a third candidate siphoning off votes from the Dems. This last contest, between LePage and Governor Mills (no relation) had no third party and Paulie got the voting booth trouncing he so desperately deserved.
Here! Here! Frances was powerful force for good. I am proud to be a Mainer, although I have been a resident of England since 1956. Born in 1933, it was so interesting to read about events around my young years. I was so upset when LePage removed those panels.
We can NOT let these foul twisted Repugnants and their corporate owners dismantle all the good Ms. Perkins and her allies worked so hard to establish. For the sake of our country and our very souls, we must prevail.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the diametric opposite of Frances Perkins. I think the average Arkansan is very far down her list of priorities. Her priorities seem to have been permanently warped by her close association with the amoral leader she so willingly lied for.
MAGA voters think Dumpster is one of them. They spent years yelling insults and conspiracy theories at their television sets. Trump yells the same insults and crackpot theories *on* television (and social media, and at rallies.) Also, the Republicans went to great deliberate effort over years to turn abortion, immigration, and guns into wedge issues, when they saw that their actual beliefs weren’t popular. Then they exploited those issues to polarize the country and to persuade voters that they, the Republicans, were the only party that agreed with them on those issues.
I've read a couple of times musings that even our poor people are too rich -- instead of voting for things that improve our standard of living and housing opportunities, we now vote for intangibles, like "freedom," "diversity," and "family values." Lovely ideas and even important, albeit impossible to define, but clearly a sign of an electorate that is enjoying a full belly.
They are called “sheep”. You can get them to do anything you want if you dangle a carrot in front of them. TFG has made his life profession dangling carrots for the sheep.
Agreed. But I ask, “why do the likes of Sarah Huckabee Sanders get elected in the first place?” We have a lot of work to do to turn around the votes of those who support these candidates and travel to Waco to applaud the most evil, lying person in modern times. What will it take to turn the tide as the NY fire did?
One could be forgiven for thinking that the 1/6 attempted insurrection would have triggered remorse and a commitment to do better, not worse as tfg wants
We cannot forget that she is the child of a predecessor in the her office, Pastor Mike. Or that he's the poster board for faux Christianity and its accompanying hypocrisy.
Sara is a staunch anti-abortionist as well. It seems the calculation the right-to-life people make is that industries like meat packing and construction will always require a continual pool of cheap labor.
The right to life people are strictly about controlling women's bodies and preventing sex outside of marriage. From the point of view of business people, waiting for children now in utero to grow up would take way too long. The cheap labor people encourage immigration, because immigrants are even more exploitable than poor Americans, plus, it's easier to flood the labor market with immigrants.
There's a recent book you should read, Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth.
Among the many examples, in 1980, most meat packers were Black, earning good middle class wages. By that decade's end, most were immigrants, toiling for barely above minimum wage, under atrocious conditions, where maimings and amputations were frequent. Similar conditions prevailed in other areas of low/no-skilled work.
The book is solid (296 footnotes), yet well written, covering the relevant academic economic history, black periodicals, statements from black leaders beginning with Frederick Douglass, whose sons were downwardly mobile due to mass immigration (companies would send ships to Europe to bring back white workers so they could fire the black workers, and the same sort of thing goes on today with companies bringing in H1-Bs), and gov't commissions on immigration reform. The latest of these, run by Barbara Jordan, the Black Texas Democrat who made her name on the House Judiciary Committee during Watergate, recommended cutting immigration numbers roughly in half, and strict enforcement of immigration laws, so that Blacks and other American workers could get decent jobs with decent pay.
The book also gives the lie to to the notion there are jobs Americans won't do. the author interviewed laid off poultry workers on the Eastern Shore, who'd been replaced by immigrants. Would they take their old jobs back? No, they told him. with the greatly reduced wages, they'd have to live in their cars, or many to a house. (the book is $13 on Amazon.)
Companies that need more workers should be raising their wages. Our labor participation rate is still quite low (meaning a lot of unemployed people are not looking for work).
Thanks for the suggestion. Another book worth reading tells the history of labor with an emphasis on women. It's titled Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor by Kim Kelly
Interesting. I'll put it on my list. My family has an interest in labor that goes back a couple of generations on the maternal side (my grandmother got her PhD in Labor Relations in 1915; her brother, a union lawyer, ran the Colorado Democratic Party for most of the first half of the last century.
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders today requested a Major Disaster Declaration from President Joe Biden to support ongoing recovery efforts in communities impacted by the severe winter weather in January and February of this year, which caused power outages, damage to infrastructure, and deaths.
I wouldn't mind seeing a little hardball from Biden. He just gets dissed and dissed by these Red State demagogues. DeSantis, now Huckabee, and I can't believe the governor of Mississippi won't be reaching out for the damage to his state. Yet these same governors pledge fealty to tfg who never, ever, thinks of anyone but himself.
While advocating for a reduced federal government, they turn to that same government to help them in times of chaos. They don't want to pay for any of it themselves, but think it's okay to ask the rest of us to do so. If there was a way to make it clear to those who voted for these thugs that they've been sold down the river.
It’s always important to think about the imbalance between the Red States that are often the net takers of Federal monies and the Blue States that are generally the net providers
Yeah, I agree. However..... Biden is more concerned about the *people* living in those states, who voted against him, than their own governors, who are just concerned about anti-younameit. I think Dr Spock would say "It's illogical" but it IS the human thing to do.
I agree. It wouldn't be right to punish people for what their leaders are doing, but they themselves voted for those thugs. How might we provide both the help and the message that this is what good government does and voting Republican opposes all of this help they are being given?
We're all watching. First she shamelessly lied for TFG at countless press briefings. Now she is moving her state backwards on child labor laws. Whoever mentioned Upton Sinclair's, The Jungle to her, didn't clarify that the conditions he described are not a goal nor an instruction manual. Time has shown that Michelle Wolff comparing her to The Handmaid's Tale's Aunt Lydia was extremely unkind...to Aunt Lydia.
The sad thing is that it seems the wrong people ARE reading it and using it as their inspirational playbook. An undesirable case of life imitating art. I hope we get this ship righted long before we need a real life Mayday.
Yes! And I just shared HCR's letter and resources on 20 Fox entertainment programs this morning. Felt good to spread truth and facts on a really slimy, propaganda station. The drama and things I had to hear/read on that fox journey gave me a stomachache so I had to quit when I reached 20.
Good use of my time waking up way too early this morning!!
it's incumbent on Americans to fight to maintain her legacy. If you have benefited from it you heed to fight to keep it. Francis Perkins did SO much to fight for these benefits ,that work is passed down to every generation to keep them. If anything trump and the Republicans have shown the public is that complacency kills all the hard fought for gains and kills democracy.
I have long admired her. She is the epitome of “crisis = opportunity”…she took a tragedy that should never have been and transformed it into a societal benefit. Perhaps her likeness on a coin, or stamp at the very least, to honor her contribution.
Why isn’t her name known to every school child. I never heard of the fire until an adult and her until years later. Least appreciated and most consequential - a true public servant.
I don't think Elise Stefanik would want the children in her northern NY district to learn about Frances Perkins. Sounds way too Woke to be admired. After all, Perkins actually cared about the welfare of the poor. That would not sell well in today's GOP leadership circle. Probably need to be banned.
I didn't learn about Frances Perkins in US History in high school OR college either. That was in the 1960's when women were not considered very "important" in US History. My college US History was a male chauvinist man and he chose the text book. I made it a point of nailing him to the wall about his interpretation of some aspects of our history and instigated class discussions.
I still got an A grade and upon graduation from Central Oregon Community College, Bend, Oregon and was given The Most Valuable Student Award. It was a surprise but then I volunteered to help with registration, was Head of the Student Court and helped set up the college library. All that in two years with a 4 point. I was a mover and shaker female student making policy but not on the grand scale as Francis Perkins.
The way I see it, Francis Perkins was woman with wisdom and a mission who helped break the downward cycle of The Great Depression. I certainly appreciate her achievements such as Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood and all our rural Farm Market Roads, labor laws, Social Security and turning the USA back into a country that cared about it's people.
It's time to crack down on our Corporations using our anti-monopoly laws, support Unions, boycott corporations for bad behavior and not buy their products or services and stop voter suppression laws, racism, and "Christian Nationalism". If things don't turn around and the Republican Party doesn't get a handle on their stupidity, I will move back to Switzerland like I did in 1970 and live there. I will not live under a Republican Autocracy. But then I am still into standing my ground and raising my fist and fighting against the Republicans, Kevin McCarthy has to go. He has proven how weak spined a man he is at the 2023 Legislative Session. Weak, puny man, Kevin Mc Carthy is. Shameful!
Today being Sunday, I may just go to my neighbor church just to shake their up their "Christian Nationalism" ideas.
What I am finding curiously interesting about McCarthy is what seems his attempt to create an image on Twitter while grasping at the mantras of the extremists - parents having the right to decide what their children learn in school is yesterday's flavor. He has posted photos of himself playing with his dog, and today a huge headshot if him trying to look powerful. An embarrassment to California. Bakersfield is the most polluted city in the U.S. with lung harming particulates destined to kill. Why these people vote for him boggles.
An amazing force. It was a sad day when Perkins Grants ended. They provided funds to train non-traditional and older adults. I hope another Frances Perkins rises up from this new generation, we desperately need a person with such fortitude and moral grounding.
Said this before but...the loud voice , antics, crazies, terrorists.. they make headlines. It’s a sorry fact but the blood and guts gets more attention , like a sick negative gravitational pull of mankind, and ‘sells the paper Jimmy Brown’.
We so need to hear the multitudes of little hands out,up, the little voices carrying a little good news today. Though fodder for the comedians like never before it STILL gives them press and focus.
Thankfully we have young leaders Greta (climate change), Malala (girls/women's rights), David (gun safety), Maxwell (Gen Z's newly elected FL House member) and more . . . So inspiring!
The social safety net that Democrats created and keep trying to widen remains under constant attack from Republicans. And it’s Republicans who want to weaken protections for workers and bring back child labor. The struggle never ends.
That is my take from this. From the beginning of the New Deal and the social safety net that Frances Perkins helped to form, the Rs have been busy trying to dismantle it. I have posted this to my Facebook page as a reminder of and tribute to this amazing woman. Thank you for reminding us, Dr. Richardson.
Sarah Sanders the great lying mouthpiece for trump has moved on to Arkansas governor and signing laws to supposedly “protect” the children by banning talk of gender identity, gender orientation, reproduction in schools, and of course teaching any actual history. Especially if it involves racial inequality. But she thinks it’s just fine for children under 16 to work in meat packing plants or any other factory. After all they are cheap labor and they will probably drop out of school. Don’t want them to get too smart, right Sarah
Well, not Sarah's kids, of course--or the kids of other well-to-do Rs...only the kids of the working poor. Hey they gotta pull themselves up by the bootstraps, right? Provided those children survive the working conditions, that is.
I remember reading about the unintended consequences of banning child labor in impoverished places in India and Vietnam, where the working families were so poor that when their small children were barred from work in dangerous factories and farms, they died instead of malnutrition. So in a way, Huckabee's law makes sense, in that it allows parents, without oversight, to send their middle schoolers off to work and keep their earnings, making financial decisions based on their needs without government interference.
This also means that Huckabee is happy to be living in a state so backwards that poor families have to pimp their children out to local business just to feed themselves, and their public school degrees are worth less than the few dollars a 15-year old can earn in an illegal job. That's what the "Great" in "MAGA" means.
Well, regarding Susan's observation, Billboards may not "persuade" any more than a soap commercial does on TV, but a billboard is "in your face" and that's what works with tailgators and Deliverance stupes. At the same time, it gives the rest of us satisfaction of sticking it to em.. Deliverance style! Yeeeehaww..!! So, put their moronic goofs right out front for all to laugh at. A lot cheaper than "soap commercials" or TV sound bites. Keep em simple though, particularly in Arkansas, for all those mutha-Hucka-buckers.
Nice idea, although I have to ask: have you, Susan, ever been persuated to change your mind by something you saw on a billboard or in a mass-mailing? I suspect that mass marketing is more useful to prompt action from allies, not to convince adversaries to vote otherwise.
What still stirs me about the Frankllin Roosevelt era is that the movers and shakers were frequently people of privilege who were moved by the plight of the poor and disadvantaged. We don't see that very often today. Of course, it could still be a scandal that Perkins, while married, had a long romantic relationship with Mary Harriman Rumsey, who founded the Junior League.
There's a lot about Perkins in Volume 2 of Blanche Wiesen Cook's biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. I seem to have lost track of my Perkins biography, but Cook spent her career studying the women of that era, and she's a reliable source.
There are quite a few folks from more privileged backgrounds with a deep concern for folks….I think of Rose Kennedy’s own behests to her kids….the ‘altruism’ movements nation wide, and so much more….I was a poverty lobbyist and while there certainly is a political ‘divide’ on issues relating to the disposition of ‘public benefits and entitlements’….
One can find all sorts of Allie’s if a commonality of experience is uncovered…..
In my experience ignorance of the human need is a big deal and clarifying the situation….very helpful.
Sadly that's what most of us thought about 45. I still think that somehow I got switched into an alternate timeline or universe back in 2016, and there's no way back.
Yes, and I’ve known about him for decades. Everyone I talked to I tried to tell them how he was, what he was, and they still voted for him. Even today, these same people still ‘love him’! (puke)
Damn right, Ms. Janice! Remember the "Berenstain Bears?" Before 2016, they were named the "Berenstein Bears" (note spelling). The timeline has been disrupted by an evil spell peformed by Steve Bannon and Roger Stone, who dipped Donald into a simmering cauldron filled with pornstar piss (the "Golden Shower" ritual), thereby rendering him invincible, albeit somewhat stupid. But Bannon had to hold Donald by the foot during the ritual, so his heel is unguarded. That's why legal issues are Trump's "Achilles Heel."
(I should put in a parody disclaimer here, since there are too many people out there who would actually believe me. On the other hand, maybe this could be an earning opportunity for pornstars, who could offer their piss to the RNC at a premium prices!)
Thank you very much, Heather, for your tribute to this towering force of a woman. Democrats might find a way to make "Democrats are for betterment" part of their Insistent, persistent, omnipresent talking points as we enter (already!) another election cycle.
Mim: "With Dems, Things Get Better" is the 35-minute presentation by Simon Rosenberg, which he has updated and given monthly for decades. If you aren't already familiar, I think his work os EXACTLY what you are after. His latest presentation is on YouTube at
Thank God for the determination of Frances Perkins and thank you for reminding us of all that she and her associates accomplished. Enjoy your early evening!
One word stuck out of the letter for me today, I wonder if it will for others on the forum as well?
DECENT
"It was a human, decent, natural thing to do,” Perkins said"
Good grief, I am so tired of politicians who wish to be outrageous, who call themselves "Christian" and behave like...........I don't know what. Words fail me.
"Decent" seems to be to me in this modern world almost a negative. "How was the movie?" "Decent." Not a "on the edge of your seats don't miss blockbuster" just 'decent."
I was once told that you have the ups and downs in life because if you don't have the downs you can't truly appreciate the ups.
Working in the hospital lab, the administration put a "STAT charge" on tests ordered "STAT"--if everyone demanded results immediately, it slowed down EVERY test. It tried to emphasize what was truly "stat" so to speak. Wish I could better explain this, but I think you astute readers understand.
I'd be quite happy to live in a world where most everything is "decent" including our elected officials.
Hello Rex, A few months ago I was in the parking lot of my grocery store struggling to lift a collapsible grocery cart into the back of my car. Up rushes a good looking man in his fifties who says, here, let me help you. After he put the object in my car he beamed a winning smile and said ...”and I’m a Republican!”
(Picture me laughing!) I think most of us are both insufferable and decent. Isn’t that right? Some leaning more to one side or the other. All in all decency will win in the end. Kindness will win and love of our fellow will win.
If history repeats then, as you say, good will is going to be defeated. We are going to self destruct- kill ourselves and many other living beings off. If that happens how can it be bad?
Just out of curiosity, was he white? I mean, it's wonderful that he was so observant and helpful, but I would expect middle-aged, white, Republican man to graciously help an attractive white woman. And in general, I've found Republicans to be about as appropriate in a social situation as any other group -- they throw nice parties and are often very good at their jobs.
It's how they're willing to treat people they don't know that sets them apart, and what cues they use to decide who to favor and who to hurt. But for all that, the vast majority of them are "decent" in the vast majority of circumstances. I think it important to remember that.
He was a white, charismatic, had the look of a man who men, women, and kids would all be drawn to. He helped me because he saw me struggling not because I’m attractive.
Funny and sad at once. I chuckled on reading your comment. If the favor was done for me, I likely would have wondered and never guessed. Though seems he's more self-aware than me.
Once upon a time Joe McCarthy ( a precursor of modern Republicans) was brought to heel in part by Joseph Welch pointing out that he had no "decency". Now the whole $#%& Party is bereft of any fragment.
Decent wages, decent housing, decent schools, decent roads, decent hospitals. Yup. I'd like to live where decent is the norm. Not everyone is exceptional, but everyone can be decent.
Indeed! As to your last point, I have recently recommended reading the book "The Hospital" by Brian Alexander. Every person elected to Congress should read it.
Ah, the wonderful life at Lake Woebegone, where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." (Thanks for prompting a good memory.)
I'm sure you would, Karen. Many times I've heard the phrase that "everyone should work in retail at least a little" and they'd be better customers. Well, everyone should work in healthcare for 6 months, too.
When I was 16 years old in the immigrant part of NY’s Lower East Side, I worked after school in my underwear in a small very hot factory at a machine for 50 cents an hour!And my mother insisted that I better not open the little pay envelope containing coins.That was a short distance from where the factory burned about 40 years earlier. Progress was slow when money was involved and immigrants needed any job.Perkins was extraordinarily devoted to reform, while Al Smith,Roosevelt and Dems were believed to be our salvation!There are still millions of American workers who make less than $10 an hour, particularly Black, Latino and in the South.When we win it all in 24, as we must to save our democracy from the rule of the likes of MTG and the crazies, we have to really strengthen the labor laws even in blue states as Gov Whitmer is now doing with a Dem legislature in Michigan.Folks are working but barely surviving!
Ira Lechner, thank you so much for sharing your point of view from lived out experience. Your life, your family's values which were tough and of the "survival" type formed you into a deeply caring individual.
There are so many coming into our country, who want a job, education for their children, a place for family, a place to live in peace. Families have been separated from their children, children have been harmed......so much evil, so much harm when people just want to live.
We are able to help. I have not been to the border. I do not know the difficulity the police are dealing with. I know there is violence. I know that with the good there is evil....evil people using immigration as nothing but a disruption for our governance.
We cannot stop investing in helping others. As Joe Biden says, "We are the United States of America." The living out of the ideal of freedom and kindness will never be perfect but we cannot stop the precess of fulfilling that dream. Martin Luther King also had a dream. These ideals are worth giveing our lives to.....in small or large ways.....where we find ourselves in life.....we can do something.
Francis Perkins was such a person. Heather is such a person.....lets find a way to help dreams come true.
If I'm reading you correctly, and you were making this 50 cents an hour in 1952, inflation-adjusted, you were earning $5.63/hour.
Always inflation-adjust your dollars. You can do so by googling "inflation calculator" and plugging in the numbers. I used the US Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.
The $25,000 donation after the shirtwaist fire is $768,000 in current dollars.
For perspective, the $2,600 Plymouth Valiant my parents bought new in 1970 cost nearly $20,000 in current dollars.
There certainly seems to be movement in the direction of fewer protections for workers, especially children, in state legislatures. We are being set up for another tragedy fueled by the same kind of greed that killed the Triangle Shirt Factory fire and being touted as providing opportunities for workers.
I still can't quite figure out how we as a society have sort of blanked out well greater than 1,000,000 deaths. Some were unavoidable; we were under attack by an invasive, heartless enemy, and it's not defeated yet. Still, in one of the world's most technologically advanced societies, billed as the richest nation in the world, we had the worst per capita death toll.
When a plane crashes and maybe 100 or so are dead, they comb though every fragment. There investigations, recommendations, and revisions to guard against it happening again. Many who might have been spared were killed as much by political treachery as by the virus, and not always those who who were infected by the former. The virus is an evil piece of work, but it's grounded unless it can hitch a ride.
Of course, there's more to it than that, and I highly recommend Michael Lewis's The Premonition for a lot of interesting stories and detail on how some Americans really did a good job fighting the pandemic, and others failed pretty badly.
I know the Obama tried in vain to get the Trump administration up to speed on preparation, masking and distancing make perfect sense, and the speed with which we produced useful vaccines is astonishing.
But the GOP sacrificed thousands in order attempt to preserve normal commerce and make it a wedge issue, as they did with immigration, and "Critical Race Theory".
All that care taken when planes crash is why air travel is so safe.
I don't think it helps to refer to viruses as evil. Viruses are inanimate molecular mechanisms, large numbers of which are actually harmless, and even beneficial. Medical researchers have even tried to use certain viruses--phages--to treat illnesses (but it's been easier to use antibiotics).
But you're absolutely right that it speaks poorly of us that we had so many deaths from COVID. We could have saved a lot more people.
You are right of course about viruses, as evil requires malicious intent and I was speaking imprecisely. The virus seems like a sentient predator because it replicates and spreads, even as protein warping by prions spreads. The dynamics of replication and spreading is larger than life, for which it seems to me a bit deeper than metaphor to speak of a computer "virus", as it seems that some of the same dynamics appear to apply. The dynamics of cult ideologies also seems to follow this path, as it prohibits and punishes questioning the cult, enforcing repetition irrespective an evidence base.
There are parallels in the treatment of workers in meatpacking plants during the pandemic. People were required to work as Coronavirus spread in close working conditions. People earning low wages had no sick leave to allow them to stay home when ill. People died....
An amazing woman, Frances Perkins. Thank you for this moving tribute to both Perkins and FDR who had the good sense to appoint her and back her proposals. She was the kind of practical, action oriented visionary who can transform the arc of history. We have all benefited -- and now need to take up the fight to preserve AND RESTORE her legacy. Repugnant (far too weak a term) that Gov Sanders of Arkansas is allowing more child labor not less. So much for Repub. being in favor of Life.
A friend now an elder, worked for the maine Dept of Labor until she retired. We met as volunteers with the Southern Maine Workers Center. She told me her own mother worked at that factory but had stayed home from work that day feeling unwell. In Maine the Frances Perkins center is very special and as you may know, Laura Fortman, it’s former director, is now Maine secretary of labor. Ironic we Cumberland county dems had arranged to present her with a Frances Perkins award when Covid hit. we had to cancel, so instead of attending our cancelled party she was answering the phones at the DOL ! Trying to help people in panic gain access to their hard earned unemployment benefits. The legacy of Frances Perkins lives!
" She told me her own mother worked at that factory but had stayed home from work that day feeling unwell."
As my age increases it is brought home to me more viscerally how recently a lot of things significantly changed. It used to be I thought anything that happened before my birth was back there with pharaohs and dinosaurs, yet now, in many more ways than I can account for here, I see everything in flux. My father was born shortly before US women could vote. Hugh Downs said be once shook hands with a man who claimed he had shaken the hand of Lincoln, and Downs researched enough to know that that former Union soldier had at least been in the same place at the same time as Lincoln. Positive change that builds something is rarely instant, yet can occur on a scale that is relatable. That thought reinforces my sense of agency.
I consider Frances Perkins the most effective advocate of the working class, especially women, since she was galvanized by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory disaster [in which the owners were never penalized].
Her perseverance and effectiveness were acknowledged in governor Al Smith’s and Franklin Roosevelt’s NY governments. She was involved in creating and implementing major worker-related programs in response to the devastating affects of the Great Depression in NY state.
Under President Roosevelt, she was the first woman even appointed to the cabinet, where she served for 12 years. In enacting progressive labor laws and, especially the first Social Security legislation, she was critical and, in a sense, was the social conscience (with Eleanor) for President Roosevelt.
Frances Perkins should be beatified for her service to America’s workers in beginning to level the playing field against big industry.
(Ms. Perkins accomplished all of this while dealing with a husband and daughter with severe mental illness.)
Thank you for the reminder about Frances Perkins and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The past is generally abominable until civil society wakes up with extreme tragedy. Staying the course becomes more difficult with the passage of time, especially in an era where, yet again, a few wealthy white men own most of the money. This situation then provides new atrocities - exploding derailing trains, laws reverting to the use of firing squads for executions (read some of the supporting comments if you can hold your dinner down) and Sarah Huckabee repealing child labor laws in Arkansas.
This time around, it will take atrocities that exceed this demented population’s sense of self-righteousness and clear the impacted narcissism from their eyes. I am more fearful now than I have been since 2016, exceeding even the sick sense and fear that I felt on January 06, 2021.
Very well said Gayle. It goes far beyond trump. He was their useful idiot wannabe dictator, but I think they have moved on to another wannabe dictator, Ron DeSatan. He is doing his best to turn Florida into a fascist state. And that’s what those old white rich masterminds want. Women and minorities without rights and kept in their place, and limited education for everyone. This will assure the division of class and wealth that is their goal. I moved from Idaho to Oregon 19 years ago. I am appalled at what I am seeing with the laws being passed by the Republican legislature. It’s becoming a dangerous place for women of childbearing age to live. In Sandpoint they no longer have OB/GYN services. They left because of threat of persecution for saving a mothers life over a non viable fetus. That was the main hospital in far northern Idaho. This is making it exceedingly more dangerous for women who want to have children but won’t be able to get obstetrical care. I still have some good friends that live there but I would never go back.
It is explainable because the ability to acquire the chemical cocktail for lethal injection executions is impossible. The manufacturers refuse to sell their product for executions, and all of the attempted "replacement" drugs are both ineffective and inhumane (the view of the manufacturers is that execution is inhumane, ergo no drugs to kill.)
For "Greater Idaho" to absorb any part of Oregon (or of Washington, or of California), either the people and the legislatures of Idaho AND Oregon (or of Washington, or of California) need to agree, or US law needs to be changed such that the borders of a state can be changed without the agreement of the government/people in that state. Barring a radical migration of Democratic voters out of Oregon (or Washington, or California), the talk of "Greater Idaho" will remain just talk.
And even Idahoans in the Panhandle may need to think twice about their needs: a northern county public hospital has just announced that its labor and delivery ward is closing for lack of obstetrical staff.
There are many people in Eastern and Southern Oregon who do not support becoming part of Idaho. The right wing loud mouths who support it are who everyone hears. I guess several counties did pass a vote on changing the border and becoming Idahoans. But all of the counties would have to agree. I would be fine with that if it weren’t for the people who have established homes in Oregon where they want be part of, to be forced into Idaho.
That makes me very deeply sad, yet proud that you realize and have the means to do what you must for your survival. I have friends in New Zealand and other nicer places around the globe, via being active in 6 or more different international fellowships that add nothing for me materially, yet gain some good acquaintances. New Zealand has me tempted if I'm honest (i am).
I have yearned to visit/live in New Zealand since the late 60’s. My grandmother visited there, traveling via ocean liner, and was really impressed; a high school mate (a few years ahead of me) sailed there and ended up teaching math for a few years & came back to the USA with wonderful stores; my then-husband and I picked up a couple of hitchhikers (late 60’s) from New Zealand traveling in the USA and hosted them for several days & got ‘the scoop (from their perspective) on their country’. So yeah, even daydreamed about emigrating there and, loving hiking & kayaking, etc., drooled over the natural wonders of the place. Sigh…never happened, not even a visit sadly. But can say that I live in a wonderous place nonetheless—Humboldt Co CA—and am content with that! Sigh, so much to do/experience, so little time….
I understand as I know very good folks there who are losing more and more virtually every month. It is clearly a lost cause so we welcome you in California!
Someone suggested "Oridahoma" for that proposed "new state".
I am sorry that I cannot recommend Oregon as a destination for relocation; our racism is deeply entrenched in spite of all the progressive bleats to the contrary.
In common, many are white, but not all; the mover financiers are in common too wealthy for any greater good. It's also a perfectly imperfect coalition engineered at just the right time / wrong time with clear eyed intention via the masterminds rolling with what's handed them.
Let's hope we can vote together to make positive good things happen. President Biden is correct! There isn't anything we can't do if we work together.
Now we just need to convince those who want to keep the trickle down fantasy going that doing what the President wants to do, build out and up is what the USA did during and after WWII. And the rich still got richer! They didn't suffer when that chicken in every pot turned to a tv in every house and a car in most garages and a substantial number of good paying jobs that lifted most people up. A vibrant middle class is the life's blood of a vibrant democracy!
Thanks, Heather, for this amazing history lesson on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and amazing work of Frances Perkins. It’s amazing to know that such a woman had this much influence on our American history while receiving so little recognition for her work.
Being a veteran firefighter this is a fire that is still talked about in fire classes. One of the worst fires in history. Plus, I can speak from experience of a garment factory fire, it’s nothing to be taken lightly. I had experience with a shirt factory fire in South Carolina in the late 70s. There we’re no deaths in this fire but several firefighters suffered injuries. The fumes, heat, and the smoke was intense. Plus, falling through the roof into the fire didn’t help matters much.
Anyway, thanks to Ms. Perkins for her work to get all of these government programs started. Hopefully the Republicans will not tear everything apart that she started.
One thing is for sure. Her comments you state in your closing paragraph are still true today, more than ever.
“There is always a large horizon…. There is much to be done,” Perkins said. “It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.”
Thanks, but actually the thanks goes to people like Ms. Perkins and that generation of fighters for us. Plus the firefighters in those days faced a lot worse conditions than we did in the 70s through the mid 90s when I was forced to retire. Even now, firefighting has evolved even more.
I do appreciate your comment, though, because firefighters, nor law enforcement officers, get the recognition they deserve by any means, even today.
Or that even for line of duty deaths there are both accidental and intentional. The stats for 2021 show that 73 officers were feloniously killed, 56 died accidentally, and 350+ died from COVID 19. The CNN report that I pulled these numbers from is an interesting read:
This is because it’s not publicized like other deaths are daily. I may be wrong in stating this, but if I am, I’m not far off. There’s not many days go by that a firefighter loses his life at a fire. There’s also not many days go by that a firefighter saves a life at a fire.
How often do you read about either of these in the paper, or hear about it on the news?
Same thing with law enforcement officers.
The only thing you hear on the news is if an officer does something wrong, then it’s publicized to the hilt. That officer is tried in the court of public opinion long before any process is allowed to take place.
Yes, as I said before, there’s bad apples in every bushel, but not every apple is bad.
There's another thing I'd like to point out. With Chauvin as the exception, the cops who have been arrested for killing people and held accountable are women (Kimberly Potter) and the 5 Black Memphis cops.
Im going to hold my comments on all these incidents to myself for now. Mainly because if I say what I want to, 99% on here won’t like it. I’ll just reiterate the fact that the news media in every case always reports, and shows, the incident ‘after the fact’ of what led up to what happened to them. I always ask, “what did this person do to lead up to this?” That question isn’t ever answered. But, that person is a complete saint, and never did anything wrong, according to the family members and friends the news media interviewed.
Thanks greatly, and, thanks for your service! You are very correct, all of those yih have listed rarely get thanks. Law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, and any and all of the nursing corp, including doctors, rarely get thanks, until they are needed.
In this day and age, most of the time law enforcement officers are looked down on because if the publicity of the fee had apples in the bushel basket. The old saying “one bad apple spoils the entire bushel” is the truth, even today, no matter the profession. And, the one bad apple is what always gets the news coverage. The coverage always makes all in that profession look bad.
Exactly so, Daniel. I have to say that at some level, I feel responsible for some of the language of justification of deadly force on (usually black) contacts. I worked to create policy and training on use of force in the early 2000's and came to realize just how much room for action that Graham v. Connor gave to us. I then taught cops how to articulate their perceptions of danger/criminality as it related to their actions. That has morphed (via the entire "warrior mindset" concept) into "I was afraid of the scary (Black) man so I used deadly force to save myself and protect others." Tamir Rice and Philando Castille come to mind.
I’m guessing you had as much difficulty writing it as I had writing the SOPs for the Close Management Units in the late 80s for the Department of Corrections. Plus all the instruction of use of force to law enforcement and corrections officers during the 70s through mid 90s. Now, the use of force instruction has to be a lot more difficult.
I commend you for your years of service, and your years of trying to keep those serving on a good instructed path.
You might *find it interesting Ally, that Tamir Rice and family lived across the street from me for about a year. Shortly after the Mom moved her family back to the city, he was shot and killed. Quiet kid.
Thank you Gayle, both for your acknowledgements and your service. As someone with 35 years (28 full time, 7 part time) service in law enforcement, I appreciate that acknowledgment. I intentionally patronize two places here in Eugene that offer both a military and a first responder discount (one is a Sport Clips and the other is a union meat shop.)
Seeing the good that good government was able to do, reminds us of how far we have gone in the opposite direction! That so many people in our country go hungry; that so many are without homes; that so many are poorly educated; and so many are without health care speaks to the callousness of elected officials at every level of government.
Right now we are facing the threat of Republican House members to destroy the full faith and credit of our country unless Biden agrees to cut programs that aid the middle and lower classes - which he cannot do. I am very worried and everyone else should be as well!
Frances Perkins is one of the least appreciated heroes in our history.
Just goes to show what is possible when the motivation is for public good instead of abhorrent self-serving circuses....
Reminds me that Dr. Cox Richardson was honored by the Frances Perkins Center with the Intelligence and Courage Award in 2021.
Thank you for sharing that. I did not know and went to the Frances Perkins Center website. Yet another great lesson from the professor on history as she is interviewed at the center. Well worth watching.
I'm on my way...
Chris, thank you! Just watched her interview. So enlightening, as usual.
Indeed
Love that!
Like many of her students here and beyond, I made a Perkins Center donation in HCR’s honor on that occasion; have continued to support as possible.
Thanks for the tip. Like others, I was unaware and will need to check that interview for myself.
We are there again! Vote 💙
YES.
And one of the most consequential people in our history.
We Mainers are very proud of Frances Perkins--well, with the exception of former guv LePage. LePage was so anti-labor that he had a commemorative mural, part of which featured Frances Perkins and other significant events in Maine's Labor history, taken down and hidden in a closet. The mural had been in the entrance area of Maine's Department of Labor, but LePage declared that it was too inimical to business people entering the building and had it taken down and tucked away.
Thankfully the panels comprising the mural have been restored to an appropriate spot and we can celebrate our workforce history and accomplishments.
When I drive through Maine and see bumper stickers and signs for LePage, I am saddened because it means more Mainers are informed of what it took to get here. Men like LePage did not build this country, they just live off what others accomplished.
Great comment: I will expand a little.
"People like our current Republican party did not build this country, they just live off what others accomplished."
"....and manage to persuade millions of Americans that they are benefitting from these non-accomplishments."
Republicans live off of the working class ‘sweat labor’, and refuse to give credit where credit is due. To the Democratic base that pays their salaries!
Ugh, LePage. I recently moved back to Maine permanently and was SO happy to be able to vote against him!
LePage liked to say that he was Trump before Trump. And that is the only truth that ever came from the lips of Pompous Paul.
How sad a comment...and so short sighted...
Trump proved to be a huge "loss leader" and vulgar LePage would never have won once, let alone twice if there hadn't been a third candidate siphoning off votes from the Dems. This last contest, between LePage and Governor Mills (no relation) had no third party and Paulie got the voting booth trouncing he so desperately deserved.
Here! Here! Frances was powerful force for good. I am proud to be a Mainer, although I have been a resident of England since 1956. Born in 1933, it was so interesting to read about events around my young years. I was so upset when LePage removed those panels.
Now in the Maine State Museum.
Thank you...I knew the mural had been restored for public viewing, but I wasn't sure where.
I knew LePage had done this but am glad to learn the mural has been restored.
Wow, Le Page was an absolute turd , wasn’t he? (I’m trying to use non-offensive language😆) Glad to hear the mural is back up!
We can NOT let these foul twisted Repugnants and their corporate owners dismantle all the good Ms. Perkins and her allies worked so hard to establish. For the sake of our country and our very souls, we must prevail.
Keep you eye on Sara Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas. That twit is changing the child labor laws in her state...
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the diametric opposite of Frances Perkins. I think the average Arkansan is very far down her list of priorities. Her priorities seem to have been permanently warped by her close association with the amoral leader she so willingly lied for.
Morally corrupt, ethically corrupt, with zero integrity. And people vote for them. Because they appeal to voters who share their corrupt values.
I don't get it when people vote for things that are against their best interests...
Attention to what is in their best interests becomes secondary to bigotry and even hatred, butressed by easily available misinformation.
MAGA voters think Dumpster is one of them. They spent years yelling insults and conspiracy theories at their television sets. Trump yells the same insults and crackpot theories *on* television (and social media, and at rallies.) Also, the Republicans went to great deliberate effort over years to turn abortion, immigration, and guns into wedge issues, when they saw that their actual beliefs weren’t popular. Then they exploited those issues to polarize the country and to persuade voters that they, the Republicans, were the only party that agreed with them on those issues.
I've read a couple of times musings that even our poor people are too rich -- instead of voting for things that improve our standard of living and housing opportunities, we now vote for intangibles, like "freedom," "diversity," and "family values." Lovely ideas and even important, albeit impossible to define, but clearly a sign of an electorate that is enjoying a full belly.
They are called “sheep”. You can get them to do anything you want if you dangle a carrot in front of them. TFG has made his life profession dangling carrots for the sheep.
She is a Christian, they are all Christians. Oh My Yes
I’d say she is a “Christian.”
Obviously practicing from a very distorted and demented theology!
She was raised by a bigot. And hired by a bigot.
Erm, don't forget her daddy, who is in the same mold.
And close association with her Daddy, who wasn't much better.
Agreed. But I ask, “why do the likes of Sarah Huckabee Sanders get elected in the first place?” We have a lot of work to do to turn around the votes of those who support these candidates and travel to Waco to applaud the most evil, lying person in modern times. What will it take to turn the tide as the NY fire did?
One could be forgiven for thinking that the 1/6 attempted insurrection would have triggered remorse and a commitment to do better, not worse as tfg wants
We cannot forget that she is the child of a predecessor in the her office, Pastor Mike. Or that he's the poster board for faux Christianity and its accompanying hypocrisy.
But did he teach her to lie so glibly?
He's a Baptist minister and a politician, QED.
And how about her father?!
Sara is a staunch anti-abortionist as well. It seems the calculation the right-to-life people make is that industries like meat packing and construction will always require a continual pool of cheap labor.
You forgot to add "expendable" labor.
Not sure how she lives with herself
The right to life people are strictly about controlling women's bodies and preventing sex outside of marriage. From the point of view of business people, waiting for children now in utero to grow up would take way too long. The cheap labor people encourage immigration, because immigrants are even more exploitable than poor Americans, plus, it's easier to flood the labor market with immigrants.
There's a recent book you should read, Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth.
Among the many examples, in 1980, most meat packers were Black, earning good middle class wages. By that decade's end, most were immigrants, toiling for barely above minimum wage, under atrocious conditions, where maimings and amputations were frequent. Similar conditions prevailed in other areas of low/no-skilled work.
The book is solid (296 footnotes), yet well written, covering the relevant academic economic history, black periodicals, statements from black leaders beginning with Frederick Douglass, whose sons were downwardly mobile due to mass immigration (companies would send ships to Europe to bring back white workers so they could fire the black workers, and the same sort of thing goes on today with companies bringing in H1-Bs), and gov't commissions on immigration reform. The latest of these, run by Barbara Jordan, the Black Texas Democrat who made her name on the House Judiciary Committee during Watergate, recommended cutting immigration numbers roughly in half, and strict enforcement of immigration laws, so that Blacks and other American workers could get decent jobs with decent pay.
The book also gives the lie to to the notion there are jobs Americans won't do. the author interviewed laid off poultry workers on the Eastern Shore, who'd been replaced by immigrants. Would they take their old jobs back? No, they told him. with the greatly reduced wages, they'd have to live in their cars, or many to a house. (the book is $13 on Amazon.)
Companies that need more workers should be raising their wages. Our labor participation rate is still quite low (meaning a lot of unemployed people are not looking for work).
Thanks for the suggestion. Another book worth reading tells the history of labor with an emphasis on women. It's titled Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor by Kim Kelly
Interesting. I'll put it on my list. My family has an interest in labor that goes back a couple of generations on the maternal side (my grandmother got her PhD in Labor Relations in 1915; her brother, a union lawyer, ran the Colorado Democratic Party for most of the first half of the last century.
Just when we need to consume less meat. The Buchanans get their power from appealing to medieval thinking.
Tell me about your reference to the Buchanans. I'm not sure who you're referring to.
I would to cheap with uneducated labor.
Hipocrite
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders today requested a Major Disaster Declaration from President Joe Biden to support ongoing recovery efforts in communities impacted by the severe winter weather in January and February of this year, which caused power outages, damage to infrastructure, and deaths.
I wouldn't mind seeing a little hardball from Biden. He just gets dissed and dissed by these Red State demagogues. DeSantis, now Huckabee, and I can't believe the governor of Mississippi won't be reaching out for the damage to his state. Yet these same governors pledge fealty to tfg who never, ever, thinks of anyone but himself.
While advocating for a reduced federal government, they turn to that same government to help them in times of chaos. They don't want to pay for any of it themselves, but think it's okay to ask the rest of us to do so. If there was a way to make it clear to those who voted for these thugs that they've been sold down the river.
It’s always important to think about the imbalance between the Red States that are often the net takers of Federal monies and the Blue States that are generally the net providers
Yeah, I agree. However..... Biden is more concerned about the *people* living in those states, who voted against him, than their own governors, who are just concerned about anti-younameit. I think Dr Spock would say "It's illogical" but it IS the human thing to do.
I agree. It wouldn't be right to punish people for what their leaders are doing, but they themselves voted for those thugs. How might we provide both the help and the message that this is what good government does and voting Republican opposes all of this help they are being given?
There are Democrats in those red states who need assistance too.
When times are tough, no one is for a small federal government and low federal taxes.
So true. Billionaires however have far fewer tough times than most of us
Yes, but unfortunately they seldom come riding to the rescue.
Leave it to Arkansas to dismantle our labor laws
We're all watching. First she shamelessly lied for TFG at countless press briefings. Now she is moving her state backwards on child labor laws. Whoever mentioned Upton Sinclair's, The Jungle to her, didn't clarify that the conditions he described are not a goal nor an instruction manual. Time has shown that Michelle Wolff comparing her to The Handmaid's Tale's Aunt Lydia was extremely unkind...to Aunt Lydia.
The Handmaids Tale should be required reading
The sad thing is that it seems the wrong people ARE reading it and using it as their inspirational playbook. An undesirable case of life imitating art. I hope we get this ship righted long before we need a real life Mayday.
I only recently read it and now think it should be required reading. Hard to believe it is almost 40 years since it was published in 1985.
Any of us who straddle the Republican and Democrat bubbles, please share today’s HCR’s letter.
Yes! And I just shared HCR's letter and resources on 20 Fox entertainment programs this morning. Felt good to spread truth and facts on a really slimy, propaganda station. The drama and things I had to hear/read on that fox journey gave me a stomachache so I had to quit when I reached 20.
Good use of my time waking up way too early this morning!!
Wonderful job, Pensa! Thank you!!!
WOKE, LIKE FRANCES PERKINS, IS HEALTHY FOR CHILDREN AND OTHER LIVING THINGS.
Nicely turned phrase, Pensa!
better Woke than sleep-walking over the cliff
Tremendous job!
Way to go!!
I share it everyday.
Amen, Craig, Amen to that!
it's incumbent on Americans to fight to maintain her legacy. If you have benefited from it you heed to fight to keep it. Francis Perkins did SO much to fight for these benefits ,that work is passed down to every generation to keep them. If anything trump and the Republicans have shown the public is that complacency kills all the hard fought for gains and kills democracy.
I have long admired her. She is the epitome of “crisis = opportunity”…she took a tragedy that should never have been and transformed it into a societal benefit. Perhaps her likeness on a coin, or stamp at the very least, to honor her contribution.
She's on a coin (or was going to be, not sure)
Did not know that…hope it is true, or is about to be so. Should be a ‘prominent’ coin to be sure!
From 1980. https://www.mysticstamp.com/Products/United-States/1821/USA/
Ooooh! Thank for the greaaaat 🐇🕳. It's a beautiful stamp! As is the Organized Labor stamp and the WPA and the CCC.
Thanks for this bit of info! I knew about & admired her, but did not know that she was honored with a stamp way back in the ‘80’s!!!!!!
Why isn’t her name known to every school child. I never heard of the fire until an adult and her until years later. Least appreciated and most consequential - a true public servant.
I don't think Elise Stefanik would want the children in her northern NY district to learn about Frances Perkins. Sounds way too Woke to be admired. After all, Perkins actually cared about the welfare of the poor. That would not sell well in today's GOP leadership circle. Probably need to be banned.
Thankfully, Elise Stefanik has NO influence on how the children in her district are taught!
That is a blessing
Every social work student learns about her. She's a giant in our profession.
Good. And so long as Social Work doesn’t get banned…..
As we are the consummate community organizers and agitators, let them try.
Abso-,f***ing-lutely!
I don't remember learning about Frances Perkins in school. I learned about her from Dr. Richardson.
I didn't learn about Frances Perkins in US History in high school OR college either. That was in the 1960's when women were not considered very "important" in US History. My college US History was a male chauvinist man and he chose the text book. I made it a point of nailing him to the wall about his interpretation of some aspects of our history and instigated class discussions.
I still got an A grade and upon graduation from Central Oregon Community College, Bend, Oregon and was given The Most Valuable Student Award. It was a surprise but then I volunteered to help with registration, was Head of the Student Court and helped set up the college library. All that in two years with a 4 point. I was a mover and shaker female student making policy but not on the grand scale as Francis Perkins.
The way I see it, Francis Perkins was woman with wisdom and a mission who helped break the downward cycle of The Great Depression. I certainly appreciate her achievements such as Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood and all our rural Farm Market Roads, labor laws, Social Security and turning the USA back into a country that cared about it's people.
It's time to crack down on our Corporations using our anti-monopoly laws, support Unions, boycott corporations for bad behavior and not buy their products or services and stop voter suppression laws, racism, and "Christian Nationalism". If things don't turn around and the Republican Party doesn't get a handle on their stupidity, I will move back to Switzerland like I did in 1970 and live there. I will not live under a Republican Autocracy. But then I am still into standing my ground and raising my fist and fighting against the Republicans, Kevin McCarthy has to go. He has proven how weak spined a man he is at the 2023 Legislative Session. Weak, puny man, Kevin Mc Carthy is. Shameful!
Today being Sunday, I may just go to my neighbor church just to shake their up their "Christian Nationalism" ideas.
What I am finding curiously interesting about McCarthy is what seems his attempt to create an image on Twitter while grasping at the mantras of the extremists - parents having the right to decide what their children learn in school is yesterday's flavor. He has posted photos of himself playing with his dog, and today a huge headshot if him trying to look powerful. An embarrassment to California. Bakersfield is the most polluted city in the U.S. with lung harming particulates destined to kill. Why these people vote for him boggles.
Hmmm, a politician with his dog? Smacks of another Checkers play.
Is he a crook, too? 😈
Exactly. Such a poverty of true American history taught in American history classes in the U.S..
If anyone wants to learn more about the amazing Frances Perkins, I highly recommend the podcast "History Chicks" http://thehistorychicks.com/episode-218-frances-perkins-part-one/ You can also find a short bio & coloring sheet on pages 90-91 of Remembering the Ladies: From Patriots in Petticoats to Presidential Candidates - free ebook available at https://tellingherstories.com/book-remembering-the-ladies/
Awesome, thanks for the links!!!
Interesting! In my misc readings in American history she's turned up repeatedly. What a person! (and the others, unmentioned by name)
I agree! She was a hero
Mark Proulx: FP was a woman. We are only beginning to recognize all the great, yet unknown and therefore unappreciated, women in our history.
Mark Prouix, I agree Frances Perkins has been under rated in history
An amazing force. It was a sad day when Perkins Grants ended. They provided funds to train non-traditional and older adults. I hope another Frances Perkins rises up from this new generation, we desperately need a person with such fortitude and moral grounding.
I think we have had them, but they are blocked by those more interested in dark money or greed.
Said this before but...the loud voice , antics, crazies, terrorists.. they make headlines. It’s a sorry fact but the blood and guts gets more attention , like a sick negative gravitational pull of mankind, and ‘sells the paper Jimmy Brown’.
We so need to hear the multitudes of little hands out,up, the little voices carrying a little good news today. Though fodder for the comedians like never before it STILL gives them press and focus.
) -8
I have hopes for Katie Porter.
Thankfully we have young leaders Greta (climate change), Malala (girls/women's rights), David (gun safety), Maxwell (Gen Z's newly elected FL House member) and more . . . So inspiring!
The social safety net that Democrats created and keep trying to widen remains under constant attack from Republicans. And it’s Republicans who want to weaken protections for workers and bring back child labor. The struggle never ends.
That is my take from this. From the beginning of the New Deal and the social safety net that Frances Perkins helped to form, the Rs have been busy trying to dismantle it. I have posted this to my Facebook page as a reminder of and tribute to this amazing woman. Thank you for reminding us, Dr. Richardson.
Gov Sarah sanders just signed a law permitting child labor in Arkansas. And she’s a mother.
Sarah Sanders the great lying mouthpiece for trump has moved on to Arkansas governor and signing laws to supposedly “protect” the children by banning talk of gender identity, gender orientation, reproduction in schools, and of course teaching any actual history. Especially if it involves racial inequality. But she thinks it’s just fine for children under 16 to work in meat packing plants or any other factory. After all they are cheap labor and they will probably drop out of school. Don’t want them to get too smart, right Sarah
She is 100 percent disgusting. Arkan sane eosts must be some stupid or have had their heads-zupp to have elected her.
She is promoting the fear that binds the right wing supporters.
It wouldn't affect her kids, so she doesn't care.
Exactly.
No, she’s a futhermucker is what Sarah Sanders is; and a heartless one to boot!
“Futhermucker”If you just now made that term up, please pay yourself on the back. And take a bow.
Cruel and irresponsible
😂😂😂
BK , I've always thought her last name started with an F. That's how I spell it 🤔
Well, not Sarah's kids, of course--or the kids of other well-to-do Rs...only the kids of the working poor. Hey they gotta pull themselves up by the bootstraps, right? Provided those children survive the working conditions, that is.
I remember reading about the unintended consequences of banning child labor in impoverished places in India and Vietnam, where the working families were so poor that when their small children were barred from work in dangerous factories and farms, they died instead of malnutrition. So in a way, Huckabee's law makes sense, in that it allows parents, without oversight, to send their middle schoolers off to work and keep their earnings, making financial decisions based on their needs without government interference.
This also means that Huckabee is happy to be living in a state so backwards that poor families have to pimp their children out to local business just to feed themselves, and their public school degrees are worth less than the few dollars a 15-year old can earn in an illegal job. That's what the "Great" in "MAGA" means.
Oh she’s a mother alright
How about supporting labor unions?
Good idea! 👍🏼
Susan, the "billboard" idea is one I have supported for all these quacks. They're money well spent.
Many, many billboards!
Well, regarding Susan's observation, Billboards may not "persuade" any more than a soap commercial does on TV, but a billboard is "in your face" and that's what works with tailgators and Deliverance stupes. At the same time, it gives the rest of us satisfaction of sticking it to em.. Deliverance style! Yeeeehaww..!! So, put their moronic goofs right out front for all to laugh at. A lot cheaper than "soap commercials" or TV sound bites. Keep em simple though, particularly in Arkansas, for all those mutha-Hucka-buckers.
Nice idea, although I have to ask: have you, Susan, ever been persuated to change your mind by something you saw on a billboard or in a mass-mailing? I suspect that mass marketing is more useful to prompt action from allies, not to convince adversaries to vote otherwise.
Deliverance!
No votes for WOKE.
Now, you are getting very sleepy.....
This is often said. Yet, we must crack the hard shell of their fear and mesmerized attention to lies from TFG and FAUX media.
I always put these excellent ‘pieces’ on my Facebook feed..and often get thanks
I also see people sharing them as well. Have several Heather fans among my friends.
What still stirs me about the Frankllin Roosevelt era is that the movers and shakers were frequently people of privilege who were moved by the plight of the poor and disadvantaged. We don't see that very often today. Of course, it could still be a scandal that Perkins, while married, had a long romantic relationship with Mary Harriman Rumsey, who founded the Junior League.
I didn't know anything about her personal life. I read a bio of Eleanor and she was often an impetus to helping the less fortunate as well.
There's a lot about Perkins in Volume 2 of Blanche Wiesen Cook's biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. I seem to have lost track of my Perkins biography, but Cook spent her career studying the women of that era, and she's a reliable source.
Thanks for the heads up. I will look for this.
There are quite a few folks from more privileged backgrounds with a deep concern for folks….I think of Rose Kennedy’s own behests to her kids….the ‘altruism’ movements nation wide, and so much more….I was a poverty lobbyist and while there certainly is a political ‘divide’ on issues relating to the disposition of ‘public benefits and entitlements’….
One can find all sorts of Allie’s if a commonality of experience is uncovered…..
In my experience ignorance of the human need is a big deal and clarifying the situation….very helpful.
And they have brought back child labor in Iowa. And Missouri.
Please keep your radar sharp and fit Michael. There does and has existed smallish d democrats that are 'tools' as well.
Oh yeah. And now Manchin is rumored to be considering a presidential run.
On the Pertrocrats ticket?
Hahaha! Fat chance he will have!
Sadly that's what most of us thought about 45. I still think that somehow I got switched into an alternate timeline or universe back in 2016, and there's no way back.
Yes, and I’ve known about him for decades. Everyone I talked to I tried to tell them how he was, what he was, and they still voted for him. Even today, these same people still ‘love him’! (puke)
Check your Encyclopedia of "Alternative Facts".
Damn right, Ms. Janice! Remember the "Berenstain Bears?" Before 2016, they were named the "Berenstein Bears" (note spelling). The timeline has been disrupted by an evil spell peformed by Steve Bannon and Roger Stone, who dipped Donald into a simmering cauldron filled with pornstar piss (the "Golden Shower" ritual), thereby rendering him invincible, albeit somewhat stupid. But Bannon had to hold Donald by the foot during the ritual, so his heel is unguarded. That's why legal issues are Trump's "Achilles Heel."
(I should put in a parody disclaimer here, since there are too many people out there who would actually believe me. On the other hand, maybe this could be an earning opportunity for pornstars, who could offer their piss to the RNC at a premium prices!)
Disgusting prospect, and I cannot *heart* this, but yes, I've heard the rumors. Smh..
😂
To which I say, we the people...
They aren't going to change. We just have to defeat them.
Support labor unions.
Continue to express ourselves. Anthills are built one grain at a time. Each grain counts.
Thank you very much, Heather, for your tribute to this towering force of a woman. Democrats might find a way to make "Democrats are for betterment" part of their Insistent, persistent, omnipresent talking points as we enter (already!) another election cycle.
Mim: "With Dems, Things Get Better" is the 35-minute presentation by Simon Rosenberg, which he has updated and given monthly for decades. If you aren't already familiar, I think his work os EXACTLY what you are after. His latest presentation is on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/live/5fEPDFzi0UA?feature=share
I do subscribe and forgot (no surprise!) his "With Dems, Things Get Better" presentation title. Thanks for the reminder and the link, Eric.
Another mantra might be "With Dems, You Win."
Thank you! Watched and subscribed.
Thank God for the determination of Frances Perkins and thank you for reminding us of all that she and her associates accomplished. Enjoy your early evening!
One word stuck out of the letter for me today, I wonder if it will for others on the forum as well?
DECENT
"It was a human, decent, natural thing to do,” Perkins said"
Good grief, I am so tired of politicians who wish to be outrageous, who call themselves "Christian" and behave like...........I don't know what. Words fail me.
"Decent" seems to be to me in this modern world almost a negative. "How was the movie?" "Decent." Not a "on the edge of your seats don't miss blockbuster" just 'decent."
I was once told that you have the ups and downs in life because if you don't have the downs you can't truly appreciate the ups.
Working in the hospital lab, the administration put a "STAT charge" on tests ordered "STAT"--if everyone demanded results immediately, it slowed down EVERY test. It tried to emphasize what was truly "stat" so to speak. Wish I could better explain this, but I think you astute readers understand.
I'd be quite happy to live in a world where most everything is "decent" including our elected officials.
A humble word, “decent,” but a human quality essential to civilization. Unfortunately, it fails to describe at least 74 million American voters.
Hello Rex, A few months ago I was in the parking lot of my grocery store struggling to lift a collapsible grocery cart into the back of my car. Up rushes a good looking man in his fifties who says, here, let me help you. After he put the object in my car he beamed a winning smile and said ...”and I’m a Republican!”
Okay. 73,999,999. Maybe. More likely, he just experiences occasional bouts of decency but gets over them quickly.
(Picture me laughing!) I think most of us are both insufferable and decent. Isn’t that right? Some leaning more to one side or the other. All in all decency will win in the end. Kindness will win and love of our fellow will win.
I would like to believe that but don’t. History, as I read if, shows otherwise.
If history repeats then, as you say, good will is going to be defeated. We are going to self destruct- kill ourselves and many other living beings off. If that happens how can it be bad?
Just out of curiosity, was he white? I mean, it's wonderful that he was so observant and helpful, but I would expect middle-aged, white, Republican man to graciously help an attractive white woman. And in general, I've found Republicans to be about as appropriate in a social situation as any other group -- they throw nice parties and are often very good at their jobs.
It's how they're willing to treat people they don't know that sets them apart, and what cues they use to decide who to favor and who to hurt. But for all that, the vast majority of them are "decent" in the vast majority of circumstances. I think it important to remember that.
He was a white, charismatic, had the look of a man who men, women, and kids would all be drawn to. He helped me because he saw me struggling not because I’m attractive.
I agree with you on everything you said.
Oops, to continue... everything you said about Republicans is accurate according to my experience also. Well said too.
...but that was before Maga.
He had been walking with two other people. He may have done it to impress them for all I know. Personally, I think he was just a nice guy.
Funny and sad at once. I chuckled on reading your comment. If the favor was done for me, I likely would have wondered and never guessed. Though seems he's more self-aware than me.
Once upon a time Joe McCarthy ( a precursor of modern Republicans) was brought to heel in part by Joseph Welch pointing out that he had no "decency". Now the whole $#%& Party is bereft of any fragment.
Decent wages, decent housing, decent schools, decent roads, decent hospitals. Yup. I'd like to live where decent is the norm. Not everyone is exceptional, but everyone can be decent.
"Not everyone is exceptional, but everyone can be decent." ✅
The irony is that if that were true, everybody, including business would prosper.
Indeed! As to your last point, I have recently recommended reading the book "The Hospital" by Brian Alexander. Every person elected to Congress should read it.
Ah, the wonderful life at Lake Woebegone, where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." (Thanks for prompting a good memory.)
Francis said that her work was her faith in action. A true Christian.
I totally get it Miselle. Excellent point.
I'm sure you would, Karen. Many times I've heard the phrase that "everyone should work in retail at least a little" and they'd be better customers. Well, everyone should work in healthcare for 6 months, too.
When I was 16 years old in the immigrant part of NY’s Lower East Side, I worked after school in my underwear in a small very hot factory at a machine for 50 cents an hour!And my mother insisted that I better not open the little pay envelope containing coins.That was a short distance from where the factory burned about 40 years earlier. Progress was slow when money was involved and immigrants needed any job.Perkins was extraordinarily devoted to reform, while Al Smith,Roosevelt and Dems were believed to be our salvation!There are still millions of American workers who make less than $10 an hour, particularly Black, Latino and in the South.When we win it all in 24, as we must to save our democracy from the rule of the likes of MTG and the crazies, we have to really strengthen the labor laws even in blue states as Gov Whitmer is now doing with a Dem legislature in Michigan.Folks are working but barely surviving!
How very right you are Ira. Spot on with all you've offered above. ↑
It’s disappeared
Ira Lechner, thank you so much for sharing your point of view from lived out experience. Your life, your family's values which were tough and of the "survival" type formed you into a deeply caring individual.
There are so many coming into our country, who want a job, education for their children, a place for family, a place to live in peace. Families have been separated from their children, children have been harmed......so much evil, so much harm when people just want to live.
We are able to help. I have not been to the border. I do not know the difficulity the police are dealing with. I know there is violence. I know that with the good there is evil....evil people using immigration as nothing but a disruption for our governance.
We cannot stop investing in helping others. As Joe Biden says, "We are the United States of America." The living out of the ideal of freedom and kindness will never be perfect but we cannot stop the precess of fulfilling that dream. Martin Luther King also had a dream. These ideals are worth giveing our lives to.....in small or large ways.....where we find ourselves in life.....we can do something.
Francis Perkins was such a person. Heather is such a person.....lets find a way to help dreams come true.
If I'm reading you correctly, and you were making this 50 cents an hour in 1952, inflation-adjusted, you were earning $5.63/hour.
Always inflation-adjust your dollars. You can do so by googling "inflation calculator" and plugging in the numbers. I used the US Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.
The $25,000 donation after the shirtwaist fire is $768,000 in current dollars.
For perspective, the $2,600 Plymouth Valiant my parents bought new in 1970 cost nearly $20,000 in current dollars.
What would our society look like today if Frances Perkins hadn’t wrought her miracles?
I think we may find out in a few years.
There certainly seems to be movement in the direction of fewer protections for workers, especially children, in state legislatures. We are being set up for another tragedy fueled by the same kind of greed that killed the Triangle Shirt Factory fire and being touted as providing opportunities for workers.
The environmental versions, like Cancer Alley in Louisiana, are already with us.
And the next disaster due to their negligence will be epic, to say the least. I wi derecho the republicans will blame next time?
Biden's fault.
In their dreams, maybe.
The pandemic response with over 1 million Americans dead. We already found out.
I still can't quite figure out how we as a society have sort of blanked out well greater than 1,000,000 deaths. Some were unavoidable; we were under attack by an invasive, heartless enemy, and it's not defeated yet. Still, in one of the world's most technologically advanced societies, billed as the richest nation in the world, we had the worst per capita death toll.
When a plane crashes and maybe 100 or so are dead, they comb though every fragment. There investigations, recommendations, and revisions to guard against it happening again. Many who might have been spared were killed as much by political treachery as by the virus, and not always those who who were infected by the former. The virus is an evil piece of work, but it's grounded unless it can hitch a ride.
Fault of Trump and the GOP.
Of course, there's more to it than that, and I highly recommend Michael Lewis's The Premonition for a lot of interesting stories and detail on how some Americans really did a good job fighting the pandemic, and others failed pretty badly.
I know the Obama tried in vain to get the Trump administration up to speed on preparation, masking and distancing make perfect sense, and the speed with which we produced useful vaccines is astonishing.
But the GOP sacrificed thousands in order attempt to preserve normal commerce and make it a wedge issue, as they did with immigration, and "Critical Race Theory".
All that care taken when planes crash is why air travel is so safe.
I don't think it helps to refer to viruses as evil. Viruses are inanimate molecular mechanisms, large numbers of which are actually harmless, and even beneficial. Medical researchers have even tried to use certain viruses--phages--to treat illnesses (but it's been easier to use antibiotics).
But you're absolutely right that it speaks poorly of us that we had so many deaths from COVID. We could have saved a lot more people.
You are right of course about viruses, as evil requires malicious intent and I was speaking imprecisely. The virus seems like a sentient predator because it replicates and spreads, even as protein warping by prions spreads. The dynamics of replication and spreading is larger than life, for which it seems to me a bit deeper than metaphor to speak of a computer "virus", as it seems that some of the same dynamics appear to apply. The dynamics of cult ideologies also seems to follow this path, as it prohibits and punishes questioning the cult, enforcing repetition irrespective an evidence base.
It not even the profit per se, but the profit over people. That was what Reaganomics was always about and has delivered.
There are parallels in the treatment of workers in meatpacking plants during the pandemic. People were required to work as Coronavirus spread in close working conditions. People earning low wages had no sick leave to allow them to stay home when ill. People died....
Steve Banon can tell us.
Thank you for reminding us of what one hopeful, visionary, justice-seeking person can do - as a leader.
An amazing woman, Frances Perkins. Thank you for this moving tribute to both Perkins and FDR who had the good sense to appoint her and back her proposals. She was the kind of practical, action oriented visionary who can transform the arc of history. We have all benefited -- and now need to take up the fight to preserve AND RESTORE her legacy. Repugnant (far too weak a term) that Gov Sanders of Arkansas is allowing more child labor not less. So much for Repub. being in favor of Life.
A friend now an elder, worked for the maine Dept of Labor until she retired. We met as volunteers with the Southern Maine Workers Center. She told me her own mother worked at that factory but had stayed home from work that day feeling unwell. In Maine the Frances Perkins center is very special and as you may know, Laura Fortman, it’s former director, is now Maine secretary of labor. Ironic we Cumberland county dems had arranged to present her with a Frances Perkins award when Covid hit. we had to cancel, so instead of attending our cancelled party she was answering the phones at the DOL ! Trying to help people in panic gain access to their hard earned unemployment benefits. The legacy of Frances Perkins lives!
Wow Karen !
" She told me her own mother worked at that factory but had stayed home from work that day feeling unwell."
As my age increases it is brought home to me more viscerally how recently a lot of things significantly changed. It used to be I thought anything that happened before my birth was back there with pharaohs and dinosaurs, yet now, in many more ways than I can account for here, I see everything in flux. My father was born shortly before US women could vote. Hugh Downs said be once shook hands with a man who claimed he had shaken the hand of Lincoln, and Downs researched enough to know that that former Union soldier had at least been in the same place at the same time as Lincoln. Positive change that builds something is rarely instant, yet can occur on a scale that is relatable. That thought reinforces my sense of agency.
I consider Frances Perkins the most effective advocate of the working class, especially women, since she was galvanized by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory disaster [in which the owners were never penalized].
Her perseverance and effectiveness were acknowledged in governor Al Smith’s and Franklin Roosevelt’s NY governments. She was involved in creating and implementing major worker-related programs in response to the devastating affects of the Great Depression in NY state.
Under President Roosevelt, she was the first woman even appointed to the cabinet, where she served for 12 years. In enacting progressive labor laws and, especially the first Social Security legislation, she was critical and, in a sense, was the social conscience (with Eleanor) for President Roosevelt.
Frances Perkins should be beatified for her service to America’s workers in beginning to level the playing field against big industry.
(Ms. Perkins accomplished all of this while dealing with a husband and daughter with severe mental illness.)
Thank you for the reminder about Frances Perkins and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The past is generally abominable until civil society wakes up with extreme tragedy. Staying the course becomes more difficult with the passage of time, especially in an era where, yet again, a few wealthy white men own most of the money. This situation then provides new atrocities - exploding derailing trains, laws reverting to the use of firing squads for executions (read some of the supporting comments if you can hold your dinner down) and Sarah Huckabee repealing child labor laws in Arkansas.
This time around, it will take atrocities that exceed this demented population’s sense of self-righteousness and clear the impacted narcissism from their eyes. I am more fearful now than I have been since 2016, exceeding even the sick sense and fear that I felt on January 06, 2021.
double ditto CA
Very well said Gayle. It goes far beyond trump. He was their useful idiot wannabe dictator, but I think they have moved on to another wannabe dictator, Ron DeSatan. He is doing his best to turn Florida into a fascist state. And that’s what those old white rich masterminds want. Women and minorities without rights and kept in their place, and limited education for everyone. This will assure the division of class and wealth that is their goal. I moved from Idaho to Oregon 19 years ago. I am appalled at what I am seeing with the laws being passed by the Republican legislature. It’s becoming a dangerous place for women of childbearing age to live. In Sandpoint they no longer have OB/GYN services. They left because of threat of persecution for saving a mothers life over a non viable fetus. That was the main hospital in far northern Idaho. This is making it exceedingly more dangerous for women who want to have children but won’t be able to get obstetrical care. I still have some good friends that live there but I would never go back.
Don''t leave out Betsy DeVos and Rebecca Mercer.
The FIRING SQUAD????? Can this be possible???
It is explainable because the ability to acquire the chemical cocktail for lethal injection executions is impossible. The manufacturers refuse to sell their product for executions, and all of the attempted "replacement" drugs are both ineffective and inhumane (the view of the manufacturers is that execution is inhumane, ergo no drugs to kill.)
Thank you for your explanation. I did know that. The whole topic is just so problematic that I could not repress an exclamation.
Yes, isn't it so Christian of those people who want think it's okay that the state murder people in their names.
Particularly in Idaho isn’t it?
For "Greater Idaho" to absorb any part of Oregon (or of Washington, or of California), either the people and the legislatures of Idaho AND Oregon (or of Washington, or of California) need to agree, or US law needs to be changed such that the borders of a state can be changed without the agreement of the government/people in that state. Barring a radical migration of Democratic voters out of Oregon (or Washington, or California), the talk of "Greater Idaho" will remain just talk.
And even Idahoans in the Panhandle may need to think twice about their needs: a northern county public hospital has just announced that its labor and delivery ward is closing for lack of obstetrical staff.
The maternal death rate is sadly going to increase in Idaho, just as it has in Texas where women have lost healthcare rights
The maternal death rate, and the rates of evident suicides and unexplainable single-car crashes...
There are many people in Eastern and Southern Oregon who do not support becoming part of Idaho. The right wing loud mouths who support it are who everyone hears. I guess several counties did pass a vote on changing the border and becoming Idahoans. But all of the counties would have to agree. I would be fine with that if it weren’t for the people who have established homes in Oregon where they want be part of, to be forced into Idaho.
That makes me very deeply sad, yet proud that you realize and have the means to do what you must for your survival. I have friends in New Zealand and other nicer places around the globe, via being active in 6 or more different international fellowships that add nothing for me materially, yet gain some good acquaintances. New Zealand has me tempted if I'm honest (i am).
I have yearned to visit/live in New Zealand since the late 60’s. My grandmother visited there, traveling via ocean liner, and was really impressed; a high school mate (a few years ahead of me) sailed there and ended up teaching math for a few years & came back to the USA with wonderful stores; my then-husband and I picked up a couple of hitchhikers (late 60’s) from New Zealand traveling in the USA and hosted them for several days & got ‘the scoop (from their perspective) on their country’. So yeah, even daydreamed about emigrating there and, loving hiking & kayaking, etc., drooled over the natural wonders of the place. Sigh…never happened, not even a visit sadly. But can say that I live in a wonderous place nonetheless—Humboldt Co CA—and am content with that! Sigh, so much to do/experience, so little time….
Humboldt County is awesome!
I understand as I know very good folks there who are losing more and more virtually every month. It is clearly a lost cause so we welcome you in California!
Someone suggested "Oridahoma" for that proposed "new state".
I am sorry that I cannot recommend Oregon as a destination for relocation; our racism is deeply entrenched in spite of all the progressive bleats to the contrary.
😬😥
In common, many are white, but not all; the mover financiers are in common too wealthy for any greater good. It's also a perfectly imperfect coalition engineered at just the right time / wrong time with clear eyed intention via the masterminds rolling with what's handed them.
Leads much credence to “....and never underestimate the enemy...”
Let's hope we can vote together to make positive good things happen. President Biden is correct! There isn't anything we can't do if we work together.
Now we just need to convince those who want to keep the trickle down fantasy going that doing what the President wants to do, build out and up is what the USA did during and after WWII. And the rich still got richer! They didn't suffer when that chicken in every pot turned to a tv in every house and a car in most garages and a substantial number of good paying jobs that lifted most people up. A vibrant middle class is the life's blood of a vibrant democracy!
Thanks to those that paved and led the way.
Thanks, Heather, for this amazing history lesson on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and amazing work of Frances Perkins. It’s amazing to know that such a woman had this much influence on our American history while receiving so little recognition for her work.
Being a veteran firefighter this is a fire that is still talked about in fire classes. One of the worst fires in history. Plus, I can speak from experience of a garment factory fire, it’s nothing to be taken lightly. I had experience with a shirt factory fire in South Carolina in the late 70s. There we’re no deaths in this fire but several firefighters suffered injuries. The fumes, heat, and the smoke was intense. Plus, falling through the roof into the fire didn’t help matters much.
Anyway, thanks to Ms. Perkins for her work to get all of these government programs started. Hopefully the Republicans will not tear everything apart that she started.
One thing is for sure. Her comments you state in your closing paragraph are still true today, more than ever.
“There is always a large horizon…. There is much to be done,” Perkins said. “It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.”
Thanks, but actually the thanks goes to people like Ms. Perkins and that generation of fighters for us. Plus the firefighters in those days faced a lot worse conditions than we did in the 70s through the mid 90s when I was forced to retire. Even now, firefighting has evolved even more.
I do appreciate your comment, though, because firefighters, nor law enforcement officers, get the recognition they deserve by any means, even today.
Yes, and not many people realize that fighting fires results in more deaths than police work.
Or that even for line of duty deaths there are both accidental and intentional. The stats for 2021 show that 73 officers were feloniously killed, 56 died accidentally, and 350+ died from COVID 19. The CNN report that I pulled these numbers from is an interesting read:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/13/us/police-officers-line-of-duty-deaths/index.html
This is an excellent read. Thanks fir sharing it.
This is because it’s not publicized like other deaths are daily. I may be wrong in stating this, but if I am, I’m not far off. There’s not many days go by that a firefighter loses his life at a fire. There’s also not many days go by that a firefighter saves a life at a fire.
How often do you read about either of these in the paper, or hear about it on the news?
Same thing with law enforcement officers.
The only thing you hear on the news is if an officer does something wrong, then it’s publicized to the hilt. That officer is tried in the court of public opinion long before any process is allowed to take place.
Yes, as I said before, there’s bad apples in every bushel, but not every apple is bad.
There's another thing I'd like to point out. With Chauvin as the exception, the cops who have been arrested for killing people and held accountable are women (Kimberly Potter) and the 5 Black Memphis cops.
Im going to hold my comments on all these incidents to myself for now. Mainly because if I say what I want to, 99% on here won’t like it. I’ll just reiterate the fact that the news media in every case always reports, and shows, the incident ‘after the fact’ of what led up to what happened to them. I always ask, “what did this person do to lead up to this?” That question isn’t ever answered. But, that person is a complete saint, and never did anything wrong, according to the family members and friends the news media interviewed.
Thanks greatly, and, thanks for your service! You are very correct, all of those yih have listed rarely get thanks. Law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, and any and all of the nursing corp, including doctors, rarely get thanks, until they are needed.
In this day and age, most of the time law enforcement officers are looked down on because if the publicity of the fee had apples in the bushel basket. The old saying “one bad apple spoils the entire bushel” is the truth, even today, no matter the profession. And, the one bad apple is what always gets the news coverage. The coverage always makes all in that profession look bad.
~ truth
Exactly so, Daniel. I have to say that at some level, I feel responsible for some of the language of justification of deadly force on (usually black) contacts. I worked to create policy and training on use of force in the early 2000's and came to realize just how much room for action that Graham v. Connor gave to us. I then taught cops how to articulate their perceptions of danger/criminality as it related to their actions. That has morphed (via the entire "warrior mindset" concept) into "I was afraid of the scary (Black) man so I used deadly force to save myself and protect others." Tamir Rice and Philando Castille come to mind.
I’m guessing you had as much difficulty writing it as I had writing the SOPs for the Close Management Units in the late 80s for the Department of Corrections. Plus all the instruction of use of force to law enforcement and corrections officers during the 70s through mid 90s. Now, the use of force instruction has to be a lot more difficult.
I commend you for your years of service, and your years of trying to keep those serving on a good instructed path.
You might *find it interesting Ally, that Tamir Rice and family lived across the street from me for about a year. Shortly after the Mom moved her family back to the city, he was shot and killed. Quiet kid.
Thank you Gayle, both for your acknowledgements and your service. As someone with 35 years (28 full time, 7 part time) service in law enforcement, I appreciate that acknowledgment. I intentionally patronize two places here in Eugene that offer both a military and a first responder discount (one is a Sport Clips and the other is a union meat shop.)
Seeing the good that good government was able to do, reminds us of how far we have gone in the opposite direction! That so many people in our country go hungry; that so many are without homes; that so many are poorly educated; and so many are without health care speaks to the callousness of elected officials at every level of government.
Right now we are facing the threat of Republican House members to destroy the full faith and credit of our country unless Biden agrees to cut programs that aid the middle and lower classes - which he cannot do. I am very worried and everyone else should be as well!
Yes, Mina. Encourage voting in 2024 - for Democrats. That’s our one hope.
Thank you Mina! Well said!