Sometimes reading about elements of the past is like reading today's newspaper. We humans are slow learners, or at least a good number of us are. Unions showed then, and still show now that we all do better when we all do better.
Sometimes reading about elements of the past is like reading today's newspaper. We humans are slow learners, or at least a good number of us are. Unions showed then, and still show now that we all do better when we all do better.
I am rereading Drieser's, An American Tragedy, 50 years after the first reading. Given the current rabid sense of nationalism, faux Christianity, and classism, it is eye-opening to think that a book published in the early 1920s is spot on in 2022.
I read that years ago and may have to pick it up again. My husband's favorite writer on economics among other things right now is Thomas Picketty (sp?) and I am going to read his slimmer volume on equality. The other two are tomes. And thanks to Heather for the short history of Labor Day. As I read, I was thinking that nothing much changes and we continue to fight the same battles. I am done for tonight on the computer and will continue to read my book on gene editing. Enjoyable Labor Day everyone!!
Check out the work showing that we share over 20 % of our human genome with trees. I think you will find the references in the work of either Diana Kroeger Beresford, Vandana Shiva and / or Suzanne Simard. All have U tube talks and have made documentaries. One I watched last year on Netflix was called " More of Everything ". As a cancer survivor , a former oncologist and someone who supports gene therapy for rare genetic disorders, I am terrified that people think gene editing is the answer to our ecologic crisis. I am certain those involved are well intentioned. However I doubt they realize that in fact Indigenous who include non human life-forms among our relations are actually accurate. We humans share a significant portion of our genome with our friends the trees. This is mind-blowing...........
You inspired my life-long domination of curiosity.
So I found this brief review:
" Buhner explains how to use analogical thinking and imaginal perception to directly experience the inherent meanings that flow through the world, that are expressed from each living form that surrounds us, and to directly initiate communication in return."
Well sir!
I live in that dream all day long.
My clients begin to see what they are looking at for the first time through explanations revealed first in two dimensional drawings, then three dimensional models and then finally in realities' constructed revelation...
Thank you Mr. Nemeth for your generosity of sharing the wisdom of Buhner with me!
Thank you from another's attempted escape from grumpiness by continuing the realization of other's dreams through the magic of Architecture's ability to create the blessing of life long friends...
Indeed it is....and many ethical problems. I love that we share part of our genome with trees and thanks for the heads up on those authors. I enjoy biology though I am history person.
My mind is often blown each time hiking in wilderness forests when I am compelled to cuddle with a specific tree. As I look up while hugging I actually see the tree smiling and feel it swaying in delight!
He's one of my husband's favorites, so we have them all. The one on equality is much shorter. The one book that I listened to was Ulysses as we were going to Ireland. I would never have been able to read it.
Yes, and her Nobel co-recipient is Emmanuelle Charpentier (sp?), a very interesting French woman. The book follows Doudna' life and has a little bio info on several other people.
I am not suggesting that humans and bananas are similar physiologically. I am only pointing out that most of us lack an understanding of what some refer to as animate Intelligence. Jeremy Lent is gifted polymath who speaks and writes eloquently on the intersection between cutting edge science and ancient wisdom . He is one of many leaders in this amazing field. https://www.kosmosjournal.org/kosmos-live/jeremy-lent-the-web-of-meaning/
It shouldn't be surprising that there's ample overlap between the human and the banana genome. Both use DNA as the genetic code, and both use molecular machinery called ribosomes to translate RNA--which is derived from DNA--into proteins. A lot of other functions are similar between the two organisms, although there are a lot of differences as well.
As for the notion of "cooperation" between different organisms, and types of organisms, this shoiuldn't be surprising, either. A lot of cooperation has gone on among humans in human societies of various sorts, and from hunter-gatherer bands to more complex societies (see: ancient wisdom). It shouldn't be surprising, as it makes sense that humans can do more to help themselves if they cooperate with others. Even our own American society, with all the competitive behavior going on in it, has a lot of cooperative behavior going on as well, much of that, but not all of it mediated by money.
Unfortunately, there is a school of thought in economics that emphasizes the supposed benefits of individuals behaving selfishly.
But I don't believe the notion that plants cooperate with each other because they think about what they do, since I don't think they think. But I don't have a problem with the idea that they cooperate, something that could have arisen through evolution.
I collect Dreiser's first edition books. Regardless, re - reading Sister Carrie, reminds me about the place and progress of women at turn of century in Chicago has not changed much in the minds of 2022 humans!
In Portugal, educated women with jobs are now having a baby and forgetting to get married because the marriage laws are antiquaited and favor men. They consentrate their motherhood time and energy on one or two children who will be too valued to be thrown into the next war as cannon fodder. Books like An American Tragedy are necessary to point out why drones in the hive live only two weeks, while worker bees live four to eight weeks. It's all relative.
Daria - I reposted your post - with the article about WHITE historians advising Biden - under a comment made by Sandy Lewis so he will be sure to get it. Don't want him to miss it. And I don't want to miss his response!
My cousins grew up where that happened & I spent many summers there. When i read the book as a teenager i must have missed the class differences. When I reread it years later, ЁЯдп.
Carmen, I was deeply touched that on the eve of Labor Day you chose to invoke the phrase from deceased Senator Paul WellstoneтАЩs 1999 speech to the Sheet Metal Workers Union тАЬWe all do better when we all do better.тАЭ I also would add, despite repeated frustration and failure, that, at least in my view, increasingly more of us have come to appreciate that the preservation of democracy depends upon a far more cooperative environment wherein there is a modicum of social and economic justice for as many people as possible on as many days as possible.
In my lifetime, I cannot think of anyone, other than his good friend Sen. Bernie Sanders, who worked harder to protect we the people than Paul Wellstone. Would it were that environmental issues, such as keeping the Boundary Waters Wilderness of Northern Minnesota free of motorboats had not been such a damnably divisive issue at the time. Wellstone, caught between union guys who wanted to hunt and fish using motor transport, and those of us that preferred silence and solitude, and keeping it wild, made his last days pretty chaotic. Gads, I miss that manтАЩs integrity and passion.
Sheila, I was an undergraduate at NYU when Paul Wellstone began teaching Political Science at Carleton College in rural Minnesota. I canтАЩt remember, in retrospect, how we received word of this charismatic professor, but I do remember several of us seriously considering taking a semester in Minnesota to take class with this radical iconoclast.
Decades later, I recall former Senator Russ Feingold, another midwestern hero of mine, relating the first time he met Wellstone in his office back in 1989. As Feingold tells it, 15 or so books, all of which Wellstone was reading, were spread across the office floor while Wellstone was on the phone arguing with someone about Cuba. When Wellstone told Feingold he was considering a run for the Senate, both had a good laugh at the prospect of two such improbable figures serving in the upper chamber.
I remember the plane crash - it appears there still is some question as to the reason - at least in some people's minds. That was a bad time to be against Bush's war, and pro-labor and poor people!! Read an article that wondered why, with all the blame put to terrorism in that time period - never a mention of that possibility when Sen. Wellstone's plane crashed. There was another Democrat who ran for governor & was killed almost exactly two years earlier. The phrase "We all do better when we all do better" says what kind of person he was!
Maggie, I, too, recall the murmurings of foul play back in 2002. As I understand, Wellstone seriously was considering a Presidential run in 2000; regrettably, his campaign aspirations were derailed by a ruptured disc. By 2002, his MS well under control, Wellstone, who was running to retain his Senate seat, also seriously was considering a 2004 Presidential run. I canтАЩt recall any Republican insider who was not deeply concerned at the prospect of Wellstone entering the 2004 Presidential race. Nor can I imagine that any of us on this thread ever will forget when WellstoneтАЩs plane went down in October, 2002.
Soon after TFG was elected I read Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here. I was reassured that it was just a novel and couldn't happen here. I was wrong on so many levels.
I think of Goebbels and the power of the Big Lie almost daily. If I remember correctly he spoke of the power of repetition of a lie to make it believable. He proved his point and we are living the result as did pre-WWII Germans.
Goebbels may have been the one to apply the thesis but it was Hitler who coined the phrase in Mein Kampf. gro├Яe L├╝ge describes the use of a lie so colossal that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously." THAT is where the MAGAts are today: believing the big lie and refusing to admit that they've been had.
Same with Octavia Butler's parable of the Sower. I was told Oh, tha t's just a dystopian novel. Well, it's happening here and now with the rise in street crime, walling off of the rich in their gated communities, and the drug tide.
Carmen, Your post today would be great on any day but today, it is perfect. How about union news, 9/5/2022, hot off the press:
'4,000 Google cafeteria workers quietly unionized during the pandemic'
The tech giant is known for its free lunches for employees. The people who make those lunches have joined unions en masse.'
'Google is famous for its cafeterias, which serve its legions of programmers and product managers everything from vegan poke to gourmet tacos тАФ free.'
'But the cooks and servers behind those meals are generally contractors who work for other companies, and do not get the generous perks and benefits reserved for Google employees. So over the past few years, thousands of them have unionized, securing higher wages, retirement benefits and free platinum health care coverage.'
'Unite Here, a 300,000-member union hotel and food service workers, has been steadily working to unionize Silicon Valley cafeteria workers since 2018, experiencing the most success at Google. Employed by the contract companies Compass and Guckenheimer, those unionized now make up about 90 percent of total food services workers at Google, according to the union. Workers have unionized at 23 Google offices nationwide, including in Seattle and San Jose.'
'Now, the union is tackling new territory: the South. On Wednesday, Google workers in Atlanta employed by a different cafeteria company тАФ Sodexo тАФ presented their manager with a list of demands and said they plan to unionize.'
'The labor market is still red-hot тАФ and itтАЩs helping union organizers'
'Unionizing workers outside of major coastal cities and in the South may be a tougher sell, where union membership is the lowest in the United States and labor laws are generally weaker. Around 6 percent of workers in Georgia are unionized, compared with 18 percent in California and 24 percent in New York, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Although inflation and housing prices have pushed up the cost of living nationwide, prices are still generally lower in the South than in large coastal cities.'
'On Friday, Sodexo and the union reached an agreement: Should a majority of workers choose to unionize, Sodexo would not try to block it.' (WAPO) For more good labor union news in this article, see link below.
Thanks so much for filling in some important details. The "essential workers" are now recognizing that they have the right to demand fair wages and working conditions. It would be wonderful to see the strangle-hold of major corporations on the necks of workers finally loosed.
My maternal great uncle was a union lawyer who was de facto head of the Colorado Democratic Party for the first half of the last century. When first out of college, my father worked in a textile firm in Manhattan, which he spent two years trying to unionize. (There was too much turnover.)
I was thinking exactly the same thing while reading. I really appreciate this history lesson on this day. It also highlights that human nature remains the same through the continuum of time--there will always be the demarcation between those who care about others and the whole of society and those who only look out for themselves no matter who they have to walk over....
An economic indisputable fact that conservative refuse to accept is that the better the poor do the better the middle class does along with everyone else.
The astonishing thing as that many of those who vote conservative are poor. It's a kind of aspirational blindness in that they see themselves as middle class. Is this because the word "poor" has been banished from our vocabulary or because they don't allow themselves to admit that they are, in fact, poor?
Families that are not families have children that have never experienced the freedom of childhood. They toil to maintain their escape from their constant food & shelter insecurity. They are not aware of the benefits of higher education except what they witness on tv commercials about the "Perfect" childhood image relationship with a loving father AND mother,
How did this become accepted as middle-class membership!?
Answer:
republican strangulation of Congress complicity by that creature who unfortunately survived abortion to become deceptions' conception of vile evilness bile spewing Prince of Self-aggrandizement upon the backs of middle-class numbed acquiescence, Eh!?
тАЬLet us each Labor day, hold a congress and formulate propositions for the amelioration of the people. Send them to your Representatives with your earnest, intelligent indorsement [sic], and the laws will be changed.тАЭ
Hmmmmm
REALLY!
The laws that were. тАЬтАжchangedтАжтАЭ as an immediate result of the so-called amelioration of the people was the result of the Pullman Strike of 1894 by 250,000 railroad workers employed nation-wide by some 20 railroads altogether.
Indeed, this massive strike allowed the union, led by Eugene V. Debs president of the American Railway Union (ARU), to flex its muscles against abuse of the workers by the railroads.
Debs attempt at amelioration of the people resulted in his six-month prison sentence for contempt of court for violating the injunction issued against the strike by the railroads
Also, and an even greater blow against Congress formulating propositions for the amelioration of the people was the result of the U.S. Supreme Court in siding with the railroadтАЩs injunction against the unions to break their strike, (In re Debs (1895).
Now, the laws that were actually, тАЬтАжchangedтАжтАЭ resulted from the precedent set by this courtтАЩs ruling. It substantially reduced the unionтАЩs effectiveness of their attempted amelioration by people striking against employers.
HmmmmmтАж.
And so continues the SCOTUS pejoration of the people, by the fat old white rich republican bigots, and for the ruling elite of America!
Ah, plenty of us, as James and Jeff do, understand the UNION in unions 'Unions are on a roll. 'And they unite a divided nation' by E.J. Dionne, Jr.:
'Okay, itтАЩs not like laborтАЩs high tide in the 1940s or 1950s yet. But unions are staging a remarkable comeback in the United States that few anticipated even a decade ago.'
'Government policies are shifting in the direction of workers. Unions are winning workplace elections at a rapid clip. And just last week, Gallup reported that approval of unions hit its highest level in 57 years.'
'After a long stretch during which Labor Day became the occasion for trade unionismтАЩs obituaries, 2022 marks a resurgence in public appreciation for collective action, collective bargaining and the idea of solidarity.'
'Friends of labor might well react by saying: ItтАЩs about time. In truth, the new appreciation for what unions can achieve, and what workers have a right to expect, has been building over a long period.'
'All the public discussions of rising inequalities in income and wealth turn out to have been far more than academic or ideological exercises. Workers felt inequality personally тАФ and are responding to it.'
'The long-term impact of the 2008-2009 economic meltdown, followed by the pandemicтАЩs dislocations a decade later, tilted attitudes away from a celebration of pure market individualism and in favor of labor.'
'Gallup found that approval of unions hit low points of 48 percent in 2009 and 52 percent in 2010. They have risen ever since тАФ to 61 percent in 2017, 68 percent last year and 71 percent last week, a peak not reached since 1965.'
'At a time when so many attitudes divide along racial lines, Gallup found that Whites and non-Whites were equally pro-labor. Approval spanned generations тАФ at 72 percent for those under 54, and 70 percent among those 55 and over. Support for organized labor, close to unanimous among Democrats, is in fact bipartisan: 89 percent of Democrats approved of unions, as did 68 percent of independents and 56 percent of Republicans.'
'Opinion is translating into action. VoxтАЩs Rani Molla documented how well-publicized union victories тАФ at Amazon, Apple, Chipotle, REI, Starbucks and Trader JoeтАЩs тАФ are just the most visible part of a larger trend. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, owns The Post.)'
'Unions won more representation elections in 2022 than they have in nearly 20 years, Molla reported. Their win rate has risen from barely over 50 percent in 2000 to 76.6 percent this year. And three times as many workers went on strike in 2022 as in 2021, she reported.'
'Another factor working in favor of unions, as The PostтАЩs labor reporter Lauren Kaori Gurley noted, is a тАЬred-hot labor market that has afforded workers more bargaining power.тАЭ Younger workers especially are unburdened by past labor failures and feel liberated by the availability of employment.'
'And тАЬeven a cooling-off economy,тАЭ Gurley wrote, тАЬwould not necessarily undo cultural shifts that have resulted in the rising popularity of unions, particularly among young, college-educated workers.тАЭ
'All of this is happening against the backdrop of an administration trying to live up to President BidenтАЩs pledge to be тАЬthe most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history.тАЭ
'Jennifer Abruzzo, the general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board, has been pushing to overturn rulings and practices that hampered union organizing efforts in the past. And Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, has been pushing what she told the United Steelworkers Constitutional Convention last month was an agenda тАЬthat is crafted with workers, for workers.тАЭ
тАЬOur trade policy,тАЭ Tai told the union, тАЬcannot be a vehicle for undercutting workersтАЩ rights and outsourcing jobs,тАЭ adding: тАЬDelivering for workers is our main priority.тАЭ
'A spurt of new organizing will not undo years of union decline. Efforts to change labor laws to make unionization easier have failed even in Congresses controlled by Democrats. The new shape of the economy тАФ with fewer of the sorts of manufacturing jobs on which labor built its power between the 1930s and the 1960s тАФ creates challenges that the movement still needs to master.'
'But the new labor story, based on an embrace of the promise of triumph through shared struggle, runs crosswise to many of the trends in our politics, and usefully so. Unions have the capacity to bring Americans together across some very deep divides. Republicans have yet to alter their largely antilabor policy stances to accommodate a new constituency that includes large numbers of working-class voters. YouтАЩd never know from the partyтАЩs hostility to unions how sympathetic the GOP rank and file is to what they do.'
'Labor Day is a celebration of workers and of their dignity. This makes it a good time to consider whether our countryтАЩs discontents have to be channeled through culture wars and racial prejudice. The surge in support for unions points down a different path, a practical quest to ease day-to-day burdens by improving wages, benefits and working conditions. That beats empty, angry and divisive demagoguery any day.'
Unions as it turns out were the backbone of our democracy, without strong unions, only the almighty dollar motivated many legislators, the people have been generally ignored. The frustrations of workers helped to give rise to the radical politics we see in the MAGA GOP. People turned to a demagogue to set things right, out of desperation.
тАЬYou are never strong enough that you donтАЩt need help.тАЭ тАУ Cesar Chavez
тАЬThe Labor Movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress.тАЭ тАУ Martin Luther King Jr.
тАЬWe can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few; but we canтАЩt have both.тАЭ тАУ Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
тАЬOnly a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice.тАЭ тАУ Dwight D. Eisenhower
I also had read Dionne's column this morning, Fern. That along with one by John Logan a labor relations prof at SFState U do indicate a rising tide, but how much, and for how long??? Still I believe enough in the importance of organized labor that I became a lifetime member of the NEA. It's been especially tough in my right to work ( a laughable misnomer) state.
Carmen, I felt you as a workmate when I first read your initial comment hours before I responded -- other work needed attention. Our hands, hearts and spirits are joined. Cheers!
I know how you feel Carmen. I too am a member of the NEA, or was before I retired. Your correct, itтАЩs almost laughable in a right to work state. My daughter is now a memberтШ║я╕П.
No offense intended, but I think that is why they are named тАЬopportunistsтАЭ. Their recognizable traits are always the same, no matter when or where they pop up!
Thanks, Spooky. I agree. That's the heart of the problem; seems to be part human nature. And unless we fight against it, it will overtake us, personally as well as nationally.
Sometimes reading about elements of the past is like reading today's newspaper. We humans are slow learners, or at least a good number of us are. Unions showed then, and still show now that we all do better when we all do better.
I am rereading Drieser's, An American Tragedy, 50 years after the first reading. Given the current rabid sense of nationalism, faux Christianity, and classism, it is eye-opening to think that a book published in the early 1920s is spot on in 2022.
I read that years ago and may have to pick it up again. My husband's favorite writer on economics among other things right now is Thomas Picketty (sp?) and I am going to read his slimmer volume on equality. The other two are tomes. And thanks to Heather for the short history of Labor Day. As I read, I was thinking that nothing much changes and we continue to fight the same battles. I am done for tonight on the computer and will continue to read my book on gene editing. Enjoyable Labor Day everyone!!
Check out the work showing that we share over 20 % of our human genome with trees. I think you will find the references in the work of either Diana Kroeger Beresford, Vandana Shiva and / or Suzanne Simard. All have U tube talks and have made documentaries. One I watched last year on Netflix was called " More of Everything ". As a cancer survivor , a former oncologist and someone who supports gene therapy for rare genetic disorders, I am terrified that people think gene editing is the answer to our ecologic crisis. I am certain those involved are well intentioned. However I doubt they realize that in fact Indigenous who include non human life-forms among our relations are actually accurate. We humans share a significant portion of our genome with our friends the trees. This is mind-blowing...........
Check out Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm, by Stephen Harrod Buhner. It isn't just trees.
Thank you TWO TIMES
You inspired my life-long domination of curiosity.
So I found this brief review:
" Buhner explains how to use analogical thinking and imaginal perception to directly experience the inherent meanings that flow through the world, that are expressed from each living form that surrounds us, and to directly initiate communication in return."
Well sir!
I live in that dream all day long.
My clients begin to see what they are looking at for the first time through explanations revealed first in two dimensional drawings, then three dimensional models and then finally in realities' constructed revelation...
Thank you Mr. Nemeth for your generosity of sharing the wisdom of Buhner with me!
Joseph Nemeth (CA)
Thank you from another's attempted escape from grumpiness by continuing the realization of other's dreams through the magic of Architecture's ability to create the blessing of life long friends...
Indeed it is....and many ethical problems. I love that we share part of our genome with trees and thanks for the heads up on those authors. I enjoy biology though I am history person.
Thanks Michele,
There is certainly lots to read and explore.
Frances Scully
INDEED
My mind is often blown each time hiking in wilderness forests when I am compelled to cuddle with a specific tree. As I look up while hugging I actually see the tree smiling and feel it swaying in delight!
So nice to know that I'm not a freak for hugging trees. Now I see that all along I've been hugging my cousins.
I readтАФor more correctly listened toтАФone of those tomes. Definitely unnecessary to put yourself through it.
He's one of my husband's favorites, so we have them all. The one on equality is much shorter. The one book that I listened to was Ulysses as we were going to Ireland. I would never have been able to read it.
My husband read that book almost 20 years ago. I too, would not have the patience to read it all.
I am eager to listen...I recently downloaded that to me audio library!
I read Ulysses and didn't understand much, then immediately read it again and it all came together so that it is one of my favorite books now.
Am about to start Piketty's History of Inequality with a book group. The member who recommended it says it is quite dense, but rewarding.
Which gene editing book are you reading?
The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson. It centers around Jennifer Doudna, one of the scientists who has worked for a long time on this.
She won the Nobel for crispr, by far the most versatile of the gene editing methods--revolutionary.
https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/genomicresearch/genomeediting/
Yes, I am not to that point in the book yet.
One of CaliforniaтАЩs brilliant scientists and professors! Imagine that...a woman!
Yes, and her Nobel co-recipient is Emmanuelle Charpentier (sp?), a very interesting French woman. The book follows Doudna' life and has a little bio info on several other people.
Here is a better simplified explanation of the overlap between the human genome and that of a banana.https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/people-bananas-share-dna.htm
I am not suggesting that humans and bananas are similar physiologically. I am only pointing out that most of us lack an understanding of what some refer to as animate Intelligence. Jeremy Lent is gifted polymath who speaks and writes eloquently on the intersection between cutting edge science and ancient wisdom . He is one of many leaders in this amazing field. https://www.kosmosjournal.org/kosmos-live/jeremy-lent-the-web-of-meaning/
It shouldn't be surprising that there's ample overlap between the human and the banana genome. Both use DNA as the genetic code, and both use molecular machinery called ribosomes to translate RNA--which is derived from DNA--into proteins. A lot of other functions are similar between the two organisms, although there are a lot of differences as well.
As for the notion of "cooperation" between different organisms, and types of organisms, this shoiuldn't be surprising, either. A lot of cooperation has gone on among humans in human societies of various sorts, and from hunter-gatherer bands to more complex societies (see: ancient wisdom). It shouldn't be surprising, as it makes sense that humans can do more to help themselves if they cooperate with others. Even our own American society, with all the competitive behavior going on in it, has a lot of cooperative behavior going on as well, much of that, but not all of it mediated by money.
Unfortunately, there is a school of thought in economics that emphasizes the supposed benefits of individuals behaving selfishly.
But I don't believe the notion that plants cooperate with each other because they think about what they do, since I don't think they think. But I don't have a problem with the idea that they cooperate, something that could have arisen through evolution.
Thank you for these citations. I will be looking up his work. I like it that he also includes ancient wisdom. Lots more reading to do!!
Everything old is new again. Even when we wish it weren't.
Yes and I could add-Nothing changes if nothing changes.
Plus ├зa change, plus c'est la m├кme chose..
Or "meet the new boss... same as the old boss." (-Pete Townshend) :)
I collect Dreiser's first edition books. Regardless, re - reading Sister Carrie, reminds me about the place and progress of women at turn of century in Chicago has not changed much in the minds of 2022 humans!
Indeed. I'm not sure what nudged me to re-read An American Tragedy, but
I'm glad I did. Sister Carrie is next on my list. You're right, not much has changed at all.
Read both of those in early teens and know they influenced later thinking. Reread those tomes now in my тАШi80тАЩs ? Nope.
In Portugal, educated women with jobs are now having a baby and forgetting to get married because the marriage laws are antiquaited and favor men. They consentrate their motherhood time and energy on one or two children who will be too valued to be thrown into the next war as cannon fodder. Books like An American Tragedy are necessary to point out why drones in the hive live only two weeks, while worker bees live four to eight weeks. It's all relative.
Daria - I reposted your post - with the article about WHITE historians advising Biden - under a comment made by Sandy Lewis so he will be sure to get it. Don't want him to miss it. And I don't want to miss his response!
Mary Pat, Thank you! I don't want to miss it either!
daria thank you for supporting my reasoning in not discarding a good book.
I recall how that story shaped my thinking in 1966. It probably saved my life.
My cousins grew up where that happened & I spent many summers there. When i read the book as a teenager i must have missed the class differences. When I reread it years later, ЁЯдп.
Might have another go at it.
Diane, it is such an incredibly brutal story.
Carmen, I was deeply touched that on the eve of Labor Day you chose to invoke the phrase from deceased Senator Paul WellstoneтАЩs 1999 speech to the Sheet Metal Workers Union тАЬWe all do better when we all do better.тАЭ I also would add, despite repeated frustration and failure, that, at least in my view, increasingly more of us have come to appreciate that the preservation of democracy depends upon a far more cooperative environment wherein there is a modicum of social and economic justice for as many people as possible on as many days as possible.
In my lifetime, I cannot think of anyone, other than his good friend Sen. Bernie Sanders, who worked harder to protect we the people than Paul Wellstone. Would it were that environmental issues, such as keeping the Boundary Waters Wilderness of Northern Minnesota free of motorboats had not been such a damnably divisive issue at the time. Wellstone, caught between union guys who wanted to hunt and fish using motor transport, and those of us that preferred silence and solitude, and keeping it wild, made his last days pretty chaotic. Gads, I miss that manтАЩs integrity and passion.
тЭд
Thanks, Sheila. Yes, INTEGRITY and passion. Who in political office now even knows the word INTEGRITY!
Sheila, I was an undergraduate at NYU when Paul Wellstone began teaching Political Science at Carleton College in rural Minnesota. I canтАЩt remember, in retrospect, how we received word of this charismatic professor, but I do remember several of us seriously considering taking a semester in Minnesota to take class with this radical iconoclast.
Decades later, I recall former Senator Russ Feingold, another midwestern hero of mine, relating the first time he met Wellstone in his office back in 1989. As Feingold tells it, 15 or so books, all of which Wellstone was reading, were spread across the office floor while Wellstone was on the phone arguing with someone about Cuba. When Wellstone told Feingold he was considering a run for the Senate, both had a good laugh at the prospect of two such improbable figures serving in the upper chamber.
Our beloved Senator Wellstone, still inspiring us.
Always.
Thanks ЁЯЩП yes ЁЯЩМ and I love that you add тАЬon as many days as possibleтАЭ !!!
Amy, I very much appreciate your affirming reply. Thanks so much for writing.
I remember the plane crash - it appears there still is some question as to the reason - at least in some people's minds. That was a bad time to be against Bush's war, and pro-labor and poor people!! Read an article that wondered why, with all the blame put to terrorism in that time period - never a mention of that possibility when Sen. Wellstone's plane crashed. There was another Democrat who ran for governor & was killed almost exactly two years earlier. The phrase "We all do better when we all do better" says what kind of person he was!
Maggie, I, too, recall the murmurings of foul play back in 2002. As I understand, Wellstone seriously was considering a Presidential run in 2000; regrettably, his campaign aspirations were derailed by a ruptured disc. By 2002, his MS well under control, Wellstone, who was running to retain his Senate seat, also seriously was considering a 2004 Presidential run. I canтАЩt recall any Republican insider who was not deeply concerned at the prospect of Wellstone entering the 2004 Presidential race. Nor can I imagine that any of us on this thread ever will forget when WellstoneтАЩs plane went down in October, 2002.
Government by assassination.
Kind of what I figured too.
ЁЯСНЁЯП╝
Soon after TFG was elected I read Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here. I was reassured that it was just a novel and couldn't happen here. I was wrong on so many levels.
Indeed, it has happened here, and the fuse was lit by a clown with a flame throwerтАж supported by RupertтАЩs propaganda of the Goebbels ilk.
I think of Goebbels and the power of the Big Lie almost daily. If I remember correctly he spoke of the power of repetition of a lie to make it believable. He proved his point and we are living the result as did pre-WWII Germans.
Yes he did say that but Hitler, of course, applied that often, as well. HereтАЩs an interesting take on the тАЬbig lieтАЭ. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joseph-goebbels-on-the-quot-big-lie-quot
Goebbels may have been the one to apply the thesis but it was Hitler who coined the phrase in Mein Kampf. gro├Яe L├╝ge describes the use of a lie so colossal that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously." THAT is where the MAGAts are today: believing the big lie and refusing to admit that they've been had.
Thanks, MisTBlu. There it is in print. I'd never seen that quote. So good to know.
Same with Octavia Butler's parable of the Sower. I was told Oh, tha t's just a dystopian novel. Well, it's happening here and now with the rise in street crime, walling off of the rich in their gated communities, and the drug tide.
I just read Kindred and was wondering which of Ms. Butler's novels to read next.
Carmen, Your post today would be great on any day but today, it is perfect. How about union news, 9/5/2022, hot off the press:
'4,000 Google cafeteria workers quietly unionized during the pandemic'
The tech giant is known for its free lunches for employees. The people who make those lunches have joined unions en masse.'
'Google is famous for its cafeterias, which serve its legions of programmers and product managers everything from vegan poke to gourmet tacos тАФ free.'
'But the cooks and servers behind those meals are generally contractors who work for other companies, and do not get the generous perks and benefits reserved for Google employees. So over the past few years, thousands of them have unionized, securing higher wages, retirement benefits and free platinum health care coverage.'
'Unite Here, a 300,000-member union hotel and food service workers, has been steadily working to unionize Silicon Valley cafeteria workers since 2018, experiencing the most success at Google. Employed by the contract companies Compass and Guckenheimer, those unionized now make up about 90 percent of total food services workers at Google, according to the union. Workers have unionized at 23 Google offices nationwide, including in Seattle and San Jose.'
'Now, the union is tackling new territory: the South. On Wednesday, Google workers in Atlanta employed by a different cafeteria company тАФ Sodexo тАФ presented their manager with a list of demands and said they plan to unionize.'
'The labor market is still red-hot тАФ and itтАЩs helping union organizers'
'Unionizing workers outside of major coastal cities and in the South may be a tougher sell, where union membership is the lowest in the United States and labor laws are generally weaker. Around 6 percent of workers in Georgia are unionized, compared with 18 percent in California and 24 percent in New York, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Although inflation and housing prices have pushed up the cost of living nationwide, prices are still generally lower in the South than in large coastal cities.'
'On Friday, Sodexo and the union reached an agreement: Should a majority of workers choose to unionize, Sodexo would not try to block it.' (WAPO) For more good labor union news in this article, see link below.
https://wapo.st/3QicNLe
Thanks so much for filling in some important details. The "essential workers" are now recognizing that they have the right to demand fair wages and working conditions. It would be wonderful to see the strangle-hold of major corporations on the necks of workers finally loosed.
All that's great. Thanks Fern!
My maternal great uncle was a union lawyer who was de facto head of the Colorado Democratic Party for the first half of the last century. When first out of college, my father worked in a textile firm in Manhattan, which he spent two years trying to unionize. (There was too much turnover.)
We never learn, it seems
I was thinking exactly the same thing while reading. I really appreciate this history lesson on this day. It also highlights that human nature remains the same through the continuum of time--there will always be the demarcation between those who care about others and the whole of society and those who only look out for themselves no matter who they have to walk over....
An economic indisputable fact that conservative refuse to accept is that the better the poor do the better the middle class does along with everyone else.
The astonishing thing as that many of those who vote conservative are poor. It's a kind of aspirational blindness in that they see themselves as middle class. Is this because the word "poor" has been banished from our vocabulary or because they don't allow themselves to admit that they are, in fact, poor?
MisTBlu:
Families that are not families have children that have never experienced the freedom of childhood. They toil to maintain their escape from their constant food & shelter insecurity. They are not aware of the benefits of higher education except what they witness on tv commercials about the "Perfect" childhood image relationship with a loving father AND mother,
How did this become accepted as middle-class membership!?
Answer:
republican strangulation of Congress complicity by that creature who unfortunately survived abortion to become deceptions' conception of vile evilness bile spewing Prince of Self-aggrandizement upon the backs of middle-class numbed acquiescence, Eh!?
Their greed has no limit of satiation.... pigs have better manners
I can best describe that as selfish insanity.
Carmen
DITTO
тАЬLet us each Labor day, hold a congress and formulate propositions for the amelioration of the people. Send them to your Representatives with your earnest, intelligent indorsement [sic], and the laws will be changed.тАЭ
Hmmmmm
REALLY!
The laws that were. тАЬтАжchangedтАжтАЭ as an immediate result of the so-called amelioration of the people was the result of the Pullman Strike of 1894 by 250,000 railroad workers employed nation-wide by some 20 railroads altogether.
Indeed, this massive strike allowed the union, led by Eugene V. Debs president of the American Railway Union (ARU), to flex its muscles against abuse of the workers by the railroads.
Debs attempt at amelioration of the people resulted in his six-month prison sentence for contempt of court for violating the injunction issued against the strike by the railroads
Also, and an even greater blow against Congress formulating propositions for the amelioration of the people was the result of the U.S. Supreme Court in siding with the railroadтАЩs injunction against the unions to break their strike, (In re Debs (1895).
Now, the laws that were actually, тАЬтАжchangedтАжтАЭ resulted from the precedent set by this courtтАЩs ruling. It substantially reduced the unionтАЩs effectiveness of their attempted amelioration by people striking against employers.
HmmmmmтАж.
And so continues the SCOTUS pejoration of the people, by the fat old white rich republican bigots, and for the ruling elite of America!
All true but I take heart in the new generation of union organizers. They're not going to take it anymore.
ЁЯСЛ ЁЯСЛ ЁЯСЛ ЁЯСЛ ЁЯСЛ ЁЯСЛ ЁЯСЛ
Ah, plenty of us, as James and Jeff do, understand the UNION in unions 'Unions are on a roll. 'And they unite a divided nation' by E.J. Dionne, Jr.:
'Okay, itтАЩs not like laborтАЩs high tide in the 1940s or 1950s yet. But unions are staging a remarkable comeback in the United States that few anticipated even a decade ago.'
'Government policies are shifting in the direction of workers. Unions are winning workplace elections at a rapid clip. And just last week, Gallup reported that approval of unions hit its highest level in 57 years.'
'After a long stretch during which Labor Day became the occasion for trade unionismтАЩs obituaries, 2022 marks a resurgence in public appreciation for collective action, collective bargaining and the idea of solidarity.'
'Friends of labor might well react by saying: ItтАЩs about time. In truth, the new appreciation for what unions can achieve, and what workers have a right to expect, has been building over a long period.'
'All the public discussions of rising inequalities in income and wealth turn out to have been far more than academic or ideological exercises. Workers felt inequality personally тАФ and are responding to it.'
'The long-term impact of the 2008-2009 economic meltdown, followed by the pandemicтАЩs dislocations a decade later, tilted attitudes away from a celebration of pure market individualism and in favor of labor.'
'Gallup found that approval of unions hit low points of 48 percent in 2009 and 52 percent in 2010. They have risen ever since тАФ to 61 percent in 2017, 68 percent last year and 71 percent last week, a peak not reached since 1965.'
'At a time when so many attitudes divide along racial lines, Gallup found that Whites and non-Whites were equally pro-labor. Approval spanned generations тАФ at 72 percent for those under 54, and 70 percent among those 55 and over. Support for organized labor, close to unanimous among Democrats, is in fact bipartisan: 89 percent of Democrats approved of unions, as did 68 percent of independents and 56 percent of Republicans.'
'Opinion is translating into action. VoxтАЩs Rani Molla documented how well-publicized union victories тАФ at Amazon, Apple, Chipotle, REI, Starbucks and Trader JoeтАЩs тАФ are just the most visible part of a larger trend. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, owns The Post.)'
'Unions won more representation elections in 2022 than they have in nearly 20 years, Molla reported. Their win rate has risen from barely over 50 percent in 2000 to 76.6 percent this year. And three times as many workers went on strike in 2022 as in 2021, she reported.'
'Another factor working in favor of unions, as The PostтАЩs labor reporter Lauren Kaori Gurley noted, is a тАЬred-hot labor market that has afforded workers more bargaining power.тАЭ Younger workers especially are unburdened by past labor failures and feel liberated by the availability of employment.'
'And тАЬeven a cooling-off economy,тАЭ Gurley wrote, тАЬwould not necessarily undo cultural shifts that have resulted in the rising popularity of unions, particularly among young, college-educated workers.тАЭ
'All of this is happening against the backdrop of an administration trying to live up to President BidenтАЩs pledge to be тАЬthe most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history.тАЭ
'Jennifer Abruzzo, the general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board, has been pushing to overturn rulings and practices that hampered union organizing efforts in the past. And Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, has been pushing what she told the United Steelworkers Constitutional Convention last month was an agenda тАЬthat is crafted with workers, for workers.тАЭ
тАЬOur trade policy,тАЭ Tai told the union, тАЬcannot be a vehicle for undercutting workersтАЩ rights and outsourcing jobs,тАЭ adding: тАЬDelivering for workers is our main priority.тАЭ
'A spurt of new organizing will not undo years of union decline. Efforts to change labor laws to make unionization easier have failed even in Congresses controlled by Democrats. The new shape of the economy тАФ with fewer of the sorts of manufacturing jobs on which labor built its power between the 1930s and the 1960s тАФ creates challenges that the movement still needs to master.'
'But the new labor story, based on an embrace of the promise of triumph through shared struggle, runs crosswise to many of the trends in our politics, and usefully so. Unions have the capacity to bring Americans together across some very deep divides. Republicans have yet to alter their largely antilabor policy stances to accommodate a new constituency that includes large numbers of working-class voters. YouтАЩd never know from the partyтАЩs hostility to unions how sympathetic the GOP rank and file is to what they do.'
'Labor Day is a celebration of workers and of their dignity. This makes it a good time to consider whether our countryтАЩs discontents have to be channeled through culture wars and racial prejudice. The surge in support for unions points down a different path, a practical quest to ease day-to-day burdens by improving wages, benefits and working conditions. That beats empty, angry and divisive demagoguery any day.'
Unions as it turns out were the backbone of our democracy, without strong unions, only the almighty dollar motivated many legislators, the people have been generally ignored. The frustrations of workers helped to give rise to the radical politics we see in the MAGA GOP. People turned to a demagogue to set things right, out of desperation.
тАЬYou are never strong enough that you donтАЩt need help.тАЭ тАУ Cesar Chavez
тАЬThe Labor Movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress.тАЭ тАУ Martin Luther King Jr.
тАЬWe can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few; but we canтАЩt have both.тАЭ тАУ Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
тАЬOnly a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice.тАЭ тАУ Dwight D. Eisenhower
I also had read Dionne's column this morning, Fern. That along with one by John Logan a labor relations prof at SFState U do indicate a rising tide, but how much, and for how long??? Still I believe enough in the importance of organized labor that I became a lifetime member of the NEA. It's been especially tough in my right to work ( a laughable misnomer) state.
Carmen, I felt you as a workmate when I first read your initial comment hours before I responded -- other work needed attention. Our hands, hearts and spirits are joined. Cheers!
I know how you feel Carmen. I too am a member of the NEA, or was before I retired. Your correct, itтАЩs almost laughable in a right to work state. My daughter is now a memberтШ║я╕П.
We all do better when we all do better.
No offense intended, but I think that is why they are named тАЬopportunistsтАЭ. Their recognizable traits are always the same, no matter when or where they pop up!
Thanks, Spooky. I agree. That's the heart of the problem; seems to be part human nature. And unless we fight against it, it will overtake us, personally as well as nationally.
Unfortunately, that seems to be foremost now.