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Sunday Open Thoughts

by: Alma

Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 01:00:00 AM EDT

I'm a union girl. I grew up in a union family. If it wasn't for the union benefits we get we probably would have lost our house when hubby became disabled and it took so long to get his Social Security Disability through.

Alma :: Sunday Open Thoughts

I believe unions have played a hand in most of our good safety and wage regulations.

I think a lot of my activism comes from being union made. Unions regularly encourage people to protest.

Then again maybe my activism comes from my grandpa. I never knew him. He moved out of Michigan before I was born and then died a few years later. But when he lived in Michigan and was in the same union my dad, brother, brother in law, and hubby were/are in, he decided to check some things out.

Grandpa Pete and 4 or 5 others were concerned about money seeming to be missing from the union funds. So they devised a plan, which they carried out. They broke into the union hall and did find the evidence they were looking for. Unfortunately they got caught during the break in. I didn't find out until my hubby got in the union that the other guys with grandpa all died within a few years of the break in. Mainly from odd suicides. I don't know if that part is true or not. It would explain grandpa moving, but it could just be where story details got changed and blown up over the years.

But either way I think I'm more politically active because of unions, and I've learned to try and do what I can, short of breaking and entering.

Where do you think your political activism comes from?

Happy Sunday!

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Sunday Open Thoughts | 11 comments

Happy Sunday, Alma! (14.50 / 4)

Not sure I'd call myself an activist exactly, but I'm pretty sure I know why I'm a liberal.

(a) I remember the Watergate hearings. Indeed, they were the main focus of attention one summer in high school.

(b) Although my mother was fairly racist, I knew she was wrong. People are people, across the spectrum: mostly good with some really rotten eggs mixed in.

(c) Although neither of my parents was in a union, it was obvious that, historically, unions created better working conditions for the middle and lower classes. We have unions to thank for the 40-hour work week and time & a half overtime...and the weekend. So I've been pro-union for my entire adult life, and wish I could join one right now. (And yes, I remember a bunch of union scandals from that era. Even so: workers are better off with unions than without them.)

(d) The rich getting richer on the backs of the poor and working/middle classes is just fucking wrong. I'm with the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, who famously said, "There is a class war, and my class is winning," in the context that his secretary pays more in taxes (percentage-wise, I believe) than he does.

Warren Buffett is not the enemy. He of course doesn't want to pay more taxes than he has to -- who does? -- but his point was about income tax inequality. I think he probably votes for Democrats: don't know for sure, of course, but he has a social conscience. How many other billionaires can we say that about?

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 07:08:37 AM UTC

Compared (15.00 / 4)

in percentage of our population I would call you an activist. You may not get out to physical protests, but you sign petitions and try and educate people. To me educating people on the issues is a form of activism that in many ways is more productive than protesting.

Talking about things spreads it farther than the few people that see protests (since the media doesn't cover protests unless they are from Teabaggers). Our politicians have learned to ignore protests unless they are a part of them.

One thing I've got to say about my mom is that the older she gets the more liberal she gets. She's really grown as a person the last 10-20 years.

We so need to get the unions going and growing again. Every year they seem to get weaker. :(

by: Alma @ Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 15:57:33 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

At my last job, the publishing company where I worked was quite anti-union, (14.33 / 3)

and, for years, the union would be close to being voted in, and the company would go in and break it, being the big reputed union-busting company that they were. In fact, this company had hired an ultra-conservative law firm to assist and coach them on how to keep the union out of there, which, for years, they succeeded in doing. During my stint at the company, especially since I come from a family of strong union supporters, I, too, was supportive of the union, going to meetings and signing petitions, attending parties, and talking to people. Finally, one year, the union got elected in, and it was a victory. I, along with many other people, got a much better salary, which was great. When I filed a grievance against a nasty, two-bit new supervisor that they brought in to reflect changes that finally came to that company that I worked for, they were behind me.

Alma: this is for both you and Youff:

Unfortunately, this country's overall political and social climate really has not been the best year for unions, and it's been that way since the late-1960's to early 1970's, when President Nixon took power. The decline of unions and our healthcare system started under him.

Last time I heard, the company that I worked for is still a big union buster, and the union is hamstrung by it. However, I also think that the union itself isn't strong enough, either, which makes things not that great. This coming from a strong union supporter, yet!

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

by: mplo @ Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 18:37:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Alma, sweetie, it will be really (7.67 / 3)

obvious when you wake up and see my stupid mistake, but please allow me to apologize anyway.

sigh

My eyesight is bad but I really thought I had the Wed. open set up to post on, y'know, Wednesday.

Oops. I think I need new glasses.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 08:14:54 AM UTC

youff (13.33 / 3)

i've deleted (or will do this shortly, before you wake up) your wed. post & e-mailed you the code so you can repost it for wednesday.

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett

by: RiaD @ Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 10:39:50 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks, Ria (6.00 / 2)

Probably I should have just left it in draft form until Tues. night, but it was set to go & I did change the date before hitting "save" but must have missed something somewhere.

sigh

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 16:09:36 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

You might have (15.00 / 2)

convinced me its Wed! ;)

Oh Youff, you know it wouldn't bother me in the least so there would be no reason to apologize. I think we've all had oops moments more than once. Kinda like daily for me.

And the eye thing? I'm right there with you. I really need my eyes checked and new glasses, my kids do too. But it costs to darn much.

My favorite oops moment from my vision was the day I got bifocals. It was during the Election Race Diary Roundup at kos, the first round in 04 I believe. I followed a link in a comment and it took me to something in Spanish that was totally not elections. I came back and hit it to rate it as a troll (thinking it was spam) when I noticed it was a regular and must have been a mistake. I thought I hit the right button to cancel the troll rating but I didn't. It took me a few tries to get the tr off of it. Nightprowlkitty was howling with laughter in the thread with comments inbetween my tries.

The ERDR will be starting again shortly. Our scheduler is back for another round but we've lost nightprowlkitty and one of our editors who got a job as an assistant professor at Harvard. NPK was the first volunteer Sid had to work on the diary, with me being second so I'm really sorry to see npk go. At the time we didn't know it was going to be a front page feature, much less that it would be every election year. Thank goodness we didn't lose Joy and her hubby.

by: Alma @ Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 15:43:58 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

LOL (9.00 / 2)

Good luck with ERDR this time around. There are two really important races here, Sestak for the Senate and Lois Herr for Congress.

Frankly, I think Joe Pitts has a lock on that seat, but I'll be voting for Herr. The problem is the rural/small town areas that are devil-red.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 16:17:48 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Those small towns (11.67 / 3)

are always the problem. Almost all large cities favor dem.

Hopefully the anti-incumbent fever will knock Pitts out this time.

by: Alma @ Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 16:28:55 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

While this: (15.00 / 3)

Almost all large cities favor dem

is mostly true, it also depends on the area of the country, and who's running, and so forth. I remember back in the mid to late-1970's, when I was younger and more idealistic, a very liberal representatative was running in our district ( my family and I lived out in a suburb west of Boston at the time), there was a question about two very conservative working-class cities in the Commonwealth; Waltham and Fitchburg possibly being obstacles to the liberal senator's winning, and a bigger chance of the more Conservative representative who was running winning the seat. Fortunately, that didn't materialize.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

by: mplo @ Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 18:28:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Some great stuff y'all gotta read (9.00 / 2)

OPOL has a new book ready to go for print-on-demand, and at least some of us here will want to read it:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo...

And KAMuston made the rescue list with a terrific story about sisters born in the late 1700s. Trust me, if you read this, you will be glad you did: the sisters remind me a bit of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in their scholarship and determination.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo...

That's it so far, but I highly rec both of them. Enjoy!

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Mon Aug 16, 2010 at 05:34:15 AM UTC

Sunday Open Thoughts | 11 comments

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