So THIS Is Christmas?

Greetings!

So, December 25, 2010 is quickly moving in upon us all. Christmas. Most of us are darting about at double speed trying to buy somebody something to put under the proverbial tree all decorated in the living room.

Most of us have been to the gatherings where most of us have put on a pretty face so that most of us may even be able to wish the best to those least liked or not at all appreciated.

All of us have been inundated with Christmas music and "Black Friday" ads since just after HALLOWEEN!

No Thanksgiving. Halloween then CHRISTMAS!!

I wondered why this has been the case. And then it dawned on me that there is no real PROFIT in people being thankful. It seems as if the masses must be evoked as soon as possible to start shopping. Forget the turkey, the meal where at least once a year the extended family actually sits together just to eat and enjoy one another.
No profit there.
Let's get the carols pumping through the airwaves. Lets get the presses all pretty in red and green and "HALF OFF" slogans. Let's do this right away, right after Halloween. There is MONEY TO BE MADE!!

Christ, the Enlightened One, has come to bring Peace and Gnosis to the world.
So let us GO SHOPPING!!

I don't have the pretty tree. I won't be buying all sorts of gifts. There are no pretty lights along the outline of my home. BUT there is a sincere thankfulness to my god for my life, my wife, my children, and the small amount of people I call my friends.

I will do all I can to help those in my life who need help. I try to make sure everyone knows I appreciate them. I try to do this through my selfless actions.

I try to bring goodwill and peace, the spirit of the Enlightened One. Sure I fail sometimes.

But there is no profit to be made in this true spirit of Christmas.....let's go shopping instead.

A Few Words About Thanksgiving 2010

Greetings!

I sit here well fed the Friday after Thanksgiving watching re-runs of "Iconoclasts" on the Sundance Channel. My wife is next to me taking a nap. My son is in the downstairs portion of the house playing video games. It is a peaceful scene as we just spent yesterday all at the table celebrating the fact that we are all well, we want for nothing, and we have a lot to offer the people in our lives.

Life has been good. I have found myself entrenched in the negative lately, though. The lead up to our celebration of Thanksgiving found me worrying about the recurrence of the bladder cancer I fought this past summer. I was worried that I would not have the house cleaned up well enough to have mom-in-law over. I scrambled to find a suitable turkey while I bitched that the markets are playing xmas music right after Halloween these days, and it seems the markets don't even have a good Thanksgiving display or sales on food anymore.

The reality is as of this moment, which is the only time I have in reality, I do not have bladder cancer, the house cleaned up just fine, I found a suitable turkey and we had ourselves an excellent feast. Life is good!!

2010 has been a year full of so many victories and just a few challenges. I have been through a lot of bad years, and this really has not been one of them. The lights are on, the mortgage is not behind, my car has a full tank, my children and my wife are healthy, I am at this moment, healthy, I am affording my continued education and am keeping a high GPA, I am duly employed.

Too much to be thankful for, and so much to look forward to!!

Hope your year has been one to be thankful for as well!

An Open Letter to My Fellow Liberals

To my fellow Liberals:

On November 2nd, 2010, the Democratic majority was erased from the Congress of the United States of America. The Democratic majority was also narrowed in the Senate. This leaves many of the policies protecting and intended to grow the middle-class in America in jeopardy of being overturned by the ultra right wing zealots who were elected on November 2nd. One of the laws the ultra right wing zealots seek to overturn is the Health Care Reform LAW that many Americans pressed for and saw their Congress and Senate pass to protect them from out of control for profit insurance companies who would cancel insurance coverage when an insured member got sick, or would not re-instate coverage if an insured member got sick. This left many Americans facing bankruptcy as they tried to pay their medical bills, but could not keep up with the mounting debts incurred as they just tried to stay alive using medical help they needed.

That is just one target in the scopes of the ultra right wing zealots. The Department of Education has been mentioned by the zealots as a target of "ending", Pell Grants which have allowed many in the middle-class to seek college education has been threatened by the zealots. The Department of Energy which regulates atomic power has been threatened by the zealots, The Environmental Protection Agency which protects by regulation the air we all breathe and water we all drink is on the chopping block of the zealots.

These are just a few ideas from the twisted minds of the zealots that would effect in severe monetary and intellectual ways the progress of the middle-class of America.

My fellow Liberals, this is a dark time for any progress for "We the People" disguised as light from the so-called "constitutionalists". The zealots have twisted the words of the Founding Fathers as to make many believe that the capitalists are the purveyors of freedom, while capitalism has enslaved the masses into debt and violated of human rights of the working peoples in the countries the capitalists have chosen to seek "cheap labor" where working conditions are many times dangerous and the pay is sub par while the corporations who then sell the products of what is essentially slave labor to the eager credit card carrying consumer for huge profits while at once seeing that the working class remains in debt or in poverty and in deep servitude to the communist country where they work, or to the credit card corporations to whom the consumer is now indebted to. CAPITALISM DOES NOT EQUATE TO FREEDOM!

The right wing zealots have perpetuated lies and fear as to manipulate the minds of the masses. Lies and fear only captivate the individual to one ideology; the ideology of paranoia. From the "Red Scare" of the 50's where the right wing warned of a communist in every dark corner to the "9-11 Scare" present day where the ultra right wing zealots would have the masses believe that our own president is "one of them terrorist" and not even American. When the masses are afraid of every perpetuated lie, it seems the masses are easier to control, and to manipulate with a paranoid mind. I believe fear and paranoia were the deciding factors in this last election of November 2nd, 201o. Our President, who has been working towards middle-class protections, was "the big bad wolf" this time.

So, my fellow Liberals, we can see clearly that the average American is so manipulated by fear that intellectual conversation seems to be muted by the paranoid mind. Talking points from the radio waves have interrupted individual thought or exploration. A deep investigation into ideologies take too much time for the "gotta have it RIGHT NOW" mind of the indebted consumer.

How, then, can the message of Liberalism, of fortifying and protecting the middle-class be absorbed by the people who are in most need of these protections?

Liberals MUST make the middle-class AFRAID OF CONSERVATISM!!

But, Liberals should only bring about this fear by using the truth. Use the right wing zealot's own ideologies and words to bring about this fear. Use comparisons "This is what the right wing wants for you, this is what LIBERALS want for you...see? Liberals want YOU to be stronger, and here is the Liberal plan... those right wing guys are scary! Be fearful of them!!"

This is not fear by lies. The right wing zealots ARE scary.

My fellow Liberals, let us take a short while and let us see what the zealots propose once they are seated in government..a short while, let us listen like wolves ready to pounce on any fearful, middle-class busting policy they propose, then, let us go onto every talk show IN UNISON and pick the zealots apart. Let us rightfully make America afraid of the ones that would in actuality steal the freedoms of the individual.

The zealots cannot succeed. Liberals, we must stand together and fight fear with REAL fear. We must not let the zealots succeed at any more of their lies.

We are the ones that can make a difference and protect the future of our freedom and our country. Let us not sit idle this time!!

The Struggle is Appreciated/The Struggle Continues

Happy Labor Day!

While enjoying our three day holiday, I hope we will all take a moment to remember that the labor laws we all enjoy that keep us sane and safe were fought for by men and women and even children that risked their lives and gave their lives for the right to a living wage and safety in the workplace, anti-discrimination laws, equality for all workers.

I am the son and grandson of proud union members, and am also a proud union member myself. I am very proud of my heritage and grateful for the union wages my father and grandfather earned that enabled me to enjoy a life and career that is safer and less oppressive in the workplace because of them.

Here is a history of the labor struggle I found on the web. I hope we will never forget the struggle, and I hope we will continue the fight against the dis-mantling of the middle-class by the greedy. Rise up and be counted!

An Eclectic List of Events in U.S. Labor History

• Compiled by allen lutins (allen@lutins.org)
• Last Update 22 June 2010
• Click here for information about reproducing this article.

Most citizens of the United States take for granted labor laws which protect them from the evils of unregulated industry. Perhaps the majority of those who argue for "free enterprise" and the removal of restrictions on capitalist corporations are unaware that over the course of this country's history, workers have fought and often died for protection from capitalist industry. In many instances, government troops were called out to crush strikes, at times firing on protesters. Presented below are a few of the many incidents in the (too often overlooked) tumultuous labor history of this country.

NOTE: Please DO NOT mail me with requests for additional information (such as assistance in locating additional resources, etc.); all that i have to offer on this topic is presented on this page, and i regret that i am unable to assist the Internet community with anything more. For additional labor resources, check out the following:

• American Labor History at University of Cincinnati
• LaborNet home page
• Timeline of labor issues and events from Wikipedia

---

1806
The union of Philadelphia Journeymen Cordwainers was convicted of and bankrupted by charges of criminal conspiracy after a strike for higher wages, setting a precedent by which the U.S. government would combat unions for years to come.

27 April 1825
The first strike for the 10-hour work-day occurred by carpenters in Boston.

3 July 1835
Children employed in the silk mills in Paterson, NJ went on strike for the 11 hour day/6 day week.

July 1851
Two railroad strikers were shot dead and others injured by the state militia in Portgage, New York.

1860
800 women operatives and 4,000 workmen marched during a shoemaker's strike in Lynn, Massachusetts.

13 January 1874
The original Tompkins Square Riot. As unemployed workers demonstrated in New York's Tompkins Square Park, a detachment of mounted police charged into the crowd, beating men, women and children indiscriminately with billy clubs and leaving hundreds of casualties in their wake. Commented Abram Duryee, the Commissioner of Police: "It was the most glorious sight I ever saw..."

12 February 1877
U.S. railroad workers began strikes to protest wage cuts.

21 June 1877
Ten coal-mining activists ("Molly Maguires") were hanged in Pennsylvania.

14 July 1877
A general strike halted the movement of U.S. railroads. In the following days, strike riots spread across the United States. The next week, federal troops were called out to force an end to the nationwide strike. At the "Battle of the Viaduct" in Chicago, federal troops (recently returned from an Indian massacre) killed 30 workers and wounded over 100.

5 September 1882
Thirty thousand workers marched in the first Labor Day parade in New York City.

1884
The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, forerunner of the AFL, passed a resolution stating that "8 hours shall constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886." Though the Federation did not intend to stimulate a mass insurgency, its resolution had precisely that effect.

Late 1885/Early 1886
Hundreds of thousands of American workers, increasingly determined to resist subjugation to capitalist power, poured into a fledgling labor organization, the Knights of Labor. Beginning on May 1, 1886, they took to the streets to demand the universal adoption of the eight hour day.

Chicago was the center of the movement. Workers there had been agitating for an eight hour day for months, and on the eve of May 1, 50,000 workers were already on strike. 30,000 more swelled their ranks the next day, bringing most of Chicago manufacturing to a standstill. Fears of violent class conflict gripped the city. No violence occurred on May 1 -- a Saturday -- or May 2. But on Monday, May 3, a fight involving hundreds broke out at McCormick Reaper between locked-out unionists and the non-unionist workers McCormick hired to replace them. The Chicago police, swollen in number and heavily armed, quickly moved in with clubs and guns to restore order. They left four unionists dead and many others wounded.

Angered by the deadly force of the police, a group of anarchists, led by August Spies and Albert Parsons, called on workers to arm themselves and participate in a massive protest demonstration in Haymarket Square on Tuesday evening, May 4. The demonstration appeared to be a complete bust, with only 3,000 assembling. But near the end of the evening, an individual, whose identity is still in dispute, threw a bomb that killed seven policemen and injured 67 others. Hysterical city and state government officials rounded up eight anarchists, tried them for murder, and sentenced them to death.

On 11 November 1887, four of them, including Parsons and Spies, were executed. All of the executed advocated armed struggle and violence as revolutionary methods, but their prosecutors found no evidence that any had actually thrown the Haymarket bomb. They died for their words, not their deeds. A quarter of a million people lined Chicago's street during Parson's funeral procession to express their outrage at this gross mis-carriage of justice.

For radicals and trade unionists everywhere, Haymarket became a symbol of the stark inequality and injustice of capitalist society. The May 1886 Chicago events figured prominently in the decision of the founding congress of the Second International (Paris, 1889) to make May 1, 1890 a demonstration of the solidarity and power of the international working class movement. May Day has been a celebration of international socialism and (after 1917) international communism ever since.

The Bayview Massacre also took place at this time (for more detailed information visit http://www.execpc.com/~blake/rollin~1.htm), where seven people, including one child, were killed by state militia. On 1 May 1886 about 2,000 Polish workers walked off their jobs and gathered at Saint Stanislaus Church in Milwaukee, angrily denouncing the ten hour workday. They then marched through the city, calling on other workers to join them; as a result, all but one factory was closed down as sixteen thousand protesters gathered at Rolling Mills, prompting Wisconsin Govorner Jeremiah Rusk to call the state militia. The militia camped out at the mill while workers slept in nearby fields, and on the morning of May 5th, as protesters chanted for the eight hour workday, General Treaumer ordered his men to shoot into the crowd, some of whom were carrying sticks, bricks, and scythes, leaving seven dead at the scene. The Milwaukee Journal reported that eight more would die within twenty four hours, and without hesitation added that Governor Rusk was to be commended for his quick action in the matter.

23 November 1887
The Thibodaux Massacre. The Louisiana Militia, aided by bands of "prominent citizens," shot at least 35 unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage, and lynched two strike leaders.

25 July 1890
New York garment workers won the right to unionize after a seven-month strike. They secured agreements for a closed shop, and firing of all scabs.

6 July 1892
The Homestead Strike. Pinkerton Guards, trying to pave the way for the introduction of scabs, opened fire on striking Carnegie mill steel- workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania. In the ensuing battle, three Pinkertons surrendered; then, unarmed, they were set upon and beaten by a mob of townspeople, most of them women. Seven guards and eleven strikers and spectators were shot to death.

11 July 1892
Striking miners in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho dynamited the Frisco Mill, leaving it in ruins.

1893
The first of several bloody mining strikes at Cripple Creek, Colorado.

5 July 1893
During a strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company, which had drastically reduced wages, the 1892 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago's Jackson Park was set ablaze, and seven buildings were reduced to ashes. The mobs raged on, burning and looting railroad cars and fighting police in the streets, until 10 July, when 14,000 federal and state troops finally succeeded in putting down the strike.

1894
Federal troops killed 34 American Railway Union members in the Chicago area attempting to break a strike, led by Eugene Debs, against the Pullman Company. Debs and several others were imprisoned for violating injunctions, causing disintegration of the union.

21 September 1896
The state militia was sent to Leadville, Colorado to break a miner's strike.

10 September 1897
19 unarmed striking coal miners and mine workers were killed and 36 wounded by a posse organized by the Luzerne County sherif for refusing to disperse near Lattimer, Pennsylvania. The strikers, most of whom were shot in the back, were originally brought in as strike-breakers, but later organized themselves.

1898
A portion of the Erdman Act, which would have made it a criminal offense for railroads to dismiss employees or discriminate against prospective employees based on their union activities, was declared invalid by the United States Supreme Court.

12 October 1898
Fourteen were killed, 25 wounded in violence resulting when Virden, Illinois mine owners attempted to break a strike by importing 200 nonunion black workers.

29 April 1899
When their demand that only union men be employed was refused, members of the Western Federation of Miners dynamited the $250,000 mill of the Bunker Hill Company at Wardner, Idaho, destroying it completely. President McKinley responded by sending in black soldiers from Brownsville, Texas with orders to round up thousands of miners and confine them in specially built "bullpens."

1899 and 1901
U.S. Army troops occupied the Coeur d'Alene mining region in Idaho.

12 October 1902
Fourteen miners were killed and 22 wounded by scabherders at Pana, Illinois.

23 November 1903
Troops were dispatched to Cripple Creek, Colorado to control rioting by striking coal miners.

July 1903
Labor organizer Mary Harris ("Mother") Jones leads child workers in demanding a 55 hour work week.

23 February 1904
William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Chronicle began publishing articles on the menace of Japanese laborers, leading to a resolution of the California Legislature that action be taken against their immigration.

8 June 1904
A battle between the Colorado Militia and striking miners at Dunnville ended with six union members dead and 15 taken prisoner. Seventy-nine of the strikers were deported to Kansas two days later.

17 April 1905
The Supreme Court held that a maximum hours law for New York bakery workers was unconstitutional under the due process clause of the 14th ammendment.

1908
The Erdman Act was further weakened when Section 10 was declared unconstitutional. This section had made it illegal for railroad employers to fire employees for being involved in union activities (see 1898).

22 November 1909
The "Uprising of the 20,000." Female garment workers went on strike in New York; many were arrested. A judge told those arrested: "You are on strike against God."

25 December 1910
A dynamite bomb destroyed a portion of the Llewellyn Ironworks in Los Angeles, where a bitter strike was in progress.

1911
The Supreme Court ordered the AFL to cease its promotion of a boycott against the Bucks Stove and Range Company. A contempt charge against union leaders (including AFL President Samuel Gompers) was dismissed on technical grounds.

25 March 1911
The Triangle Shirtwaist Company, occupying the top three floors of a ten-story building in New York City, was consumed by fire. One hundred and forty-seven people, mostly women and young girls working in sweatshop conditions, lost their lives. Approximately 50 died as they leapt from windows to the street; the others were burned or trampled to death as they desperately attempted to escape through stairway exits locked as a precaution against "the interruption of work". On 11 April the company's owners were indicted for manslaughter.

2 December 1911
A Chicago "slugger," paid $50 by labor unions for every scab he "discouraged," described his job in an interview: "Oh, there ain't nothin' to it. I gets my fifty, then I goes out and finds the guy they wanna have slugged. I goes up to `im and I says to `im, `My friend, by way of meaning no harm,' and then I gives it to `im -- biff! in the mug. Nothin' to it."

24 February 1912
Women and children were beaten by police during a textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

18 April 1912
The National Guard was called out against striking West Virginia coal miners.

11 June 1913
Police shot three maritime workers (one of whom was killed) who were striking against the United Fruit Company in New Orleans.

5 January 1914
The Ford Motor Company raised its basic wage from $2.40 for a nine hour day to $5 for an eight hour day.

20 April 1914
The "Ludlow Massacre." In an attempt to persuade strikers at Colorado's Ludlow Mine Field to return to work, company "guards," engaged by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and other mine operators and sworn into the State Militia just for the occasion, attacked a union tent camp with machine guns, then set it afire. Five men, two women and 12 children died as a result. Additional web resources are catolged at www.holtlaborlibrary.org/ludlow.html#Web%20Sites.

13 November 1914
A Western Federation of Miners strike is crushed by the militia in Butte, Montana.

19 January 1915
World famous labor leader Joe Hill was arrested in Salt Lake City. He was convicted on trumped up murder charges, and was executed 21 months later despite worldwide protests and two attempts to intervene by President Woodrow Wilson. In a letter to Bill Haywood shortly before his death he penned the famous words, "Don't mourn - organize!"

On this same day, twenty rioting strikers were shot by factory guards at Roosevelt, New Jersey.

25 January 1915
The Supreme Court upholds "yellow dog" contracts, which forbid membership in labor unions. 22 July 1916
A bomb was set off during a "Preparedness Day" parade in San Francisco, killing 10 and injuring 40 more. Thomas J. Mooney, a labor organizer and Warren K. Billings, a shoe worker, were convicted, but were both pardoned in 1939.

19 August 1916
Strikebreakers hired by the Everett Mills owner Neil Jamison attacked and beat picketing strikers in Everett, Washington. Local police watched and refused to intervene, claiming that the waterfront where the incident took place was Federal land and therefore outside their jurisdiction. (When the picketers retaliated against the strikebreakers that evening, the local police intervened, claiming that they had crossed the line of jursidiction.)

Three days later, twenty-two union men attempted to speak out at a local crossroads, but each was arrested; arrests and beatings of strikebreakers became common throughout the following months, and on 30 October vigilantes forced IWW speakers to run the gauntlet, subjecting them to whipping, tripping kicking, and impalement against a spiked cattle guard at the end of the gauntlet. In response, the IWW called for a meeting on 5 November. When the union men arrived, they were fired on; seven people were killed, 50 were wounded, and an indeterminate number wound up missing.

7 September 1916
Federal employees win the right to receive Worker's Compensation insurance.

12 July 1917
After seizing the local Western Union telegraph office in order to cut off outside communication, several thousand armed vigilantes forced 1,185 men in Bisbee, Arizona into manure-laden boxcars and "deported" them to the New Mexico desert. The action was precipitated by a strike when workers' demands (including improvements to safety and working conditions at the local copper mines, an end to discrimination against labor organizations and unequal treatment of foreign and minority workers, and the institution of a fair wage system) went unmet. The "deportation" was organized by Sheriff Harry Wheeler. The incident was investigated months later by a Federal Mediation Commission set up by President Woodrow Wilson; the Commission found that no federal law applied, and referred the case to the State of Arizona, which failed to take any action, citing patriotism and support for the war as justification for the vigilantes' action.

15 March 1917
The Supreme Court approved the Eight-Hour Act under the threat of a national railway strike.

1 August 1917
IWW organizer Frank Little was lynched in Butte, Monatana.

5 September 1917
Federal agents raided the IWW headquarters in 48 cities.

3 June 1918
A Federal child labor law, enacted two years earlier, was declared unconstitutional. A new law was enacted 24 February 1919, but this one too was declared unconstitutional on 15 May 1922.

27 July 1918
United Mine Workers organizer Ginger Goodwin was shot by a hired private policeman outside Cumberland, British Columbia.

26 August 1919
United Mine Worker organizer Fannie Sellins was gunned down by company guards in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania.

19 September 1919
Looting, rioting and sporadic violence broke out in downtown Boston and South Boston for days after 1,117 Boston policemen declared a work stoppage due to their thwarted attempts to affiliate with the American Federation of Labor. Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge put down the strike by calling out the entire state militia.

22 September 1919
The "Great Steel Strike" began. Ultimately, 350,000 steel workers walked off their jobs to demand union recognition. The AFL Iron and Steel Organizing Committee called off the strike on 8 January 1920, their goals unmet.

11 November 1919
The Centralia Massacre. Violence erupted when members of the American Legion attempted to force their way into an IWW hall in Centralia, Washington during an Armistice Day anniversary celebration. Four Legionnaires were shot dead by members of the IWW, after which IWW organizer Wesley Everest was lynched by a local mob.

22 December 1919
Amid a strike for union recognition by 395,000 steelworkers (ultimately unsuccessful), approximately 250 "anarchists," "communists," and "labor agitators" were deported to Russia, marking the beginning of the so-called "Red Scare."

2 January 1920
The U.S. Bureau of Investigation began carrying out the nationwide Palmer Raids. Federal agents seized labor leaders and literature in the hopes of discouraging labor activity. A number of citizens were turned over to state officials for prosecution under various anti-anarchy statutes.

19 May 1920
The Battle of Matewan. Despite efforts by police chief (and former miner) Sid Hatfield and Mayor C. Testerman to protect miners from interference in their union drive in Matewan, West Virginia, Baldwin-Felts detectives hired by the local mining company and thirteen of the company's managers arrived to evict miners and their families from the Stone Mountain Mine camp. A gun battle ensued, resulting in the deaths of 7 detectives, Mayor Testerman, and 2 miners. Baldwin-Felts detectives assasinated Sid Hatfield 15 months later, sparking off an armed rebellion of 10,000 West Virginia coal miners at "The Battle of Blair Mountain," dubbed "the largest insurrection this country has had since the Civil War" by The Battle of Matewan Home Page.

1920 and 1921
Army troops were used to intervene against striking mineworkers in West Virginia. Details of these events can be found in the extensive and excellent article at www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh50-1.html.

22 June 1922
Violence erupted during a coal-mine strike at Herrin, Illinois. Thirty-six were killed, 21 of them non-union miners.

2 June 1924
A child labor ammendment to the U.S. Constitution was proposed; only 28 of the necessary 36 states ever ratified it.

14 June 1924
A San Pedro, California IWW hall was raided; a number of children were scalded when the hall was demolished.

25 May 1925
Two company houses occupied by nonunion coal miners were blown up and destroyed by labor "racketeers" during a strike against the Glendale Gas and Coal Company in Wheeling, West Virginia.

1926
Textile workers fought with police in Passaic, New Jersey. A year-long strike ensued.

21 November 1927
Picketing miners were massacred in Columbine, Colorado.

3 February 1930
"Chicagorillas" -- labor racketeers -- shot and killed contractor William Healy, with whom the Chicago Marble Setters Union had been having difficulties.

14 April 1930
Over 100 farm workers were arrested for their unionizing activities in Imperial Valley, California. Eight were subsequently convicted of `criminal syndicalism.'

4 May 1931
Gun-toting vigilantes attack striking miners in Harlan County, Kentucky.

7 March 1932
Police kill striking workers at Ford's Dearborn, Michigan plant.

10 October 1933
18,000 cotton workers went on strikein Pixley, California. Four were killed before a pay-hike was finally won.

1934
The Electric Auto-Lite Strike. In Toledo, OH, two strikers were killed and over two hundred wounded by National Guardsmen. Some 1300 National Guard troops, including included eight rifle companies and three machine gun companies, were called in to disperse the protestors.

1934
International Longshoremans and Warehouse union strike of 1934. Two longshoremen, Nick Bordoise and Howard Sperry, were shot to death by the San Francisco Police. May 1934
Police stormed striking truck drivers in Minneapolis who were attempting to prevent truck movement in the market area.

1 September - 22 September 1934
A strike in Woonsocket, RI, part of a national movement to obtain a minimum wage for textile workers, resulted in the deaths of three workers. Over 420,000 workers ultimately went on strike.

9 November 1935
The Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) was formed to expand industrial unionism.

11 February 1937
General Motors recognizes the United Auto Workers union following a sit-down strike.

26 May 1937
The 'Battle of the Overpass'. Walter Reuther and a group of UAW supporters, fresh from having organized GM and Chyrsler, attempting to distribute leaflets at Gate 4 of the Ford Motor Company's River Rouge plant, and were beaten up (together with bystanders) by Ford Service Department guards.

30 May 1937
Police killed 10 and wounded 30 during the "Memorial Day Massacre" at the Republic Steel plant in Chicago.

25 June 1938
The Wages and Hours (later Fair Labor Standards) Act is passed, banning child labor and setting the 40-hour work week. The Act went into effect in October 1940, and was upheld in the Supreme Court on 3 February 1941.

27 February 1939
The Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes are illegal.

20 June 1941
Henry Ford recognizes the UAW.

15 December 1941
The AFL pledges that there will be no strikes in defense-related industry plants for the duration of the war.

28 December 1944
President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Army to seize the executive offices of Montgomery Ward and Company after the corporation failed to comply with a National War Labor Board directive regarding union shops.

1946
Workers in packinghouses nation-wide went on strike.

1 April 1946
A strike by 400,000 mine workers in the U.S. began. U.S. troops seized railroads and coal mines the following month.

4 October 1946
The U.S. Navy seized oil refineries in order to break a 20-state post-war strike.

20 June 1947
The Taft-Hartley Labor Act, curbing strikes, was vetoed by President Truman. Congress overrode the veto.

20 April 1948
Labor leader Walter Reuther was shot and seriously wounded by would-be assassins.

27 August 1950
President Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize all the nation's railroads to prevent a general strike. The railroads were not returned to their owners until two years later.

8 April 1952
President Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize the nation's steel mills to avert a strike. The act was ruled to be illegal by the Supreme Court on 2 June.

5 December 1955
The two largest labor organizations in the U.S. merged to form the AFL-CIO, with a membership estimated at 15 million.

5 April 1956
Columnist Victor Riesel, a crusader against labor racketeers, was blinded in New York City when a hired assailant threw sulfuric acid in his face.

14 September 1959
The Landrum-Griffin Act passes, restricting union activity.

7 November 1959
The Taft-Hartley Act is invoked by the Supreme Court to break a steel strike.

1 April 1963
The longest newspaper strike in U.S. history ended. The 9 major newspapers in New York City had ceased publication over 100 days before.

10 June 1963
Congress passes a law mandating equal pay to women.

5 January 1970
Joseph A. Yablonski, unsuccessful reform candidate to unseat "Tough Tony" Boyle as President of the United Mine Workers, was murdered, along with his wife and daughter, in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania home by assassins acting on Boyle's orders. Boyle was later convicted of the killing. West Virginia miners went on strike the following day in protest.

18 March 1970
The first mass work stoppage in the 195-year history of the Post Office Department began with a walkout of letter carriers in Brooklyn and Manhattan, soon involving 210,000 of the nation's 750,000 postal employees. With mail service virtually paralzyed in New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia, President Nixon declared a state of national emergency and assigned military units to New York City post offices. The stand-off culminated two weeks later.

29 July 1970
United Farm Workers forced California grape growers to sign an agreement after a five-year strike.

3 August 1981
Federal air traffic controllers began a nationwide strike after their union rejected the government's final offer for a new contract. Most of the 13,000 striking controllers defied the back-to-work order, and were dismissed by President Reagan on 5 August.

October 1982
A boycott was initiated by the Industrial Association of Machinists against Brown & Sharpe, a machine, precision, measuring and cutting tool manufacturer, headquartered in Rhode Island. The boycott was called after the firm refused to bargain in good faith (withdrawing previously negotiated clauses in the contract), and forced the union into an unwanted and bitter strike during which police sprayed pepper gas on some 800 IAM pickets at the company's North Kingston plant in early 1982. Three weeks later, a machinist narrowly escaped serious injury when a shot fired into the picket line hit his belt buckle. The National Labor Relations Board subsequently charged Brown & Sharpe with regressive bargaining, and of entering into negotiations with the express purpose of not reaching an agreement with the union.

6 October 1986
1,700 female flight attendants won an 18-year lawsuit (which included $37 million in damages) against United Arilines, which had fired them for getting married.

24 October 1987
The 35-member executive council of the AFL-CIO decided unanimously to readmit the 1.6-million member Teamsters Union to its ranks. The scandal-ridden union had been expelled from the federation in 1957. President Jackie Presser was awaiting trial at the time, and the U.S. Justice Department was considering removal of the union's leadership because of possible links to organized crime.

17 September 1989
Ninety-eight miners and a minister occupied the the Pittston Coal Company's Moss 3 preparation plant in Carbo, Virginia, beginning a year-long strike against Pittston Coal. While a month-long Soviet coal strike dominated U.S. news broadcasts, the year-long Pittston strike garnered almost no mainstream press coverage whatsoever.

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The Despair and The Hope

"The country is in deep trouble. We've forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. We need the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, and just hoping to land on something. But that's the struggle. To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word."
— Cornel West



I love this quote.

I would only be lying if I said or insinuated in any way that my life has always been a reflection of leaving the world a better place than what I found it, and that is my greatest despair.

I have the most grandiose ideas and dreams of the "me" that is a little more tolerant, and much calmer, and less of a provocateur. The "me" that cares a little more, and does a little more to correct injustices when I see them and to never be the catalyst for the injustices.

I dream of the "me" where the kindest words flow and the eyes rolling ceases and the frustrations are less frequent with myself and with the (few) people that I let into my life.

I wish I could blink my eyes and wiggle my nose and make this "me" appear. But I know the truth is that any transformation takes time. Any transformation that is real and true takes time.

The Buddhist philosophy that "there is no "me" and there is no "you" " holds out a beacon of hope that we can all transform into a more selfless and more tolerant beings.

My deepest hope is that I will or do somehow leave the world and the people I impact and interact with a better place than what it was or who they are as I leave them for the day or for the week, or for the years until we meet again.


Mistakes will be made, ill words said, regrets will be plentiful. But my hope will always trump my despairs. And hope, I have found, is the marrow of life.

Peace to you all.

They All Claimed God's Will or God's Plan

MN-06: Bachmann: "God then called me to run" for Congress". Talking Points Memo. ... Retrieved 2009-01-23. ^ Interview with Rep. Michelle Bachmann

Bush said to James Robinson: 'I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen... I know it won't be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it.'

Schmidt said he asked Palin about her serenity in the face of becoming “one of the most famous people in the world.” He quoted her as saying, “It’s God’s plan.”




I believe that it was God's will to send a youth from here into the Reich, to let him grow up, to raise him to be the leader of the nation so as to enable him to lead back his homeland into the Reich.
Adolf Hitler
April 1938, closing speech of election campaign in Vienna on eve of polling

What the Climate Change "Hoax" has Brought to Consumers

It seems one of the most interesting discussions in American society has been lately is whether or not there is such a "thing" as climate change, or as many like to refer to it "global warming."

I believe the whole argument of "is there " or is there not" climate change is actually a red herring used by those who stand in the corner of energy companies and benefit from energy companies profits. The idea of climate change has wrought great news for the average consumer where electrically operated devices for the homeowner now use less electricity and cost the consumer much less money to operate.

The appliance in most homes that uses the most electricity to operate is the air conditioning condenser, the use of which was once a luxury, but has become a necessity in recent years. There was a time when this device was very costly to operate and a huge drain on the local electric grid. The US government recently set standards of efficiency where the least efficient air conditioner a consumer can buy used to be the MOST efficient just 10 years ago (from 10 SEER or less to at LEAST 13 SEER present day) which means the average consumer is able to operate an air conditioner much less expensively than in years past. Efficiency standards for furnaces have also been improved costing the consumer less for natural gas in winter months to heat their homes. The savings are especially realized when the homeowner makes certain their homes are properly insulated. I would strongly advise against setting ones thermostat to higher temperatures when one is not home as it does take more work for the air conditioner to remove heat energy from the home that has accumulated during a summer day, than it takes to keep ones home a constant temperature throughout the day, whether one is at home or not. In winter months, I DO suggest turning the thermostat to cooler temps when one is away as it does not take as much energy to ADD heat energy to a space.

Another way the average consumer is able to save money on energy is by the use of compact florescent light bulbs, or their more expensive cousin the LED light bulb. The homeowner can operate a CFL bulb emitting the light of a 200 Watt "normal" light bulb while using only 55 Watts. The CFL and LED bulbs do not produce as much heat as a "normal" bulb and the CFL and LED'S last longer as well. The CFL light bulbs do contain a small amount of mercury and should be disposed of properly. Many local fire stations and city halls have receptacles for CFL disposal which makes this easier for the consumer as well.

There are many other appliances which have become less expensive to operate from refrigerators to washers and dryers as a result from this "debate" and from government mandates. The consumer has also benefited from rebates and tax credits for purchasing more efficient appliances as well. The wise consumer who chooses energy efficient appliances benefits almost immediately from using energy efficient appliances and light bulbs in their homes.

So, we may not all agree that climate change is "real" or a "man-made" event. We may not all have the same political philosophies or agree on the same ideologies.

But, most people do agree on trying to save money for themselves and their families, and higher efficiency appliances are a smart way to realize great money savings. Some savings one sees over time, but a lot of savings are almost immediate.

Your electric company will miss your hard earned dollars!!

U2 360 Tour News Article

Bono to return to stage in weeks - McGuinness

June 23, 2010

Source: Evening Herald

by Aoife Anderson

BONO will be back on stage in a matter of weeks despite his recent emergency surgery, according to U2's manager Paul McGuinness.

The Irish rocker (50) was operated on after becoming temporarily paralysed -- forcing the band to cancel the start of the US leg of their 360° Tour and their headline slot at Glastonbury.

An optimistic McGuinness told the Diary: "He's making a full recovery. The doctors told me he's going to be fine. It was serious surgery but we expect him to make a full recovery. He's pretty fit."

McGuinness said there was no reason to believe the tour's massive stage production had anything to do with the singer's injury.

"It's a big stage to run around, but no," he said. "I'll be very relieved when I see him running around the stage again. The European leg of the tour starts in Turin on August 6 and that has not been postponed.

"Rescheduling the American leg is quite difficult because it is an outdoor show; we can't do it in the winter because it's the northern hemisphere.

"So what we're doing now is trying to seek availability of the buildings that we had already pretty much sold-out, so we're getting availabilities and routing a coherent tour for next summer in the US and Canada. We've nearly done it so I hope we'll be able to announce that shortly."

McGuinness insisted the rest of the band hasn't been enjoying an impromptu holiday while Bono recovers.

"No not really, they're doing some work and planning to do some recording. It never stops really," he said.

(c) Evening Herald, 2010.

Roosevelt's 4 Freedoms Speech

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change -- in a perpetual peaceful revolution -- a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions -- without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.

This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.

To that high concept there can be no end save victory.

From Congressional Record, 1941, Vol. 87, Pt. I.

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RESOURCE: World Civilizations
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A Few Random Birthday Thoughts

Today is my birthday.

It seems that on birthdays or other of life's milestones it is in our nature to wax a bit nostalgic, so please indulge me as I ramble through some random thoughts of my own self serving nostalgia so that I may feel like I am actually sharing things that are relevant to you as well.

If life is about learning and doing better and climbing obstacles, then I consider my life the finest university. I have made good decisions, bad decisions, and decisions that seemingly have been neither good or bad (should I have the turkey or roast beef today?)

I have reveled in the good decisions. Learned sometimes very painful lessons from the bad decisions, and have learned that even the neutral decisions have had consequences, even if I don't realize the neutral decisions directly.

I would have learned nothing in life if I have not realized that anything I decide not only affects myself, but every decision affects others as well.

My life is a part of a grand scheme of your life, and your life is a grand scheme in my life.

We are all connected.

The myths of "rugged individualism" and "pulling yourself up by your boot straps" are myths hoarded by the greedy seemingly perpetuated to the masses so that those needing help would be too ashamed to ask for it. These myths are also the dogma for those who have received help from the time they were young, but have gotten their very large piece of "the pie" but still perpetuate the myth so that their "pie" remains very large.

You are not a "rugged individual" and you have never "pulled yourself up.." you and I have had help every step of the way throughout our lifetimes. By the very fact that you are reading this and I am writing this; the fact that you and I have survived to this age, no matter what age you are, means that someone has fed and clothed you and educated you. You are not here right now by your own merit. We all need each other to continue to exist and survive.

This day, being my birthday, has caused me to remind myself to be less selfish and exclusive, and to be more selfless and inclusive. Less dogmatic and more to seek gnosis and to find whatever the truth is no matter WHAT the truth is and to walk the path that gnosis and truth leads me to no matter what the path is.

So, welcome to my birthday nostalgia. I am hopeful you will find peace and joy and happiness in any path and in any decision you choose to take.

Saving Ducks, Eating Chicken

A peculiar event happened to me today, but I must preface this with events leading to today.

Rewind to a few weeks ago when;whilst doing my job as a heating and air conditioning technician, I was on a roof of an indoor pool that is adjacent to a park that has a pond that attracts ducks. It has been mating season for the ducks so also, it has been nesting season.

While maintaining the equipment on the roof I noticed a duck that seemed to be loitering around a certain machine, and would get a little "quacky" whenever I approached the machine. Upon further inspection I realized this was the mother duck and she was protesting my vicinity of her nest and 5 eggs. "Hmm.." I thought. "How the fuck is she going to get her ducklings off of here?"

In subsequent visits to this roof, I continued to ask myself this question. I also cursed her as a bad mother duck. Though she never did abandon the nest. She stayed with the eggs every time I was there, sitting on her eggs and seemingly tending to making sure her young hatched.

Fast forward to today. Weeks have passed and I return to do a repair on a machine on this same roof that I have been awaiting (and received) a part for.

The mother duck (I recognized her because she had some unique black and white markings) was now on the ground near where I parked my vehicle. She was buzzing me and making all sorts of noise. "Shut the fuck up." I said to her as it WAS early morning and I really did not want her annoyance. I took a few steps and realized "Oh shit! I bet I am gonna find her ducklings on the roof."

I climbed the access ladder, opened the roof hatch and pulled my tools and part up on a rope I secured everything to before the climb, as I was pulling, here was the mother duck again. Now on the roof with me being noisy, seeming yelling at me that I was too close to her young.

I checked the nest and found it empty. I walked the roof, looking, searching the ground.
There they were. 4 of the 5 eggs are now ducklings.

I found myself in a dilemma of what to do. There no water on the roof. It's Friday and so even if I put water up on the roof, it will be gone by Monday, and these damned ducklings will haunt my mind all weekend. I know damned well they'd be dead by Monday if I left them where they were.

They were huddled near the edge, a small wall the only thing keeping gravity from taking them to their death. I did not know if I approached whether they could jump over, so I retreated.

I climbed off the roof and went to a fire station that is across the street and asked them if they did duck rescues. "Just leave them there." The fire man said crushing the image of any cat up a tree rescues we all have seen in the movies.
I called a co-worker who told me the same thing "let nature be nature." and he also called me "a big softy" I ignored the chiding and the advice.

I realized I had a box that my replacement part came in just downstairs. I retrieved the box and cut 2 square holes in the flaps to put my rope through. My mission was to get the ducklings, put them in the box, then lower the box down with the rope, climb down, and release the ducklings to their mom. All whilst making sure they did not do a suicide dive off the roof.

I approached, the ducklings tried to jump over the small wall, but fortunately they were too small. I gently cupped one, then two, setting them gently in the box. Three and four made a run for it, but tripped themselves on some stones that cover the roof. I quickly scooped them up, too and put them in the box. All the while they were sounding their tiny alarm to mom...who I have not seen for a while. I thought for sure she'd be screaming at me as well.

I tied a nice secure know through the flaps on the box and lowered the box to the ground. I climbed down to the box, I saw mom, took the box nearer to her while she screamed at me, and released the ducklings on some grass there.

Immediately mom got the ducklings to the pond. They followed her closely and with intent. Looks like they were swimming great and dad showed up, too.

It felt right to interfere with nature. I realize that some things should be left alone, but my conscience would not have let me have a nice weekend without helping.

On my way home, I stopped and got a chicken dinner from the market deli.

My conscience does not bother me about that.

On Being in Pain.....

The most painful thing in years happened to me last week when; through bad nerves and being worried, I found myself chewing on taffy during the day, and grinding my teeth at night.

I remember the very painful culmination of my dilemma. It was in the very early morning hours when I rolled over with force while at the same time grinding my already aggravated teeth.

This was the moment when my already weakened upper left molar (which had subsequent major work on it and was already weak) became severely cracked. I tried to ignore it, but from that moment on, this cracked tooth was not only going to cause severe pain and keep me sleepless for 4 nights. This tooth was also going to get very infected as the crack exposed my gums and sinuses to all the bacteria that my own, or any other human mouth harbors.

The bacteria and infection caused the tooth to become higher than the teeth surrounding it, so that anytime I bit down, I was pressing very hard on that sole tooth and the infection behind it.

The pain was unbearable. I don't know exactly why I did not go to the dentist sooner;I think it was denial and sleeplessness that caused the mind to be irrational, as well as his absence from the office.

It's a strange situation the human psyche finds itself in when so much pain is present.
From cussing an imperfect god that would make such a thing as "these fucking teeth!!" To pleading with a more perfect god for help. To finally doing the only smart thing and going to the dentist, who with his skill can relieve the pain and set the patient on their way much happier ( though poorer) than when they came in.

So, after a few days, and a scare yesterday that made me realize just how ill I was (I got severely dizzy in the shower after pressing on to do a lot of household chores all day) I realized that the human body is a wonder and a vulnerable vessel all at the same time. I have had the good fortune in life to have escaped illnesses that many others have succumbed to. I have often taken my good health for granted, while being thankful that I rarely ever get colds of flu that many others I know seem to battle every year. Save for the occasional migraine, I have been fortunate in health and life.

So, being laid up this past week made me realize that I really AM a fortunate person. I also realized that I do at times press myself too far and in too many directions. From work to school, to the Masonic meetings to the activities with the kids....it has been a whirlwind of activity for me these past few months.

I have decided to slow it down a bit. Concentrating mostly on school and maybe not striving so hard to become a Mason. This will come in time. But graduating has to be my first goal in my personal life right now. I am very close to this goal with a graduation date of spring 2011.

Life is good!! Take stock of what you have and strive to make life better for you and everyone you care about.

Til next time!!