interesting ltte in my paper on Unions

http://www.thedailylight.com/articles/2011/02/22/opinion/doc4d63f01bca89e667259759.txt

To the Editor,

The governor of Wisconsin has began the national assault on the working middle class. Is this just the first battle of the class war as directed by the masters of the congresses and office holders recently elected? The attempt at this redistribution of wealth smells of the tactics and attitudes of Boss Tweed and the ilk. When the big business funded right wing said “take our country back,” were they talking about to 1912? Check out the labor conditions at that time and see for yourselves what unions have brought to America.

The unions have contributed immensely to the fabric of the American dream just as successful businesses and corporations have. However the actions of the Wisconsin legislature spearheaded by the governor will not only weaken that fabric but remove the essential bulk of material that is the middle class, the fastest dwindling segment of our economy. The unions have offered to negotiate concessions in a compromising way as to ease the budget crisis in the Badger State but the governor has refused to meet or even consider to look at the union’s offers citing his election as grounds for taking away bargaining rights. A government of the people indeed. The governor has shown that he is just a lackey of the special interest big business lobby. A field general trying to remove any opposition to the big money political PACS, of which many contributed his campaign, that are fueling the big money campaign war machines. Licking the hand that feeds him, per se.

Now why does this mean anything to someone in Waxahachie? Simply that what transpires in Wisconsin will have a very heavy impact on every other state in the country. The unions contribute heavily to political campaigns, especially on the left. These are needed to counterbalance the contributors on the right, thus giving the people a balanced field from which to choose the best candidate that will represent their interests. The situation in Wisconsin is not about saving money, cutting the budget or reducing the deficit in that state or nationally. It is about outlawing the right of the people to freely enter into a collective bargaining agreement with the state, the local government, or the corporation. And about one party using the government to reduce funding for its political opposition instead of serving the people’s interests.

That being said, twice in my life I have voted not to join a union. My reasoning for doing so were simply that I saw no benefit in being in a union at that time. But I did have a choice in deciding what was best for me and my family. For that choice to be taken away by the government in the name of fiscal responsibility , I have to question just how far do we allow the government, of any party, on any level, to make that decision for us?

Now we have the millionaire, self appointed, political messiahs on their talk shows saying that the protesters are causing chaos by peacefully, non violently protesting. That they are in league with the “Caliphate” and this is a precursor to the endtimes. Or one must be against the country if we support the protesters in Madison. Whats next, having to sew D’s or U’s on our clothes if we don’t adhere to their dogmas? Are supporters of the protesters who are exercising the most sacred of constitutional guaranteed rights not “real” Americans?

I have no problem in finding ways to reduce the various deficits that we face at all levels. But this approach is nothing but political. And wrong. This not about money. This is not about deficits. This is not about who is a true patriot in our country or about a religion’s prophecy. It is about the freedom to decide what is best for oneself in the workplace. It is about sharing in what ones labors have brought forth by grasping the corporate hand rather than receiving a slap from the back of that hand and being told to shut up and no, you cannot have another lump of coal for the furnace. It is about being respected and working with the company or governmental management in partnership, not being held a slave to the few dollars offered just to barely survive. It is about hardworking, tax paying, law abiding, American citizens trying to hang on to the ability to keep their small slice of the America dream. Not by putting out their hands before a governmental benefactor, but by the sweat of their brows and the lifting of themselves up by their bootstraps just like the majority of good people in this great land. To participate in a government of, for, and by the people. Not a goverment of those in a select minority who think they have that right exclusively.

When you go back to your non union, or union jobs and enjoy the conditions that were won by those who fought for better working conditions on many venues from the state legislatures to the halls of congress and on the streets of America, just take time to think about what you have. And what others will lose. Where do you stand?

Alan Fox,

Waxahachie

Murika is not ready for all those words! All strung together. Paragraphs and paragraphs.

I go to the blog for my local newspaper, and all the rightwingnut postings are nice and short... short and clear.

"Unions bad"..."thugs"..."sucking money from taxpayers"....

We'll never win until Murikans learn to go beyond short slogans and bumper-sticker phrases, and actually read whole thoughts and positions....


In other words.... we are fucked!

"Not by putting out their hands before a governmental benefactor, but by the sweat of their brows and the lifting of themselves up by their bootstraps just like the majority of good people in this great land."

That is the fantasy that is still propagated by the right wing in this nation that any "hard working American" can have their equal share if they just "pull themselves up by their bootstraps".

While the author chose not to join a union for what ever reason, he cuts himself off at the knees when using that "bootstrap" analogy in a "right to work state". Texas has one of the highest levels of poverty, one of the lowest levels of education and increasing number of teen pregnancies.

With those types of numbers, anyone stuck on the treadmill of poverty is already operating at a loss, so the whole "bootstrap" rah rah bullshit fails.

We have a right to work state, yet we have a 27 billion dollar short fall in our states budget. No union can be blamed for that, but heaven forbid facts like that intrude into the authors piece.

Using the contrast of unions playing no part in the mismanagement of a states budget would have been a better tact to take considering walker is using the Union excuse as the reason for his budget woes. Which is farthest from the case.

My two cents.