Dedicated to my union brothers and sisters, as we confront Satan's henchmen:
For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones -- Isaiah 49:1-7
26 February, 2011
21 February, 2011
We The People
In order to form a more perfect union....
America lives because the little masses formed a union against an oppressive king. They did it again in the first half of the 20th century, forming labor unions to protect workers from the Robber Barons, the Trusts, and the monopolies, to force better pay, working conditions, job safety, and to outlaw the abhorrent practice of child slavery.
This week's labor battles in Wisconsin are merely the spark lighting the fuse of worker unrest throughout the country. Working families will no longer be sheep. The plutocrats have unmasked themselves and their true agenda. Do we join Orwell's world, or do we save ourselves?
Mark Sumner writes on the Daily Kos website about the word and the concept of union.
United we stand, divided the Republic falls to plutocracy. Make your stand now or die a slave. History waits.
America lives because the little masses formed a union against an oppressive king. They did it again in the first half of the 20th century, forming labor unions to protect workers from the Robber Barons, the Trusts, and the monopolies, to force better pay, working conditions, job safety, and to outlaw the abhorrent practice of child slavery.
This week's labor battles in Wisconsin are merely the spark lighting the fuse of worker unrest throughout the country. Working families will no longer be sheep. The plutocrats have unmasked themselves and their true agenda. Do we join Orwell's world, or do we save ourselves?
Mark Sumner writes on the Daily Kos website about the word and the concept of union.
United we stand, divided the Republic falls to plutocracy. Make your stand now or die a slave. History waits.
13 February, 2011
Listen Up, Rich Douchebags!
Give everyone what you owe him. If you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. -- Romans 13:7
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Nebraska's Court of Industrial Relations = Basic Fairness for Public Workers
CIR Reform Must Not Become Assault On Workers' Rights
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07 February, 2011
The Koch Brothers-Funded Cato Institute Misses The Mark on Social Repsonsibility
Phony Solutions for Real Social Ills by David Boaz
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24 January, 2011
Mobile Blogging
I love the mobile life. From my phone, in line at the grocery store, waiting at the doctor's office, or stuck at a red light I can read the news, glance at my calendar, or check my email.
Right now I am at Cold Stone Creamery enjoying a very rich Oreo cookie filling ice cream with -- you guessed it -- Oreo cookies added in. I reviewed my calendar for tonight and the rest of the week. I noted an upcoming conference in April and emailed myself some notes. I read a book chapter on Kindle for Android. And I downloaded Jewels from the Android market. I looked up game stats as my teenage son continued to agonize over Saturday's disappointing Jayhawk loss at the hands of the Longhorns.
I do miss those reflective moments that have become more illusive. I miss the feel of pen on paper. I miss the temporary suspension of input, those precious minutes needed to interpret and make sense of the daily information overload. I miss looking out the window and not wondering if I am missing an important tweet.
But I refuse to give up Angry Birds.
Right now I am at Cold Stone Creamery enjoying a very rich Oreo cookie filling ice cream with -- you guessed it -- Oreo cookies added in. I reviewed my calendar for tonight and the rest of the week. I noted an upcoming conference in April and emailed myself some notes. I read a book chapter on Kindle for Android. And I downloaded Jewels from the Android market. I looked up game stats as my teenage son continued to agonize over Saturday's disappointing Jayhawk loss at the hands of the Longhorns.
I do miss those reflective moments that have become more illusive. I miss the feel of pen on paper. I miss the temporary suspension of input, those precious minutes needed to interpret and make sense of the daily information overload. I miss looking out the window and not wondering if I am missing an important tweet.
But I refuse to give up Angry Birds.
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23 January, 2011
The Democratic Process
Democracy is slow. Many times it is sloppy. But it is the best we have. Let's not screw it up.
Schoolyard taunts won't fix this country's problems. This isn't a snowball fight -- this is a struggle for the future.
Schoolyard taunts won't fix this country's problems. This isn't a snowball fight -- this is a struggle for the future.
11 January, 2010
"Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty"
Miep Gies, the woman credited with hiding Anne Frank's family and supplying them with food and medicines for two years has died in Amsterdam. She was 100 years old.
Gies helped the Frank family and four friends hide in an annex behind Otto Frank's business. After the Nazis discovered the hiding place she kept Anne Frank's diary and other personal family papers in a safe. The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most read novels in history and has inspired several theater and movie adaptions.
Gies never accepted the praise bestowed on her internationally. Instead she insisted that she acted only as another human being ought to have acted, given the circumstances. She vigorously rejected the label "hero," explaining that the word is not applicable to those who perform their "human duty."
In this post-9/11 era when the word hero is tossed about like empty, dried-up cornstalks in the wind, her candor is refreshing. The woman who protected Jews from the Nazi horrors in the Netherlands yet who never sought recognition for her actions while endangering her own life, meets our definition of a hero. The city worker who saves a kitten from a storm drain is not a hero.
Perhaps Gies' greatest legacy will be a rediscovery of "human duty," "decency," and "modest." Those values have gone into hiding in our current political climate. She outlived the entire Frank family although ultimately she could not save them from the death camps. She will be remembered for saving the diary of a solitary 15 year-old Dutch girl named Anne, the foundation of a book that exposed the terror of Nazism on Europe's citizens, a horror cruelly expressed in the mass murder of millions.
Bookstores and libraries around the world now carry the message of humanity, of Gies' own actions which threatened exposure and death at the hands of the SS. She will live so long as there are books, those rare but special books written by the humble and which illuminate the "human duty."
Gies helped the Frank family and four friends hide in an annex behind Otto Frank's business. After the Nazis discovered the hiding place she kept Anne Frank's diary and other personal family papers in a safe. The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most read novels in history and has inspired several theater and movie adaptions.
Gies never accepted the praise bestowed on her internationally. Instead she insisted that she acted only as another human being ought to have acted, given the circumstances. She vigorously rejected the label "hero," explaining that the word is not applicable to those who perform their "human duty."
In this post-9/11 era when the word hero is tossed about like empty, dried-up cornstalks in the wind, her candor is refreshing. The woman who protected Jews from the Nazi horrors in the Netherlands yet who never sought recognition for her actions while endangering her own life, meets our definition of a hero. The city worker who saves a kitten from a storm drain is not a hero.
Perhaps Gies' greatest legacy will be a rediscovery of "human duty," "decency," and "modest." Those values have gone into hiding in our current political climate. She outlived the entire Frank family although ultimately she could not save them from the death camps. She will be remembered for saving the diary of a solitary 15 year-old Dutch girl named Anne, the foundation of a book that exposed the terror of Nazism on Europe's citizens, a horror cruelly expressed in the mass murder of millions.
Bookstores and libraries around the world now carry the message of humanity, of Gies' own actions which threatened exposure and death at the hands of the SS. She will live so long as there are books, those rare but special books written by the humble and which illuminate the "human duty."
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28 December, 2009
21 December, 2009
How to Be Irrational
An interesting article from Daily Kos on winning an argument. The author posits that the best strategy is to first understand the opponent's arguments and counter accordingly. Seems obvious? Apparently not for those screaming talking heads found primarily on Fox News and other cable poltical shows. Thoughtful discourse is a relic of the past. Howling like a banshee and vile, baseless attacks now rule the airwaves. Will our descendents look back on our time with disdain like we do the Dark Ages? Will our great grandchildren pity our narrowmindedness and hate? Will they lament our squandered opportunities to create an open, honest society, safeguarded by the First Amendment for all, and not just for those who share the same point of view?
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