Just got home after a long, complicated troubling day. I woke up this morning with an old memory running through my mind.
Over and over and over. It was an overcast day in the early 70's when I was about 5 or 6 and I was riding in my dad's old blue and white Chevy Impala -- remember the ones with those old, rad fins?? Loved that car. My dad was a complex, troubled man. Lots of unpredictable rage and much worse depending on the moods he was in. At a very early age I learned how important it was to watch his moods and get out of his way. I always tried to mind-read, watching his body language and physical cues to figure out how quiet I should try to be -- or how invisible. Some days it seemed to work...but some days you just never knew. But on this day...all I knew was I'd finally see where he worked at his job in the steel mill in south Chicago. I remember feeling so excited, but I kept a lid on it because of the dark mood he was in. When we finally got there, my eyes didn't know where to look first. For so long I had made up little fantasies in my mind of what it looked like -- I used to even draw and write about it in the little mini-comicbooks I used to make, but my daydreams never fit the incredible reality of what I finally saw that day. It was a huge, HUGE complex of towering buildings, bustling with activities and all kinds of people. Like some kind of magical, colossal Oz, where all I knew was this is where my dad helps make steel out of liquid fire. This was where my dad almost lost his life after being blown off a structure during a massive explosion and benefited from that funny sounding word -- OSHA -- and the support his union gave him in the aftermath. This is where my dad earned an affordable, working-class income that helped him buy the home we lived in (having saved enough to have it built from the ground-up in the late 50's from the dreams he had when he got out of WW2 in 1945) and supported our family.
On the way home today on the bus, I had a long conversation with a sweet, 71 year old Afro-Cuban lady who was a California teacher for over 30 years. It felt so good to talk to someone who could relate to the union-busting cancer that is percolating and spreading in so many U.S. cities and states right now. Reality turned upon its head. That's a phrase that has stuck with me for many decades. I picked it up from my mom when she used to talk about what she was seeing happen with women's issues, civil rights and so many other social justice and political issues being trampled and manipulated by politicians and world leaders in the 70's, 80's and early 90's. I just can't fathom the anti-union shit happening right now. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way....but it's just insane watching these events unfold. And to hear all the venom and vitriol from the right wing/GOP-addicted pundits in the media is especially maddening because you can bet every single damn one of them are in a union right now and have been happily benefiting from what they've received as a result. I have an active imagination....but I never ever imagined we'd be living in a time where union would be such a detested, dirty word. How dare these maniacs continue to try and bully and distort reality so they can keep tipping the balance of power into the hands of the ownership class? How dare they think they can get away with it and reshaping reality without anyone knowing the truth and trying to fight back? What's the plan?? Wipe away of all the unionized teachers and have schools staffed under the umbrellas of corporate barons like Rupert Murdoch and the Kochs?? Never mind high school football fields that have corporate sponsors plastered all over them...I can't let go of this nagging feeling that we're going to be seeing schools attached to big box stores somewhere in the near future. Ooops, honey, I forgot to tell Junior to pick up a 12 pack of toilet paper in aisle 23 during his lunch today...
Click link below for article:
Anti-union bill whizzing through Ohio Legislature
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