United We Stand. . . .

Thoughts on watching the PBS-American Experience documentary, Soundtrack for a Revolution (2009):

Once there was a link between the civil rights movement and the union movement.  It's seems so long ago that people made the connections that mattered in a stable, middle class community.  They knew when  you denied one person a decent job, you could anyone a job. When you denied someone the right to vote, you could deny anyone the right to vote. When you denied someone a basic education, you denied everyone the right to hear their voice as an equal.

Nixon came along and made a deal with the devil.  In exchange for political power his partisans drove a wedge between young people and unions and black Americans and unions. The GOP made us believe the pie wasn't big enough for everyone . . .  that we had to fight over one cookie, while their friends and donors hogged the other 11 (see below).

Wisconsin gives me hope that those days of community may be coming back.  Union members are sticking together on this one.  Perhaps they remember that if you can privatize public education, you can create a world where the powerful take even more and productive workers have no hope of a better life for their children. . . where we all become second class citizens unless we're among the lucky 1 percent who grab a third of the income each year.  There are greedy people in the world – and greedy people are trying to take everything from people who have almost nothing left.

Jobs – job security, safe jobs, well-paying jobs with good benefits – these are still possible for this country to provide.  As long as the greedy don't get a free ride and are required to pay for the services this country provides them – safe neighborhoods, trained workers, stable infrastructure (power grids, highways, bridges, etc.)  These things are not free and those who benefit most from them have an obligation to pay their fair share.

In the early days of our Republic, we understood the importance of standing together.  We took on many symbols of earlier attempts at self-governance and union.  On the wall behind the Speaker's podium in the US House of Representatives is a pair of fasces – bundles of sticks which represent the power found in unity.  If one loosened the bundle, each twig could easily be snapped and discarded.  Bound together, they become unbreakable. 

 


 That is what our nation once represented – unity out of diversity; community over greed.

Photo Information:

Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., Leaders marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963.

In the front row, from left are: Whitney M. Young, Jr., Executive Director of the National Urban League; Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, American Federation of Labor (AFL), and a former vice president of the AFL-CIO; Walter P. Reuther, President, United Auto Workers Union; and Arnold Aronson, Secretary of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.  (National Archives; ARC Identifier: 542010)

US House Chamber

From left: Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-PA., Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood applaud as President Barack Obama enters the House Chamber to deliver his State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 25, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Fasces:  The bronze fasces, representing a classical Roman symbol of civic authority, are located on both sides of the U.S. Flag.  (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)

A thought on "Miranda" and other constitutional rights

Now this may seem "obvious" to someone formally schooled in the Law, but this just occurred to me – after years of watching perps have their rights read to them on various TV procedurals.

Miranda isn't about the particular person named "Miranda."  It's about the process that must be applied to everyone (regardless of previous record or behavior or reputation) to truly be "presumed innocent" and protected under the Law.

For all their talk about the Constitution and the importance of the Individual, it seems many conservatives on the Right only support constitutional rights for the persons of whom they "approve" – especially the right to vote.

Except 2nd Amendment Rights – which do seem to apply to everyone, without reservation.

Battle of the Wilderness

…Belief in white supremacy provided a rationale for slavery. As the French political theorist Montesquieu observed wryly in 1748: "It is impossible for us to suppose these creatures [enslaved Africans] to be men; because allowing them to be men, a suspicion would follow that we ourselves are not Christians."

~ James W. Loewen, Five Myths about why the South seceded 

This year we mark the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.  I have been reminded of the last major round of observances fifty years ago.  In 1961, the civil rights movement was still fairly new in the national psyche.  As a child in the North, I did not yet connect the events I witnessed on the evening news with those hallowed battles of long ago.  In school, as part of the 100th anniversary of the Civil War, we studied Presidents and strategies and generals.  We did not discuss the causes of the war as in any way related to what was happening in our country now.    

Perhaps this is the proper approach for initiating children to this complex time in our history.  Perhaps it was a recognition that the Detroit suburbs were heavily populated with families who had migrated from the South in search of jobs -- as if silence was the best way to let the children of opposing sides get along in the classroom.

However, I think that something important was missing from our education.  We didn't learn to face the dark realities behind either of the historic struggles – the civil war of long ago or the fight for human rights happening in our streets and neighborhoods.  We were not encouraged to look into our own souls to find the fears and anxieties we might still carry with us. 

Now we are the adults and I look around and see the angry faces of Little Rock and Selma again.  This time they carry posters with distorted images of our first African-American president and argue for states' rights and secession and nullification.  I wonder if these adults had the same edited education I had.  And I wonder how many of those who find joy in these images and these slogans consider themselves good Christians.

Image Information:  Battle of the Wilderness | Desperate fight on the Orange C.H. Plank Road, near Todd's Tavern, May 6th, 1864 (Kurz & Allison, Art Publishers, Chicago, U.S.A, 1887)