Dreaming about Unions

I'm dreaming about unions. I watched the Academy Awards and thought: that's a hall full of union members! Why don't we all stand up for each other? We should all strike: all of us, all the cops, firefighters, actors, teachers, musicians...

It's incredible to me that our huge crime is that we have decent wages and some hope of retiring some time in our lives so we don't have to work at Wallmart for minimum wage until we drop dead of old age. Is that REALLY what's killing our country, oh thou wise corporately-sponsored Republicans? Really? It's not your giving away the country and our rights to the corporations? It's not the huge bonuses CEO's get in the private sector that prevent their employees from getting a decent share? So what we should do is prevent ANYONE from having a decent standard of living, is that it? We should reduce this country's inhabitants to those of the third world, where the rich get richer and richer and the poor -- well, they stay poor? I just don't think that's what America is all about. I don't think we built this country so that the robber barons could rob unimpaired.

We keep trying to adapt the corporate model to the schools. We are trying to adapt a model that failed miserably in the business world? We want to emulate the places that steal money from their investors, hire third world labor and provide them sub-standard working conditions, and lie about the profits they do or don't make? They don't even function under the law. We've created a country where thieves are robbing us blind, and we treat them like kings. Bloomberg and others with corporate interests run the media, thus any true representation of what's going on has barely a chance to get through to the public.

I can't believe I was watching Channel 7 "Eyewitness" news last night and they put forth Bloomberg's propaganda about having to lay off teachers as if it was God's truth. They interviewed Michael Mulgrew for about 30 seconds, and in no way followed up on his statements. Did they investigate the verity of Bloomberg's claims that if we don't lay off teachers we'll have a huge budget gap? They did not. They don't question the powerful forces in this society any more, they simply report what they say as fact. That is, unless you're Black. Apparently, what the current President of the United States says is questionable on every point. So don't get into power and expect to do anything of significance, and don't forget to kowtow to corporate interests. Because if you don't know who your true masters are: the corporations, they'll try every trick in the media and funding book to tear you down.

Much support and love to all the workers out there on the streets of Madison, Wisconsin.