christinebarry.com

Untitled Post

Note: I deliberately named this ‘Untitled Post’ because this post was untitled when I found it, and it seemed like I should leave it that way.

I was perusing alt.impeach.bush (which really should be called alt.copy.paste.flames), when I found a post worth blogging. It is written by someone using the nick “One Voice of Dissent.” It appears to be an original usenet post; I am not aware of it being copied from somewhere else. It’s a little rough around the edges; there are some spelling errors / typos which I will leave intact, and if I rated posts the way movies are rated, I’d probably rate this one PG-13 for language. But the message is clear, and worth repeating.

My impression of republicans has always been the same. Dont vote for them unless you want war and you want to see the corporations profits soar while the working man gets the shaft. I’ve been called every name in the book by republicans because I worked my ass off for 35 years in a union shop.

I’ve been called a communist, a socialist and marxist, and dirty low down Anti-American son-of -a -bitch because I worked for a living. People accused me of not having to work because I was in a union.

But, for 35 years, my desk was the dashboard of a dump truck, my pens and pencils were picks and shovels, and my greatest automated tool was jackhammer bustiig up concrete and digging up blacktop. That was my spring, summer snd fall fun, in the winter, I plowed snow, spread salt and cinder stood in the back of trucks and flung shovels full of salt into intersections so people could “walk” & “dont walk”.

I drove a 4 wheel drive pick up in the middle of the nigh to take Doctors and nurses to work, and when it was not snowing or raining ice, we walked behind dump trucks, filling holes in the street with “cold patch black tar” that the weather made buckle up and bust open. While people were sleeping, I am my union brothers worked through the night plowing snow so they could get up and have as safe as a drive to work in the AM as possible.

The other day some asshole told me I made to much money and was bragging to me that she bought a Honda. I have no idea why she thought buying a Hinda would hurt my feelings, but By her level of intellect, I doubbt if she could have afforded a toy Honda. As far as me making good money, damn right I did, and I earned every penny of it. I sread blacktop when it was over 100
degrees and worked in the cold when it was below zero, and I dont apologize for 1 minute of it, or 1 penny of it. Half of my retirement now is because of my Union, and I love retirement. Had it not been for my Damn good Union, I wpould only be enjoying it half as much as I do now.

If any republicans don’t like it, they can kiss my socialist/communist/marxist, ass. ‘Cause I’m the son-of-a-bitch that earned it. If it was no for fascist corporate greed, Laboe Unions would have never had to start up.

God bless the labor unions. No matter what you think of them now, if not for the unions, you wouldn’t have weekends, the 40 hour week, or those labor laws that protect your teenager from getting burned on the fry vats at McDonald’s. Their leadership sure is screwy sometimes, but as a political force, labor unions are as necessary today as they ever were. And those of you who think “well I have a nice boss” … just remember, there were nice slave owners too. They still owned slaves, because that was acceptable in their world.

[shudder] What kind of things would be acceptable in our world today, if not for the labor unions? [/shudder]

If you like this post, subscribe to my new email newsletter, and read me at the Detroit News Political Weblog.