ATTACK ON WORKERS WILL KEEP HOUSING IN A DOWNWARD SPIRAL

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EDITORIAL COMMENT: Maybe it works politically to get elected, but this attack on workers looks like scape-goating to me, and a pretty effective attempt to distract from reality with the myth that workers, homeowners and pensioners caused the historic financial mess that was in fact created, promoted and allowed solely by Wall Street with the blessing of our government.

These events where long-standing historical pictures of workers doing their work are torn down, destroyed and put away, is like the editorial says, shades of measures you see in third world countries with ruthless dictatorships changing “reality” at will. For it isn’t a matter of the extent to which collective bargaining rights should exist or be regulated, it is something entirely different.

This attack to score political points is shooting all of us in the foot. All of us are walking down a dangerous path of economic chaos and destruction — whether we are rich or poor, and whether we wish to acknowledge it or not. The facts are there for anyone to do their own analysis. World events have accumulated to the point where it is absolutely certain that nobody can be certain about how anything is going to turn out. We can only hope or fantasize.

Political expediency always trumps right action. So instead of coming together and finding ways where we have each other’s backs, we are continuing the decades long trend of pulling apart and finger pointing. Here is a fact that is incontrovertible: if workers in the U.S. were fully employed with reasonable compensation and coverage of all the physical needs for themselves and their families, the entire economy would be booming. Here is another one: putting working class people lower on the social scale into near slaves will cause them to do other things — people don’t like to be treated that way, especially Americans.

These attacks are simply impractical regardless of how much you believe workers deserve to be treated this way. without them employed, earning money and leveling out income inequality, there will be nobody to buy anything, make anything or do anything in America except trade paper on Wall Street. “Anything” includes especially homes whose bottom is still not in sight simply because our politicians lack the “vision” to see what is right in front of them.

At this point I don’t care who goes to jail or even who deserves to be blamed. I want out of this mess. The enormous collateral benefits conferred on Wall Street did nothing to increase liquidity or allow an economic recovery that ordinary people can see on their dinner table, if they have one, in their home, if they have one. The table is tilted on an extreme angle away from the ordinary citizen and toward about 400 people who basically have or control most of the wealth in this country. When you are talking 400 versus 300,000,000 citizens, things have gone too far.

Continuation of this scape-goating, and avoiding the realities of our ailing economy will only prolong and deepen the pain. We’ve been attacked by a common enemy — Wall Street. I thought Americans pulled together and responded to such attacks in unity and always won against the aggressor. This time, maybe not.

He Dreamed He Saw Kim Jong-il

As Republican governors vie to become the most anti-union executive in the land, Gov. Paul LePage of Maine has stooped to behavior worthy of the pharaohs’ chiseling historic truth from Egyptian monuments. Mr. LePage has ordered that a 36-foot-wide mural depicting workers’ history in Maine be removed from the lobby of the state’s Labor Department.

The reason? His office cited some complaints from offended business leaders and an anonymous fax declaring that the mural smacked of official brainwashing by North Korea’s dictator.

This is what’s passing for democratic governance in a state with a noble workers’ history. The mural honors such groups as the state’s shoemakers and the women riveters who kept the ironworks going in World War II. Key workplace moments depicted include a paper mill strike against harsh working conditions and a tribute to pioneer lumberjacks.

All too “one-sided,” decreed the governor, who also ordered that the agency’s seven meeting rooms no longer be named after figures from workers’ history. The nation’s first woman cabinet member — Labor Secretary Frances Perkins — is buried in her beloved Maine, but her room name won’t survive. Nor will state residents be reminded of William Looney, a 19th-century Republican legislator who fought for state child labor reforms.

Mr. LePage’s acting labor commissioner suggests replacing the mural with neutral paint and naming the conference rooms after Maine mountains.

To be fair, Mr. LePage does retain a sense of workplace opportunity. After his election last November, he named Lauren, his 22-year-old, fresh-from-college daughter, to what was termed an entry-level job as assistant to the governor’s chief of staff.

At $41,000 a year, the post offers $10,000 more than the pay for workers who pass the teacher and police tests. That’s on top of Ms. LePage’s free room and board at the governor’s mansion.

Tags: Frances Perkins, LePage, Maine, mural, Republican, William Looney, workers
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