Michigan is my home. My great grandparents immigrated to the United States, searching for a better life. They fought in World War I. Their children survived the great depression with harrowing stories that would horrify anyone that would listen -- except for the fact that the hardships they faced at the age of 8 or 10 or 12 would be so unimaginable to someone that is alive today. They followed Henry Ford to Detroit to work for $5 day, to escape the copper mines of the beautiful Upper Peninsula (a land even today, so beautiful that if heaven existed on earth, it would be there). I have the time sheets, and the pictures that paint a view of their world; one in which there was no such thing as worker safety, nor of the concept of overtime. There were no lawyers to fight for their rights (of which there were not many). OSHA didn't exist. Social Security or health insurance didn't exist. There was no social safety net. Nothing to prevent corporations from chewing up and spitting out the carcases of workers and replacing them with bodies, willing to do anything for a chance to put food on their families' table. I have the original bank statements that showed their account balances as the Great Depression set in. And then, after all of that, their draft notices to call them away from their homes at the ages of 18, 19, 20, to fight another battle, to fight another war for their country.
And that's what troubles me now...
I have heard their stories of their return to America, victorious in the grand scheme of things. I have their pictures. I know that they and my parents rose up from nothing, my father put himself through college, to pass the bar and work for the state for 35 years. Along the way, working as the union rep. (Today, he considers himself a Republican, but values these things as normal). My mother became a nurse, and works for the county. Both of them are Republicans, both were, or are in, a union.
And through all of this, through every story of hardship, of sacrifice, it never completely dawned on me, because they downplayed it as something that they thought was just the thing that they were supposed to do. My great-grandfather opened store after store in downtown Detroit. First, a bar/tavern. Then prohibition set in a and they had to figure something out. And they opened a shoe store, and then a general store. They kept going. My grandfather fought in the Pacific, and came back to become a Detroit Police Officer and eventually a whistle-blower (making the front page of the Detroit Free Press). Still, after all of these stories, the idea that I was a Michigander didn't really sink in.
When I saw the line of Michigan State Police cars lined up outside the capital, I thought that it reminded me of Egypt with the tanks in Tahrir. See, I went to Egypt during the tail end of the 2011 Revolution. I camped out in Tahrir and talked with anyone I could find. I heard story after story about how they wanted to change their country. No longer were they afraid. No longer were they going to accept being denied their full potential. I learned that they drew some of their motivation from the history of our country. They were fighting for the things that generations ago here, were fighting for. The labor issues that we have fought for, that we have won, they are now fighting for themselves, and using our example. And I realized that we took everything we had for granted. Our problems at the time, seemed to pale in comparison. I thought that no matter how bad it was in the states, it was still 100x better than anywhere else.
The truth was, I was complacent.
When I read the events in Michigan this week, from my job in Afghanistan on my realllllly slow internet connection, I nearly cried. The fire inside me, the pride I have for our great state, for the history behind all of the things that make America great (which began right here... in the Motor City), let itself out. We have gone from the heart of the labor movement to being pushed around by huge corporate interests. We have let the people of Michigan down, by not educating ourselves on how unions actually work, and what benefits they bring... not only to the employees, but to the companies as well. We have gotten to a point where we have been convinced that our voices do not matter, where our actions do not matter. We are afraid to speak out because we don't want to lose our jobs. We are afraid to speak out because we are afraid that someone else will take our job because the economy is so shakey. We are unwilling to fight because we have "ours", and the rest should get "theirs". We have stopped working with and for each other, even though our common interests make achieving our goals possible.
We are the economy. We are the muscle. We are the engine that makes this work. So goes Detroit, so goes Michigan, and so goes our country.
We have a responsibility to ourselves, to our friends, to our community, and to our colleagues and neighbors, to fight for the rights of all of us. Because when we wait until it only affects us, it's almost too late. When it affects all of us, the State Legislature will vote in things as they have just done. And it's too late. They have waited for us to be at our weakest. They waited for us to realize the down turned economy. They waited for us to start having to have a 2 income household to feed our families. They waited for unemployment to be so high, as to discourage anyone from worrying about anyone else. The truth is that we are weaker than 2 or 3 generations ago. Back then, we would have fought back right away. We would have pushed back because of our sense of belonging and the fact that if one person in our community was suffering, we all suffered. They waited for the middle class to wither away, for the gap between the rich and the poor to become so great as to discourage anyone from trying to change the system. We went from a moment of strength to one of fear. And then they pounced.
Pay your fair share has caused endless debate during this election cycle. Anyone who works in a place that has a union is benefiting. To be able to not pay any union dues, and reap the statutory mandated benefits of that effort is not paying their fair share. To be clear, their contribution is already not allowed to be used for political purposes. As I said in my intro, my mother pays her dues, and enjoys the benefits of her union. Even at times, she may not like the deal they have struck, but she knows that it is better than what she could have negotiated on her own, especially if everyone were on their own. If anyone worked at a union shop and honestly believed that they could negotiate a better rate, they would have left by now for greener pastures.
So now it's time to fight. Now it's time to organize, to march, to protest. It's time to get twitter and facebook going, and it's time to put real blood, sweat, and tears into it. It's time to sacrifice an afternoon, a weekend, and evening. It's time to show our children that there is something worth fighting for. Whether it's at the capital building or putting up a sign. It's not going to be convenient, but then again, nothing worth fight for ever has been. It wasn't worth giving up a business when prohibition was passed, it wasn't convenient when the draft came. It's not convenient now. But if we pull together, we are all in this, and none of us loses.
So call your State Senator, your State Representative, our governor, and your federal representatives. make them aware of your views, and make your voices heard. Post on Facebook, update Twitter, engage your fellow citizens. Now is the time to start believing that you have a voice. You do have a voice.
[UPDATE]
I've added the Facebook, Twitter Feeds, and Campaign Websites for all of the current House Members. I was surprised that I couldn't find anything on Google, so I spent more time that I originally expected. A few notes:
* There are many reps that have not fully embraced social media. We should be encouraging our reps to get a Facebook and a Twitter account
* I visited all of the reps' websites. Blue is definitely in. Most Rs had a blue themed site, with no indication of political party.
* Still can't figure out why there is so much white space below...
Gov. Snyder:
Michigan Office: 517-373-3400
Lieutenant Governor's Office: 517-373-6800
Washington, D.C. Office: 202-624-5840
Northern Michigan Office: 906-228-2850 |
Tue Dec 11, 2012 at 10:13 AM PT: [UPDATE]
I've added the Facebook, Twitter Feeds, and Campaign Websites for all of the current House Members. I was surprised that I couldn't find anything on Google, so I spent more time that I originally expected. A few notes:
* There are many reps that have not fully embraced social media. We should be encouraging our reps to get a Facebook and a Twitter account
* I visited all of the reps' websites. Blue is definitely in. Most Rs had a blue themed site, with no indication of political party.
* Still can't figure out why there is so much white space below...