The last time I tried to put together a protest was in high school. 25 years ago. To call it a success would be an understatement. Roughly 70% of the senior and junior classes walked out of class and occupied the auditorium. Before there was a twitter, a facebook, an instagram, there was word of mouth passed from one senior to the next. One junior to the next. Of course, the administration got wind of our plans to occupy the auditorium and had teachers warn us against such action. Outlining the consequences of what our actions could mean to our future and those lucky students who had teachers that protested the VietNam War warned us good. Then they told us why we should ignore them and do what we thought was right.
When the time came, the teachers sat back and watched the students occupy the auditorium, some even joining the cause. I should point out that there were nearly 1000 of us in attendance. That was then, so what now?
For the past several weeks, I have listened to Senators and Congresspeople run before the mic and the boob tube to decry the need for raising the minimum wage. The following quotes were found in an article from Dec. 6, 2013 by Bryce Covert over at Think Progress:
Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) told the National Journal that he thinks the country should get rid of the minimum wage. “I think it’s outlived its usefulness,” he said. “It may have been of some value back in the Great Depression. I would vote to repeal the minimum wage.”
He wasn't the first, he wasn't the last:
In June, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) told a meeting of the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee to mark 75 years since the signing of the Federal Labor Standards Act, which guaranteed a minimum wage, that he “do[es] not believe in it” and that he would abolish the minimum wage. And while he hasn’t called for the full repeal of the minimum wage, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has said, “I don’t think a minimum wage law works.”
Of course, these are all statements made by men who aren't working for minimum wage, but ironically receive government assistance in the form of their pay, healthcare, travel, ...
Oddly enough, these same people wish to reduce assistance to full-time, minimum wage workers and other low-income recipients. Workers who require assistance because their minimum wage job doesn't pay them enough to live. Remember the audacity of McDonalds when they gave Nancy Delgado, a full-time employee, instructions on how to apply for public assistance:
McDonald's workers struggling to get by on poverty wages should apply for food stamps and Medicaid.
That's the advice one activist McDonald's worker received when she called the company's "McResource Line," a service provided to McDonald's workers who need help with issues like child and health care.
"You can ask about things like food pantries. Are you on SNAP? SNAP is Supplemental Nutritional Assistance [Program] -- food stamps ... You would most likely be eligible for SNAP benefits," a McResource representative told 27-year-old Nancy Salgado, who works at a Chicago McDonald's. "Did you try and get on Medicaid? Medicaid is a federal program. It's health coverage for low income or no income adults -- and children."
And, I'll bet their CEO contributes to campaigns to ensure that there is never a minimum wage hike. How back-handed is that?
Now, I've heard the arguments against raising the minimum wage. It's been used against me once when I was told I couldn't have a raise because I was being paid the minimum rate allowed by the union. After speaking to my union rep about this, he informed me that those were minimums and that I could be paid whatever the company wanted to pay me and that the union minimums were being used to exploit the employees and give my former employer cause to not pay me more.
Imagine if there was no minimum wage? Do you think companies would pay their employees more after being unburdened by the federal minimum mandate. I'm not that naive.
So exactly what am I getting at here? A few years ago, there was a congressional food stamp challenge. Personally, I thought it was a waste of time considering the people fighting to maintain the numbers, at their current levels, were the only ones taking the challenge, save one lone republican. Donny Ferguson, the communications director and agriculture policy adviser for Texas Rep. Steve Stockman. And we remember just how well he did, don't we?
Well, I'd like to offer one more challenge.
The Congressional Fast Food Challenge!
I'd like to challenge congress to go back to their districts and work one 8-hour fast food job. Just one. Receiving their pay at the end of their shift (which they can then donate to a fund to support fast food workers or whatever they want to do with it. It is their money after all. They earned it. For once.) with their taxes removed and then let them run before the mic, or the boob tube and explain to their constituents why they still choose not to support a minimum wage hike and perhaps present ideas on how to live off their paychecks, purchase food for their families, put clothes on their backs, purchase school supplies for their children, all without applying for government assistance.
I don't think any republican would take the challenge and I don't want to see democrats, who already support a hike, taking the challenge. But why can't we throw the challenge out there. Send letters to your republican congress-critters, asking them to take the challenge. Write to your democratic congress-critter and ask them to challenge the republicans will take the challenge. Start petitions, asking republicans to take the challenge. Specifically, those who oppose a hike. Put their feet to the fire and force them to at least explain why they can't take one day out of the already lax schedule to see how his or her constituents actually live off of a minimum wage salary.
So what do you think?
I'd really like to hear your input and suggestions. Use the comments to tell me what you think, offer suggestions to improve the challenge or if I should just drop the idea, altogether. Thanks for staying with me through the rant. I should never write when "The Ed Show" is on the tube.