Howard Cosell, back in the day when he was alive, and a commentator on boxing matches and Monday Night Football in its initial incarnation, used to say of some athletes that "there's no quit in him." He meant that as a compliment, I'm pretty sure, but often it was applied to some poor soul who was getting the living shit kicked out of him but didn't know enough to say "enough."
I was put in mind of that this week when Sen. Ted Cruz, (R-TX) spent more than 21 hours on the floor of the Senate talking against the Affordable Care Act. Well, that was ostensibly what he was doing; what's more likely is that he was just doing some product placement for the "Cruz 2016 Presidential Campaign" while pandering to the Tea Partiers who form the base of his support.
His appearance became at least partly A Tale of Two Teds when, for reasons known only to him, Cruz included in his appearance a reading of Green Eggs And Ham. Poor Ted Geisel must have been spinning in his grave. The man who commented on environmental degradation in The Lorax, on the folly of the Cold War in The Better Butter Battle, who let his Lefty Flag fly again and again, could hardly be expected to give his blessing to his work being used, in whatever weird and obscure way, by those whose ideals he clearly opposed. At least Springsteen was around to defend himself when the Reagan campaign tried to co-opt "Born In The USA" for their own uses. Dr. Seuss has unfortunately moved on to another plane; who's gonna defend the uses of his legacy, never mind write the book that puts the whole Tea Party vs. Affordable Care battle into perspective?
Affordable Care: It's the law, written by the House, approved by both Houses of Congress, signed into law by the president, upheld by the Tea Party-packed Supreme Court. It's over, they lost, it's time to move on, right? Well, apparently there's no quit in those folks. They still characterize it as a "bill," they threaten to shut down the government if it's not de-funded or at least postponed. I thought that Ed Markey (D-MA), the Senate's newest member, elected to fill John Kerry's seat when Kerry became Secretary of State, got off the best line: "It's like a city suing to cancel the World Series because their team didn't make it in."
First they debate an empty chair at their convention, then they read Dr. Seuss to repeal an existing law. And Cruz is supposed to be one of the bright hopes: a handsome (in that heavy-lidded, Bob Mitchum/Elvis Presley mode) Latino, gonna bridge the gap and take the R's to another demographic. Oy; since there doesn't seem to be any quit--or shame--in them, I'll try to put it there this week, Tuesday from noon till two on wool.fm. Here's the playlist:
Debaser Pixies
Teddy The Toad Count Basie
Teddy Boy Paul McCartney
What A Shame Steely Dan
What A Shame Mose Allison
We Oughta Be Ashamed Johnny Cash/Elvis Costello
Shameful Winterpills
Shameless Billy Joel
Shame, Shame, Shame Danny Kalb
Shame On You Indigo Girls
Shame The Motels
Low Down Dirty Shame Pinetop Perkins
It's A Shame About Him Jesse Winchester
It's A Shame Crash Test Dummies
It's A Shame Bruce Springsteen
It's A Plain Shame Peter Frampton
It's A Crying Shame Etta James
For Shame Of Doing Wrong Richard & Linda Thompson
Cryin' Shame Lyle Lovett
Ain't That A Shame Cheap Trick
Ain't That A Shame Moby Grape
Ain't That A Shame Fats Domino
Ain't No Shame Rory Block
Sea Cruise Jerry Lee Lewis
Cruise Control Mose Allison
Midnite Cruiser Steely Dan
Burning Down The House Talking Heads
Isn't It A Shame Phoebe Snow
Shame, Shame, Shame Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Bet it won't work.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
"The Onion" Closes Shop: Reality Too Fucking Strange To Satirize
I presume that you all, being incredibly "hep" and "groovy," as the kids say, know of the satirical website and erstwhile (thanks, Jake) magazine called The Onion (and why can't I use italics in the post title?). It is a satirical entity; three headlines from today's site, for example: "Area Man's Intelligence Probably Just Too Intimidating For Most Women," "Lonely Nation Gathers Outside Window Of Happy Family Eating Dinner Together," and "Hell Now A Thriving Epicenter of Gay Culture," and it is still in existence. But it has to be getting more and more difficult even for those clever folks to write satire in our crazy, mixed up ol' world.
To wit: raise your hand if you knew that the state of Iowa is issuing gun permits to blind people. Oh, you did not. Really, though, it's true. I read it somewhere I can't recall last week, and had it confirmed by my cousin in a dinner conversation last night. Pretty hard to imagine anything weirder or more outrageous, isn't it? Careful, though: that bar is constantly being lowered.
I figured that it had to be the work of Wayne LaPierre and all those right-wing gun nuts, or right-gun wing nuts. So I prepared to get on my high horse--or maybe I got high and got on my unicorn; I can't really recall--and fire a salvo in their general direction, as is my wont, and although they're far out of range of this peashooter. But then I started to do a little research and, according to a story put out by AP, denying blind citizens the right to carry a firearm would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law in 1990 and was authored by Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of--wait for it--Iowa!
I...I...I...I just don't know what to say. I'm not speechless, as anyone who knows me would attest, but I don't know exactly what to say. My little world shifted on its axis, or something. The Democrats are responsible for this idiocy, even inadvertently? Yep, seems so. Some Law Enforcement folk in Iowa are reluctant to issue these permits, but say they're handcuffed--well, no, they didn't say that, exactly: I did--by the law, and can't refuse a permit for that reason alone. Presumably, if the blind applicant had a record, for, say, Grand Theft Auto, then they could be refused.
I guess that, in the face of another brilliant, self-serving Tea-Party-initiated threat to shut down the government unless the Affordable Care Act is de-funded (yeah, I know, that was a couple of posts ago), we should rejoice: we have found Common Ground at last! Here is something on which we can all apparently agree; never mind unimportant stuff like the economy, healthcare, climate change, immigration, crumbling infrastructure, and on and on, let's just arm blind people and let 'er rip. Yeehaw! But why stop there? What about the rights of unborn Americans to keep and bear arms, even while their own arms are developing in utero? Or the dead: Chuck Heston be damned, we shouldn't even be able to pry 'em from their cold, dead fingers. What reasonable True American, of any political stripe, would disagree?
Oh, that pesky Law of Unintended Consequences....
Here's some songs I'll be playin' this week, on Tuesday from noon till two on wool.fm:
What Makes Me Blind? Winterpills
Unblindfold The Referee John Gorka
Temporarily Blind Built To Spill
See You In Hell, Blind Boy Ry Cooder
Ride Stone Blind John Stewart
River Blindness J. Geils Band
Love Is Blindness Cassandra Wilson
I Must Have Been Blind Tim Buckley
I'd Rather Go Blind Rod Stewart
I'd Rather Go Blind Etta James
I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled & Crazy Derek Trucks Band
The Ghost Of Blind Willie Johnson Tony Furtado
Eyesight To The Blind The Who
Eyesight To The Blind Mose Allison
Double Blind Pat Metheny Group
Deaf, Dumb And Blind NRBQ
Blindsided Bon Iver
Blinded By The Light Bruce Springsteen
Blind Willie McTell The Band
Blind Willie McTell Dylan
Blind Man Traffic
Blind Man Gregg Allman
Blind Man Aerosmith
Blind Hope Son Volt
Blind Child Levon Helm
Blind Boy Rag Taj Mahal
Blind Talking Heads
Arrested For Driving While Blind ZZ Top
Sweet Blindness Laura Nyro
And all of you deaf listeners, remember: no one can legally keep you from tuning in....
To wit: raise your hand if you knew that the state of Iowa is issuing gun permits to blind people. Oh, you did not. Really, though, it's true. I read it somewhere I can't recall last week, and had it confirmed by my cousin in a dinner conversation last night. Pretty hard to imagine anything weirder or more outrageous, isn't it? Careful, though: that bar is constantly being lowered.
I figured that it had to be the work of Wayne LaPierre and all those right-wing gun nuts, or right-gun wing nuts. So I prepared to get on my high horse--or maybe I got high and got on my unicorn; I can't really recall--and fire a salvo in their general direction, as is my wont, and although they're far out of range of this peashooter. But then I started to do a little research and, according to a story put out by AP, denying blind citizens the right to carry a firearm would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law in 1990 and was authored by Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of--wait for it--Iowa!
I...I...I...I just don't know what to say. I'm not speechless, as anyone who knows me would attest, but I don't know exactly what to say. My little world shifted on its axis, or something. The Democrats are responsible for this idiocy, even inadvertently? Yep, seems so. Some Law Enforcement folk in Iowa are reluctant to issue these permits, but say they're handcuffed--well, no, they didn't say that, exactly: I did--by the law, and can't refuse a permit for that reason alone. Presumably, if the blind applicant had a record, for, say, Grand Theft Auto, then they could be refused.
I guess that, in the face of another brilliant, self-serving Tea-Party-initiated threat to shut down the government unless the Affordable Care Act is de-funded (yeah, I know, that was a couple of posts ago), we should rejoice: we have found Common Ground at last! Here is something on which we can all apparently agree; never mind unimportant stuff like the economy, healthcare, climate change, immigration, crumbling infrastructure, and on and on, let's just arm blind people and let 'er rip. Yeehaw! But why stop there? What about the rights of unborn Americans to keep and bear arms, even while their own arms are developing in utero? Or the dead: Chuck Heston be damned, we shouldn't even be able to pry 'em from their cold, dead fingers. What reasonable True American, of any political stripe, would disagree?
Oh, that pesky Law of Unintended Consequences....
Here's some songs I'll be playin' this week, on Tuesday from noon till two on wool.fm:
What Makes Me Blind? Winterpills
Unblindfold The Referee John Gorka
Temporarily Blind Built To Spill
See You In Hell, Blind Boy Ry Cooder
Ride Stone Blind John Stewart
River Blindness J. Geils Band
Love Is Blindness Cassandra Wilson
I Must Have Been Blind Tim Buckley
I'd Rather Go Blind Rod Stewart
I'd Rather Go Blind Etta James
I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled & Crazy Derek Trucks Band
The Ghost Of Blind Willie Johnson Tony Furtado
Eyesight To The Blind The Who
Eyesight To The Blind Mose Allison
Double Blind Pat Metheny Group
Deaf, Dumb And Blind NRBQ
Blindsided Bon Iver
Blinded By The Light Bruce Springsteen
Blind Willie McTell The Band
Blind Willie McTell Dylan
Blind Man Traffic
Blind Man Gregg Allman
Blind Man Aerosmith
Blind Hope Son Volt
Blind Child Levon Helm
Blind Boy Rag Taj Mahal
Blind Talking Heads
Arrested For Driving While Blind ZZ Top
Sweet Blindness Laura Nyro
And all of you deaf listeners, remember: no one can legally keep you from tuning in....
Sunday, September 8, 2013
We Can't Be Syria's, Can We...?
Savior and protector, that is. How is it possible that, after two disastrous forays into The Fertile Crescent, mostly fertile now with unrest, rebellion, and death, we're going down for the third time? Why, oh why, oh why have we appointed ourselves the world's police force and bully-remover? I know, it's a difficult and at least arguable topic. As a friend of mine asked, after the gassing of Syrian civilians--especially kids, although it's unclear to me why their lives are more important than the rest of ours--"If you were walking down the street and came upon some big person beating up on a smaller person, what would you do? Keep walking, or defend the little guy?" (Do I play "Walk On By" here?) Setting aside the fact that "defending the little guy" has fallen out of fashion in current-day America, there's a point of discussion there: how can we ignore those who are abused by bullies, whether individual or governmental?
On the other hand, our own history is hardly pure and blameless: how would we have felt if, say, the French, or the British, or the Spanish, or the Polish (just to represent) had invaded us to stop us from giving, oh, say, smallpox-infected blankets to the Natives? Would we have said "Oh yeah, okay, you're right--that was terrible, and we won't do it again"? Not thinkin' so: likely we'd've gotten up on our hind legs to repel the foreign busybodies and claimed sovereign rights to do as we saw fit on our own soil, as we have always done, often to our everlasting shame. I mean, aren't we the only ones in human history to have used nuclear weapons? Somehow that's better than chemicals? Oy, the self-justification we're capable of on Mulberry Street.
Which, in my addled brain, at least, brings us back to the question of why we have appointed ourselves hall-monitors for the world. Where is our moral high ground? And how've we done in that regard? Well, we did okay with Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo (why hasn't that been a band name, yet? If "The Dead Kennedys" can happen....), but, since then, not so much. Maybe it's Karmic, that we align ourselves with Self Interest rather than Humanitarianism but, whatever the reason, we haven't done so great. So say we intercede in Syria, and beat the current bad guys: who takes their place? Again, our record there ain't so great; I don't know who's doing our handicapping, but we seem to back the also-rans or the downright lame way more often than the noble thoroughbreds. Okay, enough of the horserace metaphor: I don't know anything about that stuff, and it, in itself, is exploitative (Hello, PETA: welcoming donations, here....).
So, given that I always tie these posts to my little community-radio station show, what'll I play this week? Truth be told, I'm sick as shit of our species' hell-bent-to-self-destruction modus operandi; a while back I wrote a piece about some other example of dire, self-immolating human bullshit, and played a show of "dance" songs. I'm'a do the same sorta thing this week. Where am I, at least on Chewsdays from noon till two? On the radio, that's where. On community radio, playin' people's music for the people--or, in WOOL's case, more likely, person. At any rate, whatcher gonna get from me this week is "radio" songs. "Turn it up (huh)."
Here's some songs you're likely to hear:
Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? The Ramones
Border Radio Dave Alvin
Dust Radio Chris Whitley
Golden Age Of Radio Josh Ritter
Late Night Radio David Gray
Like Rock & Roll Radio Ray LaMontagne
Mohammed's Radio Warren Zevon
Listen To The Radio Nanci Griffith
Love Songs On The Radio Mojave 3
Magenta Radio Rusted Root
On The Radio John Hartford
On Your Radio Joe Jackson
One More Song The Radio Won't Like Kathleen Edwards
Radio City Serenade Mark Knopfler
Radio Free Europe REM
Radio Ga Ga Queen
Radio Cure Wilco
Radio Fragile Nanci Griffith
Radio King Golden Smog
Radio Radio Elvis Costello
Radio Nowhere Bruce Springsteen
Radio Operator Roseanne cash
Radio Song REM
Radio Sweetheart Elvis Costello
This Is Radio Clash The Clash
Turn On Your Radio Harry Nilsson
Turn On Your Radio Marc Cohn
Turn Your Radio On (Pts One & Two) John Hartford
Video Killed The Radio Star The Buggles
You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio Joni Mitchell
The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat) The Doors
Wavelength Van
Hey Mr. DJ Van
Domino Van
In The Days Before Rock 'n' Roll Van
In the face of abject human folly and cruelty, what better to do that to listen to your radio?
Personalish note: a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the resistance in this country to The Affordable Care Act, or to subsidized healthcare in general. Last Tuesday, as I was doing my show, Alice B. Fogel broke the fifth metatarsal bone in her right foot. Eight weeks of no weight, no driving, and us still without health insurance. Sorry, NSA; we really love you, and admire you, and thank you for keeping us safe. Now can you fix her foot? And why when, a couple of weeks earlier, when I wrote about oral sex.... Oh, never mind.
One last thing: If you haven't become a member yet, do it. And be sure to listen to all of the other great shows on WOOL.fm.
On the other hand, our own history is hardly pure and blameless: how would we have felt if, say, the French, or the British, or the Spanish, or the Polish (just to represent) had invaded us to stop us from giving, oh, say, smallpox-infected blankets to the Natives? Would we have said "Oh yeah, okay, you're right--that was terrible, and we won't do it again"? Not thinkin' so: likely we'd've gotten up on our hind legs to repel the foreign busybodies and claimed sovereign rights to do as we saw fit on our own soil, as we have always done, often to our everlasting shame. I mean, aren't we the only ones in human history to have used nuclear weapons? Somehow that's better than chemicals? Oy, the self-justification we're capable of on Mulberry Street.
Which, in my addled brain, at least, brings us back to the question of why we have appointed ourselves hall-monitors for the world. Where is our moral high ground? And how've we done in that regard? Well, we did okay with Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo (why hasn't that been a band name, yet? If "The Dead Kennedys" can happen....), but, since then, not so much. Maybe it's Karmic, that we align ourselves with Self Interest rather than Humanitarianism but, whatever the reason, we haven't done so great. So say we intercede in Syria, and beat the current bad guys: who takes their place? Again, our record there ain't so great; I don't know who's doing our handicapping, but we seem to back the also-rans or the downright lame way more often than the noble thoroughbreds. Okay, enough of the horserace metaphor: I don't know anything about that stuff, and it, in itself, is exploitative (Hello, PETA: welcoming donations, here....).
So, given that I always tie these posts to my little community-radio station show, what'll I play this week? Truth be told, I'm sick as shit of our species' hell-bent-to-self-destruction modus operandi; a while back I wrote a piece about some other example of dire, self-immolating human bullshit, and played a show of "dance" songs. I'm'a do the same sorta thing this week. Where am I, at least on Chewsdays from noon till two? On the radio, that's where. On community radio, playin' people's music for the people--or, in WOOL's case, more likely, person. At any rate, whatcher gonna get from me this week is "radio" songs. "Turn it up (huh)."
Here's some songs you're likely to hear:
Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? The Ramones
Border Radio Dave Alvin
Dust Radio Chris Whitley
Golden Age Of Radio Josh Ritter
Late Night Radio David Gray
Like Rock & Roll Radio Ray LaMontagne
Mohammed's Radio Warren Zevon
Listen To The Radio Nanci Griffith
Love Songs On The Radio Mojave 3
Magenta Radio Rusted Root
On The Radio John Hartford
On Your Radio Joe Jackson
One More Song The Radio Won't Like Kathleen Edwards
Radio City Serenade Mark Knopfler
Radio Free Europe REM
Radio Ga Ga Queen
Radio Cure Wilco
Radio Fragile Nanci Griffith
Radio King Golden Smog
Radio Radio Elvis Costello
Radio Nowhere Bruce Springsteen
Radio Operator Roseanne cash
Radio Song REM
Radio Sweetheart Elvis Costello
This Is Radio Clash The Clash
Turn On Your Radio Harry Nilsson
Turn On Your Radio Marc Cohn
Turn Your Radio On (Pts One & Two) John Hartford
Video Killed The Radio Star The Buggles
You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio Joni Mitchell
The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat) The Doors
Wavelength Van
Hey Mr. DJ Van
Domino Van
In The Days Before Rock 'n' Roll Van
In the face of abject human folly and cruelty, what better to do that to listen to your radio?
Personalish note: a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the resistance in this country to The Affordable Care Act, or to subsidized healthcare in general. Last Tuesday, as I was doing my show, Alice B. Fogel broke the fifth metatarsal bone in her right foot. Eight weeks of no weight, no driving, and us still without health insurance. Sorry, NSA; we really love you, and admire you, and thank you for keeping us safe. Now can you fix her foot? And why when, a couple of weeks earlier, when I wrote about oral sex.... Oh, never mind.
One last thing: If you haven't become a member yet, do it. And be sure to listen to all of the other great shows on WOOL.fm.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Take Care, But Take Care Not To Give Care
"Affordable Care," that is.
My father owned a small business when I was growing up, a machine shop, which made small parts for larger machines. He started it himself as owner and sole employee, and it grew to employ a dozen people or so at its largest. He was a lifelong Republican, but even as a Republican entrepreneur (though I don't think that word was used to describe folks like him, then) he recognized an obligation to his workers to provide them with certain benefits beyond simple wages, one of those benefits being health insurance.
Healthcare plans in one form or another have been around for almost 150 years, surprisingly enough. In the 1870s some railroad and mining companies, as well as other industries, began offering worker access to company doctors (at employee expense, but still, it was a start) and in 1910 a company called Montgomery Ward and Co. (a competitor of Sears, Roebuck, for those of you younger than a certain age. Sears? Oh, yeah, they merged with K-Mart, and barely exist now, themselves) began the first group-insurance contracts. And of course they added some to the cost of doing business, but that was simply acknowledged, accepted, and passed along, in the time-honored tradition. But the point is that employers cared for, in a couple of senses, their employees. My father even went so far as to continue to pay health insurance costs to one of his employees who went into business for himself as a carpenter, and whose wife was pregnant; they couldn't afford their own health insurance, so Dad paid until the baby was born. I still run into those folks occasionally and, although that happened more than 50 years ago, needless to say, they have never forgotten it.
I'm thinking about this stuff this weekend for a few reasons: it's Labor Day, a day set aside nominally to honor the workers of America, those men and women who built and continue to build this country and to keep it running smoothly (unless Congress gets in the way); because in a month the "open enrollment" phase of the Affordable Healthcare Act (I refuse to use the term "Obamacare," a pejorative term coined to demean the law and its sponsor) begins; and because, speaking of Congress getting in the way, this weekend a group of conservative activists ("Americans for Prosperity," founded and funded by the notorious Koch brothers) is gathered in Florida and, spearheaded by Sens. Cruz and Rubio (Tio Tomases to their people, for sure), is laying plans to once and for all find a way to de-fund (that one little vowel makes all the difference, doesn't it--"de-fund" rather than "defend") universal healthcare, allegedly because of the increased burden, largely financial, it will cause to small business, or businesses in general. Never mind that their carefully-packed Supreme Court validated the Act this spring, or that the majority of Americans support it.
How can we have gotten to this point, after 100 or so years of taking care of workers' needs? We blame government, but what about Big Pharma, or the Insurance lobbies, to name just two? Why must blame and consequence always be laid on the backs of government or the workers, rather than examining the obscene profits generated by big business, who, coincidentally, always seem to lead the fight against worker rights, benefits, and safety? We'll pay lip service to our respect and need for our workers but, if that lip thing should turn out to be oral cancer--well, buddy, you're on your own. We used to take care of each other as a society; now we actively and gleefully legislate against societal connection and safety nets, leaving folks to depend on individual acts of kindness. Sometimes that works, and you hear heartwarming stories of people rallying around someone in need, but it's totally whimsical. Whimsy may be a fine thing if you live in Milne's 100 Acre Wood, but it's not much to base a real-life society on.
The reason for this monumental change may be as simple as the shift in our economy, from manufacturing to service. Back in the day, we made stuff, real, tangible stuff, stuff that other folks wanted and that we could sell and profit from in a way which somehow allowed businesses to take care of their workers, which they are so unwilling to do today. Even--or maybe especially--Henry Ford recognized that workers needed to be cared for and compensated, else he'd have no one who could buy the products they made. And I know, I know: the rise of powerful unions, collective bargaining, vested pensions, abuses, entitlements (now there's a slippery word, huh?), and on. But those unions arose from a need to protect workers who could not depend on their overlords being particularly fond of whimsy and, see above, how are those abuses different from the greed and power displayed by Big Business, except that they were benefitting the wrong team?
When we have an economy based on price, not quality or value, the center cannot hold. If our goods are made by 10-year-olds in Asian sweatshops, if you have to sell a burger for a buck, how can you pay your workers a living wage, let alone give them benefits? If your profit margin is 3% or so, as is true for fast food places, it's tough. And yet we regularly hear of corporations making record-breaking profits, and the income/wealth disparity between the lowest workers and the highest CEOs is growing larger all the time. All the while, we're demanding that workers take less, work fewer hours so that legally they don't have to be paid benefits, and taking away their rights to bargain collectively, which is the only hope they have of gaining any power. Remember, way back near the beginning of what has become a lengthy piece, there was mention of the importance of one little vowel? Here's another example: Today, Karl Marx's famous cry "Workers of the world, unite!" has been shifted just slightly, to "Workers of the world, untie...."
So here's to all of us workers, running as fast as we can to stay in one place as the treadmill goes faster and gets narrower. Enjoy the long weekend (unless you don't get the extra day), work hard, be grateful for what you have, and above all, don't get injured or ill. And oh, yeah--keep your American flag lapel pin (made in China?) brightly polished.
Here're some songs I'm gonna play on Tuesday:
Union Sundown Bob Dylan
Union Man Neil Young
There Is Power In A Union Billy Bragg
Wasted Union Blues It's A Beautiful Day
Union Maid Judy Collins/Pete Seeger
Workingman's Blues #2 Bob Dylan
Workingman's Blues Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
Working Too Hard Lyle Lovett
Workin' In A Coal Mine Lee Dorsey
Working On The Highway Bruce Springsteen
Working Man Bo Diddley
Work To Do Average White Band
Working For The Man Roy Orbison
The Work Song Maria Muldaur
Work Song Nina Simone
Work Bob Marley & The Wailers
Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man) Randy Newman
Millworker James Taylor
I'll Take Care Of You Van Morrison
I'll Take Care Of You J.D. Souther
God Will Take Care Of You Mahalia Jackson
You Just Don't Care Santana
Why Should I Care Beck, Bogart & Appice
Who Cares Cannonball Adderly/Bill Evans
Takin' Care Of Business Bachman-Turner Overweight
Trouble & Care John Gorka
Somebody Who Cares Paul McCartney
Nobody Cares For Me The Be Good Tanyas
Nobody Cares Ray Charles
Nobody Cares John Mayall
I Don't Care Anymore Phil Collins
If I Didn't Care Mose Allison
I Was A Fool To Care James Taylor
I Still Care John Mayall
See you on the Interwebs at WOOL.fm.
My father owned a small business when I was growing up, a machine shop, which made small parts for larger machines. He started it himself as owner and sole employee, and it grew to employ a dozen people or so at its largest. He was a lifelong Republican, but even as a Republican entrepreneur (though I don't think that word was used to describe folks like him, then) he recognized an obligation to his workers to provide them with certain benefits beyond simple wages, one of those benefits being health insurance.
Healthcare plans in one form or another have been around for almost 150 years, surprisingly enough. In the 1870s some railroad and mining companies, as well as other industries, began offering worker access to company doctors (at employee expense, but still, it was a start) and in 1910 a company called Montgomery Ward and Co. (a competitor of Sears, Roebuck, for those of you younger than a certain age. Sears? Oh, yeah, they merged with K-Mart, and barely exist now, themselves) began the first group-insurance contracts. And of course they added some to the cost of doing business, but that was simply acknowledged, accepted, and passed along, in the time-honored tradition. But the point is that employers cared for, in a couple of senses, their employees. My father even went so far as to continue to pay health insurance costs to one of his employees who went into business for himself as a carpenter, and whose wife was pregnant; they couldn't afford their own health insurance, so Dad paid until the baby was born. I still run into those folks occasionally and, although that happened more than 50 years ago, needless to say, they have never forgotten it.
I'm thinking about this stuff this weekend for a few reasons: it's Labor Day, a day set aside nominally to honor the workers of America, those men and women who built and continue to build this country and to keep it running smoothly (unless Congress gets in the way); because in a month the "open enrollment" phase of the Affordable Healthcare Act (I refuse to use the term "Obamacare," a pejorative term coined to demean the law and its sponsor) begins; and because, speaking of Congress getting in the way, this weekend a group of conservative activists ("Americans for Prosperity," founded and funded by the notorious Koch brothers) is gathered in Florida and, spearheaded by Sens. Cruz and Rubio (Tio Tomases to their people, for sure), is laying plans to once and for all find a way to de-fund (that one little vowel makes all the difference, doesn't it--"de-fund" rather than "defend") universal healthcare, allegedly because of the increased burden, largely financial, it will cause to small business, or businesses in general. Never mind that their carefully-packed Supreme Court validated the Act this spring, or that the majority of Americans support it.
How can we have gotten to this point, after 100 or so years of taking care of workers' needs? We blame government, but what about Big Pharma, or the Insurance lobbies, to name just two? Why must blame and consequence always be laid on the backs of government or the workers, rather than examining the obscene profits generated by big business, who, coincidentally, always seem to lead the fight against worker rights, benefits, and safety? We'll pay lip service to our respect and need for our workers but, if that lip thing should turn out to be oral cancer--well, buddy, you're on your own. We used to take care of each other as a society; now we actively and gleefully legislate against societal connection and safety nets, leaving folks to depend on individual acts of kindness. Sometimes that works, and you hear heartwarming stories of people rallying around someone in need, but it's totally whimsical. Whimsy may be a fine thing if you live in Milne's 100 Acre Wood, but it's not much to base a real-life society on.
The reason for this monumental change may be as simple as the shift in our economy, from manufacturing to service. Back in the day, we made stuff, real, tangible stuff, stuff that other folks wanted and that we could sell and profit from in a way which somehow allowed businesses to take care of their workers, which they are so unwilling to do today. Even--or maybe especially--Henry Ford recognized that workers needed to be cared for and compensated, else he'd have no one who could buy the products they made. And I know, I know: the rise of powerful unions, collective bargaining, vested pensions, abuses, entitlements (now there's a slippery word, huh?), and on. But those unions arose from a need to protect workers who could not depend on their overlords being particularly fond of whimsy and, see above, how are those abuses different from the greed and power displayed by Big Business, except that they were benefitting the wrong team?
When we have an economy based on price, not quality or value, the center cannot hold. If our goods are made by 10-year-olds in Asian sweatshops, if you have to sell a burger for a buck, how can you pay your workers a living wage, let alone give them benefits? If your profit margin is 3% or so, as is true for fast food places, it's tough. And yet we regularly hear of corporations making record-breaking profits, and the income/wealth disparity between the lowest workers and the highest CEOs is growing larger all the time. All the while, we're demanding that workers take less, work fewer hours so that legally they don't have to be paid benefits, and taking away their rights to bargain collectively, which is the only hope they have of gaining any power. Remember, way back near the beginning of what has become a lengthy piece, there was mention of the importance of one little vowel? Here's another example: Today, Karl Marx's famous cry "Workers of the world, unite!" has been shifted just slightly, to "Workers of the world, untie...."
So here's to all of us workers, running as fast as we can to stay in one place as the treadmill goes faster and gets narrower. Enjoy the long weekend (unless you don't get the extra day), work hard, be grateful for what you have, and above all, don't get injured or ill. And oh, yeah--keep your American flag lapel pin (made in China?) brightly polished.
Here're some songs I'm gonna play on Tuesday:
Union Sundown Bob Dylan
Union Man Neil Young
There Is Power In A Union Billy Bragg
Wasted Union Blues It's A Beautiful Day
Union Maid Judy Collins/Pete Seeger
Workingman's Blues #2 Bob Dylan
Workingman's Blues Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
Working Too Hard Lyle Lovett
Workin' In A Coal Mine Lee Dorsey
Working On The Highway Bruce Springsteen
Working Man Bo Diddley
Work To Do Average White Band
Working For The Man Roy Orbison
The Work Song Maria Muldaur
Work Song Nina Simone
Work Bob Marley & The Wailers
Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man) Randy Newman
Millworker James Taylor
I'll Take Care Of You Van Morrison
I'll Take Care Of You J.D. Souther
God Will Take Care Of You Mahalia Jackson
You Just Don't Care Santana
Why Should I Care Beck, Bogart & Appice
Who Cares Cannonball Adderly/Bill Evans
Takin' Care Of Business Bachman-Turner Overweight
Trouble & Care John Gorka
Somebody Who Cares Paul McCartney
Nobody Cares For Me The Be Good Tanyas
Nobody Cares Ray Charles
Nobody Cares John Mayall
I Don't Care Anymore Phil Collins
If I Didn't Care Mose Allison
I Was A Fool To Care James Taylor
I Still Care John Mayall
See you on the Interwebs at WOOL.fm.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)