Union Maid

Oh you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union-- great lyrics penned by Woody Guthrie. I was reminded of this song when I traveled to West Virginia this weekend to visit old friends. My family used to live in Morgantown, and was drawn to the area in the mid 90s by the coal mining industry. My parents were extremely active in politics and the working conditions for the industrial proletariat. Unfortunately, shortly after my family migrated to West Virginia, many of the coal mines shut down--claiming they could not compete with the Unions and still turn a profit. Although there are mines still open in West Virginia, many of these mines are non union, and have very un safe working conditions (as cited by the recent mining disasters in the US). Unfortunately, West Virginia has long been plagued with a shortage of jobs and the recent recession only intensifies this plight. Several of my old friends work in low paying jobs, simply because they provide health care. One young man I met over the weekend is an employee with Giant Eagle and informed me that after 2 years of loyalty to the company, he has just now been afforded health insurance. Is it any wonder then that West Virginia has a an enormous population of soldiers fighting in Iraq? In fact, West Virginia has lost more men than any state since WWI.

I heard an interesting theory this weekend of why liberals should cast votes for a republican candidate. A young self proclaimed Marxist said that in order to perform a complete overhaul of the current American system (a revolution), the system needs to get worse. Be electing a republican, more rights and freedoms will be challenged and thus the people will be more willing to rise up. Although I did find this theory interesting, I don't think Marx would agree, and I'm not sure this is a viable solution. I wonder how much worse do things have to be for the workers and farmers int his country? How many more people need to be without health insurance, homeless, jobless in this country?
I'm not a democrat, and will never vote for one party(or person) just to remove another from office. I will continue to vote my conscience, and vigorously defend my decision to do so. I make no distinctions between lions and wolves when it comes to who is responsible for the current state of the American system.