Its not like these old school guys who just take it out when their inner voice tells them.

Traditions can be a good thing. Personal rituals the sometimes individuals have or even our holiday traditions. They can bring people together and harbor a sense of community among groups of people. But some traditions well, they need to be discarded. The Aztec's sacrificed thousands of people to the gods. A passage in the Old Testament of the Bible instructs readers to stone anyone who is not a believer. Also it proscribes the death penalty for anyone caught working on a Sunday. Thankfully the majority of Christians in the modern world do no follow these kinds of policies. Sometimes, however, traditions can be a obstacle to progress. Take the Catholic Church's recent anger over President Obama's requiring them to cover the cost of birth control as part of their health insurance. A furor. Really? In this day and age. Besides the fact that in my view the Catholic church has not moral leg to stand on what with the Spanish inquisition and the waves of pedophile priests recently outed, but this stance just seems outdated in this day and age. 7 billion people in the world projected to grow substantially in the next decade. Its true a few hundred years ago when a lot of people worked on farms and needed the hands having 6-10 children made sense. But in this day and age? And a majority of those children in those days would not survive to adulthood. Abraham Lincoln lost his mother, his father, his sister, his first love all in his youth. But things have changed. And I feel that as times change even long last institutions most change with them. Hell even the Amish will sometimes use a neighbors phone if they need to. Some of the extreme pro-lifers even oppose condoms in places like South Africa where AIDS is rampant. At some point this adherence to tradition simply blocks any kind of effort to move forward and does a disservice to humanity at large.

Just because your nametag says manager doesn't make you better then me

Presidential candidate and general asshole (in my opinion) Newt Gingrich recently said that child labor laws were 'stupid' and that children in urban schools should help out and replace the Unionized janitors. Although Newt's statements are obviously moronic and callous they reflect a growing but perhaps veiled criticism aired by many of his colleagues in the Republican party. China is killing us, they say. A recent Wall Street Journal article touted that fact that when a few thousand factory jobs come up the Chinese can fill them easily. Its easy to find spots for jobs when you don't have to worry about paying people a decent wage or worry about things like working conditions. In this book I was reading recently about the labor Unions by Philip Dray 'There is power in a union' I have learned that none of this was given away easily. The heads of the major capitalists and manufacturers did not get together one day and decide they were working there people too hard. A campaign went on for a long time in the late 19th century for a 10-hour day which was vehemently opposed by business leaders. One CEO of a Pennsylvania railroad organization on strike suggesting that if the strikers had nothing to eat perhaps they would prefer a diets of rifles instead. Indeed the power of capital often won out leading to the summoning of the National Guard to quell strikes. What strikes me most is how the things that we enjoy as working people, overtime, holiday pay, weekends, had to be fought for so much by working people. Even things like unemployment insurance had to be lobbied by the people. Alfred Sloan of General Motors even once suggested that it took 14 years to repeal prohibition and it would take the same time to repeal the new deal. So despite the negative image the Unions have gotten as of late anyone who has ever worked any kind of menial job of any kind or most jobs owes a debt of gratitude to the Unions.

A working class hero is something to be.

Its 10 at night and I don't want to go to work. More then anything I see my freshly made bed with its warm sheets and I ponder just going back to bed. But besides the obvious fact that I need to work to live I also think about the many people in history who have worked, and who didn't want to and had to. The early mill workers in 19th century America working 12 to 14 hour days with only one day of reprieve. Of the soldier in the Civil War marching twenty to thirty miles sometimes with no shoes. Of the slaves toiling in the cotton fields of the south. Of the myriad of hardship and toil experienced by peoples of all races and genders throughout history. In reality in truth by that measure I have it easy. In fact me just being born in the first world with running water and toilets and heat I have it easy. So when I think of it from that prospective I throw on my work garb and head out into the cold starlit night.

The town is taken by its rats.

To me personally one of the most terrifying real dangers in the world is the angry mob. Hoards of angry human beings massing together and enacting their own brand of 'justice.' Lynch mobs breaking into jails to hang the person inside. The insane mob mentality. For several days in the hot summer of July 1863 the mob did just that. The New York draft riots the largest civil insurrection in the history of the United States. The Mobs were incensed by the Conscription act which required the enrollment of all male citizens as well as immigrants who had recently filed for citizenship. They were also incensed by a policy whereby anyone who had 300 dollars could hire a substitute to get out of the draft, which was more then most of them made in a year. On July 13 they attacked the draft office and spread out across the city. At first their targets were the rich those who could buy their way out of the war, but also it was towards the black population whom they blamed for the war. This is for me when it starts to get ugly. The mob begins attacking any black people they can find and even sets a black orphanage on fire. The complete abandonment of rational thought and to the mob mentality. The Mob went from house to house searching for blacks. The Irish feared the blacks because they competed for the same low paying jobs. For three days the mob had taken over the city overwhelming the police force. Herman Melville watching the scene one night wrote: 'The town is taken by its rats-ship rats- and rats of the wharves. All civil charms and priestly spells which late held hears in awe--Fear bound, subjected to a better sway than sway of self; these like a dream dissolve, and man rebounds back eons in nature.' Finally Federal troops had to be brought in to restore order. It makes me ponder weather we are so truly removed from the animals as we so like to believe.

I despise the law and I am not a law abiding citizen.

I was reading dear Abby in the recorder recently because that's just how I roll. And usually her answers to readers queries are reasonable and sound. However this time I just didn't agree. A reader sent her a question about a relative of hers who always brings in snacks and drinks and such into the movie to avoid paying the exorbitant charge of buys popcorn and snacks at the movies. Abby agreed with the reader suggesting the the movie theater makes a good portion of their money from concessions and that basically they were kind of screwing the movie theater. Another reader wrote in saying that they deal with kids in trouble with the law and that that kind of behavior basically says its ok to break that law. That is when I thought something was off. Violating a movie theaters snack policy will lead your children to a life of crime? They went on to say something that 'Its their policy,' but it made me think about people who believe in the law that much. Who believe that because something is the law that necessarily makes it just and indeed makes us as citizen obligated to obey it. I have to respectfully disagree. In face I would argue that if we as citizen of this nation have a history of lawbreaking in the most noble way. In the 19th century the Fugitive slave act made it a law that runaway slaves who were found had to be returned to their owners if found. Yet thousands of citizens defied that law and helped the slaves escape via the Underground railroad. They saw the law for what is was something that helped preserve the vile institution of slavery. The South had its Jim Crow laws and its voter registration laws which helped disenfranchise its Black population. My point being just because something is written as law does not mean its just, doesn't mean it makes sense and maybe shouldn't be followed. That is what struck me about the comment the blind obedience to something just because its policy. Or maybe they should have just made dinner at home before they go see the flick. Anyhow that's my two cents.

They call me the working man

My Grandpa once faced down the Mafia. It was a long time ago in the 50's a time when America was a different place. Cigarette smoke, Elivs, Rock 'n roll, and so forth. Anyhow as I heard the story he was parked somewhere in Brooklyn. And a Woman on the street and a shawl told him 'They don't like it when you park there.' And shortly afterward a man came out walking towards him. I remember hearing that he left after because he had his kids in the car but the story always held an interest to me. An average citizen with nothing to do with Organized Crime suddenly being thrust into its world.

Struggle.

I'm reading a book right now about the Pullman Porters. Pullman Porters were workers on sleeper trains from the late 1860s until 1969. George Pullman the founder of the Pullman company recruited mainly African-Americans for the positions because he believed the mainly white passengers wouldn't notice them and wouldn't see them as someone they would ever see in everyday life. The Porters attended to the passengers every need making beds, running telegrams, helping with luggage etc; Also they relied mainly on tips because of the low wages the Pullman company paid them during the early years of its operation. In the book the author Larry Tye talks about the face the Porters had to put on to deal with the racism and insults and disrespect they put up with on a daily basis. This resonated for me because as a former Deli worker I had to put up the same kind of face. While I was never subjected to the long hours, and blatant racism of the porters dealt with I can attest to the shabby way people can treat you in the service industry. In the deli people think you are a servant an idiot. And you end up having to put up that mask. The mask of servility which the books talks about. The porters dealt with it because they had families to support and they knew it was a lot better then working as sharecroppers or in factories as many in their community did. Also much better then their forefathers who had toiled in the cotton fields as slaves. The Porters would have to 'Tom' it after Uncle Tom the slave in Uncle Tom's cabin. Dealing with people is hard, much less racist assholes. To this Friday I crack open a beer for the Pullman Porter.