This Land is Your Land

And mine, too. From the Redneck Truckers, to the New York Subway. From the Detroit UAW, to the single-family Farmer, this Land belongs to you, me, and everybody else who works for a living. I'm talking about the people who break a sweat and get dirt under their fingernails. I'm talking about the garbageman, the nurse, the grocery clerk, the mail clerk, the construction worker, the miners, that grease monkey who changes your oil and tires, and that pimply-faced kid who served you your fries the last time you hit the McFood drive-thru. Few of these people get paid what they're worth, but these are the folks that have built America, and keep it running.

Not to mention the piddly wages we pay our teachers, and our daycare workers. Not only should we keep our schools public, I think public education should also include pre-K, as well. Do you know what kind of support parents in other developed countries get? For one thing, in a lot of places, maternity leave not only extends far beyond anything commonly offered in the U.S., they receive living wages from their government while on leave to give their little ones the quality early nurturing that any mom anywhere realizes is essential. This ain't rocket science, folks.

Then again, there is quite a bit we could learn from other countries. Like um, MINE SAFETY? Case in point: Australia requires safety stations in their mines, with the kind of accidents like the recent clusterfuck in West Virginia specifically in mind. These safety stations are basically reinforced steel rooms, with enough O2 and supplies for at least three days, plus secure communication capability. It doesn't make mining foolproof, but it goes a long way towards valuing workers...

I'm growing exceedingly tired of some folks -- they seem to be the same ones who will tell you with a straight face that military personnel understand when they 'jined up' that a military career involves the risk of combat. Oddly enough, these are often the same folks screaming "support the troops" at the top of their lungs. Now I'm hearing that the miners in West Virginia knew the risks, bladdda, blah, blah.

First off: Military folks are in that same working-class crowd. And not only do they deserve our support, it needs to be manifested more practically than a yellow ribbon magnet on the back of an SUV, or a bunch of lip service from assholes polishing a chair. The military gets paid shit wages to do a shitty job with shitty equipment. Not to mention that to imagine that a youngster of 17 going on 18 has the capacity to fully comprehend the risks, yet deny that same kid the right to have a beer legally, does seem a bit stupid, don't you think?

Second: If you think that the fact that coal mining is a dangerous occupation in any way mitigates the responsibility of the mine owners and the federal government's oversight to make it as safe as possible, you need to log off the 'net, turn off every electrical device and light in your home, then sit there in the quiet dark and contemplate the nationwide power grid, and the large role coal-powered plants play in it.

We need to work together to hold some feet to the fire on this...because it's all of us that deserve to go to work and come home alive.