Saturday, August 06, 2011

 

"Maybe a CN train will pass on what is technically the BC Rail line"

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BC Mary note: Thoughts for summer travels: Take back the province!  Malcolm Perry has written a delightful column which brings the B.C. landscape to life ... and if you're like me, you'll want to jump right into your old jallopy and smell the sagebrush again. (Although he does seem to see BC Rail as having gone only to Prince George.) 


Malcolm Perry's column, click HERE.

http://www.vancouversun.com/history+lives+wild+waters+mountains+Chilcotin/5216387/story.html#ixzz1UFrWzYz0

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BC Mary note:  This Michael Moore message is focused entirely on the U.S.A. , but his theme is universal. I thought it might fit into your quiet summer days.  Interesting, isn't it, how easily he can write on subjects so explosive? I don't think Michael Moore would mind that I've included it all right here, with thanks ... 

30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died ...a letter from Michael Moore

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Friends,


From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer. That many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy painting your house, and this meant that no matter how "lowly" your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated.

Young people have heard of this mythical time -- but it was no myth, it was real. And when they ask, "When did this all end?", I say, "It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981."

Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and the Right Wing decided to "go for it" -- to see if they could actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves.

And they've succeeded.

On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired every member of the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) who'd defied his order to return to work and declared their union illegal. They had been on strike for just two days.

It was a bold and brash move. No one had ever tried it. What made it even bolder was that PATCO was one of only three unions that had endorsed Reagan for president! It sent a shock wave through workers across the country. If he would do this to the people who were with him, what would he do to us?

Reagan had been backed by Wall Street in his run for the White House and they, along with right-wing Christians, wanted to restructure America and turn back the tide that President Franklin D. Roosevelt started -- a tide that was intended to make life better for the average working person. The rich hated paying better wages and providing benefits. They hated paying taxes even more. And they despised unions. The right-wing Christians hated anything that sounded like socialism or holding out a helping hand to minorities or women.

Reagan promised to end all that. So when the air traffic controllers went on strike, he seized the moment. In getting rid of every single last one of them and outlawing their union, he sent a clear and strong message: The days of everyone having a comfortable middle class life were over. America, from now on, would be run this way:

* The super-rich will make more, much much more, and the rest of you will scramble for the crumbs that are left.

* Everyone must work! Mom, Dad, the teenagers in the house! Dad, you work a second job! Kids, here's your latch-key! Your parents might be home in time to put you to bed.

* 50 million of you must go without health insurance! And health insurance companies: you go ahead and decide who you want to help -- or not.

* Unions are evil! You will not belong to a union! You do not need an advocate! Shut up and get back to work! No, you can't leave now, we're not done. Your kids can make their own dinner.

* You want to go to college? No problem -- just sign here and be in hock to a bank for the next 20 years!

* What's "a raise"? Get back to work and shut up!

And so it went. But Reagan could not have pulled this off by himself in 1981. He had some big help:

The AFL-CIO.

The biggest organization of unions in America told its members to cross the picket lines of the air traffic controllers and go to work. And that's just what these union members did. Union pilots, flight attendants, delivery truck drivers, baggage handlers -- they all crossed the line and helped to break the strike. And union members of all stripes crossed the picket lines and continued to fly.

Reagan and Wall Street could not believe their eyes! Hundreds of thousands of working people and union members endorsing the firing of fellow union members. It was Christmas in August for Corporate America.

And that was the beginning of the end. Reagan and the Republicans knew they could get away with anything -- and they did. They slashed taxes on the rich. They made it harder for you to start a union at your workplace. They eliminated safety regulations on the job. They ignored the monopoly laws and allowed thousands of companies to merge or be bought out and closed down. Corporations froze wages and threatened to move overseas if the workers didn't accept lower pay and less benefits. And when the workers agreed to work for less, they moved the jobs overseas anyway.

And at every step along the way, the majority of Americans went along with this. There was little opposition or fight-back. The "masses" did not rise up and protect their jobs, their homes, their schools (which used to be the best in the world). They just accepted their fate and took the beating.

I have often wondered what would have happened had we all just stopped flying, period, back in 1981. What if all the unions had said to Reagan, "Give those controllers their jobs back or we're shutting the country down!"? You know what would have happened. The corporate elite and their boy Reagan would have buckled.

But we didn't do it. And so, bit by bit, piece by piece, in the ensuing 30 years, those in power have destroyed the middle class of our country and, in turn, have wrecked the future for our young people. Wages have remained stagnant for 30 years. Take a look at the statistics and you can see that every decline we're now suffering with had its beginning in 1981 (here's a little scene to illustrate that from my last movie).

It all began on this day, 30 years ago. One of the darkest days in American history. And we let it happen to us. Yes, they had the money, and the media and the cops. But we had 200 million of us. Ever wonder what it would look like if 200 million got truly upset and wanted their country, their life, their job, their weekend, their time with their kids back?

Have we all just given up? What are we waiting for? Forget about the 20% who support the Tea Party -- we are the other 80%! This decline will only end when we demand it. And not through an online petition or a tweet. We are going to have to turn the TV and the computer and the video games off and get out in the streets (like they've done in Wisconsin). Some of you need to run for local office next year. We need to demand that the Democrats either get a spine and stop taking corporate money -- or step aside.

When is enough, enough? The middle class dream will not just magically reappear. Wall Street's plan is clear: America is to be a nation of Haves and Have Nothings. Is that OK for you?

Why not use today to pause and think about the little steps you can take to turn this around in your neighborhood, at your workplace, in your school? Is there any better day to start than today?

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

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Comments:
I think Michael Moore will be very pleased with how BC'rs have 'stormed the Bastille'.

Contrary to the contrarian pollsters and media, I believe the YES vote will overwhelm the 'nabobs of negativity' and decisively reclaim a semblance of democracy in this province and this country.

Once the ROC see's(?) that the 80% do have the power to make change, it will become an onrushing tide and the corporate dominoes will tumble and retreat just like schoolyard bullies when the tables are turned.

A new day is dawning.
 
Nice thought, Ron. Thanks.
 
We all know, what eventually happens to dictators. They absolutely have to control everything. Dictators are also paranoid, everyone is out to get them.

Harper had Guelph University stormed. Harper wanted to prevent the students from voting. They even tried to steal the ballot boxes. That is the manner, of a paranoid dictator. Because Harper knows he is devious and corrupt, he tries to stop his devious deeds, getting to the public.

If Harper can storm Guelph University, why can't Guelph University storm Parliament? Or, does Ontario have the same two tiered judicial system as BC does?

Would all the little piggy Conservatives squeal? Do they just like dishing it out? But, don't have the guts to take it?

Harper's partner in crime, Campbell. Would do his dirty work, and would then run and hide, and even leave the country, every time Legislature was in.

Have we had, the Legislature in, only twice in two years. Christy really is a Campbell clone.

Neither Christy or Campbell will discuss, Campbell's theft and corrupt sale of the BCR. The BC Liberals scurry away, like the rats they really are.

Before we can truly help this province heal, we will have to rid us of, the evil of the BC Liberals.

And if Canadians don't want their provinces, made into states of the U.S. We need to get rid of Harper. HE, is the worst thing, that could ever have happened to Canada.
 
Moore's comment about the AFL-CIO aiding in the rightist resurgence brings to mind the original Kelowna Accord, the Bennett-Munro one that forestalled the general strike of '83......
 
About the Mal Parry article, Mary, he's right in the context he's mentioning, which was that the original plan for PGE only called for it to go to Prince George; the concept was extended to the Peace River Country by WAC once the PG extension was completed (from Quesnel, the former northern terminus). The old tag the railway had, "Prince George Eventually", didn't refer to the train's schedule, but to the promise that it would eventually reach that city.....

Mal Parry, by the way, was raised and, I think, born in Minto City, now semi-inundated by the waters of Carpenter Lake (at the mouth of Gun Creek).
 
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