Bob Herbert: Absorbing the Pain

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/opinion/26herbert.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

(snip)
A handful of people were sitting around a dining room table in a row house in North Philadelphia on Wednesday, talking about the problems facing working people in America. The setting outside the house on West Harold Street was grim. The remnants of a snowstorm lined the curbs and a number of people, obviously down on their luck, were moving about the struggling neighborhood. Some were panhandling.

The small gathering had been arranged by a group called Working America, which is affiliated with the A.F.L.-C.I.O., but the people at the meeting did not belong to unions. They were just there to talk in an atmosphere of mutual support.

(snip)
Among the many heartening things about the workers fighting back in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere is the spotlight that is being thrown on the contemptuous attitude of the corporate elite and their handmaidens in government toward ordinary working Americans: police officers and firefighters, teachers, truck drivers, janitors, health care aides, and so on. These are the people who do the daily grunt work of America. How dare we treat them with contempt?

It would be a mistake to think that this fight is solely about the right of public employees to collectively bargain. As important as that issue is, it’s just one skirmish in what’s shaping up as a long, bitter campaign to keep ordinary workers, whether union members or not, from being completely overwhelmed by the forces of unrestrained greed in this society.

[pscot]

1. It tears your heart out

They have no right to do this to us.

[northernlights]

2. this is what I don't understand...and have never understood

"The big shots are in charge, and they just don’t give a darn about the little person.”

That is a true statement. That has *always* been a true statement.

What I don't understand is when people are going to figure out that we are not children and they are not parents. It is not up to them to care about the so-called little person. It is up to the so-called little person to care about him or herself.

And to join together with other so-called little people to stand up for themselves. In the same way that the so-called big people have got each others' backs, circle the wagons when under siege, etc.

Hopefully the Arab people, by setting an example, will inspire revolution here...

[roxiejules]

3. The experience..

of being long term unemployed or underemployed is degrading and horrible.

"These are the kinds of stories you might expect from a country staggering through a depression, not the richest and supposedly most advanced society on earth. If these were exceptional stories, there would be less reason for concern. But they are in no way extraordinary. Similar stories abound throughout the United States." - Bob Herbert

[classysassy]

4. Our elected officials

are in the bribery business,most are dishonest and should be recalled.The supreme court is a joke and those five dwarfs that were put there by the greedy republicans are criminals and should be impeached.We will never have justice in America until the voices of the public is heard,what we have now is not democracy,our leaders don't lead they do the shilling for the wealthy and we are poorer for their action.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

5. Anywhere you go on the planet

there are more of "us" than "them" and that's what is heartening to me.