Singing out loud, among other things
I may have turned a corner. Then again I may have finally lost my marbles. I blame it on the day-light bulb we've put over my chair at home in case that might cure my recent down feelings. It has been getting darker and colder.
Today, as I left work and walked the half mile to the bus (and remember that this is the same boring data entry work), I sang out loud. "Cockeyed Optomist", "Small Pleasures" from Oliver, and my favorite old folk ballad "Black Jack Davy". I sing well enough that whatever negative reaction there might have been, it wouldn't have to do with bad singing. It was dark enough that I don't know what people thought of it. Light may not have helped. The Brits might not show what they thought of it. I figure the most likely thing they thought, considering that it was near 7:00 was that I had stopped off at the pub after work. Actually, I don't drink at all, a psychological residue of being raised by parents so serious about teetotaling (sp?) that my dad and mom wouldn't even drink a toast of champagne to a bride and groom for whom he had performed the marriage an hour before. They always requested ginger ale. i just don't like the taste of anything alcoholic.
Tomorrow the teachers of the school where I work go on a strike. When I read the e-mail about it directed by the school head at the strikers, I was amazed. It was almost threatening. Something like: If you're going to strike, you should know that you are violating the terms of your employment. I would imagine it puts the teachers in a real bind.
I came from an area in the US where the unions were life-savers for the coal miners. I know what the conditions were for them before the unions were organized and how fierce the fight was that won them decent working conditions. And over my lifetime I have watched the anti-union propaganda sold to the people of the US to the point that many are very anit-union. It is no coincidence that this has happened at the same time as the minimum wage has fallen to about half a living wage, and the weekly hours worked has gone up and up, the benefits and vacations down and down. I'm pro-union.
So I asked my co-workers how others responded when a group went on strike here. What's the norm? In the US, crossing a picket line requires stopping to think about your decision whether to do it or not, at least for me and for lots of others. This is true even if you don't work at the place and are just doing business there. I guess another part of my pro-union attitude is having actually known individuals involved in Solidarnosc in Poland and heard their individual stories.
For my fellow workers in an administrative department, it seemed to be a no-brainer. If it wasn't your union that was striking, then you went ahead and worked and thought of the record-keeping of who worked and who didn't as an inconvenience. I wish I knew more. It bothers me to cross a picket line, but if such a decision would be considered totally outside the norm, then I guess I'll do it.
On the other hand, it violates one of my guiding principles. This one comes from my favorite book of all time "The Greening of America" by Charles Reich. I have never gone without owning an extra copy of this book that I could give away since I read it the first time. It explains how to live your life so as effectively cause changes of the type you want. And it works. The principle is simple: "Reveal options by living them." What that means is make the decisions that others may believe unfeasable and, by the lack of horrible consequences, give others the courage to also make such decisions. If you think about it, all the great influencers of change did that. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, the Suffragettes, the first gays who came out, Ghandi.
Even my moving to the UK is a part of it. Like John said "Imagine there's no borders." If you can find a way to do it legally, choose the country you will live in. As for doing it illegally, I have mixed feelings. It violates the Golden Rule to turn folks away when if you were in the situation they were in, you'd want to be taken in. I can't condemn someone for making that decision. I certainly couldn't turn in an illegal. But I wouldn't actively aid anyone in doing it either. Or I think I wouldn't. If it came to that, would I violate the Golden Rule or help. Luckily, I haven't been put to the question.
Golly, this posting took a turn I wasn't expecting when I started writing.
Today, as I left work and walked the half mile to the bus (and remember that this is the same boring data entry work), I sang out loud. "Cockeyed Optomist", "Small Pleasures" from Oliver, and my favorite old folk ballad "Black Jack Davy". I sing well enough that whatever negative reaction there might have been, it wouldn't have to do with bad singing. It was dark enough that I don't know what people thought of it. Light may not have helped. The Brits might not show what they thought of it. I figure the most likely thing they thought, considering that it was near 7:00 was that I had stopped off at the pub after work. Actually, I don't drink at all, a psychological residue of being raised by parents so serious about teetotaling (sp?) that my dad and mom wouldn't even drink a toast of champagne to a bride and groom for whom he had performed the marriage an hour before. They always requested ginger ale. i just don't like the taste of anything alcoholic.
Tomorrow the teachers of the school where I work go on a strike. When I read the e-mail about it directed by the school head at the strikers, I was amazed. It was almost threatening. Something like: If you're going to strike, you should know that you are violating the terms of your employment. I would imagine it puts the teachers in a real bind.
I came from an area in the US where the unions were life-savers for the coal miners. I know what the conditions were for them before the unions were organized and how fierce the fight was that won them decent working conditions. And over my lifetime I have watched the anti-union propaganda sold to the people of the US to the point that many are very anit-union. It is no coincidence that this has happened at the same time as the minimum wage has fallen to about half a living wage, and the weekly hours worked has gone up and up, the benefits and vacations down and down. I'm pro-union.
So I asked my co-workers how others responded when a group went on strike here. What's the norm? In the US, crossing a picket line requires stopping to think about your decision whether to do it or not, at least for me and for lots of others. This is true even if you don't work at the place and are just doing business there. I guess another part of my pro-union attitude is having actually known individuals involved in Solidarnosc in Poland and heard their individual stories.
For my fellow workers in an administrative department, it seemed to be a no-brainer. If it wasn't your union that was striking, then you went ahead and worked and thought of the record-keeping of who worked and who didn't as an inconvenience. I wish I knew more. It bothers me to cross a picket line, but if such a decision would be considered totally outside the norm, then I guess I'll do it.
On the other hand, it violates one of my guiding principles. This one comes from my favorite book of all time "The Greening of America" by Charles Reich. I have never gone without owning an extra copy of this book that I could give away since I read it the first time. It explains how to live your life so as effectively cause changes of the type you want. And it works. The principle is simple: "Reveal options by living them." What that means is make the decisions that others may believe unfeasable and, by the lack of horrible consequences, give others the courage to also make such decisions. If you think about it, all the great influencers of change did that. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, the Suffragettes, the first gays who came out, Ghandi.
Even my moving to the UK is a part of it. Like John said "Imagine there's no borders." If you can find a way to do it legally, choose the country you will live in. As for doing it illegally, I have mixed feelings. It violates the Golden Rule to turn folks away when if you were in the situation they were in, you'd want to be taken in. I can't condemn someone for making that decision. I certainly couldn't turn in an illegal. But I wouldn't actively aid anyone in doing it either. Or I think I wouldn't. If it came to that, would I violate the Golden Rule or help. Luckily, I haven't been put to the question.
Golly, this posting took a turn I wasn't expecting when I started writing.
posted by ISAY | 1:02 PM
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