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May Day Post
2010-05-01 03:54It's May 1! An important day! Because it's Beltane? No, I'm an atheist.
Because it's Law Day? No, I'm not a lawyer.
Because it's Loyalty Day? No. Just... no.
(Though Obama's proclamation of both days has some neat elements, even if the best is simply quoting Lincoln: "The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities.")
No, it's Labour Day! Or International Worker's Day, at least in most of the industrialized world. Not in the US -- which is rather odd, because it's the commemoration of the Haymarket Massacre, when workers were shot and killed by Chicago police while the workers striked for an 8-hour workday. Our struggle, recognized everywhere but at home. And in Canada, which apparently has the same "first Monday in September" diversion as the US.
So, in honor of the blood spilled for the rights of the proletariat -- aka anyone who has to work for someone else for a living, aka almost all of you, my readers -- Billy Bragg's version of the Internationale:
And, for progress in the past year, we can look back on the US finally stepping toward universal health care, and also on the credit card reform bill of last year; with luck, perhaps we can look forward to financial re-regulation.
But for agitation, some reminders:
( More pictures )
What is to be done? It's hard to imagine real progress, when the "party of Lincoln" has turned to Reaganite anti-government nihilism, and turned from human rights to torture and detentions. But we've just made some progress, as noted above, and it's not hard for me to imagine a better world, if only by looking over the border (or overseas.)
( List of ideas )
Most of this stuff, and more, is *easy* (not to mention taken for granted in many other countries) -- if we have the will.
Amusing tangent: Captain America as a 1930s socialist?
Because it's Law Day? No, I'm not a lawyer.
Because it's Loyalty Day? No. Just... no.
(Though Obama's proclamation of both days has some neat elements, even if the best is simply quoting Lincoln: "The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities.")
No, it's Labour Day! Or International Worker's Day, at least in most of the industrialized world. Not in the US -- which is rather odd, because it's the commemoration of the Haymarket Massacre, when workers were shot and killed by Chicago police while the workers striked for an 8-hour workday. Our struggle, recognized everywhere but at home. And in Canada, which apparently has the same "first Monday in September" diversion as the US.
So, in honor of the blood spilled for the rights of the proletariat -- aka anyone who has to work for someone else for a living, aka almost all of you, my readers -- Billy Bragg's version of the Internationale:
And, for progress in the past year, we can look back on the US finally stepping toward universal health care, and also on the credit card reform bill of last year; with luck, perhaps we can look forward to financial re-regulation.
But for agitation, some reminders:
( More pictures )
What is to be done? It's hard to imagine real progress, when the "party of Lincoln" has turned to Reaganite anti-government nihilism, and turned from human rights to torture and detentions. But we've just made some progress, as noted above, and it's not hard for me to imagine a better world, if only by looking over the border (or overseas.)
( List of ideas )
Most of this stuff, and more, is *easy* (not to mention taken for granted in many other countries) -- if we have the will.
Amusing tangent: Captain America as a 1930s socialist?