A Great American Hope: Time to Pardon Jack Johnson

O my Lord
What a morning,
O my Lord,
What a feeling,
When Jack Johnson
Turned Jim Jeffries’
Snow-white face
to the ceiling.
Adaptation of the spiritual “My Lord, What a Morning” by William Waring Cuney, 1910.

While I’m skeptical about their motives, I applaud the efforts of Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Representative Peter King (R-NY) to obtain a presidential pardon for the great heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson.

Jack Johnson fighting James Jeffries, July 4, 1910

Arthur John “Jack” Johnson, who died in 1946 at the age of 68, was the first black Heavyweight Champion of the World.

The crime that the pardon would cover is Johnson’s supposed violation of the Mann Act — “transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes.”  Johnson eventually served 10 months in federal prison on the charges, which also destroyed his boxing career.

No one now doubts that Johnson’s Mann Act conviction was thoroughly racist: the women Johnson was convicted of “transporting” were white.

When Johnson started his boxing career at the turn of the last century, boxing was as segregated as the rest of America – there were separate (and far from equal) boxing matches for black and white fighters.

Johnson became World Colored Heavyweight Champion in 1903 and was widely believed to be the best boxer in the world, but he could not get a match with white Heavyweight Champion James J. Jeffries, who refused to face him.

According to Wikipedia, Johnson won the world heavyweight title five years later, on December 26, 1908, “when he fought the Canadian world champion Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, after following him all over the world, taunting him in the press for a match. The fight lasted fourteen rounds before being stopped by the police in front of over 20,000 spectators. The title was awarded to Johnson on a referee’s decision as a T.K.O, but he had severely beaten the champion. During the fight, Johnson had mocked both Burns and his ringside crew. Every time Burns was about to go down, Johnson would hold him up again, punishing him more.” The film of the match was stopped just before the fight ended, so that it would not show Johnson defeating a white man.

As the most famous black man in America and far ahead of his time in his outspoken defiance of white racism, Johnson was caricatured by the press as subhuman and an ape, and constantly harassed by local police and federal authorities.  The press called for a “Great White Hope” to defeat Johnson and return the heavyweight title to the white race.  Each of these “White Hopes” failed to unseat Johnson.

Heeding the call to defend his race, Jeffries eventually agreed to come out of retirement in 1910 and fight Johnson, explaining “”I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro.”  The fight took place on July 4th in Reno, Nevada, before an all-white crowd of more than 20,000, which chanted “kill the nigger” throughout the match.  After being knocked down twice, Jeffries called it quits in the 15th round.  Johnson’s victory over Jeffries led to white race riots across America, leaving at least 23 black men, and two white men, dead.

Johnson was not a “role model” in the Jackie Robinson mode.  Loud, proud, defiant, and eventually very rich, Johnson reveled as much in ostentatiously breaking racial taboos as in his victories in the ring.

White America could not allow him to survive, and so Johnson was destroyed, with the Mann Act as the weapon.  Following his conviction in 1913, Johnson fled the United States and fought in Cuba and Mexico. After his return to America and serving his prison sentence in 1920, Johnson was never able to regain his prowess in the ring.  He lost seven of his last nine fights, retiring in 1938.

He died in a car accident in 1946, after angrily leaving a restaurant in North Carolina that refused to serve him because of his race.

McCain and King are to be praised for joining with filmmaker Ken Burns (who has made a documentary about Johnson called “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson” and first sought a pardon for Johnson in 2004) in calling on President Obama to issue a pardon for Johnson.

Still, the politics of their appeal for Johnson should be noted.

In September 2008, both McCain and King sponsored resolutions in their respective congressional bodies urging then-President George W. Bush to pardon Johnson.  Bush did not do so, despite McCain and King’s backing and wide bipartisan support.  According to Ken Burns, President Bush gave him a telephone number to call about the pardon, which turned out to be the telephone number of Karl Rove.

Burns says that Rove told him that a Bush pardon for Johnson “ain’t gonna fly.”

Rove now denies that he ever spoke with Burns about the Johnson pardon.

It is time to put the Bush-Rove years behind us.

It is time to put racism behind us.

It is time for a Great American Hope.

It is time to pardon Jack Johnson.

Old Jews Telling Jokes

Jews have long been associated with comedy, and specifically with the form of comic storytelling called jokes.

There are a lot of theories about why people, and Jews in particular, tell jokes.

Henri Bergson believed that joke telling is a form of social control, in which the victim is made the target of humiliating laughter.

Mikhail Bakhtin thought that jokes and laughter are ways of overcoming the fear of death, transgressing social barriers and hierarchies, and celebrating the “lower body stratum” of human existence including both sexuality and defecation.

Freud thought that the popularity of joke telling among Jews is a form of self-criticism, as well as a way to criticize authority and the excessive requirements of the Jewish religion, and to purge aggressive feelings resulting from the suppression of sexuality.

Jokes seem to be the province of  people with a history of oppression. In the United States, the great comedians tend to be African-Americans, Irish, or Jews.

(It is apparently extremely difficult to be a funny WASP — although here I must acknowledge that John McCain excelled in the presidential campaign’s stand-up comedy competition.)

Theories aside, for whatever reason, Jews like to tell jokes.

Everyone knows of famous Jewish comedians – a quick list of classics would include Milton Berle, Woody Allen, Alan King, Lenny Bruce, Fannie Brice, Mel Brooks, Phil Silvers, George Burns, Joan Rivers, Jackie Mason, Carl Reiner, Jack Benny, Joey Bishop, and Groucho Marx – and a list of contemporaries would include Jerry Seinfeld, Sasha Baron Cohen, Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Richard Lewis, Sarah Silverman, and Sandra Bernhard.

But because joke telling has been so highly valued in Jewish culture, lots of ordinary Jews are good at it as well.

A new website called Old Jews Telling Jokes is a homage to non-professional Jewish joke tellers.

The old Jews telling the jokes aren’t professional comedians.  Instead, they’re doctors, lawyers, a lumberyard owner, a garment district worker, a wine salesman, a judge – and  also the website creator’s mother and father.

It’s very funny.

Sam Hoffman, a film director and writer, and the man who created Old Jews Telling Jokes, explains:

“My dad can tell a story. But he’d prefer to tell a joke.”

“Storytelling is a Jewish tradition.  You’ve probably seen Fiddler on the Roof.  Whenever they ask the Rabbi a question, he tugs thoughtfully on his beard and says  “let me tell you a story.” Then they sing.”

“Jokes are like stories, but shorter and funnier. Old jokes tend to have a stigma, but they only last if they’re good. Some of the best ones provide a window to the culture of a bygone era.  They can reveal the concerns of a generation or even the generation before.  Anxieties of coming to a new country, of prospering, of assimilating, of having families, of fearing and worrying about, well, everything. Humor was and is the ultimate anti-depressant.”

“My father gathered twenty of his friends to share their favorite jokes. We set three rules for the production: the joke-tellers were to be Jewish, at least sixty years of age and they were to tell their favorite joke – the one that always kills.”

The website promises “A new (old) joke every Tuesday and Thursday!”

Go laugh.

Palin As President (interactive) — with Post-Election Update!

Looking for some election eve tension release?

Check out the brilliant interactive website palinaspresident.us.

Although there is no creative attribution on the website, I discovered that it is the work of photographer and art director Sean Ohlenkamp of the M&C Saatchi advertising agency.

Be sure to click on things more than once – they change.

UPDATE:

The website is now reconfigured as BarackasPresident.com– with a bucket of champagne and a “Yes We Can” flyer on the desk.  Click on it with the sound turned up.

You can still see the old Palin as President website here at palinaspresident/never.

I expect the site to keep changing, so we ought to keep visiting.

Don’t Blame Bush

The blame is already being dished as John McCain’s presidential campaign sputters toward a crushing election defeat and the Democrats are poised to take control of the White House and both houses of Congress.

Most of the pointing fingers are aimed at the universally loathed George W. Bush, who has become the public face of both economic catastrophe and battlefield disaster.

Other leading candidates for the role of principal victim in the Republican blame game are John McCain – he didn’t run a tough enough campaign or didn’t appeal enough to the party’s evangelical or populist base – and Sarah Palin – she wasn’t ready to be president or didn’t broaden her appeal beyond the party’s evangelical or populist base.

But George W. Bush is not the cause of the Republican Party’s looming election debacle, and neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin is the reason for their party’s 2008 collapse. 

Americans like to personalize politics, preferring to embrace or repudiate personalities rather than policies.  When we evaluate our politicians, we talk about their personal qualities – such as leadership, competence, integrity, consistency, and authenticity.  We like to say that we vote for the candidate not the party.

For this reason, our public debate on the causes of the Republican has focused on questions of Bush’s incompetence, McCain’s temperament, and Palin’s ignorance.

But blaming any or all of them for the coming massive Republican defeat misses the real culprit and lets too many others off the hook.

The cause of the Republican’s imminent electoral disaster is not the personal qualities of their elected officials and candidates, but the fundamental beliefs and policy assumptions of the Republican Party. 

It is these fundamental beliefs and policy assumptions that have caused the nation’s economic meltdown, which has in turned caused the meltdown of the Republican Party.

And every single Republican office holder, from the president to the lowest down-ticket county official, regardless of their personal qualities, shares in the blame.

The modern Republican Party, and every Republican, has embraced these two basic beliefs:

• No to government regulation of markets and the economy.  A fundamental belief of every Republican is that the economy works best – that is, it is more productive and creates more wealth – when unconstrained by regulation.
•  No to taxes.  Every Republican believes that taxes, especially on the wealthiest Americans, should be always lower and eliminated whenever possible.  Under no circumstances should there be a tax increase, even in order to fund necessary government program. 

These two fundamental tenets of Republican policy have created the economic crisis the nation is now suffering, and nearly every other crisis that the nation is now facing can be traced to Republican adherence to these principles – including our soaring national debt, our crumbling infrastructure, our failing schools, our ecological vandalism, our oil dependency, our exploding prison population, our shameful veterans hospitals, and our inequitable and dysfunctional heath care system.

Every other Republican talking point – from abortion to immigration to support for continuing the war in Iraq – is contingent and conditional.  There are Republicans who disagree with the party leadership on these issues.

But there are no Republicans who have not sworn eternal hostility to taxes and economic regulation.  One simply cannot be a Republican without embracing these two fundamental policies that have brought near catastrophe to the world economy, to the operations of federal, state and local government, and, finally, and deservedly, to the Republican Party itself.

What has brought America to the brink of disaster and the Republican Party to the brink of an election defeat of historic proportions?

It’s not just Bush.

It’s not just McCain and Palin.

It’s Republicans.

Each and every one of them.

Don’t let Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Chris Shays, or your local Republican senator or schoolboard member put the blame on someone else.

As another famous Republican once said, they’re all bad.

Obama and the Jews

In a previous post – The Great Schlep: Why Do Jews Demean Jews? — I argued that Sarah Silverman’s video The Great Schlep both demeaned Jews and falsely assumed that older Jews are more conservative than their grandchildren or less likely to support Barack Obama.

Now a recent Gallup poll proves that I was right about older Jews’ support for Obama.

From Gallup.com:

“Obama Winning Over Jewish Vote”

“PRINCETON, NJ — Jewish voters nationwide have grown increasingly comfortable with voting for Barack Obama for president since the Illinois senator secured the Democratic nomination in June. They now favor Obama over John McCain by more than 3 to 1, 74% to 22%.”

“Support for Obama among all registered voters was fairly stable from June through September, but then rose sharply in October — in apparent reaction to the U.S. economic crisis. By contrast, support for Obama among Jewish voters has expanded more gradually, from the low 60% range in June and July to 66% in August, 69% in September, and 74% today.”

“The current proportion of U.S. Jews backing Obama is identical to the level of support the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards received in the 2004 presidential election (74%). It is only slightly lower than what Al Gore and Joe Lieberman received in 2000 (80%) — when the first Jewish American appeared on the presidential ticket of a major party.”

“Recent support for Obama is a bit higher among older Jews than among Jews younger than 55. According to combined Gallup Poll Daily tracking data from Sept. 1 through Oct. 21, an average of 74% of Jews aged 55 and older supported Obama for president across this period, compared with about two-thirds of younger Jews.”

“The Obama/Biden ticket is poised to perform about on par with other recent Democratic presidential tickets when it comes to support from American Jewish voters.”

So much for the false idea behind The Great Schlep — that older Jews are conservative and that Sarah Silverman and her army of youngsters are needed to teach their grandparents progessive politics.

How You Could (Literally) Cost McCain the Election

I few weeks ago I read somewhere that the McCain campaign was spending far more on pay-per-click online advertising (where you pay only when someone clicks on your ad) than on banner ads (where you pay a set amount for a certain number of impressions).

I thought at the time that if Obama supporters clicked on every McCain ad they saw online, it would cost the McCain campaign a lot of money.

But I didn’t post anything about this idea because:

• It seemed to me to be too nefarious, and
• I thought it might be illegal.

Recently, I noticed that someone at the Daily Kos posted the following:

“I was going to make McCain pay for every Google Ad he made me look at.  I simply clicked on the ad and waited for the page to load reviewed it to gain information. Once I reviewed the page that loaded I closed the page. I’m up to 8 clicks today alone just from looking at CNN and YouTube.”

“Now from what I’ve been able to research it cost McCain about $2.00 for my 8 clicks today.  And while that doesn’t seem like much if you multiply that by say 20,000 and by say 24 days until November 4th the costs could be substantial.  I mean 2 x 20,000 = $40,000 p/day, $40,000 x 24 = $960,000.  This is money that can’t be spent in other areas like TV, Radio or malers.”

“Now this is all theoretical and McCain could simply take down these ads.  Even if he does though we win. These ads are on popular pages all over the web that all of us go to.  They attack Obama’s character by placement in prime real estate on webpages with no fact checks.  I say if McCain wants to put up these ads we make him pay.  No free rides for low road politics.”

“So everyone tell your friends as crazy as it sounds to click on McCain/Palin sponsored Google Ads.  Each click takes $.25 cents away from McCain campaign fund that can’t be used on other things.”

I think the Daily Kos has seriously underestimated the amount of money that each click costs the McCain campaign. My guess is that each click costs the McCain campaign a few dollars, not a few cents.

I also think that the Daily Kos poster underestimated the impact that Obama supporters could have on the McCain campaign by failing to note that every pay-per-click Google ad campaign has a daily budget.  Once that limit is reached, the ads stop showing.  In other words, Obama supporters clicking on McCain ads could not only cost the McCain campaign money, it could also stop the McCain ads from running.

But I still think it’s nefarious, and I sill think it might be illegal (if anyone knows, please comment).

That’s why I am NOT recommending that if you’re an Obama supporter, you should click on every online McCain ad you see.

It might (literally) cost McCain the election.

No Laughing Matter: The Palin Doctrine of Presidential Power

Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s recent statement that she looks forward to being elected vice president so she can be ”in charge of the senate” has mostly generated laughter rather than outrage.

 Palin was asked by Colorado third-grader Brandon Garcia “What does the vice president do?”

She responded: “A vice president has a really great job because not only are they there to support the president’s agenda, they’re there like the team member, the teammate to the president. But also, they’re in charge of the United States Senate, so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom. And it’s a great job and I look forward to having that job.”

I first saw a clip of Palin’s answer on Keith Olbermann’s show on MSNBC, where his take on Palin’s view of the vice presidential power was to assume that she is ignorant of the far more limited legislative role of the vice president, as defined in Article I of the U.S. Constitution: “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.” 

Olbermann said “So the vice president is not in charge of jack, Governor, let alone in charge of the senate, and you are not as smart as a third-grader.”

I don’t think that ignorance explains Palin’s answer.

Instead, I think that there is quite a bit of method to Palin’s madness.

This is the second time that Palin has referenced the Dick Cheney-John Yoo conception of expansive executive power.

As I noted in a blog post on Palin’s stunning articulation of expansive executive power in the vice presidential debate with Joe Biden – where she said that the Constitution provides “flexibility” in vice president’s role, including the power “not only to preside over the Senate” but also to exercise “more authority . . . if [the] vice president so chose to exert it” — Palin’s interpretation of the powers of the vice president is not the laughable  product of ignorance of the Constitution. 

Rather, Palin demonstrated that she has consciously and very specifically adopted the Dick Cheney-John Yoo theory of an Imperial Executive with absolute power outside the Constitutional system of checks and balances. 

As I said in my earlier post, Gwen Ifill’s question regarding the power of the vice president was “one of the very few questions that Palin has answered where one could come to the conclusion that she has thought about this before.”

Much as we love to laugh at Sarah Palin, this is no laughing matter.

Clearly, Palin is not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to the intellectual rationales behind public policy and political theory.

How is it, then, that the often painfully ignorant Sarah Palin is so conversant with a very particular, and relatively obscure, interpretation of the Constitution’s framework regarding the nature of executive power?

I do not know the answer to that question, but I am coming to believe that it might well explain why John McCain ended up picking Palin to be his running mate.

Is it possible that, far from being a completely off-the-wall choice, Palin was picked precisely because she is an adherent to the Cheney-Yoo view of expansive and unchecked executive power, and is willing to implement this view when in office?

Given McCain’s age and health, one could spin a conspiracy theory that it is Sarah Palin, rather than John McCain, who the McCain campaign believes will actually be the president if their ticket wins, and that their plan is to exercise unlimited and illimitable executive power.

Not funny.

Not funny at all.

The Lesson of the Four Chaplains, 1943

When I was child, my father, a World War II Navy veteran, taught me the story of the four chaplains of the USAT Dorchester.

I thought of the four chaplains when I listened to former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell explain why he endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.

In stating why he could not support the candidacy of John McCain, Powell referred to the death of U.S. Army Corporal Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, a 20 year old from Manahawkin, N.J., who was killed in Iraq and to a photograph he had seen of the soldier’s mother pressing her head against his gravestone at Arlington National Cemetery.

The headstone was engraved with the soldier’s name, his military awards (the Purple Heart and Bronze Star), and the Muslim symbol of the crescent and star.

As the New York Times observed, “Powell mentioned Mr. Khan’s death to underscore why he was deeply troubled by Republican personal attacks on Mr. Obama, especially false intimations that he was Muslim. Mr. Obama is a lifelong Christian, not a Muslim, he said. But, he added, ‘The really right answer is, what if he is?’ ‘Is there something wrong with being Muslim in this country? No, that’s not America,’ he said. ’Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way.’ Mr. Powell said that he had heard senior members of the Republican Party ‘drop this suggestion that he [Obama] is a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists.’ ‘Now, John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I’m troubled about the fact that within the party we have these kinds of expressions.’”

General Powell probably thought, too, of the four chaplains of the USAT Dorchester.

On the night of February 3, 1943,United States Army Transport ship Dorchester was en route from Newfoundland to England via Greenland, when it was hit by torpedoes from a German submarine.

The Dorchester listed sharply to starboard, and then began to sink almost immediately into the icy water.  The ship was overcrowded and there were insufficient lifeboats or lifejackets for the 904 men on board.

As the Dorchester sank, the  ship’s four U.S. Army chaplains aided the wounded, helped get the men into lifeboats and then gave up their own lifejackets when the supply ran out.

A survivor later explained:

“As I swam away from the ship, I looked back. The flares had lighted everything. The bow came up high and she slid under. The last thing I saw, the four chaplains were up there praying for the safety of the men. They had done everything they could. I did not see them again. They themselves did not have a chance without their life jackets.”

As the ship went down, survivors in nearby lifeboats could see the four chaplains – their arms linked and braced against the slanting deck. Their voices could also be heard offering prayers.

Twenty-seven minutes after the torpedoes hit, the Dorchester was gone.

The four U.S. Army chaplains were:

Lt. George L. Fox, age 42, Methodist.
Lt. Alexander D. Goode, age 32, Jewish.
Lt. John P. Washington, age 34, Roman Catholic.
Lt. Clark V. Poling, age 32, Reformed Church in America.

According to the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation, the lesson of their sacrifice is “unity without uniformity” and “selfless service to humanity without regard to race, creed, ethnicity, or religious beliefs.”

My father had a simpler lesson to teach me:  We are all Americans.

In a speech on Sunday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, near Fort Bragg, Barack Obama said that “The men and women from Fayetteville and all across America who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats or Republicans or independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag, They have not served a red America or a blue America. They have served the United States of America.”

Amen.

Like General Powell, when I cast my vote for Barack Obama in November, I’ll be thinking about Corporal Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan.

And I’ll also be thinking about the four chaplains — Lieutenants George L. Fox, Alexander D. Goode, John P. Washington, and Clark V. Poling – arms linked and prayng together on the deck of the USAT Dorchester in 1943.

“Most Republican County in USA” Going for Obama

Good vibrations:

Local Republicans have proudly called Orange County, California, where I live, “The Most Republican County in the USA” on the basis of delivering George W. Bush the nation’s largest margin of victory in raw votes in 2004.

What else would you expect from the home of Mickey Mouse, the Beach Boys, the Richard Nixon Library and Museum and John Wayne Airport?

But change is coming, and coming fast, to our sunshine and subprime paradise.

Republican voter registration is falling dramatically throughout California, including Orange County.

According to the Orange County Register, “Republicans have dramatically lost ground among new California voters, particularly the young, in the past five years. . .  Republicans eventually could fall to third place in party preference, behind Democrats and the growing number of voters who choose no party at all. Even in Orange County, the state’s Republican heartland, more people registered as Democrats than as Republicans last year and this year.”

“Among current California voters, 37.7 percent of those who registered before 2000 became Republicans. That dropped to 26.6 percent among voters who registered in the past five years – and just 21.9 percent this year. In Orange County, among current voters, 52.3 percent of those who registered before 2000 were Republicans. That dropped to 39.2 percent in the past five years – and 31.4 percent this year.”

And there is even worse news for John McCain in a currently on-going Orange County Register poll.

The poll asks online readers to choose between (1) Republican voting for McCain, (2) Democrat voting for Obama, (3) Democrat voting for McCain, and (4) Republican voting for Obama.

The current results (as of 5:13 p.m. Pacific Time) are:

• Republican voting McCain – 37%
• Democrat voting Obama – 37%
• Democrat voting McCain – 5%
• Republican voting Obama – 22%

That’s 59% Republican, but also 59% for Obama.

59% for Obama in “The Most Republican County in the USA” is not good news for John McCain.

“Good, good, good, good vibrations…”

Union Leader Confronts White Racism: “Vote Obama”

Labor unions in America have not always been friendly to Black men and women or other people of color.

Too often, as my friend and mentor Herbert Hill demonstrated and fought against, unions forged white working class solidarity by using the existing prejudices of racial identity and the ideology of white superiority.

That’s why the recent speech by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka at the United Steelworkers convention, confronting and denoucing racism against Barack Obama is so powerful and so significant.

As Andrew Sullivan points out, “To see a white union man take on racism this way is very moving. Something truly profound could happen in this election, if we want it to.”

Here is the full text of what Trumka said:

‘Thank you brothers and sisters.

You know, over the course of the year, I go to  a lot of union conventions.

And I usually enjoy it because it gives me a chance to hear what’s on people’s minds — and what they think the AFL-CIO and the labor movement ought to be doing.

But since we’re in Las Vegas — and what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

I have a little confession to make.

It’s that of all the union conventions I go to, one of the ones I look forward to the most is yours. And there’re a few reasons for that: one of them is this man right here.

Brothers and sisters, in my estimation, there is no bolder stronger more tenacious effective and innovative trade unionist in this country than Leo Gerard!

I’ve known my share of labor leaders and I can tell you that while a whole lot of them talk the talk; Leo Gerard walks the walk.

He’s leaner and he’s meaner, and by God, we’ve got to keep him that way!

And, of course, it’s not just Leo; you’ve got a fantastic International Secretary-Treasurer in Jim English.

In my mind he defines what a trade unionist ought to be.

Whether it’s going toe to toe with OSHA or bargaining solid contracts — Jim’s there — on the front lines — and working people and our families are a heck of a lot better off for it.

But the biggest reasons I’m so glad to be here are the ones I’m looking at right now.

It’s you.

You know, I remember telling Leo that when I was president of the Mine Workers the night before the convention long after everyone else was through partying and had gone to  sleep, I’d go down to the convention hall.

I’d usually be the only person down there.

Hanging on the walls we’d often have big blow ups of photographs.

Pictures showing some of the great moments from our history.

Pictures taken on picket lines. Pictures of coal miners and our families and our struggles.

And usually a picture of John L. Lewis.

All looking down to the convention floor.

All looking down to where the delegates would be taking up the union’s business the next morning. And, standing there in the quiet, you couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe — a sense of awe that comes from knowing that the men and women who’d be sitting at those tables like all of you — under the gaze of the people in those pictures — were the inheritors of their legacy.

That everything our ancestors fought for… everything they struggled for — and some of them died for — was now in our hands.

And that it was up to us the living to guard what they gave their lives to win … to build on it… and see to it that, by God, no one ever dares to take it away!  And that includes our strike and defense fund.

There’s power that comes from knowing that you’re standing on such broad shoulders.

Power that comes from knowing that you’re not just members of an organization — but part of a great movement.

Well, brothers and sisters, every time I’m with the Steelworkers — whether it’s on the picket line, at a local meeting or at a great convention like this — I know I’m in the presence of that same kind of power.

Just take a minute and look around this hall.

Look around this room

You see people who work at smelters and refineries, tire plants, mines and mills.

You see grocery workers and nurses and security guards — and folks who provide the good public services all our families depend on.  And look around and you’ll see the most highly skilled and productive steel making professionals in the world.

There’s women and men.

Different colors.

Different ages.

Americans and Canadians

But, somehow,  all those differences are trivial to what you share in common.

It’s a shared heritage of struggle forged by women and men driven by the faith…the idea… the knowledge…

That the way things are, isn’t the way things have to be.

It’s like a flame that’s burning inside you.

It’s the reason why — whether it means standing out in the freezing cold or scorching heat — you’re always, always there when it’s time to pass out a leaflet or walk a picket line.

It’s the reason why you go to all those meetings when you’d rather be at home with your family.

It’s the reason why you’re the first one to raise Hell when some supervisor forgets that honoring the contract isn’t his choice, it’s his obligation.

And it’s why, as exhausting and frustrating as it sometimes is, still you wake up the next morning ready to do it all over again.

It’s because you know that what makes all of us union isn’t some card we carry in our pockets it’s the commitment…the caring…and the love for one another we carry here  in our hearts.

And it’s because you know that there is only one way working people ever won in the past…and only one way we’re going to win today.

It’s not by turning on each other, it’s by turning to each other.

It’s by organizing, together.

It’s by mobilizing, together. It’s by working, and planning, and building, together.

Brothers and sisters, it is by standing tall and fighting together.

That’s what makes this union strong!

That’s what makes this union proud!

That’s what makes you the United Steelworkers of America  one of the most powerful forces on earth — and, by God, no one’s ever going to turn you around.

And, brothers and sisters, I’m here to tell you that your commitment, your strength — your courage and your power — has never been more important to the future of this labor movement – and to the future of this country — than it is right now.  Because if you work for a living — if you consider yourself part of the middle-class — the America that you’ll be leaving your children will barely resemble the America that was left to us.

We’ve all heard that phrase that the middle-class is being squeezed. Well, I disagree with that: We’re not being squeezed: we are being crushed.

Let me just share a few numbers with you.

Today, income inequality — the gulf between the rich and the rest of us — is at a level we haven’t seen since the ‘70s.

I’m not talking about the 1970s, I’m talking about the 1870s!

For those of you who are labor history buffs, let me put it this way: income inequality is greater today than it was before the Homestead strike.

Another number.

In 1928, the top one percent of earners in this country took home 21.1 percent of all income.

That’s the all time high.

Well, (as of 2006, the most recent year we have numbers for) that top one percent is grabbing up  20.3 percent of all income, and its higher now!

Right now, if you looked at America’s Gross Domestic Product, you’d see that we’re up there with countries like Switzerland and Sweden. But, if you measure income inequality, we’re neck and neck with Mali and Sri Lanka.

We even see it in terms of life expectancy.  Today, the U.S. not only wouldn’t make the top ten list — we wouldn’t even make the top 30!

But, you know something? If you’re a trade unionist, you don’t need to hear a bunch of statistics to know what’s happening in this country.

We see the casualties every single day.

Go to Birmingham, Alabama.

Or Gary, Indiana.

Or Milwaukee.

Cleveland.

LA.

Or my hometown of Nemacolin, Pennsylvania.

We see high school grads who can’t afford to move out of their parents’ houses and can’t afford community college. They’re working dead-end jobs at Circuit City and breaking their backs working minimum wage jobs at nursing homes.

They’re not statistics — these are people we know.

We see men and women who’ve spent their entire working lives doing exactly what they were supposed to. Working hard. Bringing home a paycheck. Trying to put a little aside for their kids. Paying their mortgage.
Hoping that, maybe someday, they could retire and move to Florida.

What do they do when the company tanks?

Or packs up and leaves?

What are they supposed to do for health insurance if they’re too young for Medicare?

How are they supposed to get by when the pensions they were counting on are worth pennies on the dollar?

These aren’t statistics — these are people we know. People we grew up with!

They lost their savings. They’re living on credit cards. They’re may be three or four paychecks from being homeless.
And we listen to what’s happening to them and we think; but for the grace of God that could be me.

And it doesn’t matter whether you’re in Birmingham, Alabama,

or Gary, Indiana,

or Milwaukee,

or Cleveland,

or LA.

Or my hometown of Nemacolin, Pennsylvania.

Go anywhere in this country and it’s the same story:

Working people hanging on by their fingernails. Their  dreams shattered. Gone forever.

Does everyone here remember how all those people piled on Barack Obama after he said that a lot of working people in this country are angry?

Remember the reaction?

“The nerve of him to say that working people are angry!”

Well, brothers and sisters, I don’t know about you, but I happen to think that was one of the most honest things I’ve heard a presidential candidate say in a long time.

Working people angry? Hell, yes we are — and, you know something? We ought to be.
Because everything I just got through talking about:

Income inequality.

Low wages.

Americans losing their jobs…and their health care… and their pensions.

None of it — none of it –none of it,  had to happen.

And the only reason it did is because we’ve had leaders in this country — Republicans and Democrats — whose economic agendas are based on the same assumption.

It’s the disproven, discredited notion that policies that generate corporate profits somehow translate into shared prosperity. The truth is they don’t.

The truth is that what’s good for Wall Street has been nightmare for the rest of us living back on Main Street.

Just think of it: We’re living in a country with more than $13 trillion a year in income.

American workers have never been more productive.

Corporate profits are surging.

Last year, Exxon Mobil posted sales of $404 billion dollars.

They made almost $1,300 in profit every second!

But even though our productivity has surged by almost 20 percent (from 2000 through 2006)

…even though Americans are working longer hours than workers in any other developed country…

… our wages have been flat — or even falling — since 2003.

Now, this wasn’t some fluke of nature.  It was the direct result of a set of economic policies that go back to the Reagan administration, were passed on to Bush one, carried on by Bill Clinton, and taken to new heights by the Bush / Cheney regime.

It was a bipartisan strategy for economic disaster.

We’re riding in the backseat of a car barreling down a hill with four old, bald, non-union nankook tires.

One of the tires is called globalization: NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR for China: unfair trade deals that force women and men here to compete with the most impoverished and exploited workers in the world.

The outcome 34 million of good, union manufacturing jobs lost — and more bargaining power for employers.

The second tire is small government:  Selling off public services to corporations with one hand, and giving tax breaks to the rich with the other.

Brothers and sisters, privatization has never been about getting big government off our backs; it’s about helping corporate America pick our pockets!

Third tire? Price stability: Sounds good, but what it means are policies that focus exclusively on inflation and ignore the federal government’s responsibility — and I’m talking about a legal responsibility — to help create jobs.

How many folks here know that the Federal Reserve Board, by law, is supposed to work for a full-employment economy?

Don’t feel bad if you don’t know, because not many in Congress seems to either.

And the last old bald nankook tire is marked “labor market flexibility.”

Now, any time we hear the words “labor” and “flexibility” used in the same sentence we ought to sit up and take notice. Because over the last 25 years “labor market flexibility” has become shorthand for robbing workers of pensions, health care, and, oh yeah, our right to organize.

Now, most of you come out of workplaces where you already have bargaining rights.

Well, if you want to know what it’s like to try to get a union today just talk to the folks working at Community Health Systems’ Kentucky River Medical Center.

After suffering years of abuse, in 1998 they did what any sensible group of workers would do: they organized with the United Steelworkers.

That was ten years ago, and to this day, the company is still refusing to bargain a first contract.

Now, if you ask the company, they’ll tell you that they’re only trying to maintain their “flexibility.”

I’m sure they’ll tell you that they need to havethe ability to do as they please because that’s what it takes to stay competitive.

Some of them may even believe that.

But we know better.

Union companies are no less competitive, the fact is they’re more competitive. Just look at the relationship between the Steelworkers and Gamesa Wind. Gamesa knows that having a workforce represented by the Steelworkers isn’t an expense; it’s an asset.

Brothers and sisters, labor market flexibility is about one thing only: it isn’t helping companies be more competitive, it’s about making unions weaker.

And, I’ll tell you one other thing: that (bullshit) stops the day the Employee Free Choice Act is signed!

Globalization.

Small government.

Price stability.

Labor market flexibility.

Those are the four old worn out tires this economy’s riding on.

There’s no question that if we don’t get some new ones soon we’re headed to a disaster.

But the only way that’s going to happen is if we get out of the back seat, grab the wheel and take control — and that’s what this election is all about!

I want to take a little opinion poll.

If you think America ought to keep going in the same direction George Bush and Dick Cheney have been taking us in stand up.

(Well, I’m going to cut some of you guys in the aisle a break and assume you didn’t understand the question.)

Now, stand up if you think it’s time we had a president who’s going to fight for national health care, sign the Employee Free Choice Act, strengthen OSHA, defend Social Security, end the war, and protect American jobs?

Well, congratulations — you just answered the question that’s stumped all the commentators and columnists and consultants in Washington, D.C. who are asking how Barack Obama is going to win the votes of workers in states like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

How can he do it?  You’ve just said how: by speaking out about the issues that matter to working people.
Of course, some folks have said that he needs a special strategy to reach out to blue collar workers.

That he’s got to talk more about God because a lot of us care about religion — and more about hunting because, for some of us, hunting is a religion.

And there’s something to that: it shouldn’t be any secret that he’s a Christian and that he’s for the 2nd Amendment.

But, at the end of the day, what people are going to need to hear is that when it comes to protecting jobs,

when it comes to protecting pensions,

when it comes to health care, child care, pay equity for women, Social Security, Medicare, seeing to it that people can afford to go to college and buy a home — andrestoring the right to  collective bargaining — Barack Obama has always, always been on our side.

This is a guy who’s voted with labor 98 percent of the time!

Now, contrast that with John McCain.

On one side you have Barack: a man who worked full-time helping laid off steelworkers in Chicago.

On the other side you have John McCain who helped pass the trade laws that resulted in laid-off steelworkers in Chicago.

What kind of man is John McCain?

Let me read you a quote. Listen to what he said. This was on April 23rd in Youngstown, Ohio:

“The biggest problem is not so much what’s happened with free trade, but our inability to adjust to a new world economy.”

In other words, it’s not free trade’s fault your plant shut down and moved to Mexico or China.

It’s your fault.

If you can’t adjust to free trade, well, suck it up: that’s your problem!

Now, imagine for a second, if he’s going to Youngstown — of all places — and says that in an election year, what’s he going to do if he ever makes it to the White House?

You see brothers and sisters, there’s not a single good reason for any worker — especially any union member — to vote against Barack Obama.

There’s only one really bad reason to vote against him: because he’s not white.

And I want to talk about that because I saw that for myself during the Pennsylvania primary.

I went back home to vote in Nemacolin and I ran into a woman I’d known for years.

She was active in Democratic politics when I was still in grade school.

We got to talking and I asked if she’d made up her mind who she was supporting and she said: “Oh absolutely, I’m voting for Hillary, there’s no way I’d ever vote for Obama.”  Well, why’s that?

“Because he’s a Muslim.”

I told her, “That’s not true — he’s as much a Christian as you and me, so what if he’s muslim.”

Then she shook her head and said, “He won’t wear an American flag pin.”

I don’t have one on and neither do you.

But, “C’mon, he wears one plenty of times. He just says it takes more than wearing a flag pin to be patriotic.”

“Well, I just don’t trust him.”

Why is that?

Her voice dropped just a bit: “Because he’s black.”  I said, “Look around. Nemacolin’s a dying town. There’re no jobs here. Kids are moving away because there’s no future here. And here’s a man, Barack Obama, who’s going to fight for people like us and you won’t vote for him because of the color of his skin.”

Brothers and sisters, we can’t tap dance around the fact that there are a lot of folks out there just like that woman.

A lot of them are good union people; they just can’t get past this idea that there’s something wrong with voting for a black man.

Well, those of us who know better can’t afford to look the other way.

I’m not one for quoting dead philosophers, but back in the 1700s, Edmund Burke said: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”

Well, there’s no evil that’s inflicted more pain and more suffering than racism — and it’s something we in the labor movement have a special responsibility to challenge.

It’s our special responsibility because we know, better than anyone else, how racism is used to divide working people.

We’ve seen how companies set worker against worker — how they throw whites a few extra crumbs off the table – and how we all end up  losing.

But we’ve seen something else, too.

We’ve seen that when we cross that color line and stand together no one can keep us down.

That’s why the CIO was created.

That’s why industrial unions were the first to stand up against lynching and segregation.

People need to know that it was the Steel Workers Organizing Committee — this union — that was founded on the principal of organizing all workers without regard to race.

That’s why the labor movement — imperfect as we are — is the most integrated institution in American life.

I don’t think we should be out there pointing fingers in peoples’ faces and calling them racist; instead we need to educate them that if they care about holding on to their jobs, their health care, their pensions, and their homes

– if they care about creating good jobs with clean energy, child care, pay equity for women workers –

there’s only going to be one candidate on the ballot this fall who’s on their side…

only one candidate who’s going to stand up for their families…

only one candidate who’s earned their votes…

and his name is Barack Obama!

And come Novembet we are going to elect him President.

And after he’s elected we are going to hit the ground running so that, years from now, we’re going to be able to tell our grandchildren that 2008 was the year this country finally turned its back on men like George Bush and Dick Cheney and John McCain…

We’re going to be able to say that 2008 was the year we started ending the war in Iraq so we could use that money to create new jobs building wind generators, solar collectors, clean coal technology and retrofitting millions of buildings all across this country…

We’re going to be able to look back and say that 2008 was the year the tide began to turn against the Rush Limbaughs, the Bill O’Reillys, the Ann Coulters and the right wing hate machine…

Brothers and sisters, we’ll be able to say that 2008 was the year we took our country back from the corporations and had a government that believed in unions again!

Let me just close by sharing a story with you.

A number of years ago, I had the chance to represent the Mine Workers at a union meeting in South Africa.

I knew it was going to be a big meeting, but I didn’t know there’d be 35,000 people.

It was held in a field near a mine where the company had been viciously — viciously — brutalizing the workers.

When the escort committee led me to the stage you could feel the power of those 35,000 men and women who’d come together that day, just like you can feel it in this room.

And there, standing on the platform to welcome us, was a little old man. He must have been in his 80s and he was holding what looked like a club.

He went up to the microphone and a quiet came over the crowd. He held that club up and gestured toward the mine and said that club was “a symbol of everything we believe in, a symbol of our vision of the future, and a reminder that so long as we stand united they will never keep us from victory.”  They are trying to take this club out of our hands we will never let that happen.

I’d never seen a crowd erupt that way after he was finished speaking.

I’ve thought about that day a lot over the years.

The spirit I felt in that field. The pride.

The unity. The strength.

The power to make change happen.

There are no words that really honor what I felt that day.

Every time I think back to that day I’m reminded that, whether it’s South Africa or the U.S. and Canada – or the U.K. and Ireland — that’s what trade unionism is all about.

That’s our vision.

That’s why your merger with Unite makes so much sense.

Because, brothers and sisters, in the age of globalization it doesn’t matter what country we live in, or what flag we stand under, what truly matters is that we share the same hopes and dreams for our children.

We’re one movement. With one vision. We’re fighting on different fronts, but it’s always the same battle.

And standing here today, looking in your eyes, feeling your power, there’s not a doubt in my mind that we’re going to win it.

On those nights before the UMWA conventions … when I was the only person on the convention floor… I could close my eyes andalmost hear the voices of all the coal miners who gathered in past conventions long before I ever went underground.

I’d think about all their discussions, all their debates.

Yelling. Arguing. Coming to agreement.

There were coal miners from every corner of America and Canada. From Arizona to Nova Scotia.

They spoke English, Italian and Polish and a dozen other tongues. But they all shared one language in common: the language of trade unionism.

Workers who were once victims through the miracle of trade unionism, had been transformed into leaders.

Together, they overcame poverty and brutality that few today can hardly imagine and built organizations that won impossible victories.

That’s the story of the American labor movement.

A long, long time before any of us were born, Eugene Debs said:

“Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself.

We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, attacked by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians.

‘But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun.”

Brothers and sisters, from the era of  Debs up to today, the story of  the labor movement — the story of this incredible union — has been a saga of men and women joining together — standing up against incredible odds — and achieving what some thought to be unachievable.

Good contracts.

Safer jobs.

Pensions.

Health care.

But more than that we helped create an America where working people mattered.

We created Social Security?

We created the minimum wage?

Who created, Medicare and OSHA and MSHA?

We created Family & Medical Leave?

We did it because we see a different America than some.

We see an America where no one’s left on the outside looking in.

We see an America where everyone has a seat at the table.

We see an America where the first thing they say to you when you walk into the hospital isn’t “let’s see your insurance,”  it’s “let’s see where it hurts.”

We see an America where going to college isn’t a privilege for a few, but an opportunity for all.

We see an America where everyone — regardless of  what kind of job they have — is always treated with respect – an America that truly believes that if there’s dignity in all work, there must be dignity for all workers.

We see an America where women workers aren’t treated as second class citizens.

An America where no one is left to suffer in poverty.

That’s our vision.

That’s the America we’re fighting for and that’s the America we’re going to win.

Because, brothers and sisters, we are not bankers or stockbrokers. We don’t own insurance companies or drug companies or TV stations. We’re not executives at oil companies or tire companies or paper companies or steel companies.

By God, we’re the American labor movement.

We’re strong, we’re proud, we’re union!

We’re not afraid to fight, we not afraid to win — and we know that the way things are isn’t the way things have to be!

Thank you  — and have a great convention.”

Enough said.