The Bad Old Days

When I saw the title for your last post I thought you were talking about the 1990s, but let's not go there tonight.

I know something about union history, but you probably know more about it than I do. I think it's unfortunate that the union movement was born in violence, but I suppose that's the way things were done in those days. At some point the federal government got involved, which was probably a good thing, all things considered. Now we have laws that govern the way companies and unions interact with each other but, like many other laws, they are often honored in the breach. Some of our paper mill people seemed to be nostalgic for the bad olds days. Although they weren't alive back then, their ancestors were in the thick of the battle and they probably grew up hearing their stories. The way I looked at it, management were not our enemies, they were certainly adversaries, but not blood sworn enemies. It's like two lawyers arguing in a court room, each one champions the interests of the people they represent, but they both are loyal to the rule of law, and there's no reason they shouldn't be friends on their off duty time. Most of our managers and most of my union brothers and sisters didn't agree with my interpretation, which is probably why I had such a hard time convincing them of anything else. I did have some success settling grievances at the first stage, which is like settling out of court, but when it came to larger issues of policy, I was a voice crying out in the wilderness.

Silly me, I thought at the time that Iraq had something to do with 9-11, and that was reason enough to go to war. The first I heard of those neo-cons was when somebody called me one on the internet. I explained to him that I wasn't neo-anything, I had been this way all my life, which was at least twice as long as he had been around. I'll have to say that I have been following this stuff with more interest since I started talking to you about it. Before that I was only vaguely aware of current political events, believing that I already knew all I needed to know about that stuff. Silly me!

I suppose the reason that I think of Israel as the good guys is that I have known a few Jews in my life and they seemed like nice people. I have never heard anything good about the Muslims, but then I haven't ever met one in person either. From what I have read on Wiki and in National Geographic, Israel agreed to the U.N. resolutions about the Israeli-Palestinian situation, but the Palestinians never did. In 1948, one minute after the British mandate expired, Israel acted unilaterally, but still expressed hope that a deal could be cut with the Palestinians at some future time. Since then the Palestinians and their allies have attacked Israel multiple times and Israel has fought back, usually winning or at least breaking even. Is this what you mean by "playing cowboys and Indians"? What would you rather have them do, surrender?

Are you saying that none of the recent gun buyers are buying their first guns? From whence did you get that information? All I know is what I saw an TV and read in magazines, but it seems logical that, no matter how many guns someone owns, one of them had to be his first gun. As for the classes, they are required by law in Michigan for concealed carry permits, and for young hunters buying their first hunting license. Again from TV and magazines, I have heard that lots of women have been buying their first guns these days, and they have classes especially for them. Not that they aren't welcome in the regular classes, but women seem more comfortable learning among other women, or so I have been told.