Wisconsin protests

     Protests have been going on in Wisconsin for the past several days, mainly in hopes to eliminate collective bargaining for public employees and to force them to contribute more to their health care and pension payments. What caused most of the chaos was a phone call that Governor Scott Walker received, who he thought was a high executive of an oil company, David Koch, but ended up being a prank call. On the phone call, myriad information was revealed about the bill from the republican stance.  A television host for a political channel, Rachel Maddow, had the Wisconsin budget cut protest as one of her topics to discuss. Maddow presented the problems between the two political parties and her stance on the situation. Her argument had numerous valid points and was well presented.

            Rachel Maddow’s main topic during her television clip was about the havoc between the republican and democratic parties.  To sum up the situation, the republican and democrats debated for over sixty hours on how to deal with the budget cut protest. After a prank phone call from a supposed friend, Scott Walker revealed the republicans thought on the bill. Once this information was leaked to the democrats, chaos began. Rachel Maddow’s personal opinion is that the republican became desperate. They realized that their “secret plan” was ruined and had to act fast. The republican’s next step is what led to Maddow and many others to find the republicans in Wisconsin’s capital to be ridiculous.  The republicans quickly opened the voting ballad just long enough for the whole party to cast their votes. The voting was closed before the democrats even realized what truly happened. Rachel Maddow’s argument is that the republicans did a ridiculous act of desperation and wants to know how the democrats will respond.

            The whole point of having a representative democracy is so both parties represent the views of the people. Having the Democratic Party absent in such a heated topic defies everything our country has been built upon.  Rachel Maddow’s opinion on the republican decision to quickly open the voting ballad just long enough for their party to vote is completely valid. That was an act of desperation because the republicans were only thinking about winning the debate, not what could be best for the people of Wisconsin. A representative democracy only works if each party represents the people. Each party cannot represent their followers if the other one sneaks around and pulls stunts like the republicans did.  Maddow is also correct about the fact that their stunt was their last straw and they were desperate.  Once the republicans plan was leaked they knew debating the democrats would be that much more strenuous.  Opening the voting polls and only allowing republicans to vote was probably the only way they really would have won the debate. Calling this act ridiculous perfectly describes what went on in the Wisconsin capital.

            Rachel Maddow was not the only one to define the republican’s ridiculous though. In her short clip, she was able to have a guest speaker from the Democratic Party present. I personally enjoyed this addition because he represented the true emotions that every democratic candidate in that room felt that night. The way he talked about the situation with such anger and disgust makes you annoyed at the republicans, whether you are a democrat or not. I also liked the video clip of the democrat’s reaction once they realized what the republicans actually did. They were out of their seats chanting “Shame” at the republicans as they filed out of the courtroom. This video presented the reality of the situation and how drastic the republicans actions truly were. The democratic guest speaker, the video clip of the voting, and Rachel Maddow’s intensity about the Wisconsin budget cut protest made the television clip interesting and easy to watch.

            Rachel Maddow’s political television series discussed the protest going on in Wisconsin about the budget cut.  Throughout her clip, she presented her argument of how ridiculous the republicans actions were that night. Sneaking behind the democrats back and opening the voting ballad just for the republicans was an act of desperation and under craziness. I agree with her argument and believe that the republican’s actions were extremely wrong.  Our country has been built on a representative democracy and when both parties do not get a say in a situation, our government does not properly work. The democrats were outraged with the republican’s actions as were seen in a video clip of the voting ballad and by the emotions of a guest speaker on Maddow’s show. Both additions to Rachel Maddow’s clip were interesting and good evidence to show how annoyed the democrats truly were. The Wisconsin budget cut protest is a major problem in Wisconsin right now and the republicans are not helping to resolve the problem quickly.

collective bargaining, history of unions hw assignment

Jamie Solomon

Professor Miller

English 1000

February 19, 2011

            After looking through many definitions, I came to the conclusion that collective bargaining is the negotiation accompanied between employees and employers to determine wages, hours, rules and working conditions. After reaching this negotiation, they then make a collective agreement, which was their original purpose, and this lays out all of the working conditions. Collective bargaining becomes centralized when the national union confederation and the national employers’ organization can influence and control wage levels and patterns across the economy. In order for this to occur, a few factors need to take place. These include the level at which bargaining primarily takes place and whether or not the national organization can control the behavior of their constituent organizations and avoid wage drift-the change in the amount by which actual earnings exceed negotiated earnings.

            There is obviously a ton of information about the history of unions in the U.S., but it primarily began before the Civil War, but most importantly, in the past one hundred and twenty years when the American Federation of Labour(AFL) and the railroad of brotherhoods built strong permanent unions.

            The first unions formed in the late eighteenth century. The first federation of the U.S unions was the National Labour Union that was founded in 1866, but was dissolved in 1873. It paved the way for another federation, Knights of Labour, which was the largest and one of the most important American labour organizations of the 1880’s. Following that was the establishment of the American Federation of Labour, founded in 1886, by Samuel Gompers.

            The next big international union was the Workers of the World, or the Wobblies. It hit its peak in 1923, where it claimed around 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of about 300,000 workers. The membership declined dramatically after a split in 1924 because of an internal conflict.

            Then there was the industrial unionism pushed by John L. Lewis’ Committee for Industrial Organizations(CIO) founded in 1933. Following was the Second Red Scare after World War II which pushed the AFL and CIO into a 1955 merger as the AFL-CIO.

            It has been said that in the twenty first century, American Union membership has fallen under eight percent. Reasons being are that workers don’t seem interested in joining, and activity to strike had almost completely diminished. There has been big numbers in decline, for example, construction trades suddenly went from seventy-five percent unionized to under twenty-five percent. As a result from the decline of unions, income equity is increasing dramatically.

            In my opinion, collective bargaining seems very crucial, but not so much unions. I think collective bargaining is important because if we didn’t have rules and negotiations laid out, then the economy would crumble into complete disaster. Structure is very important, and with structure comes rules and consensus’, and if there were no agreements on wages and hours and all of that, then everything would be a mess and I just can’t even picture what the world would be like except chaotic.

            I know that unions perform a vital function in the lives of working families, but after reading and seeing that union rate has declined a good amount over the past decades, I feel they are not necessary because we have been functioning without them. They are important for our society since they promote wages, fair taxes, and justice throughout our society, but I just don’t think they are really necessary, and we could do just fine with what we have now. I don’t really know much about unions other than what I read so I can be completely misinterpreting their importance, but that’s just my take on them.

Known Concept

            Eating raw/living foods is a common misconception by many. While educating someone recently about eating a vegan diet, all I got were eyes rolled back at me and looks of craziness. Much of the population is not aware of the damage that eating animal products can do to our bodies. First off, it is known that animals carry so many diseases. Lets say theres a whole bunch of cows together, and one cow has a major disease and has a bowel movements, well since there are so many cows that are placed together in a farm, all it takes is for other cows to walk around in that feces and a disease can be passed around. The most farmers can do in inject hormones, antibiotics, or steroids into these animals to help kill this bacteria, but a lot is not killed, and is passed on to the human population when consuming these products. What we as humans don’t realize is just because it may not have an effect on our bodies in a short span of time, it really does cost us in the long run. All animals products are loaded with fats and are high in cholesterol, which can lead to one of the main causes on death, heart disease.

            Eating these products can lead to many other diseases and disorders too. From my experience, I notice that when I turned into a vegetarian, I could focus a lot better, my cholesterol went down one hundred points, my body was less acidic, and I felt so much lighter.  A reason for this could be because humans have a twenty-six foot long intestine, which meat does not easily pass through. Through studies and scientific research, it has been recorded that meet can rot in our bodies for up to many years. Eating a plant based diet can reduce the risk of heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, bypass surgery, etc.

            This is a very broad concept, but it is something that I feel strongly admirable about and can say that eating raw/living foods and consuming no meat or animal products definitely pays off in the long run-health wise, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.