Of course, my family had moved many times for a better life before my parents settled down. My grandparents were all immigrants, and my father's family were Irish who moved to Scotland, in the 19th century.
-
Show this thread
-
I suppose it helped that my family had role models, people who had worked their way up in one generation after another, some as coal miners or cops, some as inventors or public speakers - and whether successful or not, none left the Church.
1 reply 1 retweet 8 likesShow this thread -
People went where the work was. My mom's brother moved to California with his job 60 years ago. My younger brother moved to Virginia, then Texas.
1 reply 0 retweets 6 likesShow this thread -
My dad's brother was a construction worker after a tour in the Marines, no college, settled in the Bronx. But he still took construction jobs that took him to Israel & Iran, traveled to Brazil, Hong Kong, Australia, died in the Philippines.
1 reply 0 retweets 3 likesShow this thread -
Anyway, the narrative of a secular, mobile, front-row America & its back-row opposite has a lot to teach us. I just object to its overdetermination.
2 replies 0 retweets 5 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @baseballcrank
Question: how many of your relatives/ancestors do you know or believe to have been members of labor unions? The mid century CIO was mostly forged by white, Catholic workers and led by Phil Murray, who preached the virtues of flag/church/union.
2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @yeselson @baseballcrank
I have one uncle who was a prison guard and so union. That's it as far as I'm aware. Admittedly being from Texas the situation may be different from what would have been typical in, say, the Midwest.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @jneeley78 @baseballcrank
Did not realize you are a Texas native. Prison guard very tough work. That’s a union that is particularly parochial, but does relentlessly defend its membership.
2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @yeselson @baseballcrank
Yes. Sort of a malign force for policy IMO. But certainly not an easy job.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @jneeley78 @baseballcrank
Agree re policy. It’s among my least favorite unions. I am reduced to the first principle of, “The workers have the right to organize”, which I believe. But not a humane social force.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
Having grown up around cops & firemen & given the dangers of the jobs, I'm naturally more sympathetic to the public sector unions. But fundamentally, public sector unions present totally different policy issues than private sector unions.
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.