Bread and Roses

I have been listening to some classic labor songs lately, and they are so awesome. One of my favorite lines is from the song "Joe Hill." It goes like this: "Takes more than guns to kill a man, says Joe 'I didn't die'... says Joe 'what they can never kill went on to organize'"
This is such a powerful message, that when people stand up for something and die in its defense, that their spirit lives on in others. They inspire people with their sacrifice and their selflessness. Joe Hill was a Swedish-American labor organizer and a Wobbley (term for a member of the Industrial Workers of the World aka the IWW) in the early 1910s. He traveled around the country organizing people to fight for their rights, and penned songs, poems and speeches. He coined the term "pie in the sky" referencing religious figure's claims of rewards after death but apparent apathy toward the living conditions of the average person. His execution was a sham of justice. He had recieved a gun wound (he said it was over a woman) the same night that two people were murdered. During the crime, one of the two murders was wounded, and of the five people with gun shot wounds who went to doctors in the area that night it would be the labor organizer who was tried, convicted, and executed. No motive could be determined for why Hill would have committed the crime, and many of the facts just didn't fit. But he was still convicted. The trial was very controversial and the media made a big deal about it. Hill gained a bit of fame from it, and his loss has been morned in the labor movement since he was murdered by the government.

Another song which tugs at my heart strings is "Aragon Mill" by Peggy Seeger. It describes the economic desolation caused by the closing of the mill in a small rural town. The mill was the main employer, and once it pulled out, it left a void of unemployment. It reminds me alot of my hometown, with its 23% poverty rate, and the darkness that a lack of jobs creates in a community. This lyric always gets me, sometimes I tear up from it: "Oh, I'm too poor to move, and I'm too young to die, and their's no where to go for my family and I, cause the mill has shut down, its the only life I know, tell me where can I go, tell me where can I?" There is such pain in her voice in that lyric. The level of helplessness that she is expressing is really staggering. Maybe if I had not seen this type of economic situation with my own eyes as I was growing up, I wouldn't be as sympathetic. But this song plucks my heart strings like few others.

Then there is "Bread and Roses." People need more than just subsistence. Earning a wage just for survival is not the way people were designed to live. My favorite lyric in this is "hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread, but give us roses." People need beauty, fun, and love in their lives or they will starve as assuridly as if they did not get their daily bread. I have seen many people whose hearts are starved. Interestingly, most of these people are not in economic need, they are quote well off. But they have no time for the things that are truly important in life. And this leaves them starving. They try to fix this hunger with material goods. But that is like eating empty calories to fight malnutrition, it does nothing to heal the body, just fills the stomach for a short time. True and lasting happiness comes from other people and the beauty in human interactions, not from consumption.

Update

Well, I totally flacked out on blogging in April, so I decided to pump out two posts tonight. The last one was catalyzed by watching Gandhi the movie. Such a good movie.
I have been doing pretty well. California is treating me very well. I have a good and meaningful job. And I am going to soon acquire a semi-permanent place to live, with Dan and Bucky. Hopefully we will have gotten an apartment within the next 3 weeks. The few places we have looked at have all seemed fairly good. We are mostly looking in El Cerrito which is a few train stops north of Berkeley. It has entire houses up for rent, and the appeal of having an entire house is very alluring.
In other news, I wish I had more time to read, and more motivation to take the time out of my busy schedule to do it. I have so many good looking books on my shelves.

Overall, I have been coming to a general conclusion about a trajectory for my life. I think getting a law degree with greatly advance my ability to produce positive change in this world. Not because I want to be an attorney, but because it would give me a comprehensive understanding of the legal system.

Catching up

So, I haven't written here in a month. Procrastination can be quite harsh when one is busy. So here is an update.
I have a job! I am Rabbi Lerner's assistant. For those of you who don't know who he is, he is the Editor of Tikkun, the Chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressive and Rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue. Back in the late 60s, he was the chair of the Berkeley Chapter of sds, and he helped found the New American Movement. He was one of the Seattle Seven, and he has pretty much been committed to activism for his entire life.
I also have an apartment. It is a small sublet to hold me over until May when I am going to get an apartment with Bucky and Dan. It is a decent place, alittle pricey, but it is only a block from work, so you can't beat the location. I think the room is a converted porch, given the fact that two walls are solid windows, and the door frame has the marks of having had two doors (one probably being a screen door).
I have had alot to do at work, and it is good to feel productive. I do alot of organizing and data management, which is right up my alley since it was what I did for sds and the other activist groups I was in. All in all, I am very happy with it. Although it was a bit difficult to get used to waking up at 7:30 or 8 every day.

Good News

Things are going quite well.
On the job front I had a staff interview (where the staff at the office interviewed me) for the Rabbi Lerner assistant job. They asked me about my experience, about how I would handle certain things I would have to do, like with organizing, office work and such. I think it went quite well. They tried to impress upon me the difficulty of the job and the fact that it is emotionally draining. They wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting into, which I appreciate. But I think I can handle it.
The staff was really nice and I can tell that it would be a wonderful place to work. They made me feel pretty at home. At the end of the interview Rabbit Lerner said that he would let me know by Monday or Tuesday whether I got the job or not, and that I was the lead contender. I am pretty happy about that. I just hope I get the job.

On the election front, Obama is doing really well. He is 100 delegates ahead in pledged delegates, and if you take superdelegates into account, than he is still 50-ish ahead. Plus the news says he is fund-raising twice as much as Clinton. I hope he can keep it up. I do not believe that John McCain would be able to beat Clinton or Obama, so if he wins the primary, then he will become president.

Kosovo is independent, which is also pretty good news.

And finally the Democrats in the House of Representatives finally gained the courage to stand up against Bush on giving immunity to the Telecom industry for warrentless wiretapping.

Yes, all in all, this has been a very good week.