Friday, May 23, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to Quint (may 5th) , Jess(May 7th), Ellie (May 8), Noah (May 9)!!
Ellies party was a great hit for all. Ellie bellie turned 1, Noah her big brother turned 3! We enjoyed a great weekend with Quint , Jess, Mom & Dad staying at our house. It was great to have the family together at the party! We love our family and being a Great Aunt is grand! Thanks for the party Brynn.....I'm sad to see Quint and Jess go back to Pheonix maybe I will kidnap them?????? Maybe I should just fly home with them!
Ellies party was a great hit for all. Ellie bellie turned 1, Noah her big brother turned 3! We enjoyed a great weekend with Quint , Jess, Mom & Dad staying at our house. It was great to have the family together at the party! We love our family and being a Great Aunt is grand! Thanks for the party Brynn.....I'm sad to see Quint and Jess go back to Pheonix maybe I will kidnap them?????? Maybe I should just fly home with them!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
THANKS FOR THE ASTHMA WALK SUPPORT
Thanks to all of you who pledge for the Asthma Walk on Saturday. More than 30 people representing SelectHealth walked two miles around Sugar House and demonstrated our commitment to raising awareness about asthma. I appreciate all of you for supporting this event.
In addition to the $5,000 corporate sponsorship from SelectHealth, with your donations and the money raised from the bake sale, we were able to contribute $5,876.55 to the American Lung Association of Utah. Great job!
Thanks!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
HAPPY 51ST ANNIVERSARY MOM & DAD
Wow it was only 1 year ago we had the big 50th party!
Thanks for being such great parents!
HAPPY D-DAY! WE LOVE YOU!
Thanks for being such great parents!
HAPPY D-DAY! WE LOVE YOU!
Friday, May 2, 2008
May 2nd is Brother and Sisters day
Thanks be to God and my parents for my Brothers Twain, John & Quint !
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Happy International workers day!
Today is May Day or International workers day it is a day to celebrate our rights as employees and protest those corporate CEO's that make millions and do nothing.
Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers' Day or May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don't realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as "American" as baseball and apple pie, and stemmed from the pre-Christian holiday of Beltane, a celebration of rebirth and fertility.
In the late nineteenth century, the working class was in constant struggle to gain the 8-hour work day. Working conditions were severe and it was quite common to work 10 to 16 hour days in unsafe conditions. Death and injury were commonplace at many work places and inspired such books as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Jack London's The Iron Heel. As early as the 1860's, working people agitated to shorten the workday without a cut in pay, but it wasn't until the late 1880's that organized labor was able to garner enough strength to declare the 8-hour workday. This proclamation was without consent of employers, yet demanded by many of the working class
On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration in history. In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day agitators, 40,000 went out on strike with the anarchists in the forefront of the public's eye. With their fiery speeches and revolutionary ideology of direct action, anarchists and anarchism became respected and embraced by the working people and despised by the capitalists.
The names of many - Albert Parsons, Johann Most, August Spies and Louis Lingg - became household words in Chicago and throughout the country. Parades, bands and tens of thousands of demonstrators in the streets exemplified the workers' strength and unity, yet didn't become violent as the newspapers and authorities predicted.
More and more workers continued to walk off their jobs until the numbers swelled to nearly 100,000, yet peace prevailed. It was not until two days later, May 3, 1886, that violence broke out at the McCormick Reaper Works between police and strikers.
For six months, armed Pinkerton agents and the police harassed and beat locked-out steelworkers as they picketed. Most of these workers belonged to the "anarchist-dominated" Metal Workers' Union. During a speech near the McCormick plant, some two hundred demonstrators joined the steelworkers on the picket line. Beatings with police clubs escalated into rock throwing by the strikers which the police responded to with gunfire. At least two strikers were killed and an unknown number were wounded.
Truly, history has a lot to teach us about the roots of our radicalism. When we remember that people were shot so we could have the 8-hour day; if we acknowledge that homes with families in them were burned to the ground so we could have Saturday as part of the weekend; when we recall 8-year old victims of industrial accidents who marched in the streets protesting working conditions and child labor only to be beat down by the police and company thugs, we understand that our current condition cannot be taken for granted - people fought for the rights and dignities we enjoy today, and there is still a lot more to fight for. The sacrifices of so many people can not be forgotten or we'll end up fighting for those same gains all over again.
This is why I say we should celbrate May Day.
Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers' Day or May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don't realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as "American" as baseball and apple pie, and stemmed from the pre-Christian holiday of Beltane, a celebration of rebirth and fertility.
In the late nineteenth century, the working class was in constant struggle to gain the 8-hour work day. Working conditions were severe and it was quite common to work 10 to 16 hour days in unsafe conditions. Death and injury were commonplace at many work places and inspired such books as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Jack London's The Iron Heel. As early as the 1860's, working people agitated to shorten the workday without a cut in pay, but it wasn't until the late 1880's that organized labor was able to garner enough strength to declare the 8-hour workday. This proclamation was without consent of employers, yet demanded by many of the working class
On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration in history. In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day agitators, 40,000 went out on strike with the anarchists in the forefront of the public's eye. With their fiery speeches and revolutionary ideology of direct action, anarchists and anarchism became respected and embraced by the working people and despised by the capitalists.
The names of many - Albert Parsons, Johann Most, August Spies and Louis Lingg - became household words in Chicago and throughout the country. Parades, bands and tens of thousands of demonstrators in the streets exemplified the workers' strength and unity, yet didn't become violent as the newspapers and authorities predicted.
More and more workers continued to walk off their jobs until the numbers swelled to nearly 100,000, yet peace prevailed. It was not until two days later, May 3, 1886, that violence broke out at the McCormick Reaper Works between police and strikers.
For six months, armed Pinkerton agents and the police harassed and beat locked-out steelworkers as they picketed. Most of these workers belonged to the "anarchist-dominated" Metal Workers' Union. During a speech near the McCormick plant, some two hundred demonstrators joined the steelworkers on the picket line. Beatings with police clubs escalated into rock throwing by the strikers which the police responded to with gunfire. At least two strikers were killed and an unknown number were wounded.
Truly, history has a lot to teach us about the roots of our radicalism. When we remember that people were shot so we could have the 8-hour day; if we acknowledge that homes with families in them were burned to the ground so we could have Saturday as part of the weekend; when we recall 8-year old victims of industrial accidents who marched in the streets protesting working conditions and child labor only to be beat down by the police and company thugs, we understand that our current condition cannot be taken for granted - people fought for the rights and dignities we enjoy today, and there is still a lot more to fight for. The sacrifices of so many people can not be forgotten or we'll end up fighting for those same gains all over again.
This is why I say we should celbrate May Day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)