Dr. Martin Luther King and Gov. Walker

Thomas Jasen Gardner                                 Tuesday, Jan 17, 2012

“Its been a long time comin’, but I know a change is gonna come.”

Sam Cooke

Letter to the Editor:

Yesterday, Martin Luther King Day was the day the anti-Walker people broke the camels back of my endearing patience. When a liberal editorial writer misrepresented an interpretation of King’s position on unions, it put a cactus thorn in my pragmatic point of view.

But when protesters interrupted the Governor with boo’s and hisses on a day for a man that just wants us all to get along, the rude distraction really pissed me off. It unconsciously tells me that these union supporters maybe part of the group that did not want a MLK holiday.  At the least, they certainly weren’t the supportive voices I heard during the confrontational debate for creating a MLK national holiday. Why else would protesters desecrate this worshipful moment? What kind of message do they think it gave black well-mannered attendees? These same people may have sympathized with their anti-Walker sentiments, before this public raucous action. But after this… only God can explain the behavior of stupid people.

 It reminded me that black history among state residents under Walker, is no better then when Democrats had the legislative edge? You need both hands to count the number of times Democrats joined with Republicans in GOP legislation that victimized black people. The party comparison clearly shows that Walker could do no worse with addressing generational issues of environmental racism, banana republic public schools, long-term unemployment and second-class health care. He certainly could not do no worse then the flip-flopping democrat who makes condensing urban visits on a MLK Holiday or an Election Day.

This public event really upset me because I had just written an opinion about Mrs. Obama getting booed at a racetrack as she was expressing support for returning vets. It was quite disgraceful and ignorant to boo the President’s wife, but most disrespectful of the veterans she was trying to elicit help for. Believe you me, as a Vietnam Era Vet, not one politician every expressed empathy for Vietnam vets. So this should have been a defining moment of a cause without colors. But the rednecks could not get pass the chocolate color of her skin.

Thus, booing Walker during this holistic ceremony was akin to spitting on the grave of a black Aristotle. Could the protesting phyllobates terribilis’ constrain their venomous contempt for Walker while attending a pre-ordained event? A gathering meant to construe harmony and peace as preconditioned by the host. Maybe this is why so few blacks have publicly supported this revolution to reinvigorate the withering middle class.  Or is it because I never saw a Plumbers local union 87 or any other local union parade civil rights signs at a poor peoples campaign? Or is it because so few blacks achieved the American Dream despite upgraded apartheid barriers; blockades that are strategically insurmountable to the average African-American young male dreaming to join the middle class? Have these unions ever wondered why there are so few blacks if any at these state union rallies and Occupy Wall street protest demonstrations?

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, Teach him to fish and he eats for life:

It’s because unions rarely used nepotism to hire blacks, unless it was in the union’s self-interest of expansionism slumming for non-traditional union jobs. Many blacks still wonder where was the union when co-workers or employers were routinely discriminating against them at these low level jobs? Were reports true that union reps were sleeping with the enemies of civil rights? If FBI’s Hoover can sanction such betrayal, it must be Standard Operating Procedure for all cross-dressing public servants.

The one or two prominent blacks that gave support seemed to be the only spot in the audience beside myself and the, few curious blacks who were physically distant.

Perhaps the scarring flashback of biting Alabama police dogs and Georgia fire hydrant water crowd control was too recent for more black participation.   But the pioneers who helped rein in police retaliation did get honorable mentions at these well-mannered political gatherings. The union should appreciate the religious social activist re-appropriating anti-Walker peaceful civil disobedience to its Negro origins. The union reps certainly did not..

 I went to honor the speaker and not to support teachers who refuse black self-determination or an office staff where I never see a black secretary or mid-level manager or a university construction site where I counted 93 white union members and two black men. Wow!  Imagine that? What a pitiful percentage rate in 2012.

In addition, the few black union members are afraid of unmentionable consequences, if they don’t feign participation. The union simpletons could question your dedication to oligarchy. Oh don’t be so naïve, its been done before. Look at the minute number of blacks working in skilled union trades. It is near or below the number of blacks in unions before civil rights legislation. Recent non-existent black union members are no mere coincidence according to current court records. Systematic discrimination is alive and well in American’s worker unions. So, as the single black employee, you better learn to like Spam and jello molds, if you want to keep your job. Remember, unemployment among blacks is 2-3 times higher then the rest of the workers. So be afraid, be very afraid. World War II Polish Jews can help you comprehend the sequence of incarcerated friends and disappearing relatives who lost jobs and never got another one. 

Because with two blacks on the same job they think you are planning a robbery, and with three blacks on the job, they suspect a riot is forthcoming. In other words, a façade of AA/EEO compliance is bureaucratically acceptable with one black employee in a low level unskilled easily replaceable position. What a ruse? What’s worse is that the subterfuge perpetrated by management is most likely agreeable to the union members who commute and hunt together from the same segregated neighborhood.

Oh, I don’t mean the janitor’s union or the healthcare worker union. Or the factory union where my father died young from an asbestos work environment sanctioned by his union leaders.  I mean union jobs where a man could learn a healthy trade, buy a house, feed his family, and save money for his kid’s college tuition. By earning a living wage that support families. Many of these so-called unions denied blacks the right to join unions until recent court orders made union members accept diversity. As you drive down the street, take note who is in that city truck, as you walk into an office building take note of how vanilla it is.

My great uncle, my mother’s mother brother, recited many times how blacks were the original stagehands until the great depression, when whites who formally thought the job was to lowly for a white man, and convinced theater owners under anonymous threats to only hire white union members for stage carpenter, make-up, lighting, etc. Did you also know black slaves were the nations first coal miners, they were freed to mine coal for the war against the Confederacy, until a union created a literacy test that excluded blacks from mining jobs?

Even then, they selected a rookie Hispanic or Asian as a union member before they would accept experienced black tradesmen. These blacks that were skilled and dedicated workers could not get pass the stereotyped contemptible profiles promoted by union members and management. The facts show that they obviously believed that working with any other ethnic group was better then working with their cultural image of a black man. ¿Por qué lo ignoramos?

Believe you me, as a union electrician, it was emotionally difficult to get up each morning and deal with the institutional racism projected at me throughout the workday by my so-called union brothers. When I would ask for increased responsibility that would match my proven skills, I found myself laid off for a few weeks. It only gave me more time to tell my children, nephews and nieces, never to join a union or associate with anyone who claims to be a union member. Rise above such wickedness by going to college was the clarion call they got tired of hearing.

When the black garbage workers went on strike it was because the white union got better benefits then the union blacks working for lower wages. Once there, I found out there were two union tiers. Blacks were not invited to join the sacrilegious group with better conditions. King was campaigning for equity wages, not to join a union. Did southern blacks really want to join a southern union that would not accept blacks as equal members? I don’t think so. There is a historical reason to believe that all hell would break lose. And if you dig further into King’s conversations, you will find that he knows how fire stations and union halls were the headquarters of the local KKK, John Birch society and other anti-black meetings.

So why would a black support a union with the racist baggage that is consciously carried by it’s members into the 21^st century.  They missed the paradigm shift of compliancy by purposely dismissing those who could of helped them the most.

So, editorial writers have no consensus to lecture blacks about King’s position on unions. Is it because there are no black writers on daily newspaper staffs to help you interpret community beliefs you otherwise ignore? Write about the 19^th century Google images of lynched blacks hanging in front of fire stations, carpenter unions, episcopal churches and city halls. Write about the anti-black petitions signed by 20^th century fireman and policemen. Write about the recent racist hyperbole coming out of the mouths of 21^st century politicians when they talk to unions.

The Rebellion of the Confederacy

I never had any hostility about Governor Walker one way or another. The schools; well, blacks have been receiving the recycled end of public funding since time forever. As far as voter rights, the GOP does not have the best interest of poor people, senior citizens, or transients in mind. But in this day and age of terrorism and identity theft from outside and inside our boundaries, many would feel comfortably secure if everyone had formal identity. Nothing new about black males showing citizenship papers or proof that somebody loves you. It’s just new totalitarian methods for union members and their protégés. In retrospect, fifth generation blacks have been outraged about ID hassles for at least a century, and no union member came to the rescue of inconspicuous black males being provoked by local police, storeowners or strange women. But suddenly they wake up when Hispanics are recently deported as illegal immigrants. I know King said injustice to anyone is injustice to everyone, but even to an insurance caveman, segregating American injustice issues seems ironic when American middle class values are applied. Where are the middle class union brothers and families whose commitment to people can conspire to stop these segregated atrocities against basic human rights?

Only when conservative actions threaten the status quo of hypercritical elitist Wisconsinites lifestyles, does the withering middle class become concerned about universal interpersonal interactions. Blacks that are out of sight, out of mind, and out of work, is standard operating procedure for Americans unions. But now they want my invisible vote against Walker.

Where are the union protest signs when cops are indiscriminately beating up young black men?  Where are the union protest signs when urban public schools get equipment leftovers from rich public schools? Where are the unions when the new urban highway, exposes the kid standing at the bus stop, to more pollution then a factory worker at work?

 I figure, let the man do his job. He threatened to get tough with imaginary black privilege. You voted for him. He won. Get over it. Live with disillusion. We do. Get used to disappointment. You toughened us up and we’ll be glad to help you learn the finer qualities of poverty and long-term unemployment.

But now I have a reason to vote for Walker, which supersedes any of my political reasons for not voting for him. Because being a black male in college, I just read how an union employer would hire a white high school drop-out felon before he would hire an unscathed black college graduate.  Well, I guess I certainly don’t have any economic reasons for voting against Walker. Why worry? It’s the same shackles.

Can you handle the truth? The unions created their own demise when the “old boy network” fashioned membership criteria identical to the poll tax and literacy tax. If they had only included all those they excluded, Governor Walker would not be Governor Walker and their withering numbers would be overwhelming algorithms.

Thanks for giving me additional courage to vote for a man that does not hide behind union skirts and apron strings. He publicly represents the states narcissism of being indifferent to anyone different. Just like the AFL/CIO.

Could you include this picture of Uncle Walter at work? He will look kindly upon you from heaven.