AFGE's UnionBlog

The War has Cost America Its Soul

Posted Anonymously — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:58:00 EST

I speak to you today as a former Department of Defense worker. I speak as a veteran, as a family member of two brother veterans, and raised by a struggling single mother with 20 years of Air Force service. The story I tell is not my veteran family, but the knowledge founded in the members I represent-America's public workers.

The War has cost America's Safety- We must never forget the loss of life in the bridge collapse of Minneapolis. Resources spent for the war robbed those lives from Minnesota. The world can never forget hurricane Katrina's flood waters. Money from the war should have been spent on infrastructure -building safe levees - more importantly, on our ability to save lives after the disaster hit. How many more bridges will fall – how many more Superdomes must be flooded before we say enough?

The War has cost America's Future-Resources spent on the war has robbed America of its ability to feed hungry children each morning at school. We can't afford to pay teachers while we ask them to care for our most precious resource our children. We can't even afford SCHIP health care for our children who are sick.

The War has cost America's Heart-US News and World Report recently published statistics proving our government awards Iraq veterans disability retirements based on budgets - not on battle injuries. Indeed, the former majority party has funded the VA health care system to a verge of collapse. While deceiving America as the supporters of our Troops, that political party continues to defund operations, staffing, and special psychiatric care for Troops returning to home with permanent injuries. They rob America's commitment to care for our hero's so they may pay Halliburton and Blackwater profits.

All of these can be regained and rebuilt if we dedicate our political debate the real cost of war.

This is the message of our public workers-who have dedicated their lives to protect customers-we the people. Our greatest loss of the war has been America's Soul-We've sold our sole for a green shaded flag. We've forgotten to hold government leaders accountable to We The People. We must take our Soul Back. We must engage debate-Democrat and Republican, Evangelist and Atheist, and yes, even our pain in the ass brother in laws and hold our leaders accountable. A Chinese Yellow Ribbon magnet on our cars is not a commitment-we've lost our sole in believing superficiality supported our troops. This dialogue, this rally today helps regains these costs. We The People must salute a flag within our voices, our votes, our values and souls. We can only regain our safety, future, and hearts by doing so.

We The People must insure our troops and veterans return to the nation they swore to defend. We MUST do that-as they cannot.

The Man Who is Saving Polo

Anna Vredeveld — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:27:00 EST

(The following story came from the Federal Employees Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA). FEEA is a philanthropic non-profit organization set up to provide emergency assistance and scholarships to federal employees and their dependents. FEEA recently embarked on a program in conjunction with the State Department to raise money for a fund dedicated to providing full scholarships to the children of diplomats who died in service. Go to www.afge.org for the full story or www.feaa.org for more information.)

Head flung back, lips curved rakishly, laughing with abandon, Jim O’Connor is the picture for a moment of the life he once had. A swashbuckling oil rigger who rarely spent more than two weeks in one place, Jim once had to apply for a second extension to his passport just to contain all its visa stamps.

These days though, Jim’s life is smaller, though just as full, with all its colors painted in vivid miniature upon the tiny town of Polo, Illinois. It’s the town he grew up in and the town he returned to in order to rebuild his family after the loss of his wife, Michelle, in the tragic bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1989.

Michelle was applying for a job with the State Department when Jim met her. He wooed her with stories of faraway places, like Uruguay, Gabon and Cameroon. After a wedding in Ecuador in 1992, the two settled into the kind of happy partnership opposites often achieve. By the time they moved to Nairobi, she had chosen a job at the embassy that allowed her plenty of time for her two- and four-year-old daughters and her stepdaughter Jenny. Jim continued to travel almost every week, depending on the needs in the oil fields.

Jim’s team was in the deep heart of the Congo jungle when the bomb exploded. With the embassy in chaos, and his team out of reach, Jim didn’t learn of the terrorist attack in Nairobi until midnight--more than twelve hours after Michelle had died. Sleep was out of the question that night, and for three more excruciating days, as Jim packed his daughters and their things onto a military plane back to the States. Not until he saw his brothers and sisters at Andrews Air Force Base was Jim able to sleep for more than half an hour.

After the bombing, Jim became the last thing in the world anyone ever expected: a full-time, stay-at-home dad. His family encouraged him to move to the 30,000-person town of Steven’s Point, Wisconsin, where he could count on the support of three of his sisters. Though Jim and the girls spent several years in Steven’s Point, they never found there what it was they most wanted -- the essence of what they had lost.

The search for belonging can take many turns, and for Jim, the first signpost was the image of an abandoned building that needed his care. “I got it into my head that I wanted to buy an old building,” he said. Then, he ran into an old friend from Polo who worked for the economic development committee for his old hometown. Encouraged to bring his vision of restoration to Polo, Jim, moved his family back to his childhood home.

It was not until his daughters were cradled in the 250-person strong hug that is life in Polo that Jim finally allowed a little time for himself. His friends pulled him over to the American Legion bar one night where he met Christina. “The rest was history,” says Christina, a hospice nurse who bartended there once a week. She adds, without a trace of selfishness, “You can see that Jim is still affected by the loss of Michelle, but the girls were very young when it happened. They are managing well, and I am so proud of them.” Christina and Jim brought together their blended family, which at one point included Jim’s three girls, Christina’s three boys, 32 guinea pigs, eight birds and the family dog.

“I love this town,” says Tara, Jim’s middle daughter, now 13. Everyone at my school knows each other’s names -- first and last -- and everyone is friendly to everyone else. I don’t really ever want to leave.” Tara found a niche for herself training horses at a local ranch. Her eleven-year-old sister Micaela, called “Coo” by her family, prefers to read and draw. She hopes to become a fashion designer.

Walking with the family through downtown Polo, one begins to see Jim’s impact on the town. “They call Jim the man who is saving Polo,” Christina says. Jim and Christina own four of the buildings on Main Street, including one he bought for a dollar after convincing the city not to raze it.

Jim says, “People would walk by and find me staring at the buildings from the center of the sidewalk. They asked what I was doing, and I told them I was visioning. Restoration just takes me longer than most people.”

This is a statement of vast modesty. Jim’s first undertaking -- a combined pizza parlor and second story apartment -- is no mere restoration project; it is a work of art. Tiles twinkle in patterns of Jim’s design; stained glass windows from abandoned churches spread soft light on glowing heart-pine floors; rescued oak doors regain their dignity as paneling in a kitchen fashioned after ones Jim saw overseas. Everywhere in the building is the imprint of a vision exquisite, and also, deeply personal.

Jim and Christina’s current restoration project is an antebellum church, which the couple is transforming into a wedding chapel. The church, like everywhere else in this cozy town, is a place the girls inhabit as happily as they do their own backyard.

Across Main Street is Jim’s latest purchase. With half-rotted floors, exposed nails, and a rusted bathtub lying haphazardly where it fell, the building is charmless --worlds away from those he has so carefully restored.

Under its charred ceiling beams, Jim is transformed for a second through a trick of the light. It is as if he is standing in another devastated building--one that has been split front to end--like a life torn asunder by a terrorist’s bomb.

While the others aren’t listening, without urging, Coo looks up with eyes like her father’s and says softly: “I have a friend whose birthday is on the same day that my mom died. I told her that it was the same day, and she felt so bad. I told her, ‘It’s okay. It’s all right. That means we have something in common. We have something we can talk about.’”

In spring of 2008, the State Department launched The Fallen Diplomat’s Campaign to fund a four-year, full-tuition, college scholarship for children who have lost a parent to a terrorist attack overseas. The Board of Directors of the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA) -- the organization that successfully funded full-tuition scholarships for children who lost parents in the Oklahoma City and Pentagon bombings -- has pledged a one-to-one match for every dollar raised. Jim O’Connor and his family agreed to share their story to support this initiative. Please show your own support by making a credit card donation on-line at www.feea.org or by sending a check to:

FEEA-Diplomatic Fund
8441 W. Bowles Ave, Suite 200
Littleton, CO 80123-9501
1.800.323.4140

Supreme Court Voter ID Decision

John Sweeney — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:04:00 EST

Now, more than ever, America needs every voice to be heard. We need fewer hurdles, not more, between voters and the voting booth. That’s why today’s U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that voters can be forced to show a government identification is the absolute wrong direction for our nation and our democracy.

For many Americans, the cost of processing the paperwork for a government ID is so daunting they may not vote. The logistics of tracking down documents, traveling to offices and even just knowing where to begin, can be extremely daunting for the elderly, the disabled, the poor and voters in rural communities.

Voter ID laws like Indiana’s were enacted to take advantage of the fact that getting a government ID is not easy. These laws are no more than a cynical attempt to suppress turnout among groups who tend to vote for candidates who prioritize working families’ issues including lower income Americans and people of color.

In making this decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court put its seal of approval on what is in essence a poll tax. It’s the wrong decision for our country, and the wrong decision for America’s working men and women.

We will continue to fight for and defend Americans' right to vote in the face of this and other schemes to depress turnout, especially as we approach November's crucial election.

New AFL-CIO Ad Calls on Congress to Vote No on Colombia FTA "Don't Reward Murder"

Alison Omens — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:39:00 EST

For Immediate Release
Contact: Alison Omens 202-637-5018

(Washington, April 9) Today the AFL-CIO placed ads opposing the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in major Washington DC-based publications, including The Hill, The Politico, and Roll Call. The ad is part of a major effort to educate the public and Congress on the dangers Colombian trade unionists face and the problems inherent in the FTA President Bush sent to Congress over the objections of the leadership. Other efforts in the campaign will include visits with members of Congress, rallies and online mobilizations.

The ad shows a Colombian woman grieving over a coffin. It urges

Congress: "Don’t reward murder. Stop the Colombia Free Trade Agreement."

Seventeen unionists have been murdered since January 1st - a 70 percent acceleration over last year at this time - according to the National Labor School, a respected NGO. So far this year, trade unionists have been murdered at a rate of over one a week. In 2007, 39 union workers were murdered, 11 were victims of attempted murder and 224 received death threats. In the last two decades, 2,500 trade unionists have been targeted and murdered.

"The Colombia Free Trade Agreement is about even more than the wrong-headed trade policies that have cost our country millions of manufacturing jobs, boosted trade deficits to record levels and shredded the paychecks of U.S. workers. It’s about cold-blooded murder," reads the ad. "Congress should refuse to approve this agreement until workers in Colombia can exercise their fundamental human rights without fear. Working families in Colombia as well as in the United States deserve no less."

To see the ads and learn more about the issue, go to www.aflcio.org/colombia

Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on the 40th Anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'

John Sweeney — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:21:00 EST

Forty years ago today, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis.

But the movement Dr. King led with unparalleled strength and commitment was much larger than any one man, as he well understood. Inspired by his words and example, that movement lives on, gaining more and more momentum, generation after generation, in the souls of millions of people who seek to make real his dream of social and economic justice.

We see it every time people join together to stand up to injustice, speak out for equality or sit down for fairness. We see it in those who demand a government that will make our economy work for all, not for the few. It's alive in all of us who insist that in America no one should go without health care. And we see it every time working men and women engage in the struggle to improve their lives by forming unions.

As Dr. King said in 1965, "The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and above all new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life."

When Dr. King was assassinated 40 years ago, he was in Memphis to assist striking African American sanitation workers, trapped in poverty and deplorable working conditions, who demanded recognition of their union so they could win respect on the job and a better life. A few weeks before his death, he reminded the strikers, "…whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity, and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity, and it has worth. One day our society must come to see this. One day our society will come to respect the sanitation worker if it is to survive. For the person who picks up our garbage, in the final analysis, is as significant as the physician. All labor has worth."

Today, that statement of values is at the center of our national debate. Each of us has a responsibility—not just on this day, but every day—to honor Dr. King's legacy in our actions.