We The People, Won’t be Denied

We The People, Won’t be Denied

John Hanno, tarbabys.com        September 4, 2019

While the British Parliament stands against Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan for a blundering no-deal brexit, and while millions of protesters stand up to Hong Cong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam’s heavy-handed extradition bill, America proves once again that it’s no longer # 1 at anything but maintaining the status quo. Regardless of our feckless republi-con congress’s subservience to trump’s every whim, his daily zigs and zags and his mind-boggling lack of competence, Democracy is alive and well in other parts of our universe.

The conservative members of Parliament who jumped ship to vote with the liberal democrats may no longer be satisfied unless Boris Johnson resigns. Anna Soubry, who left the Conservative Party because of the Brexit debacle a few months ago, explains: “having “bullied and blackmailed” as many M.P.s as he could into voting with him (Boris Johnson). “This is about our country,” Soubry told her colleagues. “It’s also about your own respect.”

Anti-Brexit protesters gather outside No. 10 Downing St. in opposition to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to shut down Parliament. Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI | License Photo

And the young Hong Cong protesters, who’ve been flexing their Democratic principles for the last 3 months, may not be satisfied with leader Lam’s half-hearted capitulations. They demand more from Lam and Beijing.

Yet our own leaders in the republican controlled senate refuse to budge. At the height of the hurricane season, they allow critical emergency funds diverted to pay for trump’s fanatical war on immigration and diversity. They ignore America’s overwhelming pleas for sensible gun laws. They turn a blind eye to trump’s onslaught against our environment.  They cower and applaud when trump signs away America’s national treasures. They stand by while trump’s criminal enterprise enriches themselves at the taxpayers expense.  And  and they sit idle on more than a 100 bills passed by the democratic House attempting to actually legislate to solve America’s problems.

But the chinks in trump’s faithful armor are beginning to show in recent polls. Farmers battered by trump’s nonsensical trade war, no longer have their GPS locked in and tracking closely with trumps pathway to reelection. Miners no longer wish to waste their lives in a dying industry and might just opt for an alternative energy and employment. Many evangelicals are staying the course but their disciples are dwindling faster than proponents of high fructose corn syrup. Those old white faithful voters are dying off by the 10’s of thousands every month. And lets face it, America is just sick tired of trump’s nonstop bipolar drama. 2020 will not just be a repudiation of trump’s criminal operations, but a condemnation of the entire faux fiscally conservative, ult right, moral pretending republi-con party.

America has changed before their very lying eyes; it’s no longer majority white and christian. It’s strength is in it’s dissimilitude. We cheer on the hoards of women and children at our Southern border; the “huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,” because that’s what we stand for. Many of our friends and family are part of the LGBTQ community. We embrace all our neighbors, no matter their hues, and as our Constitution instructs, not any one religion, or maybe no religion, will govern us all.

Unless and until the republi-con senate finds it’s self respect and embraces it’s oath to country first, all of us must do everything we can to resist the destruction of our democratic ideals and institutions, until they’re voted out in 2020.

Pentagon takes money from Puerto Rico, European projects to fund Trump’s wall

Washington Post – National Security

Pentagon takes money from Puerto Rico, European projects to fund Trump’s wall

By Paul Sonne and Seung Min Kim           September 4, 2019

President Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday. He declared a national emergency in February to build a border wall. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

The Pentagon is defunding Hurricane Maria recovery projects at military installations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to pay for President Trump’s border wall, and is also taking money from construction projects across Europe designed to help allies deter Russia.

The details of the 127 military construction projects that stand to lose funding to pay $3.6 billion for fencing and barriers on the southern border with Mexico were made public late Wednesday by the Department of Defense.

The list includes projects across 23 U.S. states, three U.S. territories and 20 countries. The decisions about which projects to defund deal a particular blow to Puerto Rico, which stands to see more than $400 million worth of planned projects lose funding. Roughly $770 million of the funding will be taken from projects across allied European nations aimed at helping them deter a possible attack from Russia.

Officially, the Pentagon is saying that the affected projects are “deferred,” but in order for them to go ahead in the future, Congress must again fund them. The Republican-led Senate has agreed to do so in its annual defense policy bill, but the Democratic-led House refused in its version of the bill. The two sides will negotiate a possible compromise in conference, the period when the Senate and House make trades to meld two bills into one before seeking the president’s signature.

If Congress declines to fund the construction projects — or “backfill” them, in the Trump administration’s parlance — they will remain in limbo and effectively be defunded. If they are backfilled in the coming year’s budget, some could proceed without delay, because the Pentagon deliberately chose projects with contract award dates scheduled for future years. The department also chose projects that were already facing delays.

A senior defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity at a Pentagon briefing because the department declined to hold the event on-the-record, said the Department of Defense is committed to proceeding with the projects and plans to work with Congress to replenish their funding. The official expressed confidence that the funding would be replenished but admitted it wasn’t guaranteed.

The list of projects ranges the gamut, from a space control facility at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado; to weapons training ranges in Mississippi, Oregon, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Alaska; to central heat and power plant boilers that need repairs at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. Also on the list is a $9 million plan to replace a working-dog treatment facility at Guantanamo Bay. Nine projects involve renovating and replacing schools for military children on bases in the United States and abroad.

The information about the projects comes a day after Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper formally approved a decision to divert the $3.6 billion to pay for 175 miles of barrier on the southern border with Mexico.

To do so, Esper relied on an obscure part of the U.S. code governing the military. Known as Section 2808, the law allows the defense secretary, during national emergencies requiring the use of the armed forces, to tap military construction funds without sign-off from Congress for projects necessary to support those troops. Esper deemed the border barriers necessary to support the troops Trump deployed to the border to help Customs and Border Protection with an influx of primarily Central American migrant families.

The Pentagon gained access to the authority after Trump declared a national emergency in mid-February, having failed to persuade Congress to provide more money for the project. The dispute led to the longest U.S. government shutdown in history, lasting 35 days in late 2018 and early 2019.

The Trump administration has also used a separate counterdrug law to access $2.5 billion for barrier construction from the Pentagon budget. It is also taking $601 million from the Treasury Department asset forfeiture fund for the barrier construction. On the campaign trail, Trump regularly said Mexico would pay for his border wall project.

Democrats have said Trump’s actions fly in the face of the Constitution, which gives the power of the purse to Congress and not the executive branch. They say his use of obscure laws to get around Congress’s sole authority to allocate money from the federal budget opens the door to subsequent presidents doing an end run around Congress when lawmakers refuse to fund their projects.

The $3.6 billion will pay to replace existing barriers or fences and construct new fence systems.

Some $1.16 billion of the funding will go to construct a second pedestrian fence system where the military’s Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range abuts the border with Mexico and to replace vehicle barriers that separate the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge from Mexico with pedestrian fencing. An additional $40 million will go toward replacing a 1.5-to-2-mile stretch of fencing along the bombing range.

An additional $1.27 billion will be spent on a new fence system for about 52 miles along the Rio Grande outside Laredo, Tex.

After months of protests, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam withdraws controversial extradition bill

CNN

After months of protests, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam withdraws controversial extradition bill

The decision to cave in to one of protesters’ five core demands marked a dramatic U-turn for Lam, who for months has refused to withdraw the bill.
“We must find ways to address the discontent in society and look for solutions,” Lam said in a a video statement Wednesday evening. “After more than two months of social unrest, it is obvious to many that this discontentment extends far beyond the bill.”
But Lam refused to give ground on protesters’ four other demands, including greater democracy for the city and an independent commission into police conduct, saying all investigations would be carried out by the existing Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC).
Carrie Lam’s four actions

1. Hong Kong government officially withdraws extradition bill

2. Two new members appointed to Independent Police Conduct Commission

3. More direct communication with the community

4. Calls for community leaders to “independently examine” problems in society.

 

Instead, she announced the addition of a former education bureau chief and former judge to the IPCC. Lam said the government’s priority now was to restore law and order to Hong Kong. “Let’s replace conflicts with conversations and let’s look for solutions,” she said.
Lam suspended the extradition bill in June after more than 1 million people marched against it, with protesters surrounding the city’s legislature on the day of its planned second reading.
That suspension did not satisfy protesters, who demanded the bill’s complete withdrawal — making it harder for the government to rush the law through at a later date. A withdrawn bill would need to go back to the beginning of the legislative process, whereas a suspended one could resume where it left off.
In recent weeks, protesters’ tactics have become increasingly violent as young people felt the government was refusing to consider their demands.
Pro-Beijing lawmaker Michael Tien said that Lam’s withdrawal may not stem their anger. “I believe the withdrawal of the bill … may be too late because this movement has become more than the bill,” he said.
Hong Kong protesters’ 5 demands
  1. Fully withdraw the extradition bill
  2. Set up an independent inquiry to probe police brutality
  3. Withdraw the characterization of protests as “riots”
  4. Release those arrested at protests
  5. Implement universal suffrage in Hong Kong.
Activist Joshua Wong, who was last week arrested in a police sweep of activists and opposition politicians, wrote on Twitter: “Carrie Lam’s repeated failure in understanding the situation has made this announcement completely out of touch – She needs to address to ALL Five Demands: STOP PROSECUTION, STOP CALLING US RIOTERS, INDEPENDENT INQUIRY OF POLICE and FREE ELECTION!”

Lam not resigning

Earlier this week, Lam denied that she had offered to resign over her handling of the crisis after a recording published Monday night of her at a meeting with business leaders was leaked to Reuters. On the tape, she can be heard saying she would have quit “if I have a choice.”
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Lam said she had not “contemplated to discuss a resignation” with her mainland superiors.
In the recording, Lam can be heard saying the bill was “not something instructed, coerced by the central government.”
“If I have a choice, the first thing is to quit, having made a deep apology,” she said. “We were not sensitive enough to feel and grasp (the) huge degree of fear and anxiety amongst people of Hong Kong vis-à-vis the mainland of China.”
“For a chief executive to have caused this huge havoc to Hong Kong is unforgivable,” Lam added.
That may remain the view for many Hong Kongers even after the formal withdrawal of the bill. Many will be asking why it took three months of unprecedented unrest, violence and damage to the city’s economy for the government to upgrade the bill from “suspended” to “withdrawn,” despite repeatedly insisting that it had no future and would not be reintroduced.
Lam may be hoping that the move will put a lid on the protests ahead of October 1, when China will celebrate National Day and mark 70 years of the People’s Republic.
But whether this will be the case remains highly uncertain.
“The nature of the protest movement has transformed over the last 13 weeks,” said Adam Ni, a China researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney.
“She will have to take further steps, such as setting up an independent inquiry into police conduct. If she does not take further steps, then we can expect the protests to continue.”

Boris Johnson Takes on Parliament—and Loses

The New Yorker – Daily Comment

Boris Johnson Takes on Parliament—and Loses

On Tuesday afternoon, hours before Prime Minister Boris Johnson lost a historic vote in Parliament—one that may bring down his government and force new elections in a matter of weeks—he was standing in the House of Commons, plying a cardboard imitation of Winston Churchill. Members of Parliament were trying to bring a bill to the floor which would keep Johnson from heedlessly crashing the United Kingdom out of the European Union without basic arrangements in place regarding travel and trade and a host of other issues. He complained that they wanted him to go to the E.U. and “beg,” “running up the white flag,” and that their anti-no-deal bill would undermine his proposals, even though there is no evidence that he has put any substantive proposals forward. He called the legislation “Jeremy Corbyn’s surrender bill,” a reference to the opposition Labour Party leader, even though it was also supported by many members of Johnson’s own Conservative Party, who, in doing so, were defying threats that they would be expelled from the Party and face losing their seats. “I will never surrender!” Johnson declared, as if the bravery were on his side, and not on theirs. The act was not convincing. Johnson was jeered and booed.

The United Kingdom, at the moment, seems almost leaderless. Johnson lost the vote on Tuesday by a margin of 328–301, with twenty-one Tory M.P.s—including Nicholas Soames, who is Churchill’s grandson, and the former Cabinet members Philip Hammond and Rory Stewart—voting against him. The vote was a procedural one, meant to allow M.P.s to take control of the Parliamentary agenda so that they can bring the legislation forestalling a no-deal Brexit to a vote on Wednesday. (The bill would do this by requiring the Prime Minister to ask the E.U. for an extension to the Brexit deadline—which is currently October 31st—if negotiations aren’t complete.) A moment after Tuesday’s vote tally was announced, Johnson rose to say that he will move to force a snap general election if he also loses the Wednesday vote. “I don’t want an election,” he said, even as he seemed to grasp at the prospect of effectively turning the complex debate on Brexit into a referendum on him.

Johnson’s announcement was accompanied by some confusion. Because of a 2011 law called the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, a Prime Minister cannot simply order up an election whenever he or she likes. One way to get one is for the government to put forward an election bill, which Parliament must approve by a vote of two-thirds; this is the route that Johnson said he would take. But are the votes there? Corbyn has said that his Party wants a new election, but he has also said that he wants that to happen after the no-deal-blocking legislation has become law. It is not clear what would happen if the new-election bill comes first. Parliament may be headed for a game of legislative bumper cars.

Another way to get a new election is for the Prime Minister to lose a formal no-confidence vote and resign. And it’s not at all clear that, if the question were put to a test now, a majority of M.P.s would support Johnson’s leadership—which is the definition of confidence and the basis of a P.M.’s power. Earlier in the day on Tuesday, even as Johnson was speaking, a Tory M.P., Phillip Lee, walked away from the Conservative benches and sat down with the Liberal Democrats, indicating that he was switching parties. (“I wish my honorable friend all the best,” Johnson managed to say, before he was interrupted by the raucous reaction to Lee’s bench-switching.) Lee’s defection was enough, on paper, to deny Johnson a chance at a working majority in Parliament—which was already vanishingly slim and dependent on the votes of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party. Lee, in a letter addressed to Johnson, which he posted on Twitter after his switch, said that Brexit had “sadly transformed this once great Party into something more akin to a narrow faction in which one’s Conservatism is measured by how recklessly one wants to leave the European Union.” Lee said that the Tories had “become infected by the twin diseases of English nationalism and populism.” One might add the self-satisfied dishonesty of Boris-ism to that diagnosis.

If Johnson does lose a confidence vote, there will be a lot of gamesmanship, because there are also questions about what would legally be required to happen next, particularly if no one else in Parliament—including Corbyn—has an obvious majority. And then there is the great uncertainty: If there is an election, who will win? (If the recent European Parliamentary elections are any indication, both major parties are vulnerable.) But Tuesday was the first real test for Johnson, and he failed it, despite, as Anna Soubry, who left the Conservative Party over Brexit a few months ago and is now the leader of the new Change U.K. Party, put it, having “bullied and blackmailed” as many M.P.s as he could into voting with him. “This is about our country,” Soubry told her colleagues. “It’s also about your own respect.”

That sense of respect has been sorely tried. Part of the reason for all the frenzied activity is that the Johnson government engineered a prorogation of Parliament, with the effect that, after this week, it will be suspended until October 14th, leaving little time for action ahead of the Brexit deadline. Various M.P.s and activists have already challenged the prorogation in court and, in the course of the litigation, the government has released documents indicating that Johnson approved the idea in mid-August—around the same time that his government put out a statement saying that “the claim that the government is considering proroguing parliament in September in order to stop MPs debating Brexit is entirely false.” During the debate on Tuesday, Joanna Cherry, a Scottish National Party M.P., asked Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory Leader of the Commons and a voluble Brexiteer, if he agreed that the statement had “misled M.P.s and the public.”

Rees-Mogg did not agree. “The most obvious understanding of the ordinary use of the English language, which normally the honorable lady is pretty good at, makes it quite clear that the two statements”—that is, that the government was and was not planning a prorogation—“are entirely compatible.” That rationale had to do with Johnson’s argument that prorogation was not meant, as the statement had put it, “to stop M.P.s debating Brexit” but rather to give the government time to focus on its agenda—a lie folded into a lie. Rees-Mogg heightened the effect of what another M.P., Dominic Grieve, called his “rather cheap sarcasm” by sprawling on the benches at one point in the debate, as though he were at a Roman banquet. Rees-Mogg is, if nothing else, an apt partner for his Prime Minister. The logic is fuzzy; the contempt is clear. That’s the Johnson way.

  • Amy Davidson Sorkin has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2014.

The labor movement has deep roots in Illinois.

Chicago Sun Times

The labor movement has deep roots in Illinois — here’s why

Illinois is home to five of the most significant figures and events in the history of the nation’s labor movement, including the strike that led to the creation of Labor Day.

A 1909 photo of striking textile workers featuring Mother Jones.

In this 1909 photo, Mother Jones and her army of striking Philadelphia textile workers start out on their descent on New York. The textile workers say they intend to show the people of the country their condition by marching through big cities. Pierce & Jones Photographers

The U.S. is celebrating the 125th anniversary of Labor Day as a national holiday on Monday.

Without Illinois, the holiday might not even exist.

From organizing unions to effecting labor laws, our state has played a vital historical role as a flashpoint — sometimes involving violence and danger — for workplace fairness. These are some of the key figures and events of that struggle.

Mother Jones

She lost her own family, so she adopted a new one: a huge one, lifting up the cause of labor.

In the process, Mother Jones became perhaps the greatest labor force in the history of Illinois.

An Irish immigrant and dressmaker, Mary Harris landed in Memphis, Tennessee, where she met and wed George Jones, a foundry worker and union supporter. They’d had four children by 1867, when an epidemic of yellow fever claimed the entire household, save Mary. The 30-year-old widow relocated to Chicago to start anew with a dress shop, but it was lost in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

She scraped to get by, sometimes sewing piecework for wealthy Chicago families. As she’d gaze out their picture windows, she gained a keen eye and soft heart for disenfranchised.

Mother Jones, born Mary Harris, an Irish immigrant whose labor-rights moxie won over Illinois workers. Provided by the Journal Star of Peoria

Jones gravitated to organizing with the Knights of Labor, then the United Mine Workers. Her labor-rights moxie quickly won over workers. She’d travel to help wherever the call — garment workers in Chicago, steelworkers in Pittsburgh, bottle washers in Milwaukee — railing against companies and corporations for fair wages and safe working conditions.

At the close of the 19th century, Illinois became a labor battleground, especially for downstate miners, drawing her attention. After she died in 1930, she was buried among the miners laid to rest at Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive. Her simple marker carries some uncharacteristically purple prose, in part extolling: “She gave her life to the world of labor, her blessed soul to heaven.”

It’s almost a shame she isn’t remembered there from one of her most telling quotes: “I’m not a humanitarian. I’m a hell raiser.”

The Haymarket Affair

With the explosion of a stick of dynamite, the Haymarket Affair became a key flashpoint of the U.S. labor movement.

By May 1886, Chicago had become a labor battleground, with pro-labor forces fighting for better working conditions and pay. The tug of war also included radical anarchists who wanted to overthrow capitalism, sparking fear among much of the public.

This 1886 engraving shows Methodist pastor Samuel Fielden speaking, the bomb exploding, and the riot beginning simultaneously.
This 1886 engraving was the most widely reproduced image of the Haymarket Affair. It shows Methodist pastor Samuel Fielden speaking, the bomb exploding, and the riot beginning simultaneously. In reality, Fielden had finished speaking before the explosion. Harper’s Weekly

 

To advance the idea of an eight-hour workday, a labor rally was set for May 4 — a day after police fired upon on an angry mob of striking Chicago workers, killing two. The rally seemed peaceful, ending as a throng of police stepped through to disperse attendees. Then a stick of dynamite was hurled at the police, killing seven cops and one civilian. In return, officers started firing into the crowd, wounding dozens.

Eight men were arrested and convicted in connection with the bombing, though the thrower was never found. Still, four were hanged. At the gallows, one said, “The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.”

His words proved prescient. Though a wave of xenophobia had swept the nation immediately after the bombing, public skepticism gradually grew over what increasingly seemed like a sham prosecution. Of the other four defendants, one committed suicide while the other three were sent to prison; however, they were later pardoned.

The martyrdom of the defendants fueled pro-labor forces, eventually leading to the eight-hour workday, along with the creation of International Workers’ Day on May 1.

The Pullman Strike

The Pullman Strike was the first national strike in American history, riveting the country to the burgeoning labor movement.

South of Chicago, the Pullman Co. not only built and leased passenger train cars but set up a company town of Pullman, allegedly as a model community. But during a recession in 1893, the company laid off workers and cut wages yet did not reduce rents.

This 1894 political cartoon depicts an employee being squeezed by Pullman between two halves of a vise representing high rent and low wages.
This 1894 political cartoon depicts “the condition of laboring man at Pullman.” The employee is being squeezed by Pullman between high rent and low wages.   Provided by the Journal Star of Peoria

 

Led by the American Railway Union, 4,000 Pullman workers went on strike May 22, 1894. Gradually, the strike grew nationally: By June 30, 125,000 workers on 29 railroads had walked off the job rather than handle Pullman cars. The strike shut down much of the nation’s freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit.

In early July, the federal government (leaning on antitrust and commerce laws) obtained a court injunction ordering ARU leaders from inciting workers to refuse to work. President Grover Cleveland sent federal troops into Chicago. As the city swarmed with more than 14,000 troops and policemen, 6,000 rioters destroyed hundreds of railcars on July 6. The next day, federal troops responded to an assault by firing into a mob, killing as many as 30 people.

Pullman strikers outside Arcade Building in Pullman, Chicago, in 1894. The Illinois National Guard can be seen guarding the building during the Pullman Railroad Strike.
Pullman strikers outside Arcade Building in Pullman, Chicago, in 1894. The Illinois National Guard can be seen guarding the building during the Pullman Railroad Strike. Provided by the Journal Star of Peoria

 

Public opinion, originally in favor of workers, switched to opposition as rail service languished. Federal troops were recalled on July 20, effectively ending the strikes. The company agreed to rehire strikers, as long as they sign a pledge to never join a union. But their rents were not reduced.

As a conciliatory gesture to the labor movement, President Cleveland and Congress created Labor Day.

The Herrin Massacre

In 1922, a nation recoiled in horror at gruesome strike violence in downstate Illinois.

That month, the United Mine Workers continued a nationwide strike. However, at the Southern Illinois Coal Co.’s strip mine near Herrin, workers kept working to pull coal from the earth but not ship it out.

In mid-June, however, the owner decided to violate the agreement and ship coal. When the union workers refused, he fired them and called in replacements from Chicago — 50 men unaware they had been hired as strikebreakers in an area where 90 percent of the workforce carried a union card.

On June 21, shots rang out at the mine, though accounts differ as to who pulled the trigger first. Regardless, soon one strikebreaker and two strikers were dead, with a third seriously wounded. Union men from the entire region thundered to the mine, en route grabbing guns and ammunition from shops.

Two photographs of damage from the coal miners strike at the Southern Illinois Coal Co. mine in Herrin, Illinois, during the Herrin Massacre. The upper photograph shows the remains of a supply house that was dynamited and burned, while the lower photo sho
Two photographs of damage from the coal miners strike at the Southern Illinois Coal Co. mine in Herrin, Illinois, during the Herrin Massacre.
Provided by the Journal Star of Peoria

 

Realizing their outnumbered predicament, the strikebreakers agreed to stop work in exchange for safe passage out. On the morning of June 22, they came out of the mine, and union workers marched them toward town, along the way killing the mine’s one-legged superintendent.

After several miles of walking, the group reached a barbwire fence. Strikers lined up the scabs against the fence and told them to run for their lives. As they clawed to climb the fence, strikers opened fire, killing and wounding many.

The final death toll was 23. In the aftermath, prosecutors obtained 214 indictments. But when the first few resulted in acquittals by sympathetic local juries, the rest were dropped.

The nation reacted to the massacre with disgust. President Warren Harding characterized it as a “shocking crime, barbarity, butchery, rot and madness.”

The Cherry Mine Disaster

Though touted for modern safeguards, the St. Paul Coal Co. Mine sparked one of the worst disasters in mining history.

The mine, located in Cherry about 50 miles northeast of Peoria, was considered to be secure when it opened in 1905. But on Nov. 13, 1909, an electric outage prompted miners to light kerosene lanterns and torches to continue to pull coal from the deep mine.

Shortly after noon, embers from a wall lantern dropped below into a coal car filled with hay for mules. Flames spread to support timbers and quickly raced through the mine.

This postcard shows the ruins of the fan building (with the semicircular roof) as a result of the Cherry Mine Disaster.
This postcard shows the ruins of the fan building (with the semicircular roof) as a result of the Cherry Mine Disaster.
Provided by the Journal Star of Peoria

 

Of 490 miners, 200 men and boys managed to scramble out. Meanwhile, a large shaft fan was reversed in an attempt to blow out the fire but only succeeded in spreading the blaze. The mine’s two shafts were shut to smother the fire, but the tactic cut off oxygen to miners and allowed black damp (a suffocating mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen) to build up in the mine.

Twelve volunteers went down a shaft in a lift to attempt a rescue. All died.

Eight days after the ordeal began, 21 survivors were brought to the surface, though two later died. In the end, 259 men and boys died.

Several families lost two or more relatives. Among the dead were a father-son team, the Kralls, whose bodies were found locked in an embrace.

This 1909 photo shows mourners and coffins in the wake of the Cherry Mine Disaster.
This 1909 photo shows mourners and coffins in the wake of the Cherry Mine Disaster. Provided by the Journal Star of Peoria

 

The disaster also claimed the lives of brothers John, Morrison, David and James Love, immigrants from Scotland. A surviving Love brother, William, later married the widow of one of the men who died while trying to rescue the trapped miners.

The Cherry Mine Disaster inspired a crackdown on child-labor laws and led to mine-safety rules that eventually paved the way to modern worker’s compensation laws.

This story is part of the Illinois Important Dates series, a collection of stories written by newspapers around the state, including the Chicago Sun-Times, and distributed by the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors Association and the Illinois Press Association.

Can we stop sugarcoating horror now?

Chicago Sun Times

Can we stop sugarcoating horror now?

From World War II to the latest gun massacre, the media is too quick to spin horror into a heroic story.

With the anniversary of the start of World War II nearly upon us, a New Jersey publicist sent me an email last week, pitching the feel-good story of Dutch teenage girls seducing and killing Nazi officers.

My first thought was: “It’s always the anniversary of some World War II event. The beginning. The end. Pearl Harbor. D-Day …”

My second thought was: “Yeah. Sept. 1. Sunday. Thanks for the advance notice. Making it … 75 … no, started 1939 … 80 years.”)

Girls killing Nazis. Tempting. Who wants to swim the depths of horror? To risk drowning in humanity’s bottomless evil? To realize just how tenuous our foothold on civilization’s shore? Very human to pluck at thrilling tales of heroism, bobbing on this sea of gore.

But can you do that too much?

The media rushes so quickly to comfort that it overshoots reality. What used to be a ray of relief from general horror has become the main event. And not just regarding the Holocaust. We’re too keen to put the bright spin on atrocity. Ten seconds of shock, then straight to “Wind Beneath My Wings,” and closure.

I’d suspected it before, after mass shootings, like the one Saturday in Texas. The grim law enforcement chiefs assemble around a podium to share what little is known about the killer. But not before they put in a plug for first responders — didn’t they work great together? Kudos all around for a job well-done!

Then the heroes are trotted out, dead or alive. The media can’t celebrate them fast enough, people who shielded their loved ones, who herded the terrified schoolchildren into an empty classroom and cowered in the darkness. Humanity at its best!

Of course, it’s merited. A tough job, to confront an armed madman, to bind up victims, to squeegee up the mess. Even tougher to exhibit courage in a deadly situation. Who could complain about celebrating heroes?

Me, I guess. Apologies. But someone has to. The blood has barely stopped flowing, and we’re spinning the nightmare into something inspiring. A tendency we must resist. Because it isn’t pretty. Maybe unexamined prettification is part of the problem. Dial back the hero stuff and start tweeting pictures of the slain, their heads blown open and guts hanging out. Because that’s the reality. That’s the bottom line. Fewer flickering candles and piles of teddy bears, more bodies stacked like cordwood. Fewer heroes, more weeping moms, their faces twisted in the agony of loss.

And don’t worry, the dead don’t mind. Those in the past are unaffected by whatever we do. Whether celebrated or forgotten, revered or ridiculed, their pain is over. It is their stories that remain current, perspectives to use as tools to construct our present and grope toward some kind of future.

That’s why viewing the truth unvarnished is so important. Germany, defeated, looked the horror it created in the eye, owned it and moved on, achieving a sort of redemption, a place back at the table of humanity. This allowed Germany to welcome a million Muslim refugees, benefiting both the immigrants and themselves. The dead are buried, but these people are here now.

Japan, also defeated, brushed aside its shame, using the pair of A-bombs to spin themselves as victims — nobody cries like a bully — and avoided learning its lesson. They preferred clinging to notions of superiority. No immigrants for them, sullying their supposed purity. They prefer to die a slow, demographic death, the nation hollowing out, aging, in decline.

We don’t have to choose between lambs to the slaughter or resistance fighters. It’s possible to achieve a balance, to view the mountain of horror and its thin gilding of hope. Both Anne Frank and the million voiceless Jewish children who died in the Holocaust.

When we make history into a pretty story, we set ourselves up for a fall. The election of Barack Obama was initially spun as a sign that America had awoken from its long nightmare of racism. Turns out, hate is hardier than that. It had only slipped offstage to don a new disguise before returning, invigorated and in charge. That’s another reason to view the past with clear eyes. Because as the man said, it isn’t really past, and if we flee the truth, the truth will come and find us. Then we’ll see it.

10 fascinating facts about the Labor Day holiday

Constitution Daily

10 fascinating facts about the Labor Day holiday

By National Constitution Center Staff          September 2, 2019

The first Monday in September is celebrated nationally as Labor Day. So how did we get the holiday and why is no one quite sure who created it?

1908-WTUL-labordayThe Labor Day holiday grew out of the late 19th century organized labor movement, and it quickly became a national holiday as the labor movement assumed a prominent role in American society. Here’s how it all started, with the facts, as we know them, supplied by the Labor Department, the Library Of Congress, and other sources.

1. The idea first became public in 1882. In September 1882, the unions of New York City decided to have a parade to celebrate their members being in unions, and to show support for all unions. At least 20,000 people were there, and the workers had to give up a day’s pay to attend. There was also a lot of beer involved in the event.

2. The New York parade inspired other unions. Other regions started having parades, and by 1887, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Colorado made Labor Day a state holiday.

3. How did the Haymarket Affair influence Labor Day? On May 4, 1886, a bomb exploded at a union rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, which led to violence that killed seven police officers and four others. The incident also led to May 1 being celebrated in most nations as Workers Day. The U.S. government chose Labor Day instead to avoid a celebration on May 1 and New York’s unions had already picked the first Monday in September for their holiday.

4. Two people with similar names are credited with that first New York City event. Matthew Maguire, a machinist, and Peter McGuire, a carpenter, have been linked to the 1882 parade. The men were from rival unions; in 2011, Linda Stinson, a former U.S. Department of Labor’s historian, said she didn’t know which man should be credited – partially because people over the years confused them because of their similar-sounding names.

5. Grover Cleveland helped make Labor Day a national holiday. After violence related to the Pullman railroad strike, President Cleveland and lawmakers in Washington wanted a federal holiday to celebrate labor – and not a holiday celebrated on May 1. Cleveland signed an act in 1894 establishing the federal holiday; most states had already passed laws establishing a Labor Day holiday by that point. Sen. James Henderson Kyle of South Dakota introduced S. 730 to make Labor Day a federal legal holiday on the first Monday of September. It was approved on June 28, 1894.

6. The holiday has evolved over the years. In the late 19th century, celebrations focused on parades in urban areas. Now the holiday is a celebration that honors organized labor with fewer parades, and more activities. It also marks the perceived end of the summer season.

7. Can you wear white after Labor Day? This old tradition goes back to the late Victorian era, where it was a fashion faux pas to wear any white clothing after the summer officially ended on Labor Day. The tradition isn’t really followed anymore. EmilyPost.com explains the logic behind the fashion trend – white indicated you were still in vacation mode at your summer cottage.

8. Labor Day is the unofficial end of Hot Dog season. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says that between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Americans will eat 7 billion hot dogs.

9. How many people are union members today? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 14.8 million union members in the workforce in 2017. There were 17.7 million in 1983.

10. What is the biggest union today? The National Education Association has about 3 million people who are members, including inactive and lifetime members.

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