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Working stiffs and their votes
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1815 EAST AVE • 244.3460 RISTORANTELUCANO.COM
City
NOVEMBER 3-9, 2010
Regarding Ron Netsky’s “Labor’s Love Lost” (October 13): I have not read “Stayin’ Alive: The 1970’s and the Last Days of the Working Class,” but the title of that book alone raises two questions regarding Jefferson Cowie’s ability to discuss workers and work with any semblance of knowledge. First (and this may come as a shock): there IS still a working class. I am a member of it, everyone I work with is a member of it, the people sitting sleepily behind most of the oncoming headlights I pass at 5 a.m. every weekday are likely members of it. I’m not talking about “labor” and I’m not talking about “jobs”; I’m talking about work. I’m talking about doing what you don’t necessarily love doing (and maybe hate doing) and maybe cursing at the alarm clock every time it rings but then getting up and getting dressed and getting to the place where you do it. Whether it’s lifting steel or filing papers or milking cows or anything else: if you do it for the money and you can be kept on or fired depending upon performance, I call it work. And though it might not be obvious, there are a lot of us doing it. Ron Netsky asked Mr. Cowie: “Why do working people vote against their best interests?” Put yourself in the shoes of a working person, someone who lifts things all day, or deals with impossible situations all day, or does anything that requires true effort all day. Then imagine that lasting your whole lifetime. Then think about the government (Democrats and Republicans and Independents) that takes your money, something you’re trading your life for. Then consider the insult in the question: “Why do working people vote against their best interests?”
What bothers me most is that you would never have the guts to separate people into any other group and pose this question. If you changed “working people” to “blondes” someone would’ve found it offensive and tossed it. I’m going easy on you here, but you get the picture. That’s all I’ve got, other than to say that if Cowie’s dad had written a book, I bet a lot of us would’ve found it fascinating. MICHAEL JONES, FARMINGTON
Working class: not ‘the last days’
I appreciate the profile of Jefferson Cowie by Ron Netsky (“Labor’s Love Lost,” October 13). A few observations, however, to place that article in a larger context: First, the class politics of the New Deal were damaged long before Nixon when McCarthyism purged unions, academic institutions, and popular culture of supposed “communists” and left-leaning cultural workers in the 1950’s. That oppressive shadow lingers today so that socialism remains a dirty word. Second, it is not accidental that politicians have a hard time actually saying the words “working class” and substituting some kind of amorphous “middle.” This category obfuscates the real differences between the powerful and powerless, those few with many choices, and the many with limiting circumstances. Third, without any significant media attention, some of us have pushed back against this deliberate erasure through the formation of working-class studies in the academy and community, labor, and academic affiliations. Yes, the working class have multiple cultures — expressed through literature, music, photography, murals, films, etc. — people’s cultures, not corporate-determined pop culture. (Bruce Springsteen is the heroic and poetic exception.) Working-class studies is not, by the way, white studies. Fourth, in explaining the political shift claimed by Cowie, Netsky writes: “As Democrats began bringing more women, minorities, and youth to the party, Republicans took advantage by appealing to the working class.” Well, are there no women, minorities, and young of the working class? It’s a false dichotomy and assumes that hard hats and a macho swagger somehow define the working class.
Fifth, as someone born and raised in the working class, I want to emphasize the value of that identity, the ethos of shared struggle and mutuality that is my cherished legacy. The right wing and Republicans still have not figured out how to appropriate those values. Finally, I welcome this cover story and hope that it will coax City to cover labor issues as it has in the past, remembering, though, that people are more than their jobs. JANET ZANDY, ROCHESTER
From our website
On Mario Danielle and the eagles’ nest on his Irondequoit Bay property: Although I
understand Mr. Daniele’s desire for a return on investment, we are not talking about just “a bird,” and not just “an endangered species.” This is the bald eagle ... the very symbol of our country. Where’s the patriotic duty to respect and protect this priceless creature? The Fed’s 330-foot buffer is a joke, a compromise (deal?) between politicians and corporate interests. These birds require miles of untrampled space. There’s a reason why they are endangered: that space is getting destroyed 330 feet at a time. I’ve seen more bald eagles in short visits to Canada than I have in a lifetime in the USA. Maybe we’ll have to eventually swap our Eagles for Maple Leafs. BRIAN M.
On a report by the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights indicating that white nationalist groups are connected to the Tea Party movement: “We’ve seen the signs
at Tea Party rallies, depicting President Obama as Hitler.” Really? As a rule? And you didn’t manage to notice all the “Bushitler” signage only a few years ago? “And we’ve listened to some of the extremist views that are unmistakably racist.” Really? And as a journalist you can’t manage to reference any of them or produce quotes from tea party speeches? Is it possible they might be imaginary projections? Fearmongering is at the very least unbecoming, and often a sign of desperation. CRAIG H.
News. Music. Life. Greater Rochester’s Alternative Newsweekly November 3-9, 2010 Vol 40 No 8 250 North Goodman Street Rochester, New York 14607-1199 themail@rochester-citynews.com phone (585) 244-3329 fax (585) 244-1126 rochestercitynewspaper.com Publishers: William and Mary Anna Towler Editor: Mary Anna Towler Asst. to the publishers: Matt Walsh Editorial department themail@rochester-citynews.com Features editor: Eric Rezsnyak News editor: Chris Carrie Fien Staff writers: Tim Louis Macaluso, Jeremy Moule Music writer: Frank De Blase Music editor: Dale A. Evans Calendar editor: Rebecca Rafferty Contributing writers: Casey Carlsen, George Grella, Susie Hume, Laura Keeney, Kathy Laluk, Michael Lasser, James Leach, Ron Netsky, Dayna Papaleo, Rebecca Rafferty, Saby Reyes-Kulkarni, Todd Rezsnyak, Annie Rimbach, Mark Shipley, Rob Sickelco Editorial interns: Jesse Hanus, Caitlin Shapiro Art department artdept@rochester-citynews.com Production manager: Max Seifert Designers: Aubrey Berardini, Matt DeTurck Photographers: Frank De Blase, Matt DeTurck, Michael Hanlon, Jeffrey Marini Advertising department ads@rochester-citynews.com Advertising sales manager: Betsy Matthews Account executives: Tom Decker, Annalisa Iannone, William Towler Classified sales representatives: Christine Kubarycz, Tracey Mykins Operations/Circulation info@rochester-citynews.com Circulation Assistant: Katherine Stathis Distribution: Andy DiCiaccio, David Riccioni, Northstar Delivery City Newspaper is available free of charge. Additional copies of the current issue may be purchased for $1, payable in advance at the City Newspaper office. City Newspaper may be distributed only by authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of City Newspaper, take more than one copy of each weekly issue. City (ISSN 1551-3262) is published weekly by WMT Publications, Inc. Periodical postage paid at Rochester, NY (USPS 022-138). Send address changes to City, 250 North Goodman Street, Rochester, NY 14607. City is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and the New York Press Association. Subscriptions: $35.00 ($30.00 for senior citizens) for one year. Add $10 yearly for out-of-state subscriptions: add $30 yearly for foreign subscriptions. Due to the initial high cost of establishing new subscriptions, refunds for fewer than ten months cannot be issued. Copyright by WMT Publications Inc., 2010 - all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, photocopying, recording or by any information storage retrieval system without permission of the copyright owner.