survival in a cutthroat economy
hazelwoodhomepage.com
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Responding to higher prices
With all the changes going on in the world, it would be easy to fall prey to fear. But I assume the universe runs on logic, that there is a reason for everything, so let's calmly assess the situation. Maybe we can see what it is we human beings are supposed to learn at this point in history.
First lesson I think is that there is a concrete connection between morality and material well-being. If we as a country, for instance, choose to go the way of the thief - stealing other countries' resources - the reaction of the world will be to designate us as an enemy and so will come a backlash. Isn't this what is happening now, with the dollar in decline and America the new bad guy in the eyes of the world? If we're being spanked right now, maybe it's because we need to wake up. We've forgotten that the heart of power is love. When the citizens of the United States stood up for justice and the victims of the world, our reputations went up. When we played the part of world pirates, using our superior technology and economic might to enslave others, our reputations and later power declined.
Sooner or later - and it might as well be now - we're going to have to face the fact that we continue to be a slave-holding nation. Oh, we made slavery illegal allright, but then many of our international businesspeople outsourced the slave business to other countries so as to avoid our laws and whitewash our consciences. Now we buy goods from overseas that have been made under labor conditions every bit as bad as those before the Emancipation Proclamation and the formation of the unions.
Pittsburgh's labor history is not well known. Working conditions were absolutely murderous until the unions fought their way into existence. And workers are going back to becoming more poorly treated in the United States now that the unions have lost a lot of their power.
Very little of how brutally factory workers are being treated in other parts of the world reaches our news media. There is a staggering number of people in the world who are being treated as nothing more than work animals - by factory owners skilled in hiding working conditions from traders (which allows the traders the illusion that the goods they buy are honestly come by). The international nature of business has allowed countries' laws to be subverted. There's little international ability to prosecute what goes on outside one's own nation. Too many large financial concerns - such as some corporations which have control of more money than most countries - have more power than morality and so are destroying the financial system.
Would you feel safer in a den of thieves or a church full of prayers? Well, Wall Street is not being treated as a sacred place. The financial system is imploding because too many people are gaming it.
We're going to suffer higher prices until we learn to rely more on ourselves. Locally grown food is one strategy the wiser are pushing. The costs of everything having to do with growing, processing, distribution, and marketing food are going up. So the end result is that, to the extent the consumer can become a "pro-sumer" - producing as much of what she or he consumes as possible - the price increases at the store can be managed. You don't have to buy what you produce yourself.
Working with those nearby doesn't necessarily have to involve money.
To the extent that we can work together with those around us - not worrying about translating every little good or service into it's dollar value - we can get things done without money. If a person has an ability to do something useful, think of that as money in the bank. Trade it with a neighbor, or even just give it away and don't be afraid to ask a neighbor when you need something. The best community is one where people help rather than fear each other, and that's a most efficient way of doing business.
Labor history professor Charles McCollester of Mt. Washington, who I would like to see as mayor someday, wants people to know of the following local labor history events:
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Responding to higher prices
With all the changes going on in the world, it would be easy to fall prey to fear. But I assume the universe runs on logic, that there is a reason for everything, so let's calmly assess the situation. Maybe we can see what it is we human beings are supposed to learn at this point in history.
First lesson I think is that there is a concrete connection between morality and material well-being. If we as a country, for instance, choose to go the way of the thief - stealing other countries' resources - the reaction of the world will be to designate us as an enemy and so will come a backlash. Isn't this what is happening now, with the dollar in decline and America the new bad guy in the eyes of the world? If we're being spanked right now, maybe it's because we need to wake up. We've forgotten that the heart of power is love. When the citizens of the United States stood up for justice and the victims of the world, our reputations went up. When we played the part of world pirates, using our superior technology and economic might to enslave others, our reputations and later power declined.
Sooner or later - and it might as well be now - we're going to have to face the fact that we continue to be a slave-holding nation. Oh, we made slavery illegal allright, but then many of our international businesspeople outsourced the slave business to other countries so as to avoid our laws and whitewash our consciences. Now we buy goods from overseas that have been made under labor conditions every bit as bad as those before the Emancipation Proclamation and the formation of the unions.
Pittsburgh's labor history is not well known. Working conditions were absolutely murderous until the unions fought their way into existence. And workers are going back to becoming more poorly treated in the United States now that the unions have lost a lot of their power.
Very little of how brutally factory workers are being treated in other parts of the world reaches our news media. There is a staggering number of people in the world who are being treated as nothing more than work animals - by factory owners skilled in hiding working conditions from traders (which allows the traders the illusion that the goods they buy are honestly come by). The international nature of business has allowed countries' laws to be subverted. There's little international ability to prosecute what goes on outside one's own nation. Too many large financial concerns - such as some corporations which have control of more money than most countries - have more power than morality and so are destroying the financial system.
Would you feel safer in a den of thieves or a church full of prayers? Well, Wall Street is not being treated as a sacred place. The financial system is imploding because too many people are gaming it.
We're going to suffer higher prices until we learn to rely more on ourselves. Locally grown food is one strategy the wiser are pushing. The costs of everything having to do with growing, processing, distribution, and marketing food are going up. So the end result is that, to the extent the consumer can become a "pro-sumer" - producing as much of what she or he consumes as possible - the price increases at the store can be managed. You don't have to buy what you produce yourself.
Working with those nearby doesn't necessarily have to involve money.
To the extent that we can work together with those around us - not worrying about translating every little good or service into it's dollar value - we can get things done without money. If a person has an ability to do something useful, think of that as money in the bank. Trade it with a neighbor, or even just give it away and don't be afraid to ask a neighbor when you need something. The best community is one where people help rather than fear each other, and that's a most efficient way of doing business.
Labor history professor Charles McCollester of Mt. Washington, who I would like to see as mayor someday, wants people to know of the following local labor history events:
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Monday April 28 – Worker’s Memorial Day
Market Square
11:30 AM – Crystal Eastman State Historical Marker unveiling
Noon: Worker’s Memorial Day Commemoration honoring all those who died
on the job during the past year. Keynote speakers: Rich Trumka,
Secretary-Treasurer AFL-CIO and Fred Redmond, Vice-President USW.
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IUP - 7:00 PM
An Evening with the Author
Dr. Devra Davis
Presentation and Book Signing
Author: The Secret History of the War on Cancer
When Smoke Ran Like Water (About the Donora Smog)
Eberly College of Business Auditorium, IUP - Free Admission
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Saturday May 3 – 1:30 PM
The Slave Ship
Marcus Rediker
Presentation and Book Signing
At the Pumphouse Waterfront Drive – Munhall PA
The Battle of Homestead Foundation
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Wednesday May 7 to Sunday May 11 - 8:30 PM
Gift to America
Maxo Vanka’s Murals
At St. Nicholas Church in Millvale
The dramatic murals at St. Nicholas are one of the most powerful
artistic expressions of American immigrant
and labor history in
America. The best known of the murals entitled “The Croatian Mother
raises her Sons for Industry” portrays a horrific mining accident in
the Johnstown area in which the family lost four sons. In a pair of
opposing murals, a Croatian family partakes of bread and soup with
Christ present, opposite the Capitalist who is reading a stock report
while being served a sumptuous dinner by a black servant with a
starving beggar at his feet.
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Saturday May 17 - 1:30 PM
Teaching Pittsburgh 250 – A Roundtable Discussion about Pittsburgh's 250th birthday
With Charles McCollester; Kate Daher, CAPA; Dave Fiore Pine-Richland:
Rich Williams, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial ; and others to be
confirmed
At the Pumphouse Waterfront Drive – Munhall PA
The Battle of Homestead Foundation
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Gift to America” play will highlight Vanka Murals at St. Nicholas Church
In celebration of Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary, actors and theatrical lighting will bring the murals of Maxo Vanka to life in the play “Gift to America,” which will run at 8:30 P.M., May 7-10 at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale.
The dramatic murals at St. Nicholas are one of the most powerful artistic expressions of American immigrant and labor history in America. The best known of the murals entitled “The Croatian Mother raises her Sons for Industry” portrays a horrific mining accident in the Johnstown area in which the family lost four sons. In a pair of opposing murals, a Croatian family partakes of bread and soup with Christ present, opposite the Capitalist who is reading a stock report while being served a sumptuous dinner by a black servant with a starving beggar at his feet.
The one-hour play is a conversation about the murals between Vanka and Father Albert Zagar, the priest who commissioned the murals. Two female characters also are a part of the dramatic reading, which will be accompanied by Tamburitzan music. Scripted by Carnegie Mellon University Professor Emeritus of English David Demarest, the play originally was staged in 1981. The murals described by Time magazine as “one of the few distinguished sets of murals in the U.S.,” depict the ravages of war and the sacrifices of immigrant workers in early 20th century industrial America. They also honor the congregation’s Croatian heritage and Christian faith. Vanka had recently immigrated when he began to paint the murals in 1937, and called them his “gift to America.”
The vivid imagery depicted on the walls and ceilings of the Millvale church reveal a passion that is both universal and uniquely Croatian. After seeing the murals, rock musician David Byrne of the Talking Heads called Vanka “the Diego Rivera of Pittsburgh.”
The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka is staging the play, and hopes to raise greater awareness of the murals. The performance will kick off a campaign to fund the illumination and preservation of the murals. The Labor Center at IUP is supporting the production with a grant.
Tickets are $10 and will be available at the door; no reservations or advances sales. For more information, call Diane Novosel at (724) 845-2907. www.vankamurals.org or vankamurals@aol.com
In celebration of Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary, actors and theatrical lighting will bring the murals of Maxo Vanka to life in the play “Gift to America,” which will run at 8:30 P.M., May 7-10 at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale.
The dramatic murals at St. Nicholas are one of the most powerful artistic expressions of American immigrant and labor history in America. The best known of the murals entitled “The Croatian Mother raises her Sons for Industry” portrays a horrific mining accident in the Johnstown area in which the family lost four sons. In a pair of opposing murals, a Croatian family partakes of bread and soup with Christ present, opposite the Capitalist who is reading a stock report while being served a sumptuous dinner by a black servant with a starving beggar at his feet.
The one-hour play is a conversation about the murals between Vanka and Father Albert Zagar, the priest who commissioned the murals. Two female characters also are a part of the dramatic reading, which will be accompanied by Tamburitzan music. Scripted by Carnegie Mellon University Professor Emeritus of English David Demarest, the play originally was staged in 1981. The murals described by Time magazine as “one of the few distinguished sets of murals in the U.S.,” depict the ravages of war and the sacrifices of immigrant workers in early 20th century industrial America. They also honor the congregation’s Croatian heritage and Christian faith. Vanka had recently immigrated when he began to paint the murals in 1937, and called them his “gift to America.”
The vivid imagery depicted on the walls and ceilings of the Millvale church reveal a passion that is both universal and uniquely Croatian. After seeing the murals, rock musician David Byrne of the Talking Heads called Vanka “the Diego Rivera of Pittsburgh.”
The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka is staging the play, and hopes to raise greater awareness of the murals. The performance will kick off a campaign to fund the illumination and preservation of the murals. The Labor Center at IUP is supporting the production with a grant.
Tickets are $10 and will be available at the door; no reservations or advances sales. For more information, call Diane Novosel at (724) 845-2907. www.vankamurals.org or vankamurals@aol.com
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 4:21 PM
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