Taking control

Feb. 24, 2011

Dear Frank,

By the time the unrest raging in the Middle East ends the world may look very different to the many millions who have spent their lives under the control of dictatorships and oligarchies. Their leaders belong to a world that does not exist anymore, due in large part to communication technologies they can't control. The fear of Big Brother yields to the wonders of freedom.

Here in the U.S., we watch, amazed, not knowing what the outcome will be, knowing we can't control it either. But the human struggle to control our own lives has a home front. Look at the governor of Wisconsin insisting that public workers give up their right to collective bargaining. When asked why, his response is, "We're broke."

Like a minor league Gaddafi or Mubarak, he wants the right to run the lives of those whose sweat turns the wheels in Wisconsin. Dictators claim that right by declaring a state of emergency -- a state of fear -- that lasts for decades. "We're broke" is the same rationale.

Wisconsin midwifed the Progressive Movement that at the beginning of the 20th century brought about the nation's first workers' compensation law, regulated for the first time our food and drug supply, passed labor laws protecting women and children and helped women win the right to vote.

Progressivism grew out of the belief that government should serve the people rather than special interests.

But where was our government while Wall Street was stealing America's future? Along for the ride.

If tea partiers love freedom, then they cannot endorse government taking away the rights of workers to control their own destiny.

Back in the 1970s my father walked a picket line for many months when the newspaper he worked for -- this newspaper under different ownership -- refused to negotiate with its back-shop workers' newly formed union. The newspaper brought in workers from Oklahoma and elsewhere to fill the strikers' jobs. My father taught himself to tune pianos. He and my mother scrimped.

Busting the strike hurt the family-owned newspaper, too. It was sold to a media conglomerate. After the prescribed amount of time the new workers voted on the union again and the union of course lost.

The newspaper eventually rehired my father, but a new bitterness was in him. He had lost more than a fight.

The home front in the battle for control is never far away. Cape Girardeau voters soon will decide whether to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. Those who oppose the ban often cite the right of business owners to operate their business free from interference. Some who own businesses are owners rather than employees because they don't want other people telling them what to do.

But the county doesn't allow restaurants and bars to operate unhealthy kitchens or bathrooms. Protecting its citizens remains one of government's proper roles.

When government serves the people, Progressivism knew, everyone prospers. When government serves itself and other masters, the people are bound to begin climbing the barricades.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is a former reporter for the Southeast Missourian.