Today marks the first time in Arizona history that there has been a statewide teacher's strike! The Governor had previously promised to increase their wages by 20% by 2020 but he proposed paying for that raise with overly rosy economic forecasts, projected savings in Medicaid, and sweeps from other funds. Teachers considered the plan, but ultimately rejected it because it did not consider their other concerns which included raises for support staff, funds for facilities for textbooks which in many school districts are over a decade old. Arizona has among the lowest paid teachers in the nation and our outcomes for students near the bottom. Of course those in power condemn the teachers' actions stating it will hurt the kids and that teachers are being selfish. This is to be expected... In fact, on April 20, 1914 the Ludlow Massacre occurred. I think it is worth remembering other worker struggles, especially when the anniversary of the event coincides with a historic contemporary strike.
On April 20, 1914 the Colorado National Guard attacked a tent colony of 1,200 coal miners and their families who had been protesting since September of 1913. The miners wanted decent pay, improved safety and better living conditions (they were housed in shacks prior to the strike, but were evicted as soon as the strike began). When they first saw the National Guard they thought that the Guard had been sent to protect them from the corporate gunman hired by the Rockefeller interests. But alas, the Guard was sent by the state to end the standoff. They lured the miner's leader away from camp and executed him then rained down machine gun fire on the tent colony killing 13 and wounding many more. Women and children dug ditches in their tents to protect themselves from the gunfire, but the Guard set the tents on fire and the next day the charred bodies of 11 children and two women were found.....you can imagine that shit got real after that...you'll have to read it yourself.
Woody Guthrie wrote a song about it:
Song: Ludlow Massacre
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
It was early springtime when the strike was on,
They drove us miners out of doors,
Out from the houses that the Company owned,
We moved into tents up at old Ludlow.
I was worried bad about my children,
Soldiers guarding the railroad bridge,
Every once in a while a bullet would fly,
Kick up gravel under my feet.
We were so afraid you would kill our children,
We dug us a cave that was seven foot deep,
Carried our young ones and pregnant women
Down inside the cave to sleep.
That very night your soldiers waited,
Until all us miners were asleep,
You snuck around our little tent town,
Soaked our tents with your kerosene.
So, yeah...workers' struggles have been going on for a long while against the rich and powerful.
In other news 4/20 is the unofficial or official day stoners celebrate pot. Having worked in the criminal justice system and in correctional health I have seen firsthand how many people are arrested, put on probation, and jailed for weed. So, while countless lives have been affected by the drug war, while millions of Americans have lost their rights and have felony convictions for this harmless substance, the rich have realized that they can profit off of it and now there is a sea change. There is no proposal to let marijuana offenders out of jail, purge their criminal records or even pay reparations for the harm that has been done to their families - no. But the former Speaker of the House, John-effing-Boehner has joined a marijuana company and is supporting a change in the classification of the substance. This is a guy who said he was opposed to reclassifying the drug many times in the past. Another sign of the times is that Forbes is running pieces about marijuana legalization.
While I was working as a Graduate Student at the University of Arizona medical marijuana was passed by the voters in our great desert state. The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) was put in charge of implementing the law, licensing dispensaries, and establishing rules. ADHS contracted U of A to develop an online class for physicians which would help them understand what the peer-reviewed literature said about the medicinal uses. Guess who helped developed the class? I did! There actually quite a few known medical uses - pain & nausea relief are well known/documented ones - but since it is classified as a schedule one drug researchers have to obtain special permission to study it. This has severely limited research in the US, but there are a couple of research centers that have permission to conduct studies. Interestingly in the past couple of days the FDA is recommending approval of the first cannabis-based drug for epilepsy. These are strange times.
Columbine happened 19 years ago today, I was 22. National School Walkouts took place today. US news covered it. Remember Bowling for Columbine? I do. The next year (2000) a 6-year-old in Flint shot a first-grade classmate at the public elementary school serving Husband's neighborhood. These are the first school shooting I remember watching on TV and hearing about. I know there were more before that, but that is when I started paying attention. Brother knows about Parkland and we participated in #MarchforOurLives in Phoenix. It's so unacceptable that our politicians work for the powerful instead of the people. I hate that I have to have these conversations with my kiddo. The Parkland students weren't even born when Columbine took place....we've had so many moments to prevent this shit....
My closing thoughts have to do with the environmental degradation recently noted by scientists around the globe as well as a couple very hopeful examples of what we could do if we took our heads our of our collective asses. First, half the coral in the great barrier reef has died since 2016. Wow. Let that sink in for a sec. Remember the fact that we are part of a global ecosystem. We just don't know what the long-term consequences of this tragedy are. Secondly the 100th meridian which has historically divided the climate of the east of the US from the west is shifting east due to climate change. It's moved about 140 miles since 1980.
In hopeful news, I have been following the Our Children's Trust lawsuit where 21 youth are suing the Federal Government for failing to take action on climate change arguing the failure to do so is violating the youths' right to life, liberty, and property as well as failing to protect essential public trust resources. They are having success in the Federal District courts. Finally, Portugal produced in excess of their country's electricity needs from 100% renewable energy in the month of March 2018. They are scheduling the closure of their coal powerplants and shifting their economy to a green one. We need to be part of the solution. We need to make different collective choices - and soon.
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