April 27, 2006
Roger Toussaint is in jail. This means nothing. It is an empty act that serves no one, least of all the Union cause.
Now, with the contract going to binding arbitration, there is little chance that the TWU will gain anything at all from their strike, and in fact will lose what they might have kept earlier.
Like the current American president, Toussaint is attempting to re-spin the strike, changing the rhetoric from “fighting for our unborn” to “repealing the Taylor law”. So now, after his Union was not solidly behind him and after the strike gained nothing and after the MTA refused to accept the same terms that they had previously offered, Toussaint is claiming that the strike was about an unfair law. It is hard to believe that his union, barely squeaking by on the strike vote, would take such a serious and legalistic stance on the abstraction of law.
Who can test this law, anyway? What cases have come up through the courts and brought with them a possible impact on the Taylor law? Thus far, none. They only way to repeal a law like this is through legislation, not the courts. Thus the Martyrdom of Toussaint has no long-lasting impact except upon his self-aggrandizement. A chronic problem here in the US, the trend toward self-serving behavior and fifteen minutes of fame that has dumbed-down virtually every aspect of American culture.
Rather than use the strength of the union to drive home the realities of the wage and hour laws, of the future of healthcare and pensions, of internal corruption and Byzantine hiring and development practices, Toussaint is taking the low road to spin master, and like Bush is trying to re-write motive to suit outcome.
Tags:
martyrdom, mta, taylor law, twu
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Posted on 4/27/2006
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April 14, 2006
The Moussaoui trial is almost over; and soon the sentencing will begin in earnest. Death, or Life in Prison.
The last few days in the courtroom have been spent recounting the horrors of 9/11, a cathartic process for family members and witnesses, but a futile attempt to instill empathy in the heart of soulless man. The soulless man has spoken and claimed a mandate from God. This man is a terrorist, if not by virtue of an act he has committed then by his own avowed belief in the acts of other terrorists. He knows that we fear and will react to terrorism. He has been enjoying our terror.
The reason that terrorism is so terrifying is that it appeals to those who have no empathy, whose souls are merciless and whose individual goals outweigh the whole of humanity. When a charismatic leader like Bin Laden arises, he knows how to take control of and capitalize on this dark feature of the Human psyche. Is Moussaaoui crazy? We could all argue that anyone who justifies the use horrific acts carried out against indiscriminate targets is certainly pathological. But what we have here goes beyond that. Bin Laden has dressed up these men (and sometimes women) in the robes of the Holy Man, claiming to be sanctioned by God to kill as needed and without mercy all those who do not agree with his interpretation of Islam. Moussaoui has proven to be just the right pathological mind for Bin Laden to send out on a so-called Holy Mission. Showing such a man tears and images and the aftermath of his foul deeds will do nothing to change that fact that he is incapable of empathy. It is no different than Hitler’s approach, who himself would have been not the least bit moved by any testimony or tears. It is no different than the Satan-fearing judges at the Salem Witch trials, or the Inquisition. It is a madness, a bloodlust that self-justifies by claiming moral superiority and by denying the humanity of others. These are not people of reasonable minds. They are pathological, incapable of empathy, not worthy of our time.
The real question is what to do with this man, or any others like him whom we might at one time put on trial.
Our own mass-murderer, the Oklahoma City bomber (whose name now escapes me – as it should – a damnation memoriae), was executed. To the end, he had no real empathy for the dead or their survivors – they were, in his words, “collateral damage”, a word he learned in our own military. Even children were killable – just as they were and continue to be for scores of terrorists worldwide.
But the Bin Laden Terrorists are even further removed from any human feelings – they have convinced themselves of the rightness of their purpose and the holiness of their cause, and therefore nothing they do can be questioned, they are above this world – indeed they are above God. What an attractive place for a sociopath! What a safe haven for the predator! What a great gig for the misogynist and the psycho-killer. Attempting to reach out to any sense of empathy is futile. They have all succumbed to a truly satanic form of hatred, one that clothes itself in the notion of a Holy War. War is never holy; no man can claim that it is.
History has taught us nothing. We make the same mistakes over and over again. We create and allow to thrive the Bin Ladens of the world, the super-sociopath who sits in supreme pontification, as though through his lips pass the thoughts of God. Hubris, replete with high tech weapons and a bulletproof ideology – a creature of our collective nightmares.
What then do we do with these Hannibal Lecters of Islam, or any other merciless sociopaths who claim a conduit to the mind of God ?
Life in Prison. Here’s is the daily routine:
1. 5AM wake up call – Perry Como for 1 hour, or similar mood music
2. 6AM breakfast - raw foods only
3. 7AM – cold water enema and shower
4. 8AM – Care Bear cartoons
5. 10AM – Jane Fonda workout video
6. 12PM – lunch – liver and onions or tuna casserole
7. 1PM – water ballet
8. 3PM – Brady Bunch re-runs, or the Partridge Family, or I Dream of Jeannie
9. 6PM – Dinner – Frozen peas & carrots, no salt or pepper
10. 7PM – John Denver songs sung in different language and to organ music
11. 10 PM – Old Ice Skating videos or Leave it to Beaver or the Andy Griffithshow
12. 11PM – lights out, Muzak plays all night.
The prisoner will wear only paisley tunics in red, yellow and orange.
He will not have a single minute of his day where he is not being fed images and sounds over which he has no control.
He will receive no news from the outside world, nor will he be able to see it from any window. If it were not for gravity, he would have no idea of up from down.
He will never know what time it is.
He will have contact only with prison officials wearing Barbie masks and rose water perfume.
If he cries, he has to listen to Tom Jones for 24 straight hours. If he has a temper tantrum, he has to listen to New Age music and watch 8 straight hours of that guy on PBS who shows the viewer how to paint landscape scenes.
If he complains, no one will be there to hear him.
Tags:
death penalty, moussaoui, torture
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Posted on 4/14/2006
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April 01, 2006
When the TWU voted to strike last December, crippling the city of New York and making Christmas miserable for thousands, the main sticking point was what Toussaint referred to as “our unborn”. Had he been more sophisticated and a true strategist, he would have better phrased this idea, which is in essence that what the MTA was proposing is a two-tiered system whereby benefits and protections are different based on date of hire. Toussaint blew an opportunity to address what millions of Americans already face, and what the new French labor law will impose upon hundreds of thousand of French people.
Two-tiered systems are not new. When a system, such as Medicare and Social Security, becomes unworkable or, in the American case, unaffordable for those conservatives who wish to obliterate FDR from the collective memory, a two-tiered is what arises.
Somewhere, a decision is made that the system has to change, and a cut-off point is imposed. The MTA wanted to create such a system, a change that many unions across the globe have faced or are facing now.
The news from France has been pushed off to the side largely because Naomi Campbell’s temper tantrums and Jessica Simpson’s bleached blonde hair make better news. But the news from France is big news, and if the protests take hold and last beyond June (the French vacationing season), these protests could rock the rest of Europe.
While the French youth movement of the 1960’s made splashy news in 1968, it didn’t last long – the French vacationing season overshadowed it. But this is not just a youth movement angered at laws that would allow workers to be terminated within the first two of employment for now reason. It is a reaction against what many see as an Americanization of labor laws. In most of the US, workers are employed “at will”, which simply means that the company who hired them is not obligated to keep them on board. They can be terminated ‘at will”, for almost any reason. In Europe, labor laws have been more favorable towards employees, and firing an employee is not easy.
The French law, which would apply mostly to young people seeking first jobs, would also apply to those who change jobs. The French are up in arms. And it is not a joke.
When the TWU decided to strike, the majority of transit employees interviewed by television reporters decried minutia such as benefit contributions or disciplinary action. The idea of a two-tiered system was swallowed up by the flashier topics of average pay. It was the wrong direction for Toussaint to take his sheep. He led them to a wall of apathy on the part of non-Union workers, which make up the vast majority of the American workforce, who get fired with alarming regularity. Turnover in the workplace is at least 40%, which means getting fired or laid-off is a reality for millions. It is hard to be sympathetic when the sting of a firing remains fresh.
But the French protests, largely peaceful thus far, mark a change in very identity of what it means to be French, and certainly do not bode well for the TWU or other such unions.
Tags:
french student protests, labor laws, mta, strike, twu, unions
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Posted on 4/1/2006
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