Huey Long: An Original Voice of the 99%
Every individual is a blend of struggling motivations, except perhaps for the garden variety sociopaths that seem to occupy many places of power these days. Most of us, however, endeavor to exhibit the noble of our character as we try to calm the howls of ego that so often derail the best of intentions.
Perhaps no historical figure exemplifies this strange dichotomy better than Louisiana’s Huey Long. Progressive internet sites have revisited the man and his words in recent weeks. His evaluation of wealth disparity echoes from the halls in which he delivered his thunderous speeches during the roaring 20s and the Great Depression. You can even view some of his more rousing talks with a simple search — the films exist. Long served as governor and Senator for the state of Louisiana, advancing a radical populism unheard of in our present time. An unabashed supporter of wealth re-distribution when obscene levels were met, his speeches and early deeds did quite a lot to restructure feudal Louisiana society. Long even coined the use of the 99% well before Occupy found that to be a unifying theme.
But that was only part of the story.
I became fascinated by Long many years ago after reading Robert Penn Warren’s gorgeous work “All the King’s
The Dreadful Candy Caper
What happened recently at the Hershey candy factory, in Palmyra, Pennsylvania, has to be considered one of the weirdest and most outrageous labor stories of the new year.
First the outrageous part. According to a story in the New York Times (February 21), Exel, the logistics company hired by Hershey to oversee its Palmyra operation, was found guilty by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) of intentionally failing to report 42 serious injuries in the plant over a period of four years. Those 42 accidents constituted 43-percent of all such injuries that occurred during that period.
The majority of those injuries were related to the lifting and rehandling of large crates (some weighing 60 pounds) of Reese’s cups, Kit-Kat bars, and Hershey’s Kisses. The Labor Department issued fines in the amount of $280,000, and David Michaels, the Assistant Secretary of Labor in charge of OSHA, was quoted as saying, “Exel understood exactly what the law was on reporting. They were aware of these other injuries, and they just
How Social Isolation Kills
Sitting down to create a life plan is a time for people, especially young people, to demonstrate their hopes for the future. For the young the possibilities seem endless so you will hear a good sprinkling of pro-basketball player, astronaut and race car driver during these conversations. Few would identify the fate of an elderly couple and their son in the Japanese city of Saitama as desirable. Last week, the emaciated bodies of these three people were found in their apartment. They had died of starvation and no one had even bothered to check. Isolated, despondent and starving may not make into the typical life plan, but it is increasingly becoming a real possibility for people in the advanced capitalist economies all over the world.
Perhaps even more shocking is the fact that the bodies of the three victims remained in the apartment one month after they had starved to death. They were only discovered when the landlord of the apartment complex called the police and went with officers to demand payment of months overdue rent. Newspaper reports indicate that the family was several months behind on the rent and that electric and gas service to the apartment had