This is a watershed moment for the American labor movement. Drastically weakened by decades of a corporate offensive against workers in the private sector, the labor movement is now being frontally attacked at its last stronghold: public-sector unions. If the current assault on labor -- now being spearheaded by Governor Scott Walker's push to eliminate the bargaining rights of public-sector workers in Wisconsin -- succeeds, it will leave the United States as the only wealthy democratic country with little more than a shadow of a union movement. In a recent statement, Governor Walker accurately, if somewhat grandiloquently, described the stakes: "This is our moment. This is our time to change the course of history."
Public employees, just 17 percent of union members nationwide in 1973, now comprise half of all union members in the United States. The rise of public-sector unions has coincided -- and partially counter-balanced -- a disastrous decline of private-sector unions, which now represent just 6.9 percent of all workers in the private sector, compared to 24 percent in 1973 and roughly one-third in 1960. In sharp contrast, public-employee unions now represent 36 percent of all public-sector workers -- a figure that goes a long way towards explaining why the right wing has now targeted government workers in an attempt to destroy what is left of the labor movement.
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10/10/10 stands for so many things: Some people are choosing to get married, some are choosing to celebrate being cancer-free or the lives of those they lost to cancer (October is Breast Cancer Awareness month), some people are deciding for whom to cast their vote for governor and other state or local candidates, and still others are joining forces to demand non-genetically modified foods be available today and in the future. Interestingly, all of these represent decisions -- choices -- that we as individuals make, but have impact on the global level. When we make these seemingly individual choices (or when we fail to make choices) we affect the future health of our partners, our children, our pets; the prevalence of cancer and other diseases, allergies and syndromes; the future of the U.S. health care system and the food production system (and their inextricable link); our (U.S.) relationship with our global partners (i.e. other countries).
Amidst all these decisions and choices we have to make, one stands out on 10/10/10 that may not have the awareness of breast cancer, or political candidates, or the financial and health care crisis in the U.S. But it should, because GM foods (genetically modified) act as a thread that pulls all of these and many other issues together for us all, thus it should demand our attention.
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With the recent hubbub over picture books, I thought it timely to look at the latest technology that takes picture books to an entirely new level -- the vook. A vook blends the text of a book, with video, audio, and Internet linking to enhance the content. With this innovation, your child can read the book, listen to narration, watch videos, connect with the author and friends -- all on one device -- without switching between platforms. Vooks can be viewed on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad by downloading as an app through the Apple iTunes store. Or view it on any web brower by purchasing it through the Vook online store.
A search at the Vook site shows 20 titles in the children's category, ranging from The Three Little Pigs, Humpty Dumpty, and The Frog Prince, to The Sherlock Holmes Experience, the Phantom of the Opera, and The Lincoln Letters. In helping your child choose a vook, you'll find a description, author bio, publisher and filmmaker details, and reviews. In most cases, your child can be the first to write a review. The handiest feature at the site is the video trailer that provides an immediate look and feel for what's "inside" each vook.
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Cross posted from thenation.com
When a football player, standing by himself, points a finger to the sky, he is usually either giving praise to God or stating, if you were unaware of this fact, that he is indeed number one. Other players have also been known to raise a different finger in fits of self expression. But last night when two teams, billed as bitter enemies, walked onto the field before the start of the NFL season, holding a finger in the air, you knew that this wasn't business as usual. As the national anthem ended, the defending Super Bowl Champs New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings raised their finger in a gesture directly aimed at the fans and the owners, and the message was clear: "WE are one. We aren't opponents who want to rip our heads off on the field. We are unionists locked in a bitter labor battle against 32 of the most powerful people in the United States, and we will not be moved." On the NFL's website, the heading for this particular clip reads, "Players show solidarity."
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