Dr. King
wisely said, “In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the
silence of our friends.” I’m beginning
to realize there’s a parallel: at times I am less upset by the lies of my
enemies than by the follies of my friends.
Let me
explain: At a recent gathering of opponents of the current regime, we began
discussing ways we could act in our own lives to oppose, defy, and obstruct it,
while protecting and advancing our causes.
I suggested that in addition to protesting, writing, discussing, and
other group actions, we can all act in our personal lives, by, for example,
increasing our donations to all causes, especially tax-deductible ones, since
we both support a cause and deny tax money to the administration. I also said
anything we can do for the environment has a similar double effect: I drive an
electric car and am hoping to go solar so as to diminish my expenditure on the
fossil fuels whose industies the administration hopes to revive.
“But won’t
that cost workers jobs?” came a reply. I
could barely stumble out a response about the terrible costs to workers of such
jobs as coal mining.
But the
more I thought about it, the more I realized that some of “us,” like some of
“them,” are trapped in an ideological prison in which the mere mention of a
word brings forth a programmed response.
As the neurosurgeons say, “neurons that fire together wire together.” Just as studies like the Implicit Association
Test show that our ingrained reactions on race, gender, religion, and other
matters are often beyond the control of our professed views, our biases on
issues can become so pervasive that they are called forth before we can even
think.
I too
believe in workers needs and rights. I
deplore the lie of “Right to Work” legislation.
Most of my relatives belonged to unions, up until the latest white
collar and administrative generations. I
love the old union songs, from Joe Hill to Solidarity Forever. But just as I think supporting our troops
means keeping them out of immoral and unwinnable conflicts, supporting workers
means helping find safe, living wage jobs.
Look at
coal mining. The risks of mine
collapses, the frequent violation of safety and environmental regulations, and
even failure to pay fines that have been levied, make the industry one of the
most indifferent to worker safety in the country. In addition, the risks of miners’ diseases
like black lung , public ailments like lung cancer and asthma, and
continued environmental damage, make
mining one of the worst jobs for its workers and one of the worst industries
for the planet.
No, I will
not help coal miners go back to work, any more than I will start smoking, or
buy a few guns, to promote jobs in those industries, and I am dismayed that
anyone supposedly on the side of humanity could even dream of suggesting we do.
