The UAW Leadership Shake Up and the Need to Speak Up for Unions

Union Power

Ever since Ronald Reagan busted the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) in 1981, [1] the union movement in the United States has been in decline. Back then, one in 5 workers in the U.S. was a union member; today that number has fallen to one in 10. This decline in the unionized workforce, in turn, …

Read moreThe UAW Leadership Shake Up and the Need to Speak Up for Unions

Arcology and Beethoven

OCCUPIED TUCSON CITIZEN My $10 student ticket to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra landed me one of the best seats in the Tucson Music Hall, near the front in the middle at an angle where I could see pianist, Gabriela Martinez, play all the exquisite notes during her parts in Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. The …

Read moreArcology and Beethoven

Ignorance and Humility

OCCUPIED TUCSON CITIZEN There is a humility that is missing from our political discourse. Consider the reality of our fundamental ignorance. We fit a more or less incomplete sequence of past events into our understanding of and (mostly) assumptions about reality and possibility. We are overwhelmed with information. Our time and attention are limited, and …

Read moreIgnorance and Humility

The Homeless are Green

tent

OCCUPIED TUCSON CITIZEN They mostly ride bikes, take the bus, or walk where they go.  They wear discarded clothing, eat discarded food, in a pinch they smoke discarded tobacco.  Their carbon footprint approaches zero and then goes negative when they begin collecting cans and bottles. Not all will or should ascribe to this lifestyle, but …

Read moreThe Homeless are Green

Self-Boycott

Uri Avnery at a Hadash rally against the 2006 Lebanon War

OCCUPIED TUCSON CITIZEN Can a country boycott itself? That may sound like a silly question. It is not. At the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, the “Giant of History” as Barack Obama called him, Israel was not represented by any of its leaders. The only dignitary who agreed to go was the speaker of the …

Read moreSelf-Boycott