Labor Day In observance of Labor Day, here’s a poem by that bounciest of poets, Robert Service. Although it’s a bit of a caricature of the working man, I like the way he talks of rest. Labor Day, after all, celebrates the workers by giving them a special day off. And they don’t even have […]
Tag Archives: Working class
A Day of Rest for the Working Class
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Song of the Wage Slave", Labor Day, Robert Service, workers Comments closed
During Covid, Workers Must Unite
On this International Workers’ Day, frontline workers are bearing the brunt on Covid-19 and public sector workers may not be far behind. Time for Shelley’s “To the Working Men of England.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Song to Men of England", COVID-19, Jungle, May Day, meat packers, Percy Shelley, Upton Sinclair Comments closed
Brown’s Populism Comes from Tolstoy
Friday While I don’t yet know whom I will be supporting for the 2020 Democratic nominee for president—I very much like the women who have declared so far—I have a soft spot for Ohio’s Sherrod Brown. Brown, whose working class sympathies helped him comfortably win reelection in a red state, just made his case stronger […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2020 election, Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection, Sherrod Brown Comments closed
Neruda on Machu Picchu’s Healing Powers
Neruda’s “Heights of Macchu Picchu” describes how the lost city of the Incas revitalized his faith in humankind.
A Dickensian Response to the Mine Rescue
As I write this, the last of the 33 Chilean miners has just been pulled to safety after spending two months underground in a situation that once seemed hopeless. It appears that the entire world is celebrating, probably because we are all in need of hope. Given how we are continually battered by economic […]
