Joe Hill vs. Joe the Plumber
Written on 10/20 at 11:42 AM by Andy Posner
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In last week’s third and final presidential debate, John McCain spent a considerable amount of time talking about “Joe the Plumber.” Joe is a guy that met Obama on the campaign trail, and who confronted him about the fact that his tax policy would “penalize” him if he were to buy the business he works for and see a dramatic rise in his income, because Obama’s tax plan calls for tax cuts for people that earn below $250,000, and tax increases for those that earn more. Now the amazing thing is that, for a lot of people, Joe’s complaint rings true even though they will most likely never earn more than a quarter million dollars a year. As I starting thinking about this bizarre dynamic, it occurred to me that we’ve heard from a lot of Joes during this campaign: Joe six-pack, Joe the Plumber and Joe Biden. But there’s another Joe we haven’t heard about--most likely because he died over a century ago--but whose story, immortalized in folk songs, has a lot to say about the state of the country and its potential for greatness.
A lot of you will have heard of Joe HIll because Joan Baez often sang, and probably still does sing, about his life. To put it briefly, Joe Hill was a songwriter, labor activist and union member, who was framed for murder and then executed by firing squad in November of 1915. In the version of the song about his life that Joan Baez sings, the lyrics go as follows:
A Great Speech Confronting Racism Against Obama
Written on 10/14 at 12:05 PM by Andy Posner
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Here is a speech by Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO. It’s just a moving, simple, short, powerful speech. I highly recommend watching it. Things are happening in this country. Obama’s ascendency is forcing our country to confront itself.
I Finally Complete a Bike Race!!
Written on 10/13 at 11:36 PM by Andy Posner
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I have had a bad run of luck at bike races. After longing for years to try my hand at racing, my fist two events last year were, well, unsatisfactory. My first race, back in August of ‘07, didn’t go well for the simple reason that I was grossly out of shape and overweight. I gave up 10 miles into the race, as I was unable even to keep up with people riding 1970’s steel bikes and jeans! The great thing about that race, however, was that it inspired me to get back on the bike and start training again. I immediately signed up for the last road race of the year in New England, the Jamestown Road Race, and began training hard. On October 13th, I entered the event 10 pounds lighter and fairly confident that I could keep up. Unfortunately, that race ended in disaster as well, as I crashed just 8 miles in.
This year I was determined to, at the very least, finish the damn race!
Why We Just Need 306,000 People to Say Thanks, But No Thanks, To Offshore Drilling
Written on 10/01 at 06:46 PM by Andy Posner
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Just because Congress has allowed the ban on drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf to expire doesn’t mean we need to throw our hands in the air and watch idly as the oil companies swoop in and make a profit. In fact, we don’t even need to allow all this petty, ridiculous talk about “Drill Here, Drill Now” to distract us from the larger challenge of lowering energy prices, getting off foreign oil and addressing climate change. Despite the fact that our leaders have already said ‘yes’ to offshore drilling, it isn’t too late to change that answer to ‘thanks, but no thanks.’ All we need is for 306,000 people willing to show our leaders how eager Americans are, as Thomas Friedman likes to say, to do nation building here at home.
Let’s first, as many have already done, put the whole offshore drilling debate in perspective. The U.S. currently imports 630 million gallon of oil a day. According the Department of Energy, additional offshore drilling would bring online an additional 153 million gallons of oil A YEAR by 2017, reaching a maximum of roughly 300 million gallons by 2030.
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- Photos of Some Upgrades to My Bikes! (Poetry & Musings)
Green Microfinance: Advancing Social Equality and Environmental Sustainability in the United States
Click here to download a PDF of my complete thesis. Questions and comments are much appreciated!
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