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The Western Kentucky Worker | |
Official newsletter of the Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO
Prepared by Berry Craig, KEA-NEA and AFT Local 6038
Volume 5, Number 3, March, 2004
Null, Coleman, Gray, Nesler, Cherry, others earn Council support
School teacher Karen Null didn’t want her husband to run for the State Senate.
"But when [Republican Gov. Ernie] Fletcher started cutting education, she changed her mind," Dennis Null said. "I am in this race, and I am in it to win."
Null, a Mayfield attorney and a Democrat, earned a unanimous recommendation for endorsement at the February Council meeting. The state AFL-CIO makes endorsements in races for the state legislature based on council recommendations.
"I am confident Dennis will be endorsed," said Jeff Wiggins, Council president. "Dennis has been labor’s friend for a long time."
Null was in a parade of candidates who came seeking recommendations or endorsements. Null has no Democratic primary opposition. His opponent in November will be Republican Ken Winters of Murray. The incumbent, State Sen. Bob Jackson, D-Murray, did not seek another four-year term.
"As far as labor issues are concerned, my voting record will be 100 percent," Null pledged.
An eye problem almost kept Null out of the race. "But people started praying for me in Mayfield, and those prayers were answered," he said.
Doctors said high blood pressure apparently impaired Null’s vision. "I am getting my blood pressure under control, and my vision is improving," he said.
Winters, who is retired, was a Murray State University dean and president of Campbellsville College. Nonetheless, Null expects to carry Murray and Calloway County.
"Everybody knows I’m a big Murray State supporter. I have been a [basketball] season ticket holder for 20 years," Null said. "I had five children to go there or graduate there. The people in Murray know I’m going to be good to Murray State."
The First Senatorial District encompasses Carlisle, Hickman, Fulton, Graves, Calloway, Trigg and Lyon counties. "I expect to do well everywhere. I will be traveling all across the district. I plan to be a part of a Democratic comeback in this state."
The Council made recommendations in other races and again endorsed Paducah City Commissioner Robert Coleman for reelection. Coleman is the longest serving commissioner.
"I have had a union card in my pocket for 49 years, and I have been a Democrat all of my life," Coleman said. "In 27 years on the city commission, I know the ins and outs of local government, and I believe I know what local government can do and should do for the citizens of Paducah."
The council withheld endorsements for two Paducah mayoral candidates, Richard Abraham and Greg LeNeave. "Both of them are good candidates," Wiggins said. "By not endorsing at this time, individual unions and union members can decide whom to support themselves."
Wiggins and the delegates agreed that either Abraham or LeNeave would be preferable to the incumbent, Bill Paxton.
The council also recommended a quartet of Democratic incumbents for the State House of Representatives: Charles Geveden of Wickliffe, Fred Nesler of Mayfield, J.R. Gray of Benton and Bill Cherry of Princeton.
Fred Stubblefield, a Marion Republican and Machinists union member, hoped to get the council nod over Cherry. Stubblefield promised to support union issues, even if that meant going against his party, which usually opposes unions.
Delegates were skeptical. Wiggins cited Sen. Bob Leeper, a Paducah Democrat who switched to the Republicans. "When there was a ‘D’ beside his name his union voting record was 90 percent," Wiggins said. "Since he became a Republican, it’s about zero."
Wiggins also pointed out that membership in a union doesn’t necessarily mean support for unions. "President Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston, former president of the National Rifle Association, carried union cards," he said.
"Reagan was the most anti-union president since Herbert Hoover. Charlton Heston is so anti-union that he campaigned against a bill in Congress to prevent the hiring of permanent replacement workers during strikes and for a national right-to-work law."
The Council also voted to recommend an endorsement for state Sen. Joey Pendleton, D-Hopkinsville. Part of his district is in the Council’s jurisdiction.
At the same time, the Council voted to make no recommendation for two other area House Democrats, Frank Rasche, D-Paducah, and Buddy Buckingham, D-Murray. Rasche has no opposition in the May primary or in the November general election. Buckingham has no primary opponent, but he will face Republican Melvin Hendley of Murray in November.
Neither Rasche nor Buckingham is pro-labor, Wiggins said. "The fact that Hendley is a Republican speaks for itself. We don’t want any more Republicans in the House," he said.
Wayne ‘Windy’ Wallace is nominated for the W.C. Young Award
Council delegates nominated Wayne "Windy" Wallace for the 2004 W.C. Young Award.
Wallace, who is retired, is a veteran trade unionist who belonged to PACE Local 5-680 at the Westvaco paper mill in Wickliffe for many years.
The council executive board chooses the W.C. Young Award recipient from nominees submitted by the delegates. Since Wallace was the only nominee, he is expected to be named the winner when the board meets in March. "The W.C. Young Award is the highest honor the council bestows," Wiggins said. "We think it is one of the most prestigious labor awards in Kentucky."
Last year’s recipient was Joe Norsworthy, a Marshall County native and labor secretary in the administration of Gov. Paul Patton. Young, a national labor and civil rights leader from Paducah, received the first W.C. Young Award in 1994.
Vietnam-dodging Bush and Cheney command 'Chickenhawks'
By BERRY CRAIG
KEA-NEA/AFT Local 6038
"United We Stand" and "Bush-Cheney" bumper stickers I saw on a rusty old car reminded me of Napoleon. Okay, I'm a history teacher. "What the French want is glory," Napoleon claimed. He meant he could make the French forget he was shafting them by appealing to their patriotism and conquering foreign lands.
Here's the part where I tell my students, "And the significance of this is..." President George W. Bush apparently believes Americans want glory, too. He evidently thinks he can make Americans forget he is shafting them by appealing to their patriotism and conquering foreign lands. "United We Stand" and "Bush-Cheney" bumper stickers on old cars suggest Bush’s sucker play is working. Never mind that the president has lavished big tax breaks on rich people. Forget that many good U.S. jobs have gone overseas to cheap-labor Third World countries. The ex-governor of a right-to-work state, Bush is one of the most anti-union presidents in history, too.
Yet it looks as if many working class Americans, including more than a few union members, plan to vote for Bush again in November. Thus, Napoleon has nothing on Bush in using patriotism to serve his own ends and hustling working people. Since 9-11, Bush has followed a simple, and so far, successful strategy: Claim everything you do is part of the "war on terrorism." Question the patriotism of anybody who criticizes you.
"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel," Dr. Samuel Johnson, the famous English dictionary author, said in 1775. Johnson meant false patriotism, not the real deal.
After 9-11 almost all Americans, including many who didn't vote for Bush or approve of his presidential policies, rallied behind him because he is the president. That's real deal patriotism.
Our troops merit our support and prayers even if we don't agree with the commander-in-chief who sent them in harm's way. But backing our fighting men and women in Afghanistan and Iraq doesn't mean we have to buy Bush's cowboy foreign policy and his anti-worker, anti-poor and anti-environment domestic agenda.
Bush has deftly hidden his mischief under a under a pile of red, white and blue baloney. Sadly, much of the media has swallowed it. Since 9-11, the media -- and not just Fox News -- has faithfully played the role of lapdog, not watchdog, for the Bush White House.
Even so, Bush wasn't able to snooker every journalist. Soon after 9-11, Ernest Dumas warned in the Arkansas Times that the president would make "standing up to the enemies of freedom...the clarion call...for virtually any piece of legislation and any executive initiative, whatever the purpose."
Patriotism will be a big theme in the Bush re-election campaign. We'll get more Lee Greenwood, the Bush balladeer famous for singing, "I proud to be an American, at least I know I'm free...and I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me."
Union members ought to ask Greenwood why he chose not to fight for the "freedom" he croons so passionately about. Greenwood , like the president and an army of conservative, pro-war Republicans, ducked military service in Vietnam and other wars.
Don't take my word for it. Go to www.nhgazette.com, the website of the New Hampshire Gazette, which claims to be the country's oldest newspaper.
Greenwood, according to the Gazette, "gets all het up about how great the troops are, but being one himself would have put the kibosh on his Vegas lounge act."
The Gazette calls pro-war conservatives, such as Greenwood and the president "Chickenhawks." The paper's website deploys them for bogus battle as the "Barking Brigade," "Political Platoon" and "Propaganda Platoon."
Bush is Chickenhawk Platoon leader. The president used his family name to get into the Air National Guard, knowing he wouldn't be sent to Vietnam . Now Bush is sending thousands of Guards and Reservists to Iraq.
Vice President Dick Cheney, Political Platoon second in command, was a draft-dodger. Cheney said he had "other priorities" than serving in Vietnam , the Gazette website says.
Political Platoon grunts include the president’s sib, Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. They skipped Vietnam , too.
"Saxby Chambliss is a chickenhawk supreme," the Gazette says. "He got himself elected...by casting aspersions on the patriotism of the incumbent, Democrat Max Cleland. Cleland lost three limbs serving his country in Vietnam . Saxby Chambliss was unable to serve because of his bad knees, but somehow is able to totter along as a recreational runner."
Other Vietnam no-shows in the Chickenhawk Platoon include Sens. Trent Lott, R-Miss., Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Tex., former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and current House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.
"Dennis wasn't able to serve in the Army in Vietnam because his knees weren't up to it," the Gazette said. "He did OK as a wrestler in college, though." The newspaper assigned many Vietnam era, draft-evading media stars to the Chickenhawk Propaganda Platoon. They included top Fox News hounds Roger Ailes, Brit Hume and Bill O'Reilly. (See Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken.)
"Bill O'Reilly loves to come off as a straight-talking blue-collar kind of guy," the Gazette says. "Funny, a lot of guys who fit that description and graduated high school the same year he did -- 1967 -- went straight to Vietnam. Not our Bill -- he went to college."
O'Reilly and Gingrich also made the "Barking Heads Brigade." But the BHB heavyweight is radio reactionary Rush Limbaugh, who also eluded service in Vietnam.
"Where to begin?" the Gazette asked. "A joke about the Hindenburg? No, let's go right to the reason he had to stay home from the war-the world's most famous anal cyst. He's denied it, but the Urban Legends Reference Pages has got the goods on him."
