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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 9, September, 2004
Paducah Labor Day Parade starts at 9:30, so please come early
Frances Willey hopes everybody will come early and stay late on Labor Day. "But they better get here extra early for the parade," she warned. "It starts at 9:30 instead of 10."
Willey is president of the Western Kentucky Labor Day Committee Inc., the non-profit volunteer group that puts on Paducah's traditional three-day Labor Day weekend program. The parade along Broadway is probably the most popular attraction. The procession features bands, floats -- many of them union-made -- and other marching units.
The Paducah parade is one of the oldest and largest Labor Day processions in Kentucky.
"The politicians wanted us to start the parade earlier so they'd have more time to get from downtown to Carson Park ," Willey explained. The traditional political speaking starts at 1 p.m. in the park.
Everybody who is anybody in Kentucky politics is invited, Willey said. Several labor-endorsed candidates are expected. They include State Sen. Dan Mongiardo, D-Hazard, who is running for the Senate; Dennis Null of Mayfield, Democratic candidate for the state senate; and state Reps. Charles Geveden, D-Wickliffe, Fred Nesler, D-Mayfield; J.R. Gray, D-Benton and Mike Cherry, D-Princeton.
"It is important that labor turn out and support our candidates," said Jeff Wiggins, Area Council president and emcee for the political speaking. "Labor can make a difference. We proved that with Dorsey Ridley." Ridley, a Henderson Democrat, won a special election to succeed Sen. Paul Herron, also a Democrat from Henderson, who died unexpectedly.
Several local candidates are expected to speak in the park. They include Mayor Bill Paxton and his challenger, Richard Abraham, a former city commissioner.
All of the city commission candidates - incumbents and challengers - were invited. The Area Council endorsed Commissioner Robert Coleman, a longtime union member.
"We also invited Gov. Ernie Fletcher, Congressman Ed Whitfield and Sen. Jim Bunning, but I don't know if they will come," Willey said. All three are Republicans and anti-labor, Wiggins said.
"We've got to work hard to make sure Fletcher is a one-termer," he said. "We've got to retire Whitfield and Bunning, too."
The Labor Day picnic also features barbecue as spicy and hot as the speaking and the weather. The band "Cruisin' Timber" will warm up the crowd from noon to 1 p.m. The musicians will take the stage again from 2 to 5 p.m., when the festivities end.
The Labor Day weekend program begins Saturday at 10 a.m. in the park. "The 'Stars of Tomorrow' singers - boys and girls - will perform from 1 to 3 p.m.," Willey said.
"From 3 to 5 p.m., the 'Country Strings Band' will play Bluegrass music." On Sunday, a half-dozen gospel groups will perform. "They all volunteered their services for free," Willey said.
Lewis Hicks, mayor of La Center and an Area Council trustee, will be the parade grand marshal.
Food, including hot dogs, hamburgers and barbecue, will be available at the park on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. A flea market will be open all three days, too.
Wiggins is vice president of the Labor Day Committee. "My hat is really off to Frances for all of the hard work she has done to make the 2004 Labor Day program as successful as those in the past," he said. "Nobody has worked harder than Frances ."
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Jeff Wiggins to emcee floodwall mural unveiling on Sept. 5
The Labor mural on the floodwall will be unveiled in a 7 p.m. ceremony on Sept. 5.
Jeff Wiggins, Area Council president, will emcee the event. "Hopefully, State Rep. J.R. Gray of Benton, State senate candidate Dennis Null of Mayfield and other labor-endorsed candidates will speak," he said.
Wiggins said he enjoyed watching the artists paint the mural. "They told me they are very supportive of organized labor themselves," he said. "I am sure everybody will be pleased. The mural is a wonderful tribute to organized labor in our area."
The council approved the artwork in 2001. Glenn Dowdy was council president.
"This mural was Glenn's baby," Wiggins said. "He started the project; he led the fund-raising. Everybody in the union movement should be grateful for what he helped bring about -- a wonderful tribute to the working men and women of this area."
The 20-by-12-foot artwork cost $12,500. It is near the Four Rivers Performing Arts Center. Contributors to the mural fund included several unions and union organizations, a local business, a number of individuals and the Western Kentucky Labor Day Committee.
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Mongiardo, others stump for votes at Building Trades luncheon
Dan Mongiardo led a parade of candidates seeking support at the annual West Kentucky Building and Construction Trades Council pre-Fancy Farm luncheon. Mongiardo, a Democratic state senator from Hazard, is running for the U.S. Senate.
"The governor gave a heck of a speech, too," said Larry Sanderson, event coordinator. He meant former Gov. Julian Carroll, a McCracken County native who is vying for an open state senate seat from Frankfort .
Sanderson, business manager of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 184, said about 250 people attended the program, which started in 1991. "But this program is about more than Larry Sanderson," he said. "We couldn't do this without the support and hard work of all of the building trades. I thank everybody who has helped make this program succeed."
Other candidates who spoke included Dennis Null of Mayfield, a Democrat running for the State senate, plus state Reps. Fred Nesler, D-Mayfield; J.R. Gray, D-Benton; Mike Cherry, D-Princeton, Charles Geveden, D-Wickliffe; and Buddy Buckingham, D-Murray.
In addition, State Sen. Joey Pendelton, another Democrat, visited from Hopkinsville . "Dorsey Ridley was there, too," said Sanderson. Ridley, a Henderson Democrat, won a special election to succeed Sen. Paul Herron, who died unexpectedly.
"Ridley gave labor credit for his big win," Sanderson said. "He pledged his support for labor in the legislature."
The luncheon is held at the Executive Inn in Paducah on the Friday before the famous Fancy Farm political picnic in Graves County . The picnic, which features barbecue and political speaking, both spicy hot, is always held on the first Saturday in August.
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Was 'God Loves Republicans' T-shirt a fashion statement?
By BERRY CRAIG
KEA-NEA/AFT Local 6380
"God Loves Republicans" read a T-shirt I saw at the Fancy Farm picnic. I don't know if it was a joke. However, some conservative Republicans seem to think "GOP" stands for "God's Own Party."
The implication of a "God Loves Republicans" T-shirt is obvious: Democrats are unloved by the Almighty. Sometimes, Republicans do more than imply. Democratic activists in western Kentucky say some Republicans have told them, flat out, "You can't be a Democrat and a Christian."
was reared Presbyterian. I don't recall from reading the Bible, going to Sunday school and listening to sermons that God is a Republican, or a Democrat for that matter. I was taught that we are all God's children and that, like a good parent, God loves us all the same.
Yet more than a few Kentucky pastors pray, preach and pass out leaflets entreating their flocks to vote for "Christian" candidates, almost always meaning conservative Republicans. Many of the faithful in the pews are the least among us. They live far from Easy Street. Yet they often favor candidates who will keep their slice of the American economic pie as skinny as possible.
Conservative preachers claim "Christian" politicians are the ones who favor capital punishment and oppose abortion and same-sex marriage, as if they are the only issues that count. Conservative preachers don't seem to think it is "un-Christian" for greedy employers to work people long hours at low pay in jobs that threaten life and limb. Not surprisingly, organized labor is high on the Religious Right's enemies' list. The Revs. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and Tim LaHaye preach a plainly anti-union message.
Robertson is the money-hustling TV preacher who ran for president as a Republican and started the Christian Coalition. "Christians have a responsibility to submit to the authority of their employers since they are designated as part of God's plan for the exercise of authority on the earth by man," says a Christian Coalition political training manual.
"Labor unions should study and read the Bible instead of asking for more money," said Falwell, a Moral Majority founder and another TV preacher who seems to beg for bucks as often as he cites the Good Book on camera. "Unions are one of the organizations leading the world to wickedness," said LaHaye, another well-heeled preacher who also helped organize the Moral Majority and co-authored the Left Behind series of apocalyptic novels.
I am not a theologian, far from it. But I can't find where the Bible says we are supposed to stay away from unions and suffer in misery on earth in exchange for happiness in Heaven. While all Christian churches preach salvation and the hereafter, that doesn't mean the here-and-now isn't an important Christian concern, too.
As a union member and a Democrat, I don't believe the other side is the "un-Christian" party. My guess is that God is on the sidelines when it comes to American politics. Christ preached love over hate, peace over war, charity over greed and brotherhood and sisterhood over bigotry and exclusion. He didn't do it as a Democrat or a Republican.
Jesus also preached the Golden Rule. "Do unto others" is a fundamental principle of free trade unions.
I am a teacher, not a preacher. However, it seems to me that Jesus preached a liberating, not a controlling, gospel. Somehow, I don't see Christ as a supporter of the conservative status quo in the Robertson-Falwell-LaHaye mold.
Jesus said the meek, not the moneyed, would inherit the earth. He cast the moneychangers out or the temple. I don't believe Christ was wearing a Republican -- or a Democratic -- campaign button either.