Following up at American Street

I posted the following today at American Street. Preserved here for my own selfish reasons.



WalMart is already the American posterchild for employee abuse.

Are there worse companies? Are there worse industries? When answering either question (or both) in the affirmative, are these companies and/or industries represented by a brand which has greater customer recognition than WalMart? I would say... no.

WalMart has pharmacies. How does their prescription care coverage rate among their employees? I was hoping not to actually have to apply for a part-time job there to find out... but, hey, at this point, it's not off the table.

WalMart employees - considering they work for the most heavy-handed brand identity in America - cannot protest on their own behalf without losing their jobs.

Others could.

I'll refrain from commenting point by point on Java Black's post, in large part because it would end up sounding like "Yeah, what he said." With one exception: So what if it's "only" one victory.

At my site, LarryE and I tangled on this issue and despite our differences reached a very similar conclusion (and, no, you won't find hugs and kisses and teddy bears): There is no magic bullet.

One of the points I made and will continue to make is that The Left is in dire need a success, and it is unlikely that any success will come harder than the first. With one success, we at least have something to build upon. We cut our teeth. We build community. We learn the meaning of solidarity, sacrifice, commitment and cooperation. And we fucking succeed. Only then is it possible to succeed a second time. And, then, a third and a fourth.

Will I live to see a quarter of the freedom America has lost in my lifetime recovered by an engaged Left? No. Will you? No. But our progeny might. Or theirs.

At some point, we either stop counting the reasons why we cannot accomplish *something* and start counting the reasons why we must at least engage our adversaries... or we give up completely. It is one or the other, friends. There is no midway between inaction and action. It is one. Or the other.

Yet, in the bigger picture, what we discuss here now is not about one action, but a lifetime of action - a lifestyle. And that scares the living hell out of pretty much all of us. It's not the lifestyle or dream we were sold, but the hard truth is that we bought a fake product. And I find it hard to believe that every person of conscience reading this doesn't implicitly understand this by now.

Will we succumb to that fear and remain paralyzed, knowing full well we held the option of engagement but chose instead to go down without a fight? Men and women, real people with families and livelihoods and pets and love... real people sacrificed themselves for us on the frontlines of every struggle we are proud of... every struggle from which we have vacantly leached since birth. Our past and future deserve better from us, and my greatest fear is of going to the grave knowing that I was not willing to honor their sacrifice by doing for our children what our forebearers did for us.



[insert humorous, flippant remark here]