Reading this makes my heart break. I was born in England, and heard about the children working in the mines. My maternal granddad was a plumber on the docks in Grimsby, and he organized a union for the workers. When I was a child, I helped him put coins into packets to deliver to the workers. (It was the union that paid the pensions, not the companies.) To think that the GOP in some states want to revoke child labour protections is unthinkable.
I’m struck by the parallels to the present day. We continue to let children die or be maimed because the rich and powerful don’t care. They don’t care about our schoolchildren, they don’t care about the malnourished and starving children in Gaza, they don’t care about the kidnapped Ukrainian children, and they don’t care about the children separated from their families all over the country. It’s a black mark on our nation. When will we take responsibility for children?
“I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.”
Kudos to The Bulwark for reposting this story. Sadly, memories of why the labor movement is important are mostly forgotten and rarely honored today. People in all types of jobs think their wages and working conditions have always been as they are today. They don't know the history of the struggles that forced business owners to operate their companies with minimal humanity. We are losing workers' rights daily under the MAGA Republican regime. People better wake up.
Stories like this will never see the light of day in the Smithsonian now that PINO is in charge. There’s lying by word, and there’s lying by omission. PINO and the MAGAts are guilty of both.
My grandfather worked in the lead and zinc mines in Picher, OK as a child. He was missing part of a thumb and two fingers That we did this to children is monstrous.
There were and are still, the needful and wanting families. Those born into unhappy lives or thrust into poverty by circumstance, who have to send their children off to work or to the war training camps, where they are taught to repeat the mantra of sacrifice for the homeland and dedication for the sake of honor to the homeland, rather than be afforded an opportunity to get an education where they could learn how not to repeat horrible histories, because they have no alternatives, the wealth going always upwards, the working class being used as kindling to stoke the all consuming flames of industrial greed.
It is written so vividly. In reading this piece, I felt like I was there. The joy, heartbreak, anger (the good trouble kind of anger), the solidarity and the cowards.
There is no ending to this story. However, it represents the power and the realized hope of a Champion, organization, and taking injustice to the people who either profited or turned a blind eye to injustice and cruelty.
Yes- every child should play. And read. And be nourished through food (always food) but also the kindness of strangers.
Yet another shameful piece of our history. I’m sure the presidential administration will try to have this airbrushed out of our story. Instead of acknowledging the tragedy, and being grateful for the changes that mostly eliminated this, this will be left out of the new American founding myth that the extremists are weaving. God bless the children.
Lincoln talked about this a lot in regards to slavery and the exploitation of the immigrants pouring into America. That there was something almost biblical about stealing the labor or ideas or "content" from another person. A terrible thing
Reading this makes my heart break. I was born in England, and heard about the children working in the mines. My maternal granddad was a plumber on the docks in Grimsby, and he organized a union for the workers. When I was a child, I helped him put coins into packets to deliver to the workers. (It was the union that paid the pensions, not the companies.) To think that the GOP in some states want to revoke child labour protections is unthinkable.
I’m struck by the parallels to the present day. We continue to let children die or be maimed because the rich and powerful don’t care. They don’t care about our schoolchildren, they don’t care about the malnourished and starving children in Gaza, they don’t care about the kidnapped Ukrainian children, and they don’t care about the children separated from their families all over the country. It’s a black mark on our nation. When will we take responsibility for children?
“I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.”
Echoes
Kudos to The Bulwark for reposting this story. Sadly, memories of why the labor movement is important are mostly forgotten and rarely honored today. People in all types of jobs think their wages and working conditions have always been as they are today. They don't know the history of the struggles that forced business owners to operate their companies with minimal humanity. We are losing workers' rights daily under the MAGA Republican regime. People better wake up.
And today many states where the GOP holds power are pushing to weaken child labor laws.
Stories like this will never see the light of day in the Smithsonian now that PINO is in charge. There’s lying by word, and there’s lying by omission. PINO and the MAGAts are guilty of both.
My grandfather worked in the lead and zinc mines in Picher, OK as a child. He was missing part of a thumb and two fingers That we did this to children is monstrous.
There were and are still, the needful and wanting families. Those born into unhappy lives or thrust into poverty by circumstance, who have to send their children off to work or to the war training camps, where they are taught to repeat the mantra of sacrifice for the homeland and dedication for the sake of honor to the homeland, rather than be afforded an opportunity to get an education where they could learn how not to repeat horrible histories, because they have no alternatives, the wealth going always upwards, the working class being used as kindling to stoke the all consuming flames of industrial greed.
This should be a movie.
It is written so vividly. In reading this piece, I felt like I was there. The joy, heartbreak, anger (the good trouble kind of anger), the solidarity and the cowards.
There is no ending to this story. However, it represents the power and the realized hope of a Champion, organization, and taking injustice to the people who either profited or turned a blind eye to injustice and cruelty.
Yes- every child should play. And read. And be nourished through food (always food) but also the kindness of strangers.
Thank you for sharing this piece.
I agree. Netflix get on the MJ story!
Why limit it to people who can afford a subscription to Netflix?
Yet another shameful piece of our history. I’m sure the presidential administration will try to have this airbrushed out of our story. Instead of acknowledging the tragedy, and being grateful for the changes that mostly eliminated this, this will be left out of the new American founding myth that the extremists are weaving. God bless the children.
Thank you Bulwark. A great reminder that we each need to do our part and make our voices heard. Workers over Billionaires.
Lincoln talked about this a lot in regards to slavery and the exploitation of the immigrants pouring into America. That there was something almost biblical about stealing the labor or ideas or "content" from another person. A terrible thing