Gabe’s Commentary and Rants

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Mirrored from a post on the Dailykos

Why after helping win WWII, building the middle class, and supporting generations of workers. Are the Big 3 now an Axis of Evil (borrowed from a commentator #7 on the CS monitor blog)

Now i’m right at the center of this when i wake up i look to the West and see The Glass Palace or Ford World HQ, look to the East I see the Renaissance Center or GM World HQ, I drive to school i pass Ford, i drive to work and i’m 2 blocks from GM. I look to the South and listen and there is the River Rouge where my Grandfather went to trade school and later worked from 1933 till 1986.

After Reading that monitor blog post i realized something, and that is after the Jump.

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Don’t worry it’s not to late to thank them for their service, you don’t need to wait for a holiday to do so you should let them know their sacrifice wasn’t in vain and that you are glad they fought their country.

Be it Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, or Veterans Day, maybe even Independence Day for the people of Poland, November 11th is the day when the guns fell silent over Europe ending the First World War. 90 years have passed since that day, 90 years just think about that for a moment, I have one living family member over age 90 and she would have only just been a baby at war’s end, thousands of miles away from her family’s homeland of Poland that had been the prime battle ground of the Eastern Front. 90 years, in that span we went from the industrial age to the digital one, went from simple bi-planes to walking on our moon, we broke the code of our own DNA and even after ages of racism we elected a black man to the office of President of the United States.

90 years ago i don’t think anyone could have seen what was to come, people at large where just coming to terms with the idea of leaving the farm and living in cities. According to the new there is one remaining American Vet from WWI still alive today, oh the things he must have seen in his life. The conversion of the American Republic from a nation of Farmers to the industrial juggernaught it became in the middle of the last century to the digital root* it is today. The sorrow that just 20 years after he and his brethren fought that Europe would fall into an even worse war where the darkest aspects of the human soul would come to light.

That war, the Second World War would be a truely world wide war with combat on just about ever continent except the Antarctic. Nearly 65 Million People would lose their lives in the madness of that war. Or about 1/6th the population of the Republic today, or maybe better saying about the same amount of people who voted for Barack Obama for president. From late 1938 till 1945 really a fairly short span when one looks at how long it takes people to reach that type of population.

My grandfather and many of my ‘great’-uncles served in the Second World war, i don’t know if they killed, and really do not care, war turns the people on all sides into monsters and only by the following peace is humanity restored. That Generation as one famous news man calls them the “Greatest Generation” left home to fight, my grandfather lying saying he was drafted inspite of his skilled labor job exempting him from the draft since such work could be more important at home, yet like so many he left home to fight for his country, a nation that his family, my family had only lived in for just over a generation. Then a war won, the guns once more slient in 1945, silenced by the roar of the atom bomb, they returned home and back to normal lives, they went back to being Fathers and Mothers, Laborers and Office workers, they returned to keep building the nation they had cast blood and tears for.

Now my grandfather never talked about war to my mother or uncle,, in fact he didn’t even talk about his service until i was born. Note the wording, he’s never really told me about the war either, rather telling me about his time in the Sevice of the US Navy in the from 43 till the start of 46 when he returned home just after new years to late to see Christmas tree but at that point he was home. He told me about his time with his fellow servicemen, the times they had in the interludes, never about combat beyond telling me he was a gunner on his LST, and that always is followed by a story about an accident his loader had durrng a drill. It was never about the war but about Servicing . Where some fathers and grandfathers filled their kid’s heads with images of glory and victory, he talked about what he did not what the military did, thinking about it now that silent service, that lack of glory might be why i get so anal about duty and oaths, and what is right.

Other wars would follow, one to many if you ask someone like me, and each time men and more and more so women would answer the call to serve.

Service, is to be admired, not medals awarded to battles fought, the simple act of service. The greatest act is the service that requires on give their life in the end, as many medal of honor holders will say the “Real heros are the ones who didn’t come back” they just might be right. But that doesn’t mean we should give everyone who served a hug and thank them for what they did, be it today or 90 years ago, it won’t be over till the last man comes home, till we decided that now their service is to build the country as our great geneation did 60 years ago.

Hug a Vet, even if it isn’t an offical day, they still served then reguardless of what time it is now.

-Gabe

No text needed

Been awhile since i last posted, but on I go.

In just hours, I an thousands of others will go to the polls, not to vote like the rest of the county but to take part in the electoral process in another manner. I am a poll worker, a poll Chairman in fact, I and my fellow workers will be taking part in our sworn duty to ensure the American electoral process goes off without a hitch. In this “most important” or “biggest” election of our life times we might forget that every 3 or so months there are elections of lesser grades, in reality these elections are no less important than the huge one this up coming November 4th, the expected turn out up here in Michigan is some where over 60 maybe even 70% we have 98% of eligible voters registered, the clerks are giving us more than 5 times our normal ballot allotment, to prepare, polling sites without 23 year old chair people are suggested to bring something to roll the ballot bin around on.  Every election should bring in these numbers, it is a sign of the sad state of the American nation that so few people feel that they need to vote or even feel their vote will not count.

From a young age I looked forward to voting, my parents would walk with my to the local elementary school, i would hang about while they placed their vote and then we would walk home. While my parents are not buy nature political creatures, in fact they often tell me to give it a break once and awhile, they taught me lessons of respecting the system. This system is over 200 year old, it may not be perfect but it works.

The System, is something that is important even if you think it needs to change, a change from within the system how ever slow is always better than the radical change of revolution. Rather than sit on the side lines and wine as bad things happened i decided to take part in this system of ours. Our revolution worked once, we didn’t become the men we rebelled from, rather we turned them into pigs, but we can’t hope for another revolution, we need to work within the system make it better from within. That type of change takes time, but we don’t do it for ourselves we do it for all the people who will follow us. (yea that sounds a bit Obamaish but it’s true)

When I wake up tomorrow I will not be a Democrat but rather a cog, a cog in the massive electoral machine of the United States of America. I will Ensure that everyone who comes to my polling place gets their fair chance to cast their vote for the 44th president of the United States. At 8 pm when polls close i will stay at my post until each and everyone who was there in line at 8 gets to vote, even if it requires me to stay hours after official close, I will do my duty, i will make sure that everyone else has the ability to do theirs as well, engage the system, even if you come to regreat your vote some day you can say that you at least vote rather than regretting not voting, at all.

Now a few comments on why I voted for Barack Obama to become the 43th person to hold the the title.

He is a avatar of the American Dream, he worked hard and maybe, just maybe he may show that any little American boy can dream of the office of President, no matter where they are born within our 50 states, at long as they apply themselves and work hard they can do anything. The same is true for the rest of us, while we may never become president or even leave our home state, we can work together as a nation to work out these minor problems. Our Ancestors survived Wars and Crisis now lets step up and prove ourselves worthy of their legacy rather than just rutting in what has been done.

Why did I vote Obama, he will move the nation in a better direction i feel that he is most ready to define a new era. Ever so often we have an election that changes the rule book, 1980, 1960, 1932, 1860, 1800, each new era has different rules. The Choice this year is between continuing the age of Reagan or move on to a new age. Last time we selected inspiration over the old political veteran we got JFK who got us out of the Cuban Missile Crisis and started the Space Program. Before that we pitted the Status Quo against a New Deal from New York, and for that we got FDR who brought us out of the Great Depression and put in place the walls that until the Reaganist broke them down allowing the current to rise, and FDR also in his 12 years lead us from start to near end of WWII, showing that we lefties know how to fight just as well as anyone. The last time we looked to a tall well spoken man from Illinois we got the man who saved the Union.  I’m ready to take a bet, he has proven himself a talented manager having taken on both the Clinton and GOP Machines, head on. I want to see him on the world stage.

I am a Democrat, I am a Catholic, I am a Michigander, I am a Detroiter, I am an American, and On November Fourth Two thousand Eight I am Change.

Join me fellow Americans lets at the very least bring about the largest Voter turn out that this nation has seen to date, down at the polls I Am ready for you.

-Gabe, Poll Chair

pay attention to the side bar for new pages

NZ write up, up 23:55 7/21 (EDT)

5 Days in Syndey write up, done 2:35 7/22 (EDT)

The death of Tim Russert brings to mind many things, but outside Politics it makes us think of our own Fathers even more. Ruessert Wrote two books dealing with fatherhood, and while i really do need to read them i haven’t yet, but i do know a few things about fathers from my own life.
My own father is the 6th of eight kids, the son of a jack-of-all-trades carpenter who grew up in a region of the Detroit area once described by another figure in my life as the boonies. He’s a farmboy, and worked hard growing up, and even harder looking after my brother and I. As the 6th kid in a large family there was no money for him to go to college with, so he didn’t he started working after finishing high school, he took advantage of the Detroit Dream, not working on the Line as people did in the past but rather as a fabricator turning what an engineer drew on paper into an object for the first time, maybe years before it would otherwise roll off the line. Now as I mentioned my dad didn’t have a chance to go to college, but had he had such a chance, i think he would have done well.

Now I really can’t say much about my Late Grandfather on my dad’s side, as by the time i was able to really get to know him, he was nolonger fully with us. May he rest well.

My other Grandfather on the other hand is a different story, My mom’s father was born in 1920, the same as fellow Polish Catholic the late John Paul II, he was born on Detroit’s Westside, to a family who came here from Southern Poland. His father my Great grandfather having come over to work in the factories in 1909. My grandfather was the only son born to his father, He lost his elder sister when he was about 7, and his father in 1933 at the age of 13, making him the man of the house still in the depression.

Grandpa would then attend Ford’s Trade School, learning the skills that would serve him at Fords till his retirement. He would join Ford Motor after attending the Trade School, and would take part in many historic events, the most historic he was just a step removed from, the Battle of the Overpass, only stepping away to get some coffee kept him from seeing the event as it happened. He is a life time UAW member but have often told me about how the Union isn’t perfect but it is what we’ve got.

Grandpa also fought in the World War II along with many of my older uncles, he didn’t have to go his work in Detroit factories would have kept him home for the war. Yet he lied to my Late grandmother, about being drafted, and went off to war. But he never glorifies war, what he talks about in a good light is the living with the other men in the navy, that brotherhood. He served on an LST a large landing and support ship, but otherwise a floating box, but for how little glory crews like his earned they are the reason the other ships and the Marines and the Army were able to do what they did.

My grandfather imparted on me a love for my country but a healthy fear of it as well. He is the reason i am prolabour and antiwar.
Now then there is a 3rd man who helped raise me, and that would be my Uncle, my mother’s brother. He is a local Catholic priest, and has been a huge influence on my life, providing me with a wealth of advice from his time as a priest. He pushes me to do well in life, and i hope i can live up to what he expects.

All three of these men have done much make me who i am today, one day i hope i can impress them and show them that their guidance wasn’t in vain.

So a salute to these men, all other fathers, and anyone who fills the roll of father. A prayer for the kids who have lost their fathers, one for Fathers who have lost their children, and with that in mind an extra Prayer for the Russerts,

Happy Father’s day all, and yes it’s still father’s day someplace when this is being posted.

-G

After thinking more about the Passing of Tim Russert, i more and more wondered why such bothered me to a point short of tears. And i think it was the common connection of simple Catholicness, yes i know that’s not a real word but many catholics will understand what i mean.

Like many Catholics I am 3rd generation in this country, my great grand parents having come over in the early 1900’s. They and my grandparents and even parents today worked hard, for wages, My own father having recently having worked two jobs to cover for my brother and i during this on going recession. That working class Catholic background never really leaves a person.

When someone on the far right talks about so called “values” they mean a set of SET codes that they want to enforce on people by laws. But thing about Russert is i found just by watching him, i could tell he Shared my values, he never had to say anything about himself just by his actions and reactions i could feel that kinship that seems to exist among working class catholics, be they Italians, French, Irish like Russert, or Polish like myself. Catholics from these blue collar families can just feel a kinship they can strike up a conversation  with someone they only just met, as if they had been friends for ages, simply because of that connection.

That Connection is one of the true secrets of being Catholic, we stand with eachother in prayer and can sense that in life even if we never talk about God or faith. We don’t have to force religion down someone face, we just need to live by example, and i think that the late Tim Russert was a great example of living out the requirements of faith. God took Russert now for His own reasons, unknown and beyond us humans, for how ever sad we are for Russert’s passing as Catholics we know he’s in a better place, with the best seat in the house for watching the Elections he so loved to cover. I pray for his family, and hope that they do well, now that he has gone to his reward, maybe a bit to early.

-Gabe

Now most people who know me, know i’m very active in politics.
I’m also a Catholic, so the news of the sudden Death of Tim Russert  feels like a solid kick to the face. A truly unlucky Friday the 13th.

My Sunday’s will ring a bit hollow now, with out Mr Russert’s morning drilling of the people who seem to run our country.

A solid questioning voice in American politics, he set a bar for reporting, lets only hope his replacement, can even be half of what he was.

-Gabe