It was gratifying for me to see support for people who work.
I couldn’t witness this for long because, well, I had classes to prepare. But still, it was a good noon moment. Workers of all yoke, supporting rather than fighting one another.
And as long as I am on the subject of work, I want to also state here my deep appreciation for someone else who, in the last weeks has worked tirelessly to reconfigure the interior of a farmhouse, so that it could be the fresh and open space I would like to see there.
My traveling companion has been covered by construction dust and bits of crumbling cement for days as he has chipped away at the chimney, and then studied the place to understand what's needed to support the floors (which right now have some possibility of falling, one on top of the other).
People doing good work. I admire that.
Now, back to my textbooks.
Nina,
ReplyDeleteAnn Althouse's blog entry today on the same event creates an interesting contrast to yours. It seems these workers you enthuse about here are also very lazy and sloppy when it comes to cleaning up after themselves (it seems that they simply dropped those signs they were carrying and left the cleaning up to others). Ann contrasts their behavior with that of the Tea Partiers, who not only picked up after themselves but who also went around picking up any stray bits of papers others may have left behind. Both your and Ann's views are different interpretations of the same picture, it seems.
Sometimes conflict -- and conflicting views -- is unavoidable, and camaraderie is just a nice story.
Jeffrey:
ReplyDeleteI actually do not disagree with her on that point. The crowd was large, the mess was enormous. They should have cleaned up. I can't conclude, however, that it was a public employee sense of entitlement and a Tea Party person's better disposition that created the two different scenes. I would say it was probably circumstantial and organizational differences. Had I a sign (and no, I did not carry one), I would not have left it lying around for someone else to pick up.
I also completely agree with her commenters that depicting Walker as a fascist dictator is inappropriate and inflammatory.
My post is about valuing work though. I do value the work of others and I like seeing people support each other in their desire to do well by themselves and their families.
Nina,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the detailed and thoughtful response. As a long-time Ocean reader, of course I expected nothing less. Like you, I was raised with a well-defined work ethic (not far away from where you are now, in fact, in a small Iowa town of Roman Catholics called Dyersville). Like many Americans, I started working and earning my own money when I was young (fourteen), worked in a factory for a year before college and then worked while studying all through my undergraduate and graduate degrees. I too value those who put in the extra effort to make things better for themselves and their loved ones.
I can't conclude, however, that it was a public employee sense of entitlement and a Tea Party person's better disposition that created the two different scenes. I would say it was probably circumstantial and organizational differences.
To be honest, I don't know all that much about the Tea Partiers and the people in the march you witnessed. I'm living in New York now and I'm not sure if there are any Tea Partiers here. Anyway, just as we can make judgments about an individual's character based on their behavior, we can also make judgments about groups of people based on their behavior. I doubt that the differences that Ann and Meade noted between those marchers and the Tea Partiers could be simply circumstantial or organizational. I think it's more logical to conclude that there is indeed a difference in values and sense of entitlement between the two groups. I could be wrong, but that what it looks like to me, someone who doesn't identify with either group.
Although we're engaged in partly sociological and party political debate here, I love your blog because it is mostly like a personal diary, so even though I hope you read my words here, I'm more interested in how your life turns out at the new farmhouse and how your daughters are doing and how Ed is doing. I love the concrete in your blog and that the levels of abstraction are reduced to a minimum. Of course, because I grew up not very far away from Madison, I also appreciate all the photos of the rolling hills of my youth, from verdant green and muggy, to brown and leafless and crisp, and to snow-covered and bitter cold.
Thanks for listening.
Jeffrey:
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing!
As you know, I avoid engaging in political discourse on Ocean. Sometimes I comment on Ann's blog, in non-strident ways I hope, but I'm never happy with myself when I do it. It's not a form of writing that suits me. But the other stuff -- the concrete as you call it -- ah, now that I can play with hours on end!
And I will. More so when the semester ends. The days are very short still! (Ann teaches far fewer classes than I do.)
Nina,
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I avoid engaging in political discourse on Ocean. Sometimes I comment on Ann's blog, in non-strident ways I hope, but I'm never happy with myself when I do it.
Most political views, in my opinion, tap into the irrational in us. I see a lot of political affiliation as similar to that of following your favorite sports team. If a Democrat, for example, can never imagine voting for a Republican, no matter who they are and what their views are, then, to me, there is no doubt that the irrational element in that person is being drawn upon. It's no different than between a Viking and Packer fan.
So, I think your unease around political discussion is actually more than reasonable (I share that unease, by the way). People in so-called political discussions are more often than not engaged in a species of cheer-leading and not actual debate.
Jeffrey:
ReplyDeleteSee, even now I nearly responded to your point on voting (with which I agree, though with qualifications) and then as I typed, I thought -- I don't want to write this. Delete. Sigh of relief.
My parents are highly political and they express their convictions constantly, effortlessly. They're in their upper eighties and they still do it. I turned away from all that. I hear all around me people saying things that are incorrect, or mean-spirited, or both and I know I don't want to contribute to any of it.
I like listening to good point/counterpoint discussions. And then I turn it off and go back to my more quiet world.
It's so gratifying to read a commenter who says that the quiet world is not necessarily the more boring world! So thank you again for writing.
Nina,
ReplyDeleteWhile Henry David Thoreau's life had a political dimension (as an abolitionist and tax critic), his days in the woods near Walden Pond were filled with everyday beauty and searching thoughts that had nothing to do with politics and were just as important to his life as a whole.
I'm looking forward to seeing how you and Ed create your own kind of Walden Pond there outside Madison. The photo of the farmhouse really takes me back to the Midwest. A lot of my relatives lived (and live) in farmhouses like that one. My Mom grew up on a 160-acre farm near Dyersville where practically everything they ate they either grew or raised.
The best description of that way of life is in Mildred Armstrong Kalish's Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression. They were busy the whole year, that's for sure. My Mom read the book while I did and she said that it was dead-on accurate. The lives of the people who once lived in that farmhouse of yours may have been very much like my Mom's family.
Anyway, good luck you two. It's quite a project.