(Please allow me a point of personal privilege in this Blog.)
Tomorrow is my father’s birthday. He would have been 102 years old. He died when he was only 63.
My father was not much for attending church, but looking back now I think he embodied the best of what it meant to be a Christian. Talk to him about religion and he would look for nearest door, but talk to him about economic justice and he would settle in for the long haul.
That is why I believe he lived as a Christian long before he ever went to church. Economic justice was his life’s work as a labor representative for the United Paper Makers and Paper Workers of America, a union of the AFL/CIO. Before that he was a union organizer.
Neither was easy work. He was called a communist many times, and was once escorted out of a small North Carolina town by the local sheriff.
But unions have always lived with suspicion and an appalling lack of appreciation for what they have done for American workers, things like the forty hour work week, overtime pay, paid vacations, healthcare benefits, pensions, and most important, a livable wage for an honest day’s labor.
None of these were graciously offered by corporations to their workers. They were instead won through contract negotiations led by people like my father.
He was known for his ability to negotiate good contracts for his union members without making outrageous demands. He knew what was fair and what companies could well afford to pay. He wanted a fair shake for everyone. That’s what made him so good at his job.
When my father died my mother received gracious notes from union and company leaders alike. They knew he was a man of integrity, grit, hard work, and a desire to make labor and industry work together for everyone’s benefit.
We don’t see that attitude much anymore. It’s all about getting for myself, whether it is a company president or a line worker. Unions taught loyalty to the common good. Today the common good seldom gets a nod.
What is interesting to me is that I know I believe in economic, racial, and social justice in all its forms because of my father rather than my church. He taught me what it actually meant to believe in God without ever pulling out the Bible to tell me what it says.
Actually he may not have ever known what it said, but he knew what it wanted people to do, to care about others, to do whatever you can to give people a chance in life, to at least help them put food on the table and clothes on their back.
In other words, he knew believing in God meant loving your neighbor as you love yourself, though he never said it that way.
My father was also an eleven year Army veteran. He loved the fourth of July, the flags, the fireworks, the whole shebang. It was a real American holiday for him because he was a patriotic American the way people used to be.
You didn’t have to guess where my father stood when it came to issues. He was a union man and everything revolved around what that meant.
People who know me know I inherited that much from him. I’m not bashful about saying what I believe about issues. I am also a union man, not just because I am the son of one, but because I believe at their best unions have always fought for economic justice for ordinary Americans.
Too bad too many workers today don’t know that, or don’t care. But that will never change the fact that workers in this country are better off today than they ever would be simply because their union representatives have a seat at the table when their fate is being decided.
So happy birthday, Pop, and a happy fourth of July. You made life a lot better for a lot of people.
I don’t think a person can do much better than that.
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