Don't let 'em take the fight outta you

I've only been doing this a short time, but I'm already seeing how it's going to be a challenge. I do sort of cheat and think ahead as to what I'm going to write about when it comes to being thankful, but today, I had no idea what it was going to be.

I could write about something frivolous, like the minor victory that was getting my hands on a copy of Raving Rabbids TV Party for the Wii, which proved to be more difficult than Aaron's acquisition of a variant cover of fellow *FOF's drawn issue of Spiderman. You know, the one that has been on the news because it has Barack Obama on the cover. Yeah, we got one! I'm hoping we got two, so we can save one and keep it mint and sell it on ebay someday.

Anyway, all of that just seems trivial. Sometimes I am thankful for really trivial little things that make my day. But today, as I stopped to watch my tv for a minute I heard something really encouraging and the feeling it gave me is something for which I am much more thankful than these little luxuries.

I am not the biggest fan of Rachel Maddow, in fact, sometimes she just irritates me and I feel like she gives "liberal media" a worse name than it already has.

But sometimes, and this is why I still turn on her show and intermittently pay attention to it, she'll share a gem of a story, like this one.

Republic Windows & Doors, a company in Chicago, closed its doors back on December 5th (?). Sad, but not surprising in this economic landscape. But the workers, get this, refused to leave the premises. They really wanted their jobs back, but if they couldn't have that, they wanted their benefits, such as pension and severance, which they were owed under federal law.

The workers stayed until they got something. And now, while the bankruptcy proceedings are going on, this company in California is trying to buy the factory and give the workers back their jobs, as many of them as possible. It says it will turn them from "blue-collar workers" into "green-collar workers". 

Now if that isn't a testament to the strength of the human spirit, and what can happen when we stand up for ourselves, and what good can be accomplished when we think like humans instead of machines and love like humans instead of corporations, I don't know what is.

So I'm thankful for a myriad of things. I'm thankful for the warm fuzzies I get from hearing that story. I'm thankful for the workers who worked harder for their rights than anyone I've heard of in recent years. I'm thankful for Serious, the company that might buy Republic if given the chance by the court. I'm thankful for the other people who are inspired by what the workers at Republic W&D accomplished. 

I'm thankful for the "fight". I'm thankful for the determination. For whoever that one person was who got the idea to sit-in in the first place. American workers can't just take this stuff sitting down, they need to prove that they are a commodity worth saving. They are fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers who have people depending on them not just for new cars and bigger houses, but for food and shelter.

I love this story. Thanks for reading.

*FOF: One who is friends with Francine H. of Costa Mesa, and consequently friend/acquaintance with select other random people from social gatherings. See also: Todd & Dawn, Aimee, Lisa...