We Are Number One!

I tuned in that evening just as some Hollywood starlet was making an introduction on the darkened stage at yet another awards ceremony out of L.A. She was saying "....here is my very good friend, Chuck Negron". Who? I knew the name I just couldn't grab hold of the identity. Cut to a wide angle shot with a handsome, mustacheod man covered by light from a single spot. He raised the microphone to his mouth and began "One is the lonliest number that you'll ever do....". Now I knew! Chuck Negron, lead singer with Three Dog Night. This was to be one of his very first public appearances after crawling out from under a heroin addiction that took him to the gutter, got him kicked out of a few dozen rehab joints and for several years ended any career he had or hoped to have. His acapella version of that multi-million selling hit that evening was stunning, moving, just downright mind-blowing. Even though I had heard that song a thousand times before I had never really heard it as I did that night. The memory of that performance came back to me this year.

I first noticed the strangeness of this year on the first of January. That's when one started making it's impression. Write the date this way: 1/1/11. Hmmm, interesting. But it got more so when it became 1/10/11 and 1/11/11. Wow, it's definitely a one year. Now look ahead to November. I think you're getting the idea. November 1st becomes 11/1/11. Wait, there's more; salute a veteran on November 11th as we write 11/11/11. Think about the signing of the armistice that ended world war I. Signed in the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Oh my gosh. But, what really got me thinking was my birthday this year. No, I wasn't born on the 11th or the 1st of any month. I was born March 4. The only command date of the calendar as a former Army Captain/Mayor of Seaside, CA once told me. It took me several days to figure out what he meant by that. But let's not get off track. I was born in the year 1949 and so I am now 62 years old. So I added '49 and 62 and got.....

See what I mean? One is the lonliest number that you'll ever do but not this year. Not if you were born in 1949.

Join the Pro-Union Fellowship

For those who believe in unions, do not feel that you are alone in history.  There are many men and women who have forged the path that you now follow. Some were leading advisors to soon-to-be President F.D.R.
From the University of Chicago Professor Paul Douglas was part of a trade union delegation to the Soviet Union in 1927. Professor Douglas wrote of that experience "the people's real rights, that is their economic rights, are much better protected than in any other country". Labor leader Sidney Hillman who headed the Amalgamated Clothing Workers shared his positive view of the Soviet Union saying "I have never met a group of people that is so realistic, so practical, so courageous, and so able to handle the greatest job, as the group of people who have charge of the destinies of the Russian nation today". The one time president of the United Mine Workers John Brophy  told Soviet leader Joseph Stalin "the presence of the U.S. trade union delegation to Russia is evidence of the sympathy of a section of the American workers to the workers of the Soviet Union."
The sad reality for our comrades today is the collectivist model so admired in the 1920's and 30's is not around to the return the favor.