Right to Work

Ohio is a right-to-work state. Sounds great doesn't it? When I first heard the phrase, years ago, I thought is was great to be living in a state where our right to work was guaranteed by law!! Silly me.

What it really means is that you have a right-to-work-as-long-as-you-are-willing-to-take-whatever-cr ap-the-company-dishes-out. If you're not willing to do that, we will get rid of you and you have no recourse.

Friends and friends-of-friends have been running into this more and more in the last few years. Age and sex discrimination? OK here. Hostile work environment? OK here. Wanna be called the n-word all day? Come to Ohio; it's okay here!

And if you want to take off ONE DAY for a parent's funeral-well go ahead but then you'll get fired for not showing up for work. What? You told your boss you had to have a day off? So what?? This is a RIGHT TO WORK state and we have the right to force you to work, regardless. And don't think you can go to unemployment afterwards because if you're not willing to work, you can't draw unemployment.

I've also learned that you shouldn't report any hazardous work environments to OSHA. Locked in the building all day with no exit in case of fire? Too bad. Fumes getting to you? Too bad. Because OSHA will 1: not take you seriously if you don't give them your name and 2: they will tell you your name is CONFIDENTIAL. But #3 is that they will tell your employer anyway and after your (former) HR departments posts the OSHA poster in the lunchroom (that is required by federal law) you will get fired and they won't make any other corrections because the troublemaker is gone and no one else will take the chance of losing their income, so no one else will report them.

So, go to the attorney who practices employment law and give it a shot. First, no one here will do a "free consultation" because attorneys have to make money somehow-so they will charge you a fee upfront before they will talk to you. Then they'll tell you that yes, you work for an asshole and there's nothing you can do about it because...Ohio is a right-to-work state!!! Yeehaw. And then you will see on a 'documentary' on tv about how Appalachians are depressed and alcoholics and you will wonder why. This is why.

(Don't call the unions either. They don't call back. It sounds really good to think you can get a union rep down here and unionize the god-company. Then we can all be protected and be able to work and pay our rent and buy food for the kiddies. Sorry-they're not interested either.)

It is a feudal society where only the kings and queens rule and classism is rampant. I wondered for the last few years why no one was talking about this. Where is the anger? The questions? The will to stop it?

I think all that must have been crushed years ago. My grandfather had the union in the coal mines and that is what saved his life. His granddaughter is wondering what happened to the notion that working people deserve not only a job, but a little human dignity to go with it.

Woodpeckers and Cougars and Bears-Oh My!

My mother asked me the other day if I knew what to do if I saw a bear. "Get my camera" wasn't the answer she was looking for. But it is what I'd do-hopefully. Apparently there's been a lot of bear and cougar sightings around here- and the park rangers are doing workshops to teach people what to do. (put your hands in the air and back away slowly...sounds like a cop show.)

We don't have a newspaper here, so we don't get to read about all the local happenings.Everyone on my road has seen "our bear" except me. (and you wonder why I'm depressed-lol) Sometimes I hope he will come eat the extremely noisy neighbor's dogs-okay I don't really hope that. But they are loud and have driven away some of my wildlife...sigh. And I'm starting to suspect she's an irresponsible breeder, but that story is for another time.Haven't seen any cougar tracks either.

I did hear the pileated woodpeckers yesterday and this morning-but no sightings yet. They usually only come up from the woods twice/year- early spring and late fall. The first time I saw one I was just in shock at the size and beauty-so I look forward to seeing them every year. If it doesn't pour down rain today maybe I'll get a glimpse.

Sea Shepherd

I watched Whale Wars on Animal Planet last year and still think about it a lot. I really like this organization who put their words into action. You can volunteer as part of the crew and work the oceans to stop Japanses whalers. If you didn't see the show, catch it in reruns.

Paul Watson is the captain and head of the organization. He used to work for Greenpeace, but realized that direct action was the better course of action-letter writing only goes so far, and whales were still being slaughtered. He and his crew disrupt the whaling ships so they can't hunt. What other organization encourages you to work with them, instead of just sending money??They are at sea again now trying to stop the hunt. You can follow their progress on their blog. www.seashepherd.org