Newspaper Page Text
Wednesday
September 13,
2006
Where were you on 9-11 ?
The View
From My Front Porch
With Larry Peel
larry@ioncinema.com
“Where Were You
When the World Stopped
Turning?” That’s the
question posed by country
singer Alan Jackson in his
tribute song to the tragedy
of September 11,2001.
This past Monday
marked the fifth anniversary
of the day that changed
America. 1 know most of
the student body here at
West Georgia was most
likely in school that bright
Tuesday morning. Perhaps
your teachers turned on
the television or a radio
broadcast to keep up with
the events as they unfolded.
As for myself, 1 was
asleep when it started. 1
had worked the night
before as a dispatcher
for 911 EMS services in
Cobb County and had just
gotten off work at 6:00 that
morning.
The weekend before I
had hosted a movie party
at my home for which 1
had rented a 60" projection
television. The rental
company was supposed to
have picked it up Monday,
but had run late and not
been able to get there
before 1 left for my 12-
Is "work" a four letter word for Liberals?
By Jacob Lovell
Staff Columnist
jlovell I @my.westga.edu
In the August
30th issue of The West
Georgian, columnist Sarah
Hahn drew a complicated
and logical argument about
how people from the South
hate and fear unions.
Also, police are
anti-union and college
students are rabbits and
corporations are their
fathers or something.
Allow me to attempt to
summarize her brilliant
reasoning: if Wal-Mart
doesn’t like unions and it
was founded in the South,
then the South is bad.
Of course, by that
reasoning, Hillary Clinton
was on the board of Wal-
Mart, which was founded
in the South, so Clinton
drives a pickup and likes
watermelons.
Hahn’s reasoning
isn’t atypical for
products of the current
education establishment’s
schoolrooms. I myself
am subject to the very
same indoctrination every
®lje West (Benrgian
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Opinion
hour shift.
1 received a telephone
call from my mother that
awoke me to the events
unfolding in New York
just before the second
plane hit. I was forced
to watch the second
impact and the resulting
destruction on a screen
that was nearly as tall as
I. It was truly surreal.
Following the second
impact, I logged into the
chat room on the Internet
that I hosted at the time
and was immediately
bombarded with fear and
innuendo from around the
world.
Utilizing a second
computer for the most
factually correct news
information I could
gather, I attempted to
calm the panic that was
virtually palpable despite
the virtual reality.
"They hit the St.
Louis Arch” was one
report. “A car bomb blew
up at the US Embassy in
Washington” was another.
They continued for hours.
I watched the events
unfold online and on
television. I was in
Monday and Wednesday,
the days I attend my
History' 2112 class.
Day in and day out,
we learn how the South
is and always has been
full of brutes and bigots
and how unions saved the
whole world a hundred
years ago.
I’m not anti-union.
Believe it or not, the idea
of unions comes from free
market principles. Free
workers willingly united
to choose not to work in
protest of poor working
conditions.
What’s wrong with
that? Well, let’s go ahead
and ignore the fact that
they shot at people who
tried to work, burned
buildings, rioted and hung
people and generally
made a mess of things.
But aside from murder
and arson, unions rock.
To be honest. I’m glad
unions can exist in this
country. The other option
is a socialized state, where
you have to work where
you’re told, poor working
conditions or not. I guess
constant communication
with family and friends
about who was where and
what we were doing.
I had offers to come
to Canada, Australia and
virtually every state in the
union. My co-workers
and I made plans to travel
to New York to help our
fallen comrades.
That day, as other
days, the distance between
them and us was irrelevant.
We are family and if one
goes down we all feel the
fall.
I share all this with
you for a simple reason,
we should never forget
to honor those who serve
us. Whether they are in
the Armed Forces, police,
(ire or EMS, my brethren
place their lives on the
line every time they go to
work.
They get up in the
middle of the night, in the
storms, in the fury' of the fires
of hell on earth and think
not of themselves but of
those whom they are sworn
to protect and defend.
I respect fully the
men and women who go
forth to do the duty that
is requested of them. I do
not however, agree with
the choices made by those
above them sometimes.
As I do not w ish this
to become a political rant
column I will close with
this thought. If those who
serve didn't would you?
this is why most unionists
aren’t socialists.
I have to make a
confession at this point: 1
worked for Wal-Mart. For
all of about live weeks this
summer, 1 was a clerk in
the electronics department.
Maybe I've been poisoned
by their brainwash, but I
have to say - Wal-Mart
really does rock.
My starting pay was
nearly $9.00 an hour, with
all the hours I did or did
not want scheduled when I
wanted them. Considering
this was in Rabun County
(ever seen Deliverance?),
I was pulling in some
serious cash.
In Asheville, a city
that alone has a population
seven times larger than
the entirety of Rabun
County, the highest per
hour starting pay I ever
got was $7.50, and that
was as a technical support
technician with Bell South.
Wal-Mart pays more
for low-level clerks in
a backwater, middle-of
nowhere county than a
phone company pays its
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The Rant & Rave
Can’t find a place to park? Thank
the numerous lazy,out-of-shape,
X-Box generation gnomes who
live only a few blocks from UWG
and still drive every day.
Why does the Z-6 serve
hamburgers all weekend? I guess
those of us who do not eat red meat
are expected to live off of salads.
Will people ever stop griping
about parking?
Why doesn’t the Chick-fil-A
in the UCC put pickles on the
sandwiches?
If you have pressing questions
or comments like the ones above, send
them to us at uwgpaper@westga.edu
technicians in a decently
sized city.
Furthermore, the local
cafeteria workers here at
ourZ-6are paid around $6
per hour, and I guarantee
I wasn't doing as much
work at Wally World as
those folks here are. As
Hahn said, I really did
feel lucky to have a Wal-
Mart job.
However, unlike her
experience, 1 never had to
dance like a monkey, as
far as 1 can recall. I did
get to arrange video game
displays and use that neat
little PDA price gun thingy,
and that made me as happy
as a dancing monkey. I do
distinctly remember my
paycheck smelling like
bananas one time.
Wal-Mart also helped
provide a boom for the
local economy. Since it
moved in six years ago, the
city of Clayton has started
to explode. Despite Fruit
of the Loom’s recent plant
closing there, things are
still going up on a weekly
basis. Money is flowing in
and things are cheap now
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establish
ment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances. ”
- First Amendment, United States Constitution
because of Wal-Mart.
Small businesses that
overcharged and didn't
employ nearly as many
people as Wal-Mart are
forced to compete. Prices
are going down, there are
more jobs and everything
is going pretty well.
My only complaint
against Wal-Mart is the
amount of benefits they
had. If it weren't for their
comprehensive benefit
package, 1 could have
probably gotten another
buck an hour or so.
I don't need benefits,
but thanks to the work
of bleeding heart leftists
who help pass laws that
require companies to
provide these things, such
benefits are shoved down
my throat anyway.
Here I needed a laptop
for school, and instead
have low co-pays for
my nonexistent children,
and there’s no way to opt
out of the socialist-style
scheme the company has
set up. Gee, thanks so
much, lefties.
An introduction of
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a union at that Wal-Mart
would be a waste of time
and resources. Judging
by how other unions have
worked, if Wal-Mart had
been coerced into signing
a union contract, I would
have been forced to join
that union in order to work
there this summer. That’s
money down the drain by
way of membership dues.
Because of the
monopolized pool of
labor, I would have been
unable to compete with
my fellow man by being
willing to work for, say,
$9 instead of sl2 or sl4 or
w hatever other ridiculous
wages a union would
demand, which means it
w'ould have been unlikely
for me to get a job at all.
Add up the unjustified
increase in labor costs,
as well as additional
“benefits” that I neither
need nor want, and they'll
need to up the cost of the
products. Thus, a sl4 per
hour union worker now
has to pay more for the
See Work , page 5