STILL ON THE ROAD. TUCSON, HERE I AM, AND NOTHIN' CHANGES

Came down through Utah from Rock Springs, Wyoming and into Arizona and the gas prices immediately dropped 10 to 20 centavos as I entered Arizona. Lots of poverty in Utah (and Idaho) and things got better as soon as I entered Arizona. It was so visible, you couldn't miss it. Lots of run down trailers on patches of red dirt. Highways lined with junk. High prices and low wages in Utah, just like in Idaho, both states dominated by Mormons and right to work states. All the power is in the hands of the rich in those two Mormon states. Workers screwed in both states.

Long time ago, I went on strike against a Mormom shop in Spokane, Washington. All the Mormon employees refused to abide by the union vote and crossed our lines, except for one young Mormon guy who stayed with us, but he returned to the shop days before we voted. He was a spy. We lost the vote, the union was decertified and most of us lost our jobs. It was my one union action in my whole machinist life. I'm proud to have been part of it and to have stuck with the brotherhood.


BUCK KNIVES: IT'S THEIR RIGHT TO WORK FOR LESS, HE THINKS.

Buck Knives is moving from California to Idaho. Mr. Buck, according to a Time Magazine story, plans to pay his workers 30% less in Idaho. Since it's a private company, he has every right to do that, and since it's a private company, the whole 30% comes right out of the worker's pockets and goes into his. He just reaches in and steals it out. Since its a right to work state, workers can do nothing but suck it up and take it in the shorts. If workers could put some union power in that state, they wouldn't be treated like the third world workers they are.


A SOBERING THOUGHT WHICH I HATE TO THINK. SHOCK AND AWE, WHAT?

Berg's decapitated, and we call them savages. Yet we can go in with smart bombs and 500 pound bombs and blow hundreds of them up without ever getting close and having to take responsibility for our killing of them. Our killing is done at a distance and dispassionately. Their killing is down right up close and passionately. Whether to be killed by passion or dispassion is no real choice. Head cut off or head blown off-does it matter once you're dead? Remember, Bush had more peaceful ways to force Saddam to heel to the UN's will, and he chose this death course we're on. The responsibility for Berg's decapitated head is on Bush's shoulders. We spoke of "shock and awe" going in, but if you ask me, the decapitation of Berg is real "shock and awe". Which shocks most? Our murdering thousands or this murder of one?