Kindred on Albom receiving this year's Red Smith Award

Didn't you just call me "born to pass judgment"?
Pot ... kettle.

 

did you cross a picket line?

 

No.
But one certainly crossed me up.
Changed my life. Time with family, time with friends ... gone.
So it's not a one-size-fits-all answer, from my experience.

 

I respect you for that, it's never easy and it effects a lot of people.

 

Kindred folos up... (this is a few days old) ...

http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/a-look-back-at-a-careers-worth-of-hatpins-in-the-eyeballs/

PS Love David Broder's quote.

 

No, but that goes without saying. It was what Simmons wrote about - Boston sports that are an hour away from Bristol. the Red Sox living then breaking a long, awful streak - that made him marketable, not so much what he was writing. The writing was then and is now...not bad. But there's hundreds of people doing it on subjects that don't command much attention.

Which is why Whitlock's mention of him is pointless. Because you can't do that in every market. You could, in theory, do what Mitch Albom does.

 

http://www.freep.com/article/20100725/COL01/7250472/1082/Col01/In-the-Sherrod-controversy-do-shoot-the-messenger

Also a couple days old -- Mitch gets right back on the horse, preaching about media credibility, selective editing, etc.

I agree with about 98% of the substance of what he's saying, but he obviously doesn't get it: he's forfeited the credibility to ever talk about the subject again.

 

Twoback, I respect your sentiments. But if you're in the union, and the members vote strike, you have to stick with the majority decision -- no matter what. Otherwise, there is no union.

 

By logical extension, then, if you're in a Democracy and your leaders take you to war -- there is no right to protest.
No demonstrations in the park, no signs, no "1-2-3-4, we don't want your war."
Otherwise, there is no nation?

Unions can be full of crap. Detroit going on strike at that time, given the state of the newspaper industry and what had happened not that long before in Pittsburgh, was idiotic. Choosing not to support was a reasonable course.

 

Just as I'm sure "choosing not to support" the pay scale and benefits and grievance apparatus they had for decades negotiated on behalf of every employee - even those not in the union - would be a "reasonable course."

 

If anybody crosses a picket line I sure as hell hope they turn down the pay raise and negotiated benefits that the uninion ends up receiving. They also should never use the grievance process. It's the most selfish thing somebody can do. I have no idea how scabs can walk back into work after everything is settled.

There's nothing wrong with being against unions, if you are, fine, go find a non-union job. It's really that simple