Mar 2, 2002

I offer these brief remarks as a prayer for our country, with love of democracy, as a celebration of our country. With love for our country. With hope for our country. With a belief that the light of freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside of us.

Thousands of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) members and supporters rallied this past week demanding government action to save their jobs, their families and their communities. Veterans of the USWA and its retiree organization, the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR), are thrilled at the response of the rank and file.

NEW ORLEANS – At its mid-winter meeting in the “Big Easy,” the AFL-CIO Executive Council fleshed out its 2002 election agenda by adopting an “Agenda for America” and taking steps to finance what AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called the federation’s “biggest ever” mid-term election effort. For the entire article, click on the headline. Also visit the AFL-CIO's page: Agenda for All America announced at the New Orleans meeting.

TUCSON, Ariz. – University of Arizona (UA) employees and other state workers are fighting back against an all-out attack by Gov. Jane Hull and right wingers in the state legislature.

TACOMA, Wash. – From the written program to the spoken word, to music and singing, “A Celebration of Black History and Labor,” held here Feb. 20, presented a program encouraging people to “commit ourselves from this day forward to vote in greater numbers, speak in louder voices, write with sharper pens and act with firmer convictions.”

Admiral “Bull” Halsey, who commanded the U.S. Navy’s Third Fleet in the South Pacific during World War II, once said, “There are no great men or women, but only great challenges that ordinary men and women rise to meet.”

CHICAGO – With the famed Chicago “hawk” whipping across campus, a coalition of university and high school students, faculty and staff protested at the University of Illinois campus here Feb. 20.

CHICAGO – A coalition of neighborhood groups, civil rights, tenant and religious organizations has developed their own State of the City analysis demanding that the city council address problems ranging from lack of affordable housing to police brutality.

NEW YORK – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young entertained 40,000 enthusiastic fans with songs of peace and social consciousness for two nights last week at Madison Square Garden. It started with Graham Nash’s 1971 song calling for an end to “military madness.”

Labor and community activists in Connecticut will be challenging the aggressive policies of the Bush administration at an emergency peace and justice conference March 2. The theme is “Bush & Company’s World Domination: How Do We Stop It? – Our Challenge: Peace, Justice and Security After Sept. 11.”