In the fight for $15 ...
Let's not forget it was a woman from Harlan County, Kentucky, Florence Patton Reece, who wrote the song "Which Side Are You On?" in the 1930s. When we push for a living wage, we stand on their shoulders.
Come all of you good workers
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how that good old union
Has come in here to dwell

Chorus
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
My daddy was a miner
And I'm a miner's son
And I'll stick with the union
Till every battle's won

They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair

• • •

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More from @RevDrBarber

6 Feb
To President Biden & Democratic senators, Don’t turn back on $15/hr minimum wage in the rescue plan. Turning back now will betray 62 million poor & low-wage workers. And it will be perceived by many as lying to the American people & going back on a campaign promise.
57 years ago at the March on Washington, MLK called for a $2/hr minimum wage. Today that would be $15/hr.

America is already 57 years overdue, and, for Black Americans, it took us 400 years to get from $0 to $7.25/hr. We can’t wait anymore.
Democrats, you saw Trump give trillions to wealthy corporations. We cannot watch you go backwards on living wages for essential workers, low-wage workers, and tip workers, all those who are essential.
Read 4 tweets
20 Jan
In life there are death pangs & there are birth pains. Today, I believe all our suffering has been birth pains toward a Third Reconstruction.
The pain of succession led to a new birth of freedom. The pain of assassination was meant to be a death pang, but led to Reconstruction.
Greed led us into the death pangs of the Great Depression, but somehow it turned into birth pains of a New Deal.
Read 5 tweets
22 Dec 20
This relief bill is more like Herod’s mess than a Christmas miracle. Billionaires have made $1 trillion during the pandemic, but poor & low income ppl can’t get guaranteed health care, just sick leave, adequate unemployment or help for cities—just $600 & a delay in overdue rent.
McConnell & the Republicans act as though they hate the people but love greed & power. There are those who want us to applaud this pitiful response, but the old folks I was raised around used to say you don’t “mess” on the carpet and then get praise for cleaning a little up.
Trump & McConnell’s minions “messed” on America & they want us to applaud them for cleaning a little of it up. No, we can’t do that.

This Christmas, we must be like Rachel who weeped for her children & refused to be consoled because they were no more.
Read 7 tweets
9 Dec 20
Representation in any administration matters. We need to see female, Black, Asian, Latino, Native & LGBTQ ppl in leadership. But we need more than faces in high places. Justice is about what policy priorities the next administration will pursue.
Real power is not just about who gets appointed, but who is at the center of an administration’s vision for change & policy transformation goals to make the establishment of justice real.
Remember, when Thurgood Marshall was asked whether his replacement on the Supreme Court should be Black, he said that while race would inevitably be a factor in choosing someone for the Court, it should not be used as "an excuse for doing wrong."
Read 5 tweets
8 Dec 20
During the first Christmas, there was a crazy, sick, narcissistic, mean leader on the throne. Trump is more like him, a modern-day Herod, who doesn't even care about those dying from his policies & crimes against nature.
What did Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zechariah, the shepherds & the wise men do? They did the right thing, birthed a new beginning & let Herod sink into the forgotten footnotes of history.
Herod is only referenced in the Bible to show us what not to be, why we should never follow his type & why no Herod-type can ultimately stop God's truth, love & justice.
Read 5 tweets
7 Dec 20
Media—esp. progressive media—must stop acting as though Trump’s tactics, terminology & political treachery are new. This didn’t just begin when Trump got elected. Mainstream Republicans have embraced this kind of extremism for decades.
I deeply appreciate my brother @JoeNBC, but I heard him say this morning that conservatives who rejected the “radicals” of the 60s need to reject Trump radicals today. We have to be careful how we use the term ”60s radical.”
In the 1960s, “radical” was a slur against movements for justice. Extreme voices like Billy James Hargis were the “Trump radicals” then & conservatives didn’t reject him.

Read 4 tweets

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