Read American Lightning by Howard Blum! Great historical nonfiction page turner on the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times and the characters that became associated with the labor crisis at the turn of the century: Clarence Darrow, Harry Chandler, D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Samuel Gompers, Lincoln Steffens, Edgar Lee Masters, Eugene V. Debs, William Mulholland many others.
The trial of the McNamara brothers was "The Trial of the Century" (who could have predicted O.J. Simpson then?) and the fact that its largely forgotten shows how little our country remembers the violence and furor behind both sides of the movement to unionize.
Also interesting to note how the U.S. has coped with domestic terrorism in the past. Lots of parallels to today I find. And really, this book sheds a lot of light on how fucking ludicrous those "socialist" accusations against Obama were back during the elections.
There is an amazing memorial to the 21 employees of the L.A. Times that died in the 1910 bombing at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. I can't seem to find a photo of the actual words dedicated to the men who died but it's written in some pretty amazing anti-labor rhetoric.
Amazing times, totally forgotten about.
I've been a bit spotty with my updates these days but only because I've been so busy. And busy is good! I'm kind of like those idiotic plastic dancing flowers from the late 1980s. Once I stop moving, I fall over and end up weeping into my cat.
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