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Showing posts from August 26, 2009

Remembering Teddy

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Cross-posted from AlterNet Photo Credit: Jocelyn Augustino I remember thinking, he seems so much smaller in person. The year was 2003, and I stood directly behind Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on a makeshift stage constructed in front of the Department of Labor, at a rally for International Human Rights Day convened by the AFL-CIO. I was on staff at the American Federation of Government Employees at the time, and was a member of the team that had put together the rally. Those were dark days indeed for union workers. The Bush administration was in full throttle in its bid to take down the unions, and it had a special vendetta in its dark heart for unions representing government workers. "We want this administration to stop being the most anti-worker, anti-labor administration that we have seen," Kennedy said. Kennedy had just introduced the Employee Free Choice Act , a piece of legislation, yet to see the light of day, that continues to rankle the right. He dressed humbly, in a wind