Why it's so important to get involved .... by Aggie Mitchkoski
By most standards, I'm a newcomer to being an activist, a political person. For most of my life I confined my struggle with right and wrong to home, family and wherever I was working. It's not that I didn't see what was happening in the wider world, I just thought I could handle those "problems" on a local level with the people I was directly working with.
Well over 10 years ago I worked as a Physical Therapy Assistant in the area nursing home in short-term rehab units. A very profitable business then as Medicare, the primary payor, reimbursed services as they were delivered. More services provided...more money the rehab company and nursing home collected. This started a feeding frenzy. The little therapist-owned company I happily worked for was sold to a small rehab company which then sold us to medium-sized company, which then was bought out by a large Texan actuarial firm. While all this buying and selling was going on, Medicare changed the way it reimbursed services...now they paid a flat rate per day to the nursing home and all needed services had to be delivered for that amount. Everything changed for the people working with patients and the patients themselves. Now it was "get it done as fast as possible with as few people as possible and don't do anything that isn't necessary."
All my attempts to hold back this tsunami of outside forces were fruitless. I got pushed to the side, run over and spit out. There weren't any unions in this sector of the workforce and the only people who were kept on were people who were willing to be quiet and do what they were told. But even doing that, their lives became less and less positive, and over time, most were let go as more and more work was asked of fewer and fewer people.
When I came to work at UMass (was supposed to be a short-term thing... just until I got my bachelor's degree), I was glad to become a union member. Finally, some protection. But it didn't take long before I learned that being a state employee, as well a union member, had some weak spots. We can't strike! Well, that sucks! Then, as I became involved in my University Without Walls portfolio process, I learned how the state of the country was being effected by this all-consuming goliath called " Corporate America" that had reached its cancerous tentacles into my last work experience and was also cutting off the oxygen to unions and workers across America.
Here I was again facing the same dilemma, but I was a little smarter. I had learned that trying to control my little corner of the world with debate, reason, or even compliance just doesn't work. Any corner you paint yourself into is too big... "THEY" want it all.
So I got involved in the union. Workers working together is certainly more powerful than any worker alone. But even one union, especially in public higher education is not enough. Coalitions of unions and coalitions between all involved constituencies of the state and the nation are necessary. The political clout that "Corporate America" wields is incredibly powerful and only solidarity of the people has the necessary power to turn that around.
I'm finishing a book that Al Gore wrote called An Assault on Reason. I highly recommend it to everyone. It shows how even our political process has been so deeply and thoroughly taken over by the corporate process in this country. Here are just two quotes from the book that might show you a little of what I'm talking about.
"Just as the appointment of industry lobbyists to key positions in agencies that oversee their former employers results in a kind of institutionalized corruption and the abandonment of law enformcement and regulations at home, the outrageous decision to brazenly grant sole-source no-bid contracts worth $10 billion to Vice President Cheney's former company Haliburton -- which paid him $150,000 annually until 2005 -- has convinced many observers that incompetence, cronyism, and corruption have played a significant role in undermining U.S. policy in Iraq....billions of dollars in money appointed by Congress and Iraqi oil revenue have disappeared with absolutely no record of where they went, to whom, for what, or when." p80-81
"He (Bush) has also undermined the Medicare program with a radical new proposal prepared by the major pharmaceutical companies, also large campaign contributors." p81
This process only goes on because people like you and me aren't aware, aren't involved in the process or are counted on not to care. As long as we have "Dancing with the Stars" and the malls are still open and Wal-Mart continues to sell things for less (lead paint and all...), this Corporate Entity, this economic black hole will continue to slowly erode our lives until we have finally been painted back into the last inch of the corner. Then we have no choice but to turn and fight. Let's not wait until things get that bad. Let's act today.
The solution is that everyday people like you and me need to become involved. We need to become involved in our union and with this university and its process of making decisions, and we need to be involved at the state and national levels. As uncomfortable as that is for us, it is something we must do. Democracy will not survive our passivity. We each need to do our part.
