Editor and Publisher
John H. Walker
TARBORO —
I found it offensive to watch members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union in Rocky Mount celebrating the demise of Hostess.
As is always the case in contract negotiations, there are very few who know the entire story, but according to published information, Hostess is said to have asked the union workers to take a $2 per hour pay cut and pay an increased portion of their health care costs.
Rather than bite the bullet like so many Americans have, the union celebrated when Hostess said it had no choice but to cease operations.
So tell me ... what difference does it make that you “stood your ground” when you you wound up standing on quicksand?
Rather than take a $2 cut to $13 an hour, you’d rather keep your $15 wage — without any hours!
That’s okay ... even though his comment wound up hurting him, you are among the 47 percent Mitt Romney referred to at a fundraiser.
It doesn’t matter to you because the new America ... the socialist America ... will take from the wealthy to ensure you have provisions.
I would ask you to remember the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
In later years, there brands other than Twinkies and Wonder Bread ... there were Ho-Hos, Ding Dongs and Zingers and they are now selling online like the great sellers they always were.
I remember a couple of other products ... Hostess Cupcakes and Snoballs. and, of course, there was always the claim that Wonder Bread built strong bodies 12 ways.
It’s a shame it’s Hostess folding and not the union.
• • •
Last Thursday, four American war heroes were killed when the tractor trailer on which they were riding was struck by a Union Pacific freight train in Midland, Texas.
I’ve crossed that Garfield Street crossing probably hundreds of times from the time I live in Midland and Odessa.
From my days in the Midland Jaycees, I had friends who worked in a strip center close by -- Johnny Cappadonna owned an electric company and Max Reneau sold office equipment.
I don’t know how you don’t see a train coming at that crossing. First, the terrain is as flat as a pancake and the tracks are built up a bit. Because of the traffic from Business U.S. 80, all of those crossings down through there have been heavily signalized for years — those that are still open, that is.
That these heroes would survive the rigors of war, a Midland Mayor Wes Perry noted, then be killed on a city street, is hard to fathom.
In the Permian Basin, Midland is home to the Commemorative Air Force and the Permian Basin Vietnam Memorial. Some 40 miles to the east, in Big Spring, is one of the finest Vietnam Memorials in our land and it was built by folks like Jerry Groves and Gene Wilson and the late Jackie Tibbitts and the late Ron York.
Just like Tarboro, that part of the world truly loves, honors and respects our veterans and the hurt and grief they are feeling at the loss of these four heroes can only be imagined.
We never know when it’s time. That’s why it is so important to always thank someone for a kindness and to tell those we love that we do love them.
(John H. Walker is editor and publisher of The Daily Southerner. He can be reached at 823-3106 or jwalker@dailysoutherner.com.)
