It has some several days since I last posted and There are numerous reasons for this. Either I am in the middle of a flare or something much much worse. We buried my nephew this week. Of all my nephews both on my wife’s side and my side he was my favorite all through his shortened life. He was a victim of capitalism. He had a steady job at a sawmill when he had a life changing accident. The machine he was running threw a 2×4 piece of lumber towards him and impaled him. He almost died then before they could airlift him to the hospital. After multiple surgeries and the loss of a good portion of his intestines and stomach he was finally released from the hospital to waste away his remaining days living off of intravenous feedings and vomiting every thing he tried to eat and when he ran out of food to throw up  he still continued to vomit. He held on for a little over two years until he lost the fight last week. I was there while the paramedics were doing their best to revive him but it was too late and the Lord took him home to suffer no more.

One would think that an accident like that would force a change in the machinery and install some sort of guard to protect the operator if it happened again and happened again is exactly what it did. O.S.H.A. forced them to shut down two days and then allowed them to open right back up with no new safety updates. I personally know of two more incidents of the same machine doing the same thing to two more men at separate times. Each time O.S.H.A. would shut them down a day or two and then allow them to open right back up with no new safety requirements in place. Not only was a government agency negligent in their protection of workers but the owners were so greedy that they would not spend a dime to protect whomever was unfortunate enough to be running that machine. A case of capitalistic greed plain and simple.

Now those of us who loved him are left wondering why. His poor wife and three small children left to grow up without a father and her without a husband. And for what? Capitalistic greed is all. I am neither a socialist nor a communist but still feel there are some better options than to let capitalism run the show as they are doing now. His death is small by comparison to what is done in the name of profits. Rape of our mother earth goes on everyday and so few stand up to say anything. Enslaving the populace goes on everyday in the name of capitalism. I do not know the complete answer to fix this but somehow we need to find a way to progress and keep our communities thriving but at what cost are we willing to pay?

 

Leave a Reply