Labor Conflicts

“Each major strike forces the state to decide whether it represents workers or employers.” Erik Loomis

 West Virginia teachers strike in 2018

“A History of America in Ten Strikes” by Erik Loomis contends that labor strife has been a constant of capitalism, yet it receives scant attention (“a footnote at best”) in accounts of recent American history or public discussion.  The book opens with an account of the successful February 2018 West Virginia direct action involving 34,000 teachers who were defying the law in a right-to-work state due to their dire conditions on account of actions by Republican officeholders who drastically underfunded public schools while supporting corporate tax breaks and for-profit, privately-run, nonunion charter schools. One placard read, “Will Work for Insurance,” a take-off on indigents who advertise, “Will Work for Food.”  Loomis argues that both political action and union vigilance, including, if necessary, the use of strikes, are vital or order to combat employers and, too often, their governmental allies.  In the chapter “Take Back Power,” he concluded that true freedom cannot come without “economic emancipation”  and offers this bleak assessment of  our uncertain times:

  We live in what I call the New Gilded Age.  Today, we are recreating the terrible income inequality and economic divides that dominated the late-nineteenth century and created the violent responses that included the Haymarket bombings and the assassin of President William McKinley.  Once again, we have a society where our politicians engage in open corruption, where unregulated corporate capitalism leads to boom-and-bust economies that devastate working people, where the Supreme Court limits legislation and regulations meant to create  a more equal society, and where unions are barely tolerated.  Life has become more unpleasant and difficult for most Americans in our lifetime.

 Oakland workers strike in 1946

I was familiar with most conflicts Loomis analyzed, including the tragic 1981 Air Traffic Controllers work stoppage but not the 1946 Oakland (CA) General Strike. The latter commenced when at Kahn’s department store clerks struck for tolerable working conditions and a living wage. After local police used strong-arm tactics against the women, over 100,000 AFL-affiliated workers walked off the job in sympathy.  Several days later, with the Oakland Tribunered-baiting rank-and-file leaders, corrupt Teamster boss Dave Beck ordered members back to work.  Faint-of-heart AFL International leaders accepted a compromise that did not address the retail clerks’ grievances nor gain prior approval from local leaders.  The Kahn employees kept up the battle for five more months before capitulating with most demands unmet.

Post-World War II strikes were, like in 1919, a result of inflation and, in Loomis’ words, “an economy that had created large profits for companies during the war but few material gains for workers.”  1946 job actions affected 4.6 laborers, including steel, rubber, shipyard, and auto workers.  Successful general strikes in Stamford, CT, Lancaster, PA, and Rochester, NY, made business leaders and their governmental allies, in Loomis’ words, “determined to reverse this aggressive union tide.”  Nowhere was the unholy alliance more overwhelming than Oakland.

Ed Sadlowski

Loomis titles his chapter on the 1972 Lordstown wildcat strike at a G.M. Chevy Vega plant near Youngstown, Ohio, “Workers in a Rebellious Age.”  The civil rights and antiwar movements had divided labor’s ranks generationally, and the primarily young automakers at Lordstown, concerned with dignity issues and hating being mere cogs on assembly lines, wanted more, according to J.D. Smith, treasurer of the UAW local, “than just a job for 30 years.” After plant managers introduced a speed-up (requiring 8 separate operations in 36 seconds) and compulsory overtime, rank-and-file workers responded with various forms of sabotage and, in defiance of union leaders, a wildcat strike that lasted 18 days.  UAW honchos stepped in and eventually negotiated a settlement that contained sparse gains for those on the shop floor, and in the years ahead autoworkers would fight rear-guard actions simply to hold on to their jobs. Loomis wrote:

   The Lordstown factory stayed open, but the UAW started giving back their hard-won gains in wages and benefits in contracts by the early 1980s in order to incentivize GM and other auto companies to stay in the United States.  Despite this, hundreds of auto and auto-supple plants have closed in the past 40 years.

Loomis links Lordstown to democracy movements that erupted in the steelworkers and mineworkers unions that enjoyed temporary but not long-lasting success.  He mentions Eddie Sadlowski’s unsuccessful 1977 bid to become President of the United Steelworkers of America and frequently cites Jefferson Cowie’s “Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class” (2010).

Just yesterday GM announced that, despite massive recent tax breaks, it is laying off 14,700 workers at five assembly plants, including Lordstown.  The official explanation: the weakening market for the Chevy Cruze. Trump is huffing and puffing and saying mean things against about GM CEO Mary Barra but will likely not do anything harmful to the corporation.

NWI Times photos of 2015 steelworkers rally by John J. Watkins

 

“Getting into the streets to stand up for our rights,”Loomis wrote,“must play a central role in labor struggles.”In the third edition of “Gary: A Pictorial History” a page is devoted to a 2015 steelworkers rally outside city hall, when some 3,000 ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel union members and their supporters, many carrying signs reading “FAIR CONTRACT NOW,” were opposing proposed cutbacks to their health insurance.  Addressing the crowd were Mayors Karen Freeman-Wilson, James Snyder (Portage), and Brian Snedecor (Hobert).  After prolonged negotiations, a new contract was approved that included no pay raises nor coverage of health cost increases, especially hard-hit were retirees.  Local 1010 President Tom Hargrove commented: “We were bargaining in some real bad times for steel.”

The November 2018 issue of Duneland Today contains histories of the Porter County Museum (PO CO MUSE), the Duneland School Corporation, Westchester library, and the cities of Porter and Chesterton.  None mentioned labor strife, Native Americans (unwelcome after white settlement), or African Americans (unwelcome until very recently). Prior to its incorporation in 1899, I learned, Chesterton went by several other names, including Coffee Creek and Calumet, and there is uncertainty over the origin of its present name.  One theory is that Chesterton was derived from Westchester County.

 Thanksgiving photos by Miranda and Angie

Our Thanksgiving dinner at the condo took place on Friday with 20 people in attendance, including good friends Charlie Halberstadt and Naomi Goodman.  Pregnant Tamiya Towns, Dave’s former student, who calls me Poppa Lane, told them that she planned on naming her baby Charley should it be a girl or Charles (after the father) if a boy.  Phil, Dave, Josh, and I had several lively euchre games; the evening was devoted to Werewolf, which an unlimited number can play.  By days end there was hardly any turkey left but enough ham for a few lunches.  I’m glad the downstairs fridge was stocked with Yuengling lager.  

Over the long weekend I watched numerous NFL games.  The Bears won despite missing starting QB Mitch Trubisky, and the Eagles barely beat the lowly Giants.  Without injured QB Alex Smith Washington bowed to the hated Dallas Cowboys, whose wide receiver Amari Cooper nonetheless earned me 30 Fantasy points thanks to a 90-yard TD reception, enough to knock Dave out of the playoffs.  Near the end zone Cooper nearly went out of bounds. During the review I was hoping the TD counted.  Thanks to spectacular late games by running backs Dalvin Cook and Lamar Miller, I had the most points of all 8 teams -  and that was with Todd Gurley on a bye week.  The evening news covered recreational marijuana now being available in additional states, emphasizing the long lines that ensued.  Evidently, juiced up gummy bears are an extremely popular item. Hard to believe the penalties once imposed for pot possession. Some are still paying the price.

Appearing on MSNBC was Rudy Valdez, director of “The Sentence,” who made an eloquent plea for getting rid of mandatory sentencing, as happened to his sister, incarcerated on vague conspiracy charges as a result od crimes committed by her then-boyfriend.  There is bipartisan Congressional support for such legislation, but reactionary Republicans are dragging their heels.  I told Michigan State professor Juan Coronado about “The Sentence.”  He replied that the victim is from Lansing.

 abandoned Masonic Temple in Hammond by Kyle Telechan

Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club members

Some 297 emails awaited me at IUN.  Most were unimportant, but John Attinasi reported that horn player Art Hoyle, 89, enjoyed our interview and had additional anecdotes about performing in the segregated South.  Times columnist Joseph Pete sought to speak with me about a proposed book about Hammond “Haunts.”  I advised visiting the Archives.  If so, I’ll show him Lance Trusty’s pictorial history and other sources, including the “Urban Legends” exhibit booklet that contains a photo by Larry Mickow of the abandoned Masonic Temple.  VU History prof Heath Carter wants to have lunch with Ron Cohen and me in December. He was recently in the news for protesting the use of Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club members as Salvation Army bell ringers because some wore “Aryan” patches.  In response to the furor, the charitable organization deemed that the Hell’s Angels violated their dress code and would no longer be soliciting donations although I don’t doubt they were effective at it.   

 Dick Flood

Ram Prasad

Barb Walczak’s bridge Newsletterwelcomed two newcomers, VA doc Ram Prasad and retired William and Mary prof Dick Flood.  The feature is a reminder that our ranks are being replenished as more Baby Boomers become seniors.

Killers

“I'm the man, come round and
Nothing can break, you can't break me down”

         Killers, “The Man”

 Brandon Flowers and Ric Ocasek

The Killers, a rock band from Las Vegas, opened the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony TV special on HBO by belting out the Tom Petty classic “American Girl,” with a few bars of “Free Fallin’ thrown in, as shots of the late, great rocker from Gainesville, Florida flashed on a big screen. Then Killers frontman Brandon Flowers introduced Ric Ocasek and The Cars and mentioned their song “Moving in Stereo” being the soundtrack during the hot fantasy swimming pool scene in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” with  Phoebe Cates removing her red bikini top. The Killers are one of nephew Bob’s favorite bands. Dave included “The Man,” from the album “Wonderful Wonderful,” on his “Best of 2017” Christmas CD.  Its final lines go:

Who's the man with the plan?
I'm the man

I don't give a damn
I'm the man

Stevie Van Zandt introduced a half-dozen singles honored, including Link Wray’s “Rumble” (1958), probably the only instrumental ever banned by radio stations, and “Louie, Louie” (1963) by the Kingsman, ordered off airways by the governor of Indiana because it was supposedly a dirty party song. Others included “The Twist” by Chubby Checker and one of my all-time favorites, “Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum.  I particularly enjoyed the long overdue induction of Moody Blues, eulogized by Ann Wilson of Heart and their subsequent performance.  Even though “Knights in White Satin” is not one of my favorites, Justin Hayward still has an awesome voice that he showed off splendidly.  Sadly, founding member and flautist Ray Thomas died a few months ago.  He hadn’t been with the band the last few times I saw them live.

Moodies, Justin Hayward on left 

Reporting on “The Devil’s Ticket” by Gary Pomerantz to book club members at Gino’s, I mentioned that after Myrtle Bennett killed husband Jack over a bridge hand and was arrested, she shared a cell with Evelyn Holmes, a 29-year-old vaudevillian who had gunned down her husband after, to quote Pomerantz, “years of neglect and cruel treatment”:

  Evelyn Helms had known hunger and deprivation.  Her husband Frank had threatened to leave her.  She shot him during a chase in which he had run from their house and fallen in the yard.  She stood over him, gun in hand, and was heard to say, “You will leave me, will you?”  She fired once, repeated the question, and fired again.  She tried to turn the gun on herself, but there were no bullets left.  

Like Myrtle, Evelyn was prosecuted by Jackson County D.A. Jim Page but, unable to hire a prominent attorney such as Myrtle’s mouthpiece, Missouri Senator James A. Reed, she was found guilty and sentenced to ten years in jail. Pomerantz compares young Myrtle to Lorilei Lee in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and an aging Myrtle (she lived well into her 90s) to Auntie Mame. She overcame a hardscrabble childhood in rural Arkansas as well as the notoriety of her trial (unimaginable in our day and age, as Joy Anderson pointed out) and became a successful social director for a fashionable New York City hotel and continuing to enjoy bridge,

Before I began my talk, I introduced my guests, bridge couple Charlie Halberstadt and Naomi Goodman and old friend Rocky Fraire, who came with Barbara Wisdom.  It turned out he knew Charlie from backgammon games at Another Roadside Attraction Restaurant in the 1970s.  The night before, I had reminded Roy Dominguez and George Van Til of the event and both showed up.  Dominguez is active in the protest against Maya Energy’s bid to build a waste/recycling facility near Steel City Academy, as is our mutual friend Samuel A. Love.

Steel City Academy students at City Council; NWI Times photo by John J. Watkins

My talk produced a lively discussion about social trends during the Roaring 20s and the effect of World War I and the mass production of automobiles on the breakdown of traditional moral standards.  Lee Christakis quoted from the song “How Ya Gonna Keep ’Em Down on the Farm, After They’ve Seen Paree?”  Bennett’s husband Jack, a World War I vet born on an Illinois farm, had been a traveling salesman hawking Parisian perfumes, and Brian Barnes noted that his father had a similar job selling windows.   Jack was quite a charmer and had at least one mistress to whom he was about to flee when Myrtle stopped him in his tracks.  Ken Anderson noted that we’d met in a Miller bridge group that included the son of longtime IUN English professor Walter Brown.  Debra Dubovich compared “The Devil’s Ticket” to Erik Larson’s nonfiction masterpiece “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America.”  Debra tried to get her bridge-playing mother to attend.

Ron Cohen and I finalized selections for the new chapter in the forthcoming third edition of “Gary: A Pictorial History.” My latest find: a photo by Guy Rhodes of Rudy Clay celebrating his 2007 election victory for Mayor at Tri-City Commons Shopping Center.  A Gary Roosevelt, grad, Clay served in the Indiana Senate and as Lake County Commissioner for 20 years prior to becoming mayor in a special election following the resignation of Scott King in 2006.  A year later, he was elected to a full term.  In April 2011, Clay cut short his re-election bid because he’d been diagnosed with cancer and endorsed Karen Freeman-Wilson as his successor.  As I was leaving, Ron gave me a brownie from a batch Nancy made for Ron’s movie night hosted by Larry Lapidus. 

I arrived home in time to see Janet and Kirsten Bayer, who had a business meeting scheduled at Ivy’s Bohemian House in Chesterton and brought her mom along from Indy, who dined at Lucretia’s with Toni.  Having visited her brother-in-law Joe in Finland, she predicted Dave and I will love Helsinki and that Joe’s house, where we’re spending the mid-summer holiday weekend, is a mere half-block from the subway, which will get us anywhere in the city.

 Melvin Tolson

I found a great Denzel Washington biopic on HBO, “The Great Debaters” (2007), is based on the true story of Wiley College debate coach Melvin B. Tolson, who during the 1930s in Jim Crow Texas coached a successful debate team that included 14-year-old James Farmer.  The movie opens with Tolson reciting “I, Too, Sing America” by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes. Driving to a debate, team members come across a black man who’d been lynched and set on fire.  The lone woman debater, Samantha Booke, was based on Henrietta Bell Wells, who went on to marry an Episcopalian minister, Wallace L. Wells, and became a teacher and social worker in Gary at the time St. Augustine’s Church was built.  James Farmer founded the civil rights group CORE in 1942, not long after graduating from Wiley College.  I heard him speak at IUN when he described being on the 1961 Freedom Ride.  Tolson, a noted poet, was accused of being a radical because he was active in organizing tenant farmers.  He later began teaching at Langston University, another historically black institution, and between 1954 and 1960 served three terms as mayor of Langston, Oklahoma.

My two favorite TV series are “Barry” starring Bill Hader as a hired killer (it’s kind of a weird comedy”) and “The Americans” in its final season. The most recent episode, “Harvest,” was particularly violent, as former Soviet spy Philip Jennings reluctantly comes out of retirement to protect wife Elizabeth and shoots two FBI agents in a gun battle and then chops off the head and hands of a dead comrade to prevent the Feds from learning her identity.  I tried not to look. 

 Alissa and Toni

For Mother’s Day Alissa drove down from Michigan and Dave’s family arrived after visiting Angie’s mom with Chinese food from Wing Wah. Toni gave Alissa plants and flowers from her garden.  I donated Gene Clifford’s hand-crafted bird feeder for her and Josh’s backyard.  They have it fenced in for the dog, Jerry, and recently put in a patio.

I spoke to Steve McShane’s summer class about interviewing someone who is in a bowling league.  After I told them their oral history paper will be deposited in a Archives collection and excerpts published in a forthcoming Steel Shavings, student asked me what the purpose was.  I talked about how sociologists and social historians are interested in social organizations and how they changes (and declined) due in part to TV and the Internet. I explained that history can be defined as the record of change over time and that a number of bowlers in my Mel Guth Seniors League can recall a time before automatic pin setters and scoring devices.  Some bowl in both mixed leagues and men-only leagues, where it is common for teams to use risqué playing cards for betting purposes to reward strikes and/or spares in a version of poker.

Kelly Cochran

A Hobart woman, Kelly Cochran, 35, was convicted of murdering husband Jason by injecting him with a massive dose of heroin and then smothering him.  Previously, assisted by Jason, she had murdered a boyfriend in Michigan, cut up the body, and, according to rumors, barbequed parts of him.  She had been a suspect in other incidents of foul play as well and will serve a life sentence in prison without possibility of parole.

At bridge Joel Carpentier noticed the Inman’s Bowling League shirt I was wearing and said he bowled with deaf teammates there after Camelot Lanes in Portage abruptly closed in mid-season.  That’s why grandson James started bowling there.  I told Joel that most of my teammates on the Electrical Engineers were half-deaf as well.  Barb Mort said she ran across my name reading Jerry Davich’s “Lost Gary.”  I replied that even though I disagreed with the emphasis Davich put on such themes as declension and corruption, I respected that he included my views and presented them accurately.  Davich has an interesting section on 86  all-concrete Thomas Edison Concept row homes built over 100 years ago as housing for workers. Davich wrote that many are presently unoccupied, in ruins, and scheduled for demolition despite their historical significance.

Below, Thomas Edison Concept Homes along Adams St.; photo by Jerry Davich

Competition

“I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” Larry Bird

 above, 1954 state champs; below, Larry Bird

Next year being the thirtieth anniversary of the movie “Hoosiers,” inspired by tiny Milan High School’s miraculous 1954 Indiana state basketball tournament victory, the Indiana Pacers will wear replica uniforms of fictional Hickory High to honor the film.  Pacer president Larry Bird still recalls his bitter disappointment when Spring Valley High in French Lick bowed out of the tournament despite his averaging 31 points, 21 rebounds, and 4 assists.  Bird told SI’s Dan Patrick: “Unfortunately I played with a kid who kept missing free throws at the end of the game.”  In 1980 a similar fate occurred when Andrean played New Albany in a semi-final match, and a teammate of Dan Dakich (who scored 32 points) missed two foul shots with no time left on the clock.  Bird added this stone cold statement:

  I was at a party about two years ago, and this lady in her 70s looked at my friend and said, “What are you doing here?  After missing those free throws back in ’74, you shouldn’t even show your face.”

HitchBOT, an amicable hitchhiking robot that successfully traversed Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands, was fatally beaten in Philadelphia two weeks after beginning a trek across America – another black eye for the “City of Brotherly Love.” A campaign is underway to resurrect HitchBOT.

 NWI Times photo by John J. Watkins

Resigning recently were six Gary police officers, who took higher paying jobs elsewhere.  The city cannot compete with suburban salaries.  With eight homicides in as many days, the situation facing the 200 remaining officers is dire.  Columnist David Rutter wrote: “Their beater squad cars have bald tires. They have to change their own oil. The city's broke. It's pitiful.”

above, Kirsten and Jimbo; below, Brenden Bayer

Our old friends the Bayers stayed with us overnight.  Michael showed up first, all excited by Bernie Sanders’ campaign causing so much excitement, and then Janet, who had business in Illinois.  Coming from the beach in Miller were Kirsten with Dane (6) and Nicholas (4) as well as Shannon with 4 month-old Max.  The baby is quite adorable, making eye contact with everyone and able to grip fingers, toys, and his binky.  Angie, Becca, and James joined us for dinner.  Toni’s pork roast was supplemented by two racks of ribs from Wagner’s, one dry (my preference) and the other with barbeque sauce.  In the morning Brenden showed up wearing a Grateful Dead shirt.  He watched the band’s final concerts in Chicago on his computer aboard a Lake Michigan ore boat.

Sunday we saw the witty and ribald Memorial Opera House musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” developed a decade ago by an improve group. Two audience members joining the cast as spelling bee contestants were so good we thought they might have been plants.  Brilliant Zachary Gipson, looking like a small-town hood, played Official Comfort Counselor Mitch Mahoney, an ex-con roped into the job as part of his community service requirement.  Particularly humorous were the responses to when contestants requested spelling words to be used in a sentence.

With manager Joe Maddon at the helm, so far the Cubs have enjoyed a magical season..  In the opener of a crucial four-game series against the Giants amazing rookie Kyle Schwarber hit a three-run HR.  Next day he doubled, scored the first run and then had the game-winning hit.  Wrigley Field is rocking. He had two hits Saturday, and scored the winning run on Sunday.  As we left Memorial Opera House, the Cubs were clinging to a 2-0 lead but bases were loaded in the top of the ninth with no out.  Closer Hector Rondón then struck out the side; Dick Hagelberg and I stayed in the car to hear the final out after we had reached Popolano’s Italian Restaurant. Cheryl and Toni went ahead to get a table outside, as the threat of rain abated.

Cory Meacham’s journal discussed his two quite different jobs.

June 4: I woke up around 9 and started breakfast before showering.  I boiled eggs and drank some milk as I normally do. I watched the “Daily Show” with Jon Stewart andplayed World of Warcraft for 2 hours before class.  After class, I headed directly to TGI Fridays where I host and serve.  It was slow until around 8.  During that rush a guy with his family rudely asked for a seat.  He disregarded my “Hi there! How are we doing today?” and simply said “Booth.” I took him to the only open clean one, and he asked if he could sit in a dirty one a ways down.  I said, “That one is dirty at the moment.” Cutting me off before I could continue, he replied, “Well how fucking long would it take to clean it off asshole?”  I responded by saying, “The food tastes the same regardless of where you sit, genius.”  I set the menus down and walked away, after which he requested the manager. 

June 6: I woke up around 8 to prepare for a long day of street performing in Chicago.  I had 6 boiled eggs along with a bowl of oatmeal for energy.  Around 9:30 I left to catch the South Shore into Millennium Park where I met up with my friend Hamza and began performing freestyle soccer with him on Michigan Avenue about a mile westward of the park. After 4 hours we had collectively pulled in about $300 from tips and donations from passersby.   We grabbed food at the Chipotle on Michigan Avenue before paring ways. That evening my girlfriend and I went bowling and grabbed ice cream from a small shop in Valparaiso, where she lives.

June 19: I traveled to Atlanta for one of my jobs as a soccer performer.  Getting through security at O’Hare took nearly 30 minutes.  Once inside, with an hour to kill, I grabbed breakfast at McDonalds.  During the flight I put my I-Pod on and listened to a calming band known as Mimicking Birds.  After the 2-hour flight, I met up with my manager Maria, who took me to our hotel where I took a nap and swam as we waited for Hamza who was coming from Dallas.  The next morning we performed at a youth soccer tournament for multiple sponsors including Powerade and Coca Cola.   It was a long 7-hour day in 95-degree heat with no clouds. We performed tricks for large groups, accepted challenges from the youth and hosted youth 1 on 1 tournaments. I got a nasty sunburn.

June 25: I made preparations for a trip to the Electric Forest Music Festival in Rothbury, Michigan.  I had purchased the tickets online a couple months earlier for $300.  My day started with a trip to Walmart, where I purchased enough food to last me throughout the weekend with cases of water, and unperishable foods like beef jerky and dried fruits.  I had also stocked up on toiletries and self-cleaning wipes since there is no showering on the 4-day long camping trip filled with music.  It was a 3-hour drive to Rothbury plus it took nearly an hour to park the car, another 30 minutes to set up camp with a tent that lacked any instructions, and an hour and a half to get through the entrance line.   The music lasted till 2 a.m. after which we explored the illuminated forest area with trees decorated in bright lights.

June 26: We woke up in a daze from the alcohol and long night of dancing.  Around noon we attempt to do yoga.  After failing to do so, we set up hammocks in the forest and took long naps in order to regain energy and prepare for the night ahead.  On the second day, a few friends of mine saw Trevor Hall and Skrillex. Others engaged completely in the atmosphere of the forest while taking party drugs such as MDMA and LSD.  The hallucinogenic effects gave them pleasure during the intense light shows that we witnessed.  At night the temperature dropped to near 50 degrees, but it didn't seem to bother people despite the lack of clothes on many.  Between the alcohol and drugs, huge crowds of people, and nonstop dancing, I guess it'd be easy to write off cold weather.

June 29: Three days ago the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.  While many are overjoyed about the decision, some are outraged over an issue that has no relevance to them whatsoever. Driving around Hobart, Portage, and Valparaiso, I have noticed churches posting anti-gay sentiments on their street signs.

John Morikis wrote about his family history and how concussions ending his competitive sports career.  His great-grandfather, Nick Morikis, came to Gary when he was 18 and helped build Gary Works before becoming a steelworker:

The second of four children, I grew up in a home with loving parents.  However, times were not always easy.  My father is an educator, so money was not always there.  My mother remembers days where they did not know how we would get our next meal or pay the rent and other bills.  When I was born, my parents were living in a small duplex in Portage.  My mother told me that when I was a baby, she had to sell an antique cabinet for a fraction of its worth in order to get by.  In 1995 my parents purchased their first house.  Dad landed a job as an elementary school principal in Hobart that came with a small pay raise.  Five years later he received a job offer to become assistant school superintendent in Chesterton.  My parents sold the house in less than a day, and we were on our way to Chesterton. We lived in a modest home, but it had a spacious yard. Other kids in the neighborhood always wanted to come and play in our yard.

In 2003 my father received a job offer in Plymouth, Indiana, a very racist community.  Starting fourth grade, I made an effort to play with classmates at recess but kept getting the cold shoulder.  Finally, a kid told me that he and his friends were shunning me because they thought that I was Mexican.  The one African American student in the school was in my class.  She was taunted with racial slurs all of the time.  Her family just packed up and moved out of town one day.  On her last day in class, she thanked me for being her friend when everybody else was mean to her.  Plymouth had a small migrant farmer community. I eventually made friends with just about all of the migrant workers’ children.  These kids were bullied in the hallways and classroom and especially during recess.  Finally, tempers flared and a massive fight broke out on the soccer field. 

Some days I’d cry walking to the bus stop because I knew I’d be bullied and possibly beat up.  One day at recess I fought my tormentor, and we got sent to the office.  I was the one chastised.  The principal later told my parents that boys will be boys and that there would be no serious consequences from the fight.  That was the last straw.  My father decided to look for another job.  After much searching, he became Superintendent of Schools in Griffith. On April 28, 2005, the moving truck showed up to the house in Plymouth and we were finally leaving Marshall County for good. 

At first everything seemed ok at my new school, but kids laughed at me because of my weight and how I dressed - I’d wear my shirts tucked in with a belt.  One particular student barraged me with constant insults.  One day he shoved me at recess, so I shoved him back. The principal cut me some slack because I was still new.  After that, things did get better. 

The summer of 2005 I joined a Pop Warner football team.  When I put on the pads for the first time, it was like letting lightning out of a bottle.  I finally found a way to release my pent up aggression and was also really good at it, too.  Football also provided me with a way to lose a bunch of weight; I went from 143 down to 125 pounds. Our team won the State championship in our age division and made it up to the National Quarterfinals before losing to a team from Detroit 6-0.  In  2006 I played on the eighth grade football team because I grew a lot and was too heavy for Pop Warner. We went undefeated and won the conference.  After football, it was time for wrestling season to begin.  My wrestling season did not last long because I suffered a season-ending injury three days into the season. 

In 2008 I was finally going into high school, but being a freshman during summer workouts had its downsides.  Freshman had to fill water bottles, carry the equipment, and clean up after practice.  I did not mind because I just wanted to be on the football field. One day we were practicing kickoffs.  I was on the front line of the kickoff return team, a high honor for a freshman.  During the play I was blindsided, flipped once, and slammed my head onto the ground.  I suffered a severe concussion and was out for the rest of the season.  That would be the last time that I would ever wear a set of football pads.  I do not remember much about that week because I was too concussed.  After the injury, I gained over 50 pounds due to the lack of physical activity and a diet consisting of triple stack cheeseburgers from Wendy’s and ice cream. I did not want to go to school, see anybody, or even get out of bed.  One day I was an athlete receiving attention from colleges, and the next day I was a laughing stock.  Some days I would ask, “Why me?” 

As time went on, high school got better.  My sophomore year I went out for swimming.  I held my own in the pool until I suffered another concussion.  A girl jumped into my lane of the pool when she was not supposed to, slamming her head into my forehead.  After that concussion, I figured that was probably the last time I would play organized sports.  I did not want to further increase my chances of getting another concussion.   Once I decided to give up athletics, my life started to turn around.  I finally had gained the mental drive and courage to start losing weight.  I managed to lose 50 pounds, taking me down to 190 pounds by the end of my sophomore year.  I weighed just 160 pounds by the time my junior year began.  I felt a lot more confident, like I could take on the world.  It was a complete transformation. 

In October of 2009 at age 16 I landed my first job, bussing tables at a banquet hall.  My first day I was bending down to grab a glass of pop off a table and dropped my tray in front of 500 people.  Worse yet, I spilled glasses all over a customer’s dress. To make matters worse, I was pulled over on my way home and ticketed for having my bright car beams on in Highland.  I worked at the banquet hall for eight months.  In the summer after my junior year, I was a maintenance worker for the Griffith schools.  We built a new playground, did landscaping, and helped clear out a closed school.  That was probably the best job that I ever had. 

I did not have much of a social life my senior year because most of my friends graduated the year before.  I was more mature and ready for the real world than many fellow classmates. Of the 220 people in graduating class, 190 participated in the ceremony and 30 just picked up their diplomas at school the next day.  The ceremony was emotional because my dad got to hand me the diploma. 

Superintendant Peter Morikis with Dawn Parks and Corporal Hector Arroyo