Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Previous Posts
- Tom Tancredo and the "r" word
- Bob Beauprez handles money very, very badly
- Angie Paccione leads, Marilyn Musgrave attacks
- Bill Winter: An excerpt from Crashing the States
- John McCain leaves Republican party?
- Paula Noonan vs. Mike Kopp: Implosion watch
- My favorite Bill Ritter numbers thus far
- Doug Lamborn and Dick Cheney to get all buddy-budd...
- Bill Ritter leads by 19. I go blockwalking anyway....
- Bill Ritter gets scary for Halloween
1 Comments:
If you really want to see the effect of minimum wage first-hand, come take a look at “7 DAYS @ MINIMUM WAGE”, a video blog of hardworking Americans struggling to make ends meet on poverty wages, sponsored by ACORN and AFL-CIO and hosted by Roseanne Barr. We originally expected to end the project after the initial week, but due to its success it’s been been extended through Election Day, November 7.
The interviews are pretty stark and honest, and they've been viewed by more than 30,000 people since the project began on October 23 (they can be seen at www.sevendaysatminimumwage.org or on YouTube under the user name, “7daysatminimumwage”.
ACORN and AFL-CIO launched the blog as a way to get contemporary audiences to join in the national debate over fair wages. We hoped, naively or not, that Paul and Susan, Jessica, Jeffrey, and the other poverty-wage workers who agreed to tell their stories to America, would become Internet “celebrities” in the fight for social justice. That’s actually starting to happen. A few days ago, part one of Jessica’s harrowing interview, in which she describes raising four kids while getting a degree and begging her employer for full-time hours and benefits, became YouTube’s top video in the News & Blogs category (the real heartbreak is in part two, though, if you’re brave enough to watch it).
We've also had more than 60 bloggers across the country (like you) take up the cause and write about or link to the 7 DAYS blog, gotten coverage from Air America, National Public Radio, and, with Roseanne Barr, a national Associated Press article. Last Sunday, we were honored to have celebrated labor-rights journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch, as the guest for an hour-long webchat.
Now we want to know what everyone else thinks about the project and the fairness of minimum wage in general. Personally, I don't think an hour of human labor should cost the same as a large latte (you know, the drink we probably all had on our way to work this morning?) Imagine having to work an hour at your job just to pay for that coffee--or being forced to raise a family on that kind of income because the government said you weren’t worth being paid anything more. Millions of people face just that dilemma every morning, every day, and it just pisses me off that they have to be in that position.
I invite you all to come visit the blog site and tell us what you think about the $5.15 federal minimum wage, however you want to do that. Post a comment under one of the videos and tell us your opinion or your story. Or pick up a video camera like I did and interview a friend or neighbor working for poverty wages and post the video on YouTube or your own blog and tell us about it.
As far as YouTube goes, the comments some of our participants have received there have run the gamut from supportive to downright hateful (so we've been taking our blows, too). If you feel like entering the debate their, check out the comments under Jessica's videos and see if you agree with some of them (I bet you won't, some of them are just plain obnoxious).
For those of us who worked on 7 DAYS, we never considered the project a simple campaign tactic, or a partisan appeal or political story. We wanted 7 DAYS to be a humanistic project. From the beginning, we tried to engage the blogosphere from the heart. We empathize with the people who told us their stories not because we feel sorry for them, but because we ARE them. Me, and you, and every American of any wallet size working to make ends meet–none of us is any different than a minimum-wage worker, and circumstance could deliver any of us into a minimum-wage income in an instant.
Last week, 30,000 people heard that message. Some were convinced. Some weren’t. Were you? Come tell us.
Speech over ;-)
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