Sanders has compassion for workers

A tale of two steelworkers and a third-generation one, if only for four months in 1965. Mr. Lipscomb of the United Steelworkers is locked out, one of about 220 from Canton Township’s Allegheny Ludlum plant without a contract. Allegheny Technologies Inc. had $4.4 billion in revenue in 2014, and now wants major concessions from employees in its flat-rolled products group consisting of 2,200 workers, mostly from Western Pennsylvania, but some as far away as Oregon.
A woman with Rural Oregon for Bernie, a volunteer in the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, called me about my joining the Washington steelworkers’ picket line. Almost on cue, a few days later, “Steelworker No. 2” joined me on the fifth tee of Claysville’s Dogwood Hills Golf Course. He asked me what I thought of President Obama.
Good president, I say, mentioning my main quibble: the hit on Osama bin Laden in 2011 and the celebrations that followed. Steelworker No. 2 thinks these things should remain secret, as in the past when presidents were quiet about their international crimes. He voted for George W. Bush twice, regrets the mistake of invading Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein. The plight of Yazidi women and children captured by ISIS draws bombing as the solution and scorn for bleeding-heart liberals.
I’m a socialist, I say, and one is running for president as a Democrat. Steelworker No. 2 has watched the Democratic debates and likes Sanders, but gives him no chance against Hillary Clinton. He is excited by this chance meeting of, in his words, a far-right Republican and someone from the far left. He favors Donald Trump, who speaks for him and his wife, saying the things they feel pressured by political correctness to bottle up, and is thoughtful when I point out that political correctness is nothing more than respect.
Recently, Sanders was asked what one word describes him. His answer was compassion. He has a deep understanding of Steelworker No. 2 and, unlike Trump, cares about him and his wife. None of the other candidates in either party are as committed to steelworkers and coal miners.
As the revolution of 2016 peacefully unfolds, a legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., the revolution of 1968, Mother Jones, the Mon Valley’s Louis Goaziou, and a host of others, most of our region’s working class will be on board.
Jim Greenwood
Washington