Editorials & Other Articles

My Dad also grew up in West Virginia, where his brother and male cousins were all more or less destined for a life working in the local carbon plant, where their dads worked, and what caused my grandfather's death of heart disease and black lung at 39, when my Dad was just 14. World War 2 vet in the navy, graduated from college on the GI bill and never worked a day in the carbon plant, took his training in the navy as an air conditioning mechanic and his chemistry degree and worked and saved up to move to Arizona, where there were a lot of jobs in his field. He retired after 20 years of working for the defense department as an AC mechanic keeping refrigeration equipment running for the computer center at a military base in Arizona.

Always a union member, and an officer, and a Democrat.