Yesterday, I posted about my recent participation in a Democracy for Virginia meetup event in Shirlington. In the post, I mentioned that Laura Mandala, a candidate for Virginia House Delegate, passed out literature not produced by a union print shop. I care about supporting the union movement, so I look for the union bug.
I'm happy to report that Laura decided to post a comment on my post. I wanted to make Laura's response got as much attention as my original post. You'll find her comment below.
Laura, thanks for showing up. I've worked on campaigns and know how frantic your schedule must be. I'm very happy to have given you a forum to talk more about your committment to labor, unions, and small business. You get points in my book for paying attention to the online progressive community.
Here is Laura's comment from my previous post:
Hi everyone,Thank you for your note on my participation in your meeting this week. Coming from a union family -- my dad was a butcher, my brother a union plumber with his own business that employs 15 union tradesmen -- I am deeply committed to unions. I have seen first hand how they can lift a working class family into the middle class, but providing fair wages and protecting worker safety, health, and job security.
The literature I had available at your meeting came from some emergency stock we had to print at a local firm, Kwik Copy, on the spare of the moment. (Another priority of mine is to support local, small businesses. Kwik Copy does send out large jobs to union printers but we needed the literature quickly and printing them onsite was the only option-- I had run out!) So, it was a bandaid and unfortunately may have left a bad impression with your group. Thank you for providing this forum where we can discuss issues like this and set the record straight.
I really appreciated the presentation on "framing" of the political dialogue. Believe it or not, my doctoral dissertation employs the framing theory, used by many Sociologists, to better understand how research gets designed and interpreted by various stakeholders. I am glad to see that your members are spreading the word on how we can change the frame of language and the debates on critical issues facing this country.
I really enjoyed your group discussion and will be back!
P.S. My Dad, the butcher from Chicago, was very inspired by your group Tuesday -- I think the experience is setting him on a whole new direction in political activism in Chicago!
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