It's my belief that a working-class environment contributes more to the society within which it functions than does a setting of wealth or privilege.
15104 isn't just the name of this blog. It's also the zip code of the southwest Pennsylvania steel town (Braddock / North Braddock) where I spent the first three-plus decades of my life. Where I learned a few words in at least five languages other than English, on the one block of Bell Avenue where we lived. Where I saw a number tatoo-ed on the arm of a local grocer. Where the graphite that coated our sidewalks, after the Edgar Thompson mill (pictured above) cleaned its smokestacks, looked, in the mind of the child that I was, like diamonds.
The recent dust-up over DACA is antithetical to what I learned on Bell Avenue. The DACA brouhaha reminded me of the nativist, anti-immigrant, even xenophobic threads that have always been part of the fabric of this country. In the 1920s, such sentiments were not only accepted but even codified into Federal law. That was an omen of what we're seeing today.
The folks who most loudly agitate to get "their country" back, are, in my opinion, ethically, intellectually, and even spiritually impoverished. That, and the great gift of 15104, are the reasons for this blog. Expect it, and me, to advocate for the working class, whatever their beliefs, color , or origins.
