On the Park Street bus

Posted November 18th, 2009 by John August

I have spent a lifetime observing, conversing with and learning from the people who do the work every day that makes the world go 'round.

I was a city bus driver in the 1970s, running my route one evening headed south on Park Street in Madison, Wisconsin. As I cleared the big intersection of Park and Regent, I started down through a working-class neighborhood, and picked up several middle-aged women at successive stops, four in all. They were in their 60s. Each sat down in separate seats. Suddenly one said to the others, "We all know each other, we all work at the Bancroft Dairy"! They laughed and indeed recognized each other.

As I drove down Park Street, listening, picking up and discharging passengers along the route, the women started a conversation about work and where they were going—a company dinner. One said,"Isn't it funny? We work together every day, but out of our work uniforms on the line, all dressed up tonight, we didn't even recognize one another."

So it is. The workplace is often not connected to the rest of our lives.

How tragic.

People spend most of their lives working, going to work, coming from work, getting ready for work, worrying about work, thinking about the next day, the next week, the next years, how it will go, how it will end.

It is the place, at work, where relationships are formed that wouldn't form any other way. Work is individually and collectively experienced.

Work creates wealth. Whose? For what purpose? Who shall say?

It’s a simple notion: that our nation is in desperate, long overdue need of transformational change. Our social order does not provide security to its people as required by our Constitution. Too many tens of millions live without the security of employment, retirement, health care, housing, education and enriching leisure time.

I believe that the foundation of democratic society comes from the place where most people spend most of their lives: at work.

How can we say this in a more conversational way?

The four women on the bus gave many years of work to their community in time and in taxes.

We need to understand that our social order does not often ask their opinion. Yet, inside of each one of us there is so much waiting to be told.

Human value. Social value. From the workplace.

Comments

"Our social order does not

Submitted by Spencer on Mon, 06/07/2010 - 11:51.

"Our social order does not provide security to its people as required by our Constitution. Too many tens of millions live without the security of employment, retirement, health care, housing, education and enriching leisure time."

Please point out to me where in the US Constution health care, housing education etc. are mentioned.

John's insight

Submitted by claudinesalama on Wed, 12/09/2009 - 16:15.

Thank you, John, for your insight. This is a great story that tells us what we are about as workers. It reminds us that we need to be connected to each other and to movements that strive for social justice. We should, within KP, focus on a dialogue about the structure of our society and discuss what kind of country we are going to be.

The moment is NOW

Submitted by troynelson on Wed, 12/02/2009 - 14:56.

What a great story, John. The husband of a friend of mine recently passed away, after just two years of retirement. It got me to thinking that many of us spend our entire productive lives working for that magical goal --- retirement! And then we spend the next several years (if we're lucky) popping pills and wondering "what do I do now?"

Thanks for the reminder that we need to live today and let tomorrow worry about itself.

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