The Fire

Well, it is Labor Day. This is one of my favorite days of the year. I want to share a story that occurred almost 100 years ago. I want to use it as an impetus for addressing the election of 2010 and other elections. I want to frame it within, I hope, the teachings of Jesus and the rest of the Word of God.

Here is the story. On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City. It was a horrific catastrophe. 155 people were killed. Many of these were immigrants, including a number of children. The fire took place on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of this garment factory.

When the workers discovered the fire, there were no means of escape. Witnesses, including some hard-boiled reporters, were haunted until the day they died by the scene of young women and children, some of whom were on fire, hurling themselves from high floors and landing on the pavement. They threw themselves out the windows in one last, desperate grasp at life.

Looking back, we cringe reading about the conditions present in many of these factories. Clearly the owners violated God's repeated warnings against “man's inhumanity against man.” Unfortunately, due to negligence, greed, and the simple self-centeredness of human sin, not much had been done. However, this fire helped motivate to motivate the local, state, and federal governments pass legislation to address the horrific conditions that existed in the sweatshops.

This is a good example of government acting in bringing about good results for its citizens.

There is another extreme on the opposite end of the spectrum from the political environment that allows for sweatshops. I have lived in a country that aspired to eradicate all forms of poverty, oppression, and injustice. Because of this, the government became extraordinarily active in passing laws to help people and bring about economic equality. I have seen other countries that have attempted to do the same thing.

One of two problems typically results from this strategy, and sometimes both. First, a nation can run out of money. Second, more and more people can become less and less inspired to offer their society a good and honest day’s work.

Scripture addresses two extremes in human nature when it comes to work. Proverbs, for example, deals with work in many of its verses. Some verses address the sins of greed and its twin, exploitation. Other verses address the sin of laziness and idleness. Still more address the sin of “get-rich-quick”, which can fit under the umbrella of all of the above.

I believe, that in the United States, we are fortunate to have politicians and elected public servants, who are concerned about both extremes. Some are primarily dedicated to the cause of social justice. They want to protect people from the consequences of greed and institutions that treat human beings like widgets in a factory assembly line.

Others are dedicated to the cause of public stewardship of funds and personal liberty. They want to make sure that our country handles its money well, and that it always provides an environment, whereby an individual can have a free and equal opportunity to provide for himself and his family and achieve the excellence he seeks in his field.

Because all of these concerns are passionately felt, we will always experience tension. This might be good.  

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. I finished THREE NIGHTS IN AUGUST last week. Written by Buzz Bissenger (and Tony LaRussa), the book follows LaRussa during a crucial three game series with the Chicago Cubs in August, 2003. Filled with narrative background as well as detailed baseball strategy, the book serves as a primer for what goes on in the mind of a Major League Baseball manager. I recommend it.

2. Josh Hamilton—the quality I love you about you is the very quality that breaks my heart: your all-encompassing effort. Please get well soon; and ease off crashing into walls and sliding into first base.

3. Here is my pick for the Super Bowl: Green Bay Packers vs. New York Jets.

4. I watched THE BRONX IS BURNING while working out on my treadmill last week. Consequently, I can’t get the old song from the Ramones –“BLITZKRIEG BOP”—out of my mind. I am probably going to have to download it from iTunes.

5. I saw THE LADY KILLERS last night on TV, late. Tom Hanks headlines the cast playing a southern con man posing as a professor of the Classics. It was so funny I laughed out loud several times.