[Vision2020] On the Rocks

[Moscow Cares]

Wallace, Idaho (1892)


“On the Rocks” by Linda Beeman
 
By 1955 only weathered screeds
painted on the odd boulder
denouncing Wobblies survived
hinting at savage battles –
union versus mine owner
 
1892 saw miners striking to protest
hourly pay cuts to 30 cents
dynamiting mills    taking scabs hostage    seizing mines
federal troops rounded up 600 men
bull-penned them for 60 days without charge
 
Bunker Hill’s concentrator was the next target
blown to hell in 1899
black federal troops arrived   arrested
every man in Burke    loaded them
into boxcars for the ride to their corral
 
Idaho’s governor    gifted with a bomb
for his contribution to preserving that peace
died mangled within the hour
his assassin confessed that
union bosses gave the order
 
we didn’t learn this in our history classes
no martial law    no Pinkerton spies ---
no desperate arrests    only graffiti messages
painted on rocks    daring us to find out why
 
-------------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares"
http://www.MoscowCares.com

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20121127/ee61f6f2/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: photo.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 179856 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20121127/ee61f6f2/attachment-0001.jpe>