Saturday, April 25, 2009

Ludlow Story Still Strikes a Chord

I "cross-posted" Tuesday's article about the Ludlow Massacre over on Daily Kos. (You can see it here.) I posted it there early Wednesday evening and didn't look at it again until Thursday morning. My jaw fell open when I saw that it was half way up the "Recommended Diaries" list, with hundreds of "tips" and "recs" (daily kos terms). There were around a 160 comments that morning, and they climbed up to about 260 in the next day or so. It stayed up on the Rec' List for about 24 hours.

The comments section is a treasure trove of personal connections to the event, perspectives from Coloradans, links to related stories, and more good music from Woody.

Here's a sample:
"I live in Denver and the parents live in New Mexico, So i pass the plaque all the time on the highway and wonder. Thank you for telling me. I appreciate that this state did have some early progressives. Not many, but a few." --COwoman
"My grandfather was one of the striking miners.  He sent my grandmother, my father (who was 5 at the time) and my aunt to Ohio to live with his sister as they were thrown out of their house in Berwind. An interesting bit of history is that it was the first time the machine gun had been used by a US military unit in a hostile action - and there were some people that were thrilled with their new toy. If you haven't read it The Coalfield Wars by George McGovern is an excellent history of the strike and the surrounding corporate  and political corruption. --carver
"I grew up in Colorado (Denver) and I don't recall ever hearing this story - even from my progressive parents (who grew up in Kansas). I don't think many in Colorado know this. I hope that changes. Thank you for the diary, will be getting those books you sourced!" --Clytemnestra

And as a bonus (!), the diary got noticed by bendygirl who runs a cool labor blog I've been following called Union Gal. You definitely want to check out her blog. 

2 comments:

Amy said...

I checked out your diary on Daily Kos--some of those stories people are sharing are amazing. You definitely hit a nerve. Good on ya, BTM!

I've never really been to Kos before except to read your stuff--I know...I'm probably in the minority here. So I'm still trying to figure out all the terminology and stuff but I was amazed at the amount of content on there.

genedebs said...

June 28 dedication of Ludlow as National Historic Site. Be there. Also, great DVD "Mother Jones: America's Most Dangerous Woman" with piece on Ludlow and Guthrie's song performed by Tom Juravich. Inspirational (and only 24 minutes long). Info at:
http://www.motherjonesmuseum.org/

Keep the faith,
Dave Rathke