Good evening everyone and thank you all for being here tonight at the AFL-CIO 12th Annual Community Service Award Dinner.
It’s a real pleasure for me to help honor James “Snoz” Davis.
When I think about all the things he’s done, and for how long he’s been doing them, it seems like we should be unveiling a statue or christening a ship.
But I think a good dinner, a few drinks, and the company of close friends is an excellent way to say “thank you” and celebrate a remarkable body of work and service to this great community.
There’s usually a point in every big awards ceremony in Hollywood when someone gets a “Lifetime Achievement Award.”
It’s often the highlight of the event, because after they go over all the accomplishments, all the extraordinary deeds, it becomes apparent just how big a part of our lives and our community this person has been.
If they’re lucky, every community, every organization has someone like Snoz who is almost always willing to step up when the call goes out for a volunteer.
I know it can drive their families a little crazy, when they always seem willing to take on a new job and a new responsibility.
We’re very familiar with this as it also happens in the labor movement.
We’re always trying to get new people involved, but when the chips are down, we invariably turn to the people we know we can count on.
We turn to people like Jim Davis.
And for that, I have to take a moment to thank his family for all the times he’s put others first.
I know that means sometimes he’s been out doing something when he could have been at home.
A quick look at some of the work he’s done will tell you just how many times people have counted on him to come through.
He’s was a rock solid member of the Letter Carrier’s union for 39 years and nine months – building a record of service and loyalty that would be worthy of an award all by itself.
But, he was just getting started.
Even though he’s retired, Snoz continues to pay his union dues and has now been a union member for 56 years – an extraordinary achievement.
On behalf of the Machinists Union and our International President Tom Buffenbarger, I want to add our thanks for more than five decades of loyal service to the American Labor Movement.
What we are today - and whatever we have accomplished, is only because of members like you. By the way, our International President Tom Buffenbarger will be here in Henderson, KY on the 27th of October, speaking at a rally for Obama and Lunsford.
One of the best parts of my job is getting to meet our members, both retired and active, who have been around for 40 years, 50 years and even longer.
Not only do they have some of the best stories, but listening to them, you get a feel for what our country was like a half century ago.
It was a different place, that’s for sure.
Fifty years ago, this country was in the midst of the greatest economic expansion in modern American history.
We had emerged from the Great Depression and World War II with a clear understanding of who we were and why some things were worth fighting and even dying for.
And once again, it was thanks to men like Snoz Davis who stepped forward and did what needed to be done, no matter how tough, no matter how dirty, no matter how hard…he was always there.
There’s been a lot of attention given to what Tom Brokaw has called “The Greatest Generation.”
And I for one, don’t think that’s an understatement.
Jim Davis served for 37 months during World War II, and then did another 12 during the Korean War.
On behalf of every American who today enjoys the freedoms you fought for, I want to say thank you for your service and your sacrifice.
I came across a story in the Evansville paper from last year that told about how Jim was onboard a ship headed back to the states from Japan when the ship’s boiler blew up.
Jim was injured in the explosion and when he made it back to a VA hospital, they tried to tell him his injuries weren’t service related.
Well, that didn’t set well with Jim, who said it was Uncle Sam’s ship and Uncle Sam’s boiler, and that he sure wasn’t out there on some sort of pleasure cruise.
But what happened as a result of the explosion was that Jim got involved in health care for veterans - and he’s been at it ever since – pushing for more funding, better staffing and whatever was needed to help take care of our veterans.
I think that’s just a great example of the kind of guy he is.
He’s also the local president of the War Memorial Committee and has been Commander of the American Legion Burial Detail since 1946.
Think about that for a second.
Since 1946, more than 60 years ago, he’s been making sure veterans are honored for their service.
Whether it’s fighting for decent health care for the newest wave of injured vets, or being there to provide the final salute when they are laid to rest.
Jim’s record of service goes far beyond a mere list of all the things he’s done, and continues to do.
Maybe the best thing that can be said about Jim is that he remembers where he came from.
But, let’s face it - in reality there just aren’t too many like Jim Davis.
He more than deserves this honor he’s receiving tonight.
But the rest of us have a job to do too.
We can’t let Jim do all the work.
We’re about a couple of weeks away from the most important election since maybe before Jim was born.
Now, I know that’s something we’ve heard before, in fact, it’s something we hear at almost every election.
But look around.
It’s downright scary what’s happening these days.
An economy in tatters, jobs being shipped overseas in droves and small towns being left without the kind of economic foundations they need just to survive. There are 48 million people without adequate Health Insurance and that number is rising on a daily basis.
There are those who say that’s just the free market at work.
There are those who say there’s always going to be winners and losers.
Only problem is, that’s usually the winners talking.
In the past month, we’ve seen the ugly truth about our economy.
We’ve seen the results of the idea that free markets must be allowed to work their magic.
And that we would all somehow benefit.
If anyone dared to question that philosophy, they were branded as traitors, whiners or worse.
It was Phil Gramm, the former chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, who said we were becoming a nation of whiners and that we were suffering from a “mental recession.”
His remarks stunned the country, and only in part because he was in line to become the next Treasury Secretary if John McCain won the White House.
But what’s remarkable was not what he said, but how many people in power agree with him.
That kind of rhetoric is right in line with the economic worldview of conservative Republicans, and people who confuse talk radio with reality.
The truth is, this country has all but been taken over by global corporations with more money and more influence than our own elected officials.
So many of them have been hypnotized by the amount of money swirling around in state capitols and Washington, DC, that they forget who sent them there in the first place.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’d suggest it’s high time that we send them a reminder. Like a pink slip for layoff - permanently.
And speaking about John McCain for a second, I don’t think anyone here doesn’t have the highest regard for his service and his sacrifice.
It was such an extraordinary ordeal he went through as a prisoner of war, one that warrants only the highest respect and admiration.
But John McCain who is running for president is not the John McCain of just a couple of years ago.
Politically, he’s no more of a maverick than Sarah Palin is, or Joe the Plumber.
They’re both captives of the most rigid, the most dangerous and the most far-right economic policies imaginable.
And no matter how hard they try to distance themselves from the recent mess on Wall Street, make no mistake: this is a mess of their making.
The fundamental core of John McCain and Sarah Palin’s candidacy has been their promise to cut taxes, shrink government and let the free market rule.
They may have had to drop that free market business lately, but don’t be fooled.
John McCain is solidly in favor of less regulation, less oversight and less accountability for investment banks, global corporations and even countries that want to do business with us.
He’s no friend of labor unions either, pushing for “Baseball arbitration,” which would further tilt the bargaining table in management’s favor.
And I don’t even want to get started on everything McCain has done for Airbus, the European company that wants the $100 billion Air Force contract to build refueling tankers, and giving away the 40,000 U.S. jobs to build those tankers.
Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think the U.S. military should be flying planes that are built right here in the U.S., by U.S. workers.
And I think it’s unfortunate that John McCain doesn’t think so too.
That’s why we must vote for the Obama & Biden ticket. They believe in working family issues.
But the election isn’t just about making some real changes in Washington.
Right here in Kentucky, we have a good friend going up against Mitch McConnell.
Just a couple of months ago, Bruce Lunsford wasn’t given a snowball’s chance in hell of unseating the Senate Minority Leader.
But just a couple of weeks ago, polls were showing the race too close to call, a remarkable development.
We’ve seen the result of putting boots on the ground here in Kentucky.
Thanks to those boots and the people who wore them out, Kentucky now has a Democratic Governor and a former Machinist is today serving as the state’s Labor Commissioner.
Just remember on Election Day – “Ditch Mitch” – vote for Bruce Lunsford who knows what working families go through.
Snoz, Bruce will be available to talk to you about veteran issues unlike Mitch. That’s why we have to Ditch Mitch.
I could go on but I want us all to enjoy each other’s company tonight.
And I want to once again thank James “Snoz” Davis for his exceptional service to this community.
Jim, congratulations on receiving the AFL-CIO Central Labor Council 12th Community Service Award.
No one deserves this award more than you.
Thank you all very much.
