Welcome to Our New State of Being

May 1, 2020—Here it is—another glorious First of May. Workers the world around are standing up for their rights—generally at a safe distance.

Here in the U.S., of course, it’s traditional to ignore International Workers Day; and by traditional, of course, we mean perverse. The day, after all, was chosen to mark an American massacre of workers, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois, on May 4th, 1886.

The selection of that particular event could be seen as almost arbitrary. That entire stretch of American history, from the Civil War to Armistice Day, could accurately be described as a slow-motion massacre of American workers. The winners write the history, though—and the news, too.

For the record, when we say “American workers,” we mean workers working—or trying to find work—in America. Papers? The papers we want to see are the President’s tax returns.

This pandemic has now thrown business as usual, formerly known as the great chain of being, into question. Even American workers, and students, and renters, and sanitation workers, and truck drivers, and food service workers—in fact, a vast array of people formerly “seen” as functionally invisible—appear ready to demand a more equitable society.

Never mind the snows of yesteryear—where are the job creators or yore? Self-isolating on their yachts, useless as usual.

Now, some local news. Though it’s late in the day, the damp overcast here in Portsmouth is breaking; a streak of blue sky has appeared in the distance, over Newington. We’ll take that as an auspicious augery. For the first time more than a decade, with the congenial assistance of local experts, our online presence has been transformed to better serve our readers. Rather than risk summarizing the changes inaccurately—such technical aspects are not our forte—we’ll just invite readers to mosey around.

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