Michael Garrison wrote:
The erection of a labor mural dedicated to the lynched IWW member,
Wesly Everest, directly facing the Legion Statue honoring the 4
Legionaries killed by the IWW caused this community to face its past and
confront its history. A recent dedication of a plaque at the local
Community College which acknowledged the IWW attorney, Elmer Smith
caused a similar outpouring of emotions on both sides of this historical
controversy.
JW reply:
Hi Michael,
What do you do down in Centralia? We have a similar situation up here
in British Columbia in the Comox Valley where the provincial government
(socialist) named a section of a new freeway after Ginger Goodwin, a
labour activist in the coal fields and a draft resister in WWI. The
government of the day went after him for refusing to fight and he was
shot (murdered, say some) at a hide-out in the woods by police. The
right-wing loonies complain regularly in letters to the editor in the
local paper about this so called travesty and no doubt hope that a new
government will rename the highway. The local labour community of
course fires back in Goodwin's defense.
-- Jerry West Editor/publisher/janitor ---------------------------------------------------- THE RECORD On line news from Nootka Sound & Canada's West Coast An independent, progressive regional publication http://www.island.net/~record/
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