1. Inevitably, a scholarly, not romanticized, history of the American West is going to explore the working conditions suffered by wage workers, especially miners. I progressed a bit further into The Legacy of Conquest today and much of what I read dealt with mining -- with more on this subject to come. Once again, the cruelty that is accepted and perpetrated so casually, both in the early days of mining and that continues into the 21st century in mining and other businesses dependent of hourly wage earners, strikes me not just as a reality of the American workplace, but as inevitable and justified by the money created by companies paying low wages, saving money by not investing in safety measures, and propagating the idea that laborers should be grateful for their jobs, regardless of the risks the work involves.
Limerick spends some time examining how in the early days of mining, the law and the courts didn't protect workers when injured at work, but protected the companies, shielding them from liability. The law and the courts argued that labor, like mining, involved "assumed risk", risk the miner knew he was taking, and that he was at liberty to refuse dangerous assignments. The law and the courts also assumed that miners had something like supernatural powers, that they could be expected to ever vigilant despite fatigue, the monotony of their labor, and ever present (and unpredictable) danger. Thus, when miners suffered injury, the courts held the miner individually responsible -- the miner didn't live up to the ideal of vigilance and awareness of danger. The law and the courts shielded companies from liability or responsibility.
The shielding of companies and corporations from liability for injury or illness suffered by their workers is, of course, not an historical anomaly but a constant reality in American industry. The examples in meat processing plants, coal and metal mines, and other industries are legion. Until it was removed recently from the negotiations, much of the delay in arriving at a Covid relief bill revolved around the fact that Senator Mitch McConnell and others wanted the bill to protect employers from liability if their employees contracted the virus because of conditions in their work place.
The central argument of Limerick's book is found in her book's subtitle: The Unbroken Past of the American West. The tensions, labor practices, ideologies, and other factors that contributed to the settling of the American West did not disappear as the time progressed.
They live on.
2. It's simple and tasty. I had a small amount of pasta sauce left over and I combined it with sautéed garlic and chopped onions, a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of garbanzo beans. I seasoned this with oregano, garlic powder, and lemon pepper. I had just finished cooking up a couple of quarts or so of brown rice, so I served this mixture over the rice and enjoyed a tasty and warming dinner.
3. I'm thinking that once the WCC teams start playing each other, we Zags fans might want to keep an eye on the Brigham Young University Cougars. Today they played the very tough Aztecs from San Diego State in a non-conference tilt and, I think, astonished the Aztecs, not only with their offensive prowess, but with their stout defense. The Cougars pounced on SDSU early, led by fifteen at halftime, and withstood the Aztecs' furious late game rally and comeback, winning this game, 72-62.
As things stand today, BYU and the Zags will face off twice in February. BYU comes to Spokane on the 6th and they play again in Provo on the 27th to close out the regular season.
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