Pro-Palestinian protesters lined the Scranton General Dynamics ammunition plant driveway Sunday afternoon shouting “shame” as workers came and went during an employee shift change. Workers there make shell casings workers elsewhere in America fill with explosives to send to Israel to kill Palestinian men, women and children.
More than 35,000 civilians have died in the Israeli slaughter many respected international human rights experts publicly call genocide. Men, women and children continue to die in the American government financed and supported Israeli carnage.
The Gaza Health Ministry asserts Israeli attacks have killed at least 37,765 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Israeli military assaults have wounded more than 86,400 Gazans. Over 11,000 people are missing. Scholars and researchers in Gaza consider the estimates low.
Scranton ammo plant teams work around the clock.
A skinny white woman wearing a tank top and blue jeans stormed past me Sunday on her way into the bomb factory.
“I’m going to work to pay my fucking bills,” she said to no one in particular, fuming and giving the crowd of about 25 people the bony finger she waved high above her short blond hair all the way to the high metal gate a security guard had earlier opened.
Work.
That’s what people do at the ammunition plant.
That’s how people make a living to survive.
Although I share the ire of other protesters, I also understand the corner into which the mighty pro-Israel lobby and elite elected officials have pushed these factory workers.
U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey are two favorite darlings of Israeli fanaticism and predatory defense contractors. Cartwright and Casey stand with Israel right or wrong. Cartwright and Casey support bombing Palestinians with weapons made in Scranton where Casey lives and Cartwright maintains a financial connection to a law office where his high-powered lawyer wife works.
These two American Zionist hawks are not nice people. These pampered rich men are dangerous accomplices to murder.
On Sunday, as workers drove and walked to and from their shift at the plant, protestors chanted, “Good jobs don’t kill people.”
Their mantra makes a salient point that exposes Cartwright and Casey for the frauds they are. How many good jobs can either man honestly take credit for bringing home to Pennsylvania? If, in fact, either man has successfully procured work for constituents, do quality benefits and wages exist as part of the employment package?
Where are the good Scranton jobs that don’t kill people?
Not all ammo plant workers are demons although some deserve the label. Cartwright, Casey and their moneyed masters are the true ghouls who lack honor, morals, integrity, decency and a simple sense of right and wrong.
The Pope should personally kick both sinners out of the Roman Catholic Church. At least deny these immoral trespassers the sacrament of Holy Communion if they ever make an appearance before the altar rail. Absolution must be more selective for devils on the hell bound train.
Don’t target workers for a ramped-up protest. Confront Cartwright more than ever at his offices, Moosic mansion and public events. Don’t scorn people who might prefer working in jobs that don’t help kill. Confront Casey no matter where he goes.
Recognize both men as true enemies of humankind.
Of course, neither of these timid public pimps will sit face-to-face with me and answer hard questions about any issue that opens them up to truthful scrutiny. When was the last time either of these insecure Washington aristocrats spoke in person with an ammo plant worker let alone with an aggressive journalist?
Standing near the General Dynamics gate Sunday my wife held a handwritten white poster board sign that said in black ink, “Bread Not Bombs.”
I spoke with two plant workers who walked by.
“How you doing?” I said.
Both men nodded in response.
As they kept walking one looked at my wife’s “Bread Not Bombs” sign and said, “I wish.”
Turning to his colleague he softly repeated the words for emphasis.
“Bread not bombs,” he said.
Truth supposedly comes out of the mouths of babes.
So does truth come from the mouth of a bomb maker.
