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WDI presents commentaries to foster conversations about social and ethical issues.

Facilitating Language Development

5/23/2011 9:59:42 AM

The ability for a nation to create the workforce needed to compete in the global economy begins with infants and toddlers. Literacy and communication skills begin before a baby speaks her first word. Babies are pre-wired to communicate and learn. They begin to communicate through crying, facial expressions and movement. Fancy curriculumor flash cards are not needed for the development of infant and toddler communication skills. What is needed are responsive adults.

Learning occurs through the relationship that the infant and toddler has with significant adults in their lives including parents and care givers. By responding promptly to infants’ and ...

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Betty Bellino Childcare
Labor and the Community: Joe Mangino, Labor Hero

9/9/2010 11:17:10 AM

Joe Mangino was born in 1918 in Schenectady, NY. to Italian immigrants. His dad helped build the church Joe was baptized in. At the daunting height of 5’5” he was the star forward on the Nott Terrace High School basketball team of 1938. He started his career after a stint in the Navy during WWII.

Joe led his first labor strike at the age of twelve at the Mohawk Golf Club in Schenectady. He and his fellow caddies wanted to make a few pennies more per day and the golf course members wouldn’t give them a raise. He led a ...

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Labor and the Community
Transformation, Crisis, and Opportunity

8/31/2010 4:42:08 PM

It takes more than stamina to go through a crisis and come out stronger. We know the slogan: “What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.” A shock can become a stimulus to action. Minor loss becomes a crisis for one person. Disaster is an opportunity for another. It is inspiring to watch a friend turn her life around. Change often starts when we look in the mirror. The first step is to tell ourselves the truth. We acknowledge what is now rather than pretend all is fine; that we are what we want to be. Next we need to ...

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Ed Murphy
Let Freedom Ring

8/18/2010 9:12:36 AM

“Let freedom ring…”

Martin Luther King

In his famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King gave voice to a fundamental belief we learned as children. Freedom is fundamental to everything our society holds dear. He challenged us to see that value applied across the land: “from the hills of New Hampshire… to Stone Mountain in Georgia… Lookout Mountain in Tennessee… from every hill and molehill in Mississippi…, from every mountainside let freedom ring.”

King inspired us to end segregation.

I have been reflecting on American values as I read the news. I know of two intense situations where the ...

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Ed Murphy
New York State of Mind

8/3/2010 2:35:13 PM

“But I’m taking a greyhound on the Hudson River line. I’m in a New York state of mind.” Billy Joel song.

I ride Amtrak. As seasons change, I watch the river freeze, then thaw; birds nest, then fly south; ships move cargo and fuel; trucks navigate rural roads; towns wake up and cities fall asleep; cars cross the bridges and children play.

New Yorkers know where they belong, upstate or down. I was born in the city and now live in Saratoga. The Staten Island of my youth, however, was more rural than most American cities. It was like an ...

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Ed Murphy
When I Retire

7/19/2010 9:20:16 AM

I am weeks away from my 65th birthday, have more passion for work than I had twenty years ago and am creating a vision of a new life. There is a voice in my head saying 65 is when you leave work, go fishing, play golf and travel; eat breakfast with friends while younger people drive to work. You sit on a bench by the sea and do what you want. Medicare kicks in at 65 but I have to wait another year for social security. Each milestone calls out. They point in one direction while I follow Robert Frost’s ...

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Ed Murphy
College Debt: The New Indentured Servitude?

6/11/2010 11:27:11 AM

June is high school graduation time. I am troubled by the story of a young woman who graduated from NYU with $97,000 in debt ("Another Debt Crisis is Brewing" The New York Times).

She now has a BA and may work 20 years to pay off her debt. Did she make an informed decision? The illusion that a brand name school has greater value than a public university enticed her into bondage. The university facilitated her debt, collected tuition, partnered with banks to get her in over her head. I thought America had outlawed indentured servitude. Her ...

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Ed Murphy
Bread and Roses

6/1/2010 1:25:36 PM

Our souls cry out for more than money. We find poetry and music, dance and art in all neighborhoods, in concert halls and on street corners.

WDI has made cultural programming a core part of our service. Workers need job security, so we offer skills training yet work alone is not enough. Our spirits must be lifted, set free. Freedom brings dignity, a sense of community and pride. We are not cogs in a machine living to produce profits. Culture gives us strength and joy. Culture takes many forms: personal or communal; ethnic, musical, words, dance, sculpture, painting, photography or ...

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Ed Murphy
A new New Deal

5/25/2010 4:50:23 PM

“Only the hand that erases can write the true thing”

Meister Eckhart

My head hurts when I realize how life has changed since I left high school. In June of 1963, gas sold for 29 cents a gallon. American-made cars filled the roads. President Kennedy was alive. Segregation kept African-Americans from voting. I knew Vietnam was somewhere in Asia.

War taught me where and now we outsource manufacturing jobs to a country I first fought and then learned to love. We fill foreign cars with $3 gasoline. Barack Obama is President. We use cell phones and bury our youth ...

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Ed Murphy
Listen and Learn

5/17/2010 9:03:49 AM

What do you hear? Do you listen? What is the difference? The distinction is subtle and profound. We hear noise and listen to music. We hear background sounds and listen to what people say. These concepts are crucial to WDI with our intention to become a stronger organization, serve organized labor, build better lives for working families, foster a dialogue between business, government, unions, environmentalists and social advocates. The operative words here are serve and dialogue.

In simple terms, a waiter can not serve unless he is clear what the customer wants. In a brief conversation he makes sure we ...

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Ed Murphy