Friday Night Special

For My Next Trick?

Now that I have this site stable, I think it's about time for this page to have a virtual sibling.

We claim, rightly so, to be fighting religious fanatics. But it seems to me that our own country is falling under control of a milder strain.

With this in mind, I plan on re-launching "Religious Liberty Network" as a kind of 'blog/action resource site (I may have more than one 'blog on the server even).

The focus will rest on a few key areas; reproductive freedom, free expression, and education. I also will look at "progressive" religious groups like Catholic Worker.

Back To The Big Apple

I made a return to NYC to interview with the NYC Hotel and Motel Trades Council. They're kind of the "umbrella group" for the unionized hotel and tourism wokers.

I left Tuesday and took a cab from my apartment to the Harrisburg bus station. After stops in; King of Prussia, PA, Philly, PA, Camden, NJ and Newark NJ, I arrived at the NYC Port Authority bus terminal. On my way to the hotel I managed to go past where my interview was to be.

I arrived at where the Council had been so nice to put me up, The Edison Hotel and got unpacked. From there I had dinner, courtesy of a local sandwich place.

After digesting my food, I decided to head to a Barnes and Nobel. While there I came to the conculsion that the "Bushsheep" now seem to be making the waves on the non-fiction front. This worries me in that I wonder if the momentum of MoveOn etc, may be fading.

I returned to my hotel with the intent of listening to some piano jazz, but a "two drink minimum" coupled with my tight budget sent me back to my room to watch the TV, shower and hit the bed.

Air America's Morning Sedition woke me up, and I got to hear Charles Barkley speak. He actually made some good points on stuff.

Breakfast in the hotels cafe, which I found out was the setting/inspiration for a play by Neil Simon, gave me the fuel I would need to interview.

The interview was actually the last half-hour of things. The rest was a simulation of stuff I may encounter on the job. I had to write two letters; a request for information for some grievances and one appealing an employee/organizer's termination, made more difficult by not being able to mention his union activities, check a series of "intent to form cards" and develop a course of action, and cross-check a contract with timesheets and schedules to find violations. A task to find items for a rally was aborted so I could catch my bus.

I thought I did well, just not well enough. Call this "sour grapes", but the hurdles I'd have to jump were I too be hired would have been too much anyhow.