You Go, Zach!

My good friend Debby, who has made several appearances on this blog, has a son named Zach.

Zach was a student in Denver studying Labor History with the idea of becoming a college professor in the field. He is also a "white card" (i.e., "on call") longshoreman, and the son of a longtime longshoreman, so labor issues are in his blood. As is political activism. Here's a definite case of DNA not falling far from the tree, as it were.

He decided to come home to Washington state and get involved in the longshore dispute in my "home town", Longview. He figured, rightly so, that in the long run it would be better to be involved in history rather than just studying it.

Day before yesterday he managed to get himself arrested at the Occupy Seattle demonstration. Debby was a little apprehensive about it (after all, he's her "baby"), but I assured her that at worst he would be locked in a bare holding cell with his other demonstrators and wouldn't go into "general population" and the most they could charge him with would be a misdemeanor. Plus it will greatly enhance his "street cred" when he carries this arrest with him as a badge of honor.

Sure enough, they held him and three others in that holding cell for two hours with their hands cuffed behind their backs and then cut them loose.

At last notice, he was back in the tents at Westlake Center, doing his part to bring attention to the crimes of the banksters.

It's so refreshing -- so liberating -- to see young people willing to put themselves on the line for something that they so deeply believe in.

You go, Zach! Don't let the bastards grind you down.