Where We’ve Been

Personally, the past few months have been a wild ride.  Becky had a torn rotator cuff with three detached tendons in her good arm.  The other arm is only somewhat functional due to hemiparesis.  Surgery was followed by tachycardia and multiple other post op complications and hospital stays.  Meanwhile John ended up with a frozen right shoulder.  

And then we moved–setting up house in two different in-law suites in two different states!   Oh, and just as moving finished up, John got mauled by a dog and lost the use of a hand for a while. So, nothing big, but we’ve been out of commission for a bit.

We’re Back!

We have more than forty years of history researched and ready to illustrate in Bullpush, so we’re here for the long haul.  You can count on years of illustrated history from us slowly being pounded out as our bodies continue the unavoidable path down entropy’s road.

Why are we doing this?

Yes, Appalachian Heritage, West Virginia Heritage, a love of history and of art are all important parts of it.

But to what end?  

To understand and improve the present!  

The history of Bullpush and of coal camp labor struggles is one that over and over shows workers and immigrants demanding not only to be paid fairly but more specifically to demand basic human rights guaranteed by the constitution.  

Black and white Americans joined hands with immigrants to oppose labor practices that kept generations in debt and with little chance to improve themselves.  Despite serious setbacks and personal consequences, the immigrant Italians of the Boomer Rebellion continued to provide support to striking and rebelling miners from other communities throughout the next twenty years.

This struggle against corporate power enforced by company towns and private security cost lives and took decades.  Living in tent camps and even facing work or expulsion orders from the state, the miners of the early nineteen hundreds never completely gave up the fight.  Slowly, progress was made.  Issues were won one or two at a time.

Did it solve everything?   Where are we now?  

We may not have company towns and company guards, but we do have laws and practices that have again gutted worker rights and collective bargaining, lowered wages and raised cost of living.  We have an economy where a wealthy few reap increasingly large profits off of the labor of the rest of us while being subsidized by larger and larger tax breaks.  Housing costs rise while wages stagnate.  We are the only developed nation without universal healthcare and the results show as American health, prosperity and longevity declines in comparison with those who actually spend far less on healthcare.

Meanwhile we have gone from a nation that welcomes immigrants to one where even documented immigrants are rounded up and sent to camps by masked men who wear no identification and often show no warrants.

If there was ever a time to remember the history, values and struggles of coal miners it is now.

If there was ever a time to resist and demand change, that time is now.  

We don’t make money off of this website.  Merchandise sales don’t cover materials and hosting much less labor.

That’s not why we do this.  Understanding history gives us insight into the present.

And right now, we need to resist.  So—we’re offering three of our t-shirts that we see as speaking to the present at cost to anyone who wants them.  The third party printer/shipper is making profit off of this–but we aren’t.  That’s not why we’re here.

Thanks for reading and working for a better and kinder world!

The history of the Boomer Rebellion will continue in our next post.

Our Bullpush RESIST shirts are now set at a 0% markup.  The third party printer will make a profit off of these, but we sure won’t.  Start a conversation about change with what you wear!

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