Tony DiRienzo – 3/19/09

This page was last updated on April 8, 2009.

Class warfare has gone on for years; Tony DiRienzo; Beaver County Times; March 19, 2009.

The only previous letter from Mr. DiRienzo of which I’m aware was entitled “Lack of respect is well earned.” That letter also bashed business.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“As I listen to and watch the outrage over the bonus packages that the incompetent leaders of AIG have received, I have to laugh.

“Only now that white-collar Americans are getting screwed out of their 401ks, their health insurance and their pensions has the country awakened to the greed and arrogance of corporate America.”

[RWC] The “greed and arrogance of corporate America?” This sounds like leftist boilerplate.

“As long as union workers lost all their benefits, health care, vacations, sick time and pensions thrown in the waste basket, all of the anti-union Republicans and Democrats alike sat by and said, ‘Good, that’s what they deserve.’”

[RWC] I must hang around with the wrong gang. Whether they’re skeptical of labor union management or not, I don’t believe I know anyone like that described by Mr. DiRienzo. Could Mr. DiRienzo be projecting how he would behave on others?

“This country was built on the backs of labor, cities, bridges, railroads, trucking and the building trades and the hard work of farmers.”

[RWC] Hmm, no engineers, teachers, bankers, work-at-home mothers, et cetera?

“Today’s working Americans and immigrants can thank unions for 40-hour work weeks, safety in the workplace, sick time, vacations and almost all other benefits.

“Maybe it’s time they start teaching more about the labor movement in this country. No corporation pays us out of the goodness of its heart. So now that corporations are coming after your money, you notice.”

[RWC] Mr. DiRienzo doesn’t want the real story “about the labor movement in this country” taught. Mr. DiRienzo would like the sanitized version we all were taught when I was in school in the 1960s.

Of course “[n]o corporation pays us out of the goodness of its heart.” That’s true for all businesses, not just corporations. Does labor union management represent employees out of the goodness of its heart? Of course not; it requires employees to pay dues. Do employees work for a business out of the goodness of their hearts?

“Class warfare has gone on for years. Keep destroying the working man [sic]. When you look for someone to blame, look in the mirror.”

[RWC] Mr. DiRienzo may have a different definition of workingman than you. You see, according to the definition used by a local leftist activist, you’re a “working man” only if someone else signs your paycheck. Using this definition, no matter how hard or much you work, you’re not a “working man” if you’re self-employed.