New plots for TV shows

[OrwellwasRight]

28. I don't think it should be whitewashed, but nor do I think we need to use the phrase "union thugs."

There is no excuse for what happened to your mother, and it is indefensible. I'm sorry your family had to live through it. If this idea were ever made into a real TV show, I am sure you would see lots of characters who were operating in grey areas, with few characters or groups being portrayed as perfectly good or perfectly bad.

However, I feel compelled to say that I believe the use of the phrase "union thug" to be prejudicial and demonstrating a lack of respect toward union members (and the history of the word "thug" isn't really all that great either). Unions are no more and no less perfect than any other institution or any other group of people. There are good and bad bosses, good and bad public servants, good and bad lawyers, good and bad wait staff, good and bad Catholic priests, good and bad police officers, good and bad whatever.

The fact is that threats and violence toward union members is far more common that threats and violence by union members:

http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/the-haymarket-affair/
https://zinnedproject.org/materials/ludlow-massacre/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_union_busting_in_the_United_States
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1998/09/more-perfect-union-buster

If I had proposed a show about a racial or religious minority, I am positive you would not have said, please show that not all ______ are good people, because this one time a _______ person threatened and intimidated my mom. So to me, it is not OK to say it about union members. I think it is a given that there are people in all groups that behave odiously, and I don't see a need to point out that some union peeps are bad. Just my opinion, which you are under no obligation to agree with.

This being the Lounge, I will say no further on the subject. I generally come here to retreat from the animosity of the other fora.