I’m back on the air. Without going into great deal, there was a death in my immediate family that hit me pretty hard. Probably always will. But until this week ( it’s been close to eight months) I haven’t had the drive to write. The strike has made that even easier for me. But walking the line every morning, forcing me to have contact with the world and my scribe brothers and sisters, has slowly given me back my voice.
Funny how this strike will probably be a healing process for me, but more importantly, it will be a healing process for us all. What we are striking for is just. What we do today takes care of our fellow writers tomorrow. This is important. It’s going to be a tough fight. But one we must come out of fairly unscathed and with hope.
Today was day 4 of the new talks. The AMPTP just gave us (finally) something new to chew on.
Uh huh…okay. It comes of no surprise to me, it’s something we need to spit out.
Most of us saw this coming. For those of you that didn’t…welcome to the party.
There was a part of me that was hoping something of note would happen soon. With this new groundbreaking roll back (cue – rolling eyes)…not going to happen.
The AMPTP has officially started a staring contest to see who’s going to blink first. They believe we will. To insure a win, if you look closely at their hollow eyes you can see the sewn thread keeping their eyelids open.
Don’t blink fellow WGA members. Don’t blink.
Stare them down no matter how long it takes.
Don’t be fooled in thinking in the end we aren’t going to get screwed. But it’s important to minimize the rape. We are all going to be taking one for the collective team…but, when we get out of this picketing prison they put us in…we will be able to live with it.
Years from now we will all be able to look back on this strike and feel proud. My wife always says nothing great comes easy. She’s right.
Again…what we are doing is just. That is why we fight. Regardless of how bloody it gets. Historically we have proven over and over we are not a people who can sit down and do nothing when we are being treated unfairly. We let our voices be heard. If that has no effect…we make them understand…we fight.
I have always sworn to myself that I would do whatever it takes to protect my family. That is why I walk the line every day. Not just for the family I share my life with at home, but my scribe brothers and sisters and their families. I swear I’m not trying to wave a flag or be melodramatic. I’m just speaking from my heart.
It would be nice if life was simple. You do your job, you get treated fairly.
Life isn’t simple.
Writing isn’t easy.
The underlyng current of existing in this town is knowing that you have to deal with a certain percentage of getting bent over. Them’s the rules of the game.
I got a back ache…I’m tired of staring at the ground. Fuck the rules.
I met a woman today leaving the studio where I picket…she just got fired. She was sad, pissed and scared. You know what she told me.
“You stay out here.”
She then told me that she would pray for us.
She just got fired. But we are a people that no matter what…will always believe in fighting against injustice.
We are the front line of public opinion. They support, they understand…they honk.
For what it’s worth, here’s my prediction.
The 800lb gorilla is going to sweeten the deal, but still not make it palatable for us to swallow right before the force majeur. They will get rid of the dead weight, blame it on us “for not taking a great offer on the table”.
Then…they will come back to the talks spewing banana breath, and looking fatter than usual and slowly give us the deal they decided long ago (to the exact bullet point) that they knew we would finally gulp down. It won’t be perfect…they will even pretend to give on certain points. You know, the ones they knew (to the exact bullet point) that they would cave in…to the exact number they’ve had in their minds all along.
This should happen right before Christmas. Just like a typical third act note they would give anyway.
Then we all go back to dancing with the Devil. Except he don’t dance so well…hard to move with a little rip in your anus. But he’s smiling. He got what he wanted.
And hopefully…so will the WGA.
So Say We All.
jsg
