Of Catfish, Plantation Owners and The Constitution

By Ed Raymond
Staff Writer

Perhaps reading some of the Constitution by members of the 112th Congress on their first day in session served some useful purpose. A few must have been thrilled to read it for the first time, although there was a great deal of confusion about what parts or what amendments should be read. I am sure some Republicans were left desperately searching for the phrase “Equal Justice For All Corporations.” It must be in some amendment somewhere. An accountant figured out that this deficit-cutting, Republican-dominated House spent $1,071,872.87 in Congressional salaries and expenses simply reading the good parts. It must have been very thought-provoking for the representative who was assigned to read: “When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such vacancies.” It’s a line he shall cherish forever.

I’m going to use the framework of an actual case that reached the Labor Department in 2000 when Eugene Scalia, yes, the spitting image and philosophical clone of Daddy Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, was solicitor general of the Labor Department. The Clinton administration had been busy putting together regulations to handle ergonomics protection for workers who had to go through thousands of repetitive motions in the course of the working day. Naturally, industries that had such jobs fought these regulations with every fiber of their fat-assed, non-ergonomicized bodies, unwilling to pay workman’s comp and medical treatment for “repetitive”  injuries to wrists, backs, shoulders, hands, and other overworked parts.                                                                                 

Let’s Call Her “Catfish Annie”                                                                                                                                                                                       

“Catfish Annie” was a 22-year-old black girl who worked at Freshwater Farms catfish-processing plant near the Yazoo River in Mississippi. She worked in a refrigerated section of the plant, dressed in apron, rubber boots, hair net, and special latex gloves. She stood at her station for eight to 10 hours a day skinning catfish. I don’t know whether you have ever skinned a bullhead or catfish. I have many times because I cleaned fish caught by seven children. It’s a slippery, tough-skin, and frustrating job.                                                                                                                   

The catfish were stunned with electric shock, beheaded by another worker, and then eviscerated by a strong vacuum pipe called a “long gun.” Then Catfish Annie grabbed fish off a conveyor belt, pressed one side against high speed blades mounted on a rotor, which removed the skin on one side. Then she flipped the fish over, skinning the other side. By the time the Labor Department and industry lawyers went to lunch after arguing about ergonomics, Catfish Annie had skinned between 3,600 and 4,000 catfish. By the end of the day she had skinned between 8,100 and 10,800. Her quota was 12 fish a minute, but she never fell below 15 and often skinned 25 a minute.                                                                                                                                                   

How About One Bathroom Break Per Day?                                                                                                                                                                     

Catfish Annie and her fellow workers got two 15-minute breaks and a half-hour for lunch during a 10-hour day. Going to the bathroom once a day takes the time of skinning about 120 catfish.  Catfish Annie and her fellow workers went on strike about bathroom breaks because the company had offered only six breaks a week, pretty tough on a woman six or seven months pregnant. When the employees rejected that proposal, the company added five minutes to the half-hour lunch break for peeing. If women took too long, male supervisors would enter the bathroom stalls and tell them to get off the toilet. The company ended that practice when the women threatened to complain to the civil rights division of the Justice Department. In 2000, Catfish Annie grossed $240 a week.                                         

And so it goes in the land of the free and home of the brave, where the Preamble of the Constitution proclaims: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”                                                                                                                                                                     

The Constitution Contains About 4,400 Words And Is Read Less Than The Bible                                                                                                                                        

I admit there is a renewed interest in the Constitution since the Republicans spent a million taxpayer bucks reading it. I have been collecting articles about the Constitution for years, and I am using those files and a splendid article by Jill Lepore in the Jan. 17, 2011 issue of “The New Yorker” to support this column. Jill’s title, “The Commandments: The Constitution And Its Worshippers,” is quite appropriate. The main problem is only 28 percent of our 308 million have read any part of it.                                                                                                                             

We hear politicians and pundits describe it as a “sacred” document. There’s nothing sacred about it. The word “God” is not in it. Twelve of the signers admitted they had no religious affiliation. “Separation of Church and State” is not mentioned either. Thomas Jefferson came up with that later while supervising his slaves, particularly the sexy, compassionate Sally Hemings. The Constitution was the first attempt by a group of about 60 old white guys to come up with some guidelines for the government of an entity they were interested in maintaining. It was no big deal back then. In fact the Constitution was lost for about 50 years in a gristmill in Virginia where it was placed in 1814 while the British burned Washington. Rediscovered in 1875, it was stored in a tin box in a closet in a new building constructed to house the Department of State.                                                                                                                                                               

“Better Information Changes Opinions”                                                                                                                                                                       

The Constitution has gained importance throughout the years and has become something to interpret, but not necessarily follow. In 1952 it was driven to the National Archives in an Army tank surrounded by military guards. As it ages past 224 years, it serves our country well. But I think one of the signers, 81-year-old Ben Franklin, summed up the problems in writing a Constitution when it was first read in its entirety at the Pennsylvania State House: “Mr. President, I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them…I find that there are errors here, but, who knows, someday I might change my mind; I often do. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once found right, but found to be otherwise.”                                                                                               

In 224 Years We Certainly Have Come Up With Better Information                                                                                                                                              

I presented the story of Catfish Annie because I think it points out “the better information” we gain minute by minute in a complex, educated society, which should change our laws, regulations, and attitudes.                                                                                                                                                                                                     

:: In 1787 Catfish Annie, a Negro, would have been a slave, a not-quite human being captured in darkest Africa, transported, and sold to the highest bidder. She couldn’t own property, she was property. Her black brothers were counted as three-fifths semi-humans for the census. After the “freeing” of the slaves, Jim Crow was born to control the passions of those who had 99.8 percent of the genes of a chimp. During this period, thousands of Negroes were lynched before cheering crowds for minor and major infractions, such as looking and whistling at white women. “Separate but Equal” ended up being “Separate and Horrible.” In 1948 President Harry Truman said blacks could serve in the military next to whites. But even in 2008 the election of Barack Obama brought out the “Lyin African” and “African Witch Doctor” signs at Southern Tea Parties. Perhaps Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor had it right when she said it would take at least 25 more years of affirmative action programs to bring equality to the races. It also might take intensive courses on the Constitution for 25 years to acquaint citizens with it. As an example, during the nomination process for Elena Kagan, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee attacked her because one of her mentors, Justice Thurgood Marshall, had suggested the Constitution was flawed because it didn’t consider blacks to be full human beings! No wonder they wanted to read it in the House!                                                                                                                                                                         

::We have “better information” about all things medical which adds depth and meaning to our Constitution. The Occupational, Safety, and Health Administration was created by Congress (so the law must be constitutional!) to enhance the “general welfare” of all citizens. So Catfish Annie works in a situation where hours and conditions at her work station is somewhat controlled by laws that make sense in today’s society. If she is injured on the job she is compensated. If she is a victim of a carpal tunnel injury from overwork and stress from skinning 10,000 catfish per day, her surgery to correct it should be paid by the state and her employer.                                                                                                                                                                             

The “Originalism” Of Antonin Scalia And Other Conservatives                                                                                                                                                

Even the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments are open to interpretation. Ask 10 theologians sometime. The Constitution demands interpretation. Should a judge 224 years after the first reading try to determine the meaning of a section by relying on the opinions of white men two centuries dead? Of course not. But that is what “originalists” such as Antonin Scalia and his shadow Clarence Thomas think. What nonsense!                                                                                                                                       

Should we really care what John Adams, Carter Braxton, and William Hooper thought about controlling the use of muskets in 1787? We currently kill or wound 100,000 citizens each year with guns. It would take a musket firing continuously once a minute for 70 days (It takes about a minute to load and fire) to commit such carnage. But it would take a man firing a full automatic AK-47 at the rate of 600 rounds per minute for only 2.8 hours to kill or wound 100,000 people. Should we base our gun laws on what Thomas Jefferson thought of the musket?  “Give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death” - Patrick Henry didn’t think much of the Constitution: “(It is) of such an intricate and complicated nature, that no man on this earth can know its real operation.”  I think that’s a “No!”                                         

Ratification of the Constitution almost went into “sudden death” overtime. Rhode Island rejected it. Ratification votes in other states were quite close: Virginia, 89-79; New York, 30-27; Massachusetts, 187-168, for example. Only one state required it to be taught in schools prior to 1860.                                                                                                                                 

Our Army presently has more than 100 bands that eat up defense dollars. What advice would George Washington give about having 100 bands for the Revolutionary Army or today’s Army?  Shall we seek the advice of John Hancock and Samuel Chase on Wall Street’s use of derivatives, collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, and other financial “instruments” used in “casino” investment banking? Computers are now capable of spewing out 200 billion e-mails a day with the click of a mouse. What advice would Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin, a postmaster general of the United States, give about the use of computers to distribute spam or to buy or sell millions of shares of stock on Wall Street–in milliseconds?                                                                                 

We need living judges with intelligence, empathy, judgment and a tremendous background in history to decide what the Constitution says at a moment in time. The dead white guys made a lot of mistakes which have to be corrected–over time. Winston Churchill had two wonderful things to say about democracy. In a moment of cynicism he said: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” But later he also said that democracy is the worst form of government–except for all the others.                                                                           

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