Bearing Witness to the Times: Down at the Plant

The historic Buffalo Cotton Textile Mill in Union County, South Carolina

(Public Domain photo, courtesy of  Wikimedia Commons)

"Manufacturing leader: Job losses are destroying Illinois' middle class"

(Headline from Sauk Valley Media)

Down at the Plant

When did you last hear

The morning whistle

Down at the local plant?

Many good Americans

Would give little thought

To who resides in the White House

As long as they could

Wake up in the morning

And put in a shift

Down at the local plant.

This is the sad irony

Of our national struggle today.

The one thing

That has given our country

Its greatest security –

Steady local employment –

Is no longer there.

Agriculture may have given birth

To Middle America,

But manufacturing

Gave it legs to stand on.

Sometimes seen

As mindless repetition

Or a cultural wasteland,

The local plant

Kept small town America humming.

“Will it play in Peoria?”

“Is it good for Main Street?”

These were the questions

That kept our ship of state

On an even keel.

The bustle of New York

And the glitter of L.A.

Were possible only

Because across the heartland

There was a whistle blowing

Down at the local plant.

Not everyone could own farmland,

Or get a college education,

Or find fulfillment

In the bright lights of the city,

But almost anyone

Could get on

Down at the local plant.

It became a fail-safe

For the country.

One by one

They began to leave.

Company bosses

Shipped manufacturing overseas

Leaving the heartland

As desolate as any inner city.

Meanwhile, the college crowd

Made its fortune

And toasted its success

While leaving Main Street

In the shadows.

Meth came to the heartland

Like heroin to the inner city

In vain attempts

To fill a desolate, jobless void.

And so the culture wars rage –

Some wanting to move forward,

Others wanting to go back.

Everyone feeling

The unspoken need

To hear that morning whistle

Down at the local plant.

                                                   ~ CK

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Author's Note: I hope that readers do not see this poem simply as a nostalgic look at the past.  If you saw the movie, Norma Rae, or if you read my post about southern mill towns, you know that the cotton mills were no panacea, especially in the non-unionized regions of the country. Those days are gone and there is no going back. The fact remains, however, that though the mills are gone, nothing has taken their place. We have yet to figure out how to bring meaningful work to Middle America and rural America. Until we fill that need, we will likely continue to have trouble in the heartland. – CK  



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