Fifty years ago the now disgraced President Nixon signed into law protections for workers and our environment. A disgraced president who pushed the boundaries of authority entrusted to him by the american people, actually did a good thing. Fifty years later, on this day a now impeached twice and acquitted twice disgraced President Trump will be known for his failure to protect working Americans and to prevent the deaths of over 450,000 Americans among other things. Any good thing he did will overshadowed by the legacy of COVID-19 and a Big Lie. What a contrast and yet both of these men made work a political matter and the latter may ultimately be indirectly responsible for ushering in a new or revised set of standards for worker protections.
Occupational Safety and Health is relevant again! Don't get me wrong, workplaces did not suddenly change and workplace safety become a new thing, on the contrary, workplace safety was always in plain sight. But like anything in plan sight it can become hidden and this often has to do with seeker awareness and experience. It is once again discovered when revealed to those who may or may not seek it or who have grown complacent. The good and bad part about compliance is that those who began working and serving in a compliant environment will come to expect it. Expectation and complacency sometimes go hand in hand. The downside of a compliant and yet complacent environment is that it can be exploited through politics when we lack the background or the history to defend what is the current condition or courage to change it, and there will be no push for accountability.
Compliance with what must be done often gets confused with norms, what should be done. Norms are agreed upon standards of operation and engagement. Norms may also be policy that will often have the backing of and be rooted in broader regulation, however this is not always the case. OSHA standards are often best practices agreed upon as the standard. And so compliance with the best practices even though codified as regulation can be hard to enforce. When this happens politics as revealed in the COVID-19 response and our own Big Lie, will obfuscate compliance with norms, death and harm will result, and there will be a lack of accountability, even to the point of acquittal of the guilty. Compliance with complacency is knowledge underutilized.
Presidents Day! What is it and why do we celebrate it? As a Black American, I have been encouraged to respect the reverence of the day even though the majority of past presidents did not value or honor black lives. The long weekend many California families use to enjoy winter traditions such as skiing in the mountains or dirt biking in the deserts presents at least a universal sentiment if not action. The day is valued for family time, play not work, and out of respect for the day my grandchildren don't hear me speak of the reality of who, what, and why we are celebrating. This tradition will hold even as on this past weekend our nation chose to continue to elevate white supremacy and now the irrelevance of this day by acquitting a criminal president.
Finally, this same holiday day weekend included the celebration of love in Valentines Day! We all have different viewpoints on what "love is". This year the Valentines were for the children because the adults in the room could not agree on what is love, what is love of country, and in the final analysis what is a safe workspace that should be valued and protected from violence and harm.
As a person of faith I will offer that 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 is the best place to start when establishing what "love is" and what must be at the heart of workplace safety!
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Happy Valentine's Day! I'll do a shout out for Presidents another time.
