Bill Bumpus an injury to one is an injury to all

By DAVID MACARAY

Some years ago, when I was a union rep with the West Coast papermakers, I was called in on a DOJ case (drunk on the job) to represent an employee who was facing termination.  While DOJs were by no means common, they weren’t exactly rare, either. 

Alcohol cases vary dramatically in how they’re perceived.  If a professor or judge shows up drunk, it’s amazing how sympathetic people can be.  They become almost maternal in their concern.  Someone this accomplished, this educated, doing something this disgraceful can mean only one thing: the man is “fighting personal demons.”  A drunken judge?  Oh my god, there has to be some tragic human story to explain it.

But let it be a factory worker who’s been drinking, and the guy is regarded as a low-class degenerate who needs to be fired immediately.  But what about this man’s “personal demons”?  Screw his personal demons.  He’s fired.  Get him the hell out of here.