Hit the bricks in tough times

Re “Now is not the time to strike,” Opinion, Dec. 17

When the Screen Actors Guild was founded, an outgoing administration’s reckless economic policies favored the concentration of wealth among the rich and brought our entire financial system near collapse.

The union has since survived numerous fiscal crises without ever giving up its best leverage -- the right to strike.

Today we again see hostile economic policies that favor the rich, and thus there is again a need for unions to organize and stand up to the powerful elite.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild should take it on ourselves to battle the corporate fat cats -- not just in our interest as actors, but in the interest of all organized labor.

Former SAG President Melissa Gilbert would have us cower in a corner, forgetting our past.

It is said that in the feudal ages, the entertainers of the king’s court would refuse to perform in protest of bad treatment toward the common people in the villages. Tough economic times are the best times to utilize the strike clause because that is when the elite are dangerously close to accomplishing their agenda.

Lawrence Gaughan

Los Angeles