The Making of the Union Man Part 1

This series of Articles is what I vision to become the blueprint for a larger body of work that I will eventually publish as a book.  The natural starting place for this work is the question I am asked the most from those who desire to know how did Clifford Lowery ever rise to be one of the most dynamic, controversial, explosive Union Presidents on the scene.  Given where I come from in life, how did I get started in the Union movement?  These questions I believe come from admiration in some and from others of a place of envy (read the story of Caine and Abel).  For those who want to know from admiration I hope this series will provide you with a deeper knowledge of the making of this Union Man.  For those who come from the line of envy, well I can expect nothing less from this writing than adding fuel to the eternal flame of envy.

I didn’t know until later in life that my great grandfather on my mother’s side was a Union President down south during the pre civil rights days (in fact according to the time they were the genetic starting point for the "Martin Luther King" days).  My Grandfather on my mother’s side was an entrepreneur in Washington, D.C. for many years (he did very well in the strip/nightclub market, in fact he ran a club I affectionately call the aftercare for my older brother and myself in our school days that was located on 14^th and Irving Street N.W.).  My father was I guess you can say a very militant man coming out of the civil rights era.  My step father was nothing short of a very rebellious soul.  My mother and my entire immediate family were government workers.  With that as my basic make up it becomes very simple to understand that the ingredients in the making of the Union Man are deeply ingrained in me both physically and philosophically.

I started my government career in 1987 straight out of Woodrow Wilson High School.  Back in those days we moved around so much (including a few years in near Orlando, Florida as the only black family in that community and one of very few black students in my early school years there), it would take several paragraphs to name all the schools I attended.  If anyone can remember it was during the mid to late eighties that brought a steep rise to the crack and PCP epidemic, gangster rap, gold chains, fancy cars, homicide, guns and the general lifestyle that is most often described in popular urban music today.  While my involvement in the said may not have been as deep as others (my brothers included), those who were heavy in that lifestyle nevertheless were my friends.  I was very much a product of my environment and during those days it was nothing less than toxic. 

Upon entering the government I was actually studying to be a computer programmer and did exceedingly well at the college level, but my associations with the urban element of society had a great pull and influence on some of my early choices upon entering the workforce.  Furthermore, starting at the age 17 in the D.C. Government I found myself dead center in the middle of two worlds, the aging “good old boy network” where Blacks in general (my immediate environment at that time) were low paid wage earners (I started as a DS-Grade 2 at about 175.00 every two weeks compared to my “hustle” friends who made that in a matter of minutes) relegated to the lowest jobs even in the “Barry” era.  Then came the emerging “new school network” who were progressive minorities who in many instances was worse in the treatment of the low end government workers than the good old boys.  All of this being thrown at a 17 year old looking back was a lot.  To understand the above general circumstances is imperative to understanding how I became the “Jay-Z” of the D.C. Government Union movement. 

More to come in Part 2 of this series of articles.