The response to our idea of crowdsourcing part of my book tour has been remarkable: over 150 people have already written in to suggest their group, school, or community organization as a good place for me to visit and talk about the practical steps we can all take to help each other through the hard times and strengthen our communities.
Some of the submissions read like postcards from Third World America.
Kelly Gallaher, of the group Community for Change, wrote in to make the case for an event in Racine, Wisconsin, where "the unemployment rate within the urban areas is easily close to 50 percent," "crime and drop-out rates continue to skyrocket," and the infant mortality rate is "among the highest in the country (some Third World countries actually have infant mortality rates lower than Racine Country)."
HuffPost user shylocxs, an associate professor at East Tennessee State University, says: "many of my students come from poverty, struggling with student loans while simultaneously taking jobs just to make ends meet while also taking classes. We have some amazing success stories, but just as often (perhaps more often) we have students who are unable -- despite their best efforts -- to succeed...All of them don't want to go to graduate schools and take on romanticized jobs or travel the world, they simply want to get that college degree so they can get a good local job rather than working in McDonald's and take care of their families. And some of them still end up working in McDonald's."
Renee_Resch nominated Oak Grove High School in San Jose, California, which she calls "a perfect example of how the recession is hurting middle class America. We are part of one of the largest school districts in the nation, East Side Unified High School District, and live in one of the most expensive areas of the nation and yet over 40% of our students qualify for the free lunch program. All too often both parents are forced to work thus weakening our school/home safety net."
And these are just a few of the submissions (see a slideshow of some of the others here).
We are going to continue taking submissions for another week, so to nominate your group, school, or community organization click here and hit the big blue "Participate" button over the map. Tell us about your group and why you think an event in your area would be useful.
If your event makes it to the next round, it will become part of a site-wide vote, where you, your friends (and their friends!), and others in your community can help determine where I go.
I really want to hear what's happening in your part of the country. Click here and let me know. Together, we can take action to rebuild the middle class and restore the American Dream.
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
Conditions in America are worsening, but they are nothing like third-world conditions.
Bush should have never given them such a reward, he should have let them fail and they would have all been on the first plane to Switzerland to retrieve their ill gotten gains and live in luxury in foreign countries for the rest of their lives.
Obama giving them more was beyond ridiculous, now we will never get rid of the nasty strays, you know once you feed them you can never get rid of them.
You see futures contracts, forward contracts, options and swaps are the most common types of derivatives. Derivatives are contracts and can be used as an underlying asset. There are even derivatives based on weather data, such as the amount of rain or the number of sunny days in a particular region.
Derivatives are generally used as an instrument to hedge risk, but can also be used for speculative purposes. For example, a European investor purchasing shares of an American company off of an American exchange (using U.S. dollars to do so) would be exposed to exchange-rate risk while holding that stock. To hedge this risk, the investor could purchase currency futures to lock in a specified exchange rate for the future stock sale and currency conversion back into Euros. Wall Street on the other hand used their bad holdings in packages to sell derivatives that they knew would fail to unsuspecting investors.
I hope you understood that but it is difficult to educate someone on economics in 250 characters or less.
Sauvy: "Like the third estate, the Third World is nothing, and wants to be something," He conveyed the concept of political non-alignment with either the capitalist or communist bloc.
Does the American version of this term also want nothing and want to be something? Of course. Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence condensed the words of Francis Hutcheson into, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..."
It boils down to respect and voice. The people want to be heard, the chief reason the government exists. Without this voice, the proud Third World will continue to feel rightly alienated from the mainstream national vision and American Dream. I believe this is what Ms Huffington and others are asking.
Many of the schools were literally falling apart, the ceiling tiles would fall off when it rained and buckets where scattered throughout halls and classes. At some schools they could not let the students out for recess because the playground was full of broken beer bottles and hypodermic needles.
In Louisiana, the teacher fairs have hundreds of applicants but they do not hire qualified teachers, they hire their friends and relatives and put them on emergency waivers (claiming that there are no teachers to be hired) with promises that they will get around to actually going to college sometime in the next ten years. They even import teachers from the Philippines and use them for slave labor.
The electricity goes out almost every day, some times 3 or 4 times a day and sometimes stays out for days. We have had to spend the night in hotels when the electricity is out and it is 97 degrees and 100% humidity.
Phone service is iffy too, lots of places do not have towers and the equipment for landlines is in such bad shape the rain gets in and the phones short out.
:)
The internet is now the last bastion of free mass media. They are working diligently to change that.
The people (progressives or otherwise) aren't really that much different then they've ever been. People DO care. We simply lack the ability to rally due to the manipulation of facts.
Additionally, people have personal agendas (children, jobs, elder care, health issues, etc), we vote so our elected representatives can maintain/influence social order. Obviously they are failing. But most can't picket, protest, petition, or otherwise work the system everyday due to personal commitments. As the situation devolves, you will witness more citizen involvement.
Plus, put some faith in our youth, they are stronger than you may think. As they gain wisdom they will play a pivotal role in restoring America (and American values). Peace.
People used to just pick a poster board and go join in on a march but now you have to have all sorts of permits and there is a very long waiting period and often times your application will be denied for some reason as stupid as you put a lowercase T on one line and an uppercase T on another.
If the person issuing the permits does not like your group they can drag out the process for months. Like I have said for a long time, the freedom to assemble hasn't been free for a very long time.
Even today, the same is happening.... the billionaires want to have it all, and the others want to drive as many out, and blame all the woes on those who are here ... chasing the "American Dream"