Nothing about the content of the Pledge to America is surprising -- it's the same Bush-era economic agenda that got us into the mess we're in today: deregulate business, starve government services, starve the middle class and starve the working class so corporate special interests and the wealthy can feed on the spoils.
But the presentation leaves me stunned.
It's 48 pages of fancy, historic-looking display type and photographs. Lots of photographs. In fact, it shows off photos of 384 white people by our count. One Asian American. A musician who might be Asian. One young man in military camo who may be Latino. And if you look very, very closely, five African Americans. A total of eight people of color.
What America are they pledging to?
It doesn't look like the America I know.
The Census Bureau says people of color made up 34 percent of the population last year. In the eyes of those who made the Pledge to America, people of color are barely 2 percent.
I haven't seen such a false image of who America really is since 1950s-era television, back when Lucy and the Beaver seemed to live on a planet with no people of color whatsoever.
Maybe the people in those photos are the "real Americans" Sarah Palin has talked about. Real white.
What stuns me about the document isn't that the party doesn't have much diversity to photograph in its leadership or among the faithful who turn out at its gatherings. What amazes me is that agenda-setters in the Republican machinery think it's OK to ignore more than a third of the population. No, more than that -- they choose to ignore more than a third of the population, choose to keep certain people -- including (no coincidence) those who look like President Barack Obama -- out of the spotlight, out of their vision of America.
Policies that reach backward toward failure echo a vision for America that looks backward and blinds itself to opportunities to move forward.
While the Pledge to America is reviewed by the media, tens of thousands of union members, faith groups, civil and human rights activists and other progressives are getting ready to come to Washington, D.C., for the Oct. 2 One Nation Working Together gathering at the Lincoln Memorial. People of every race and ethnicity, people of all faiths, LGBT and straight, old and young and in between. We're coming together to put America back to work and pull America back together. Together, we're calling for good jobs, restoring the economy, fundamental justice and high-quality education for all our children. We believe in the American Dream--for everyone who has the good fortune to call this land "home." We believe America's best days are ahead of us.
But the Pledge to America comes from people who don't agree. They say we ask for too much. They say even with all our hard work and wealth, the richest nation on Earth can't afford good wages anymore. That we can't expect secure jobs, or a good life for our children or a decent retirement. That those days are behind us.
They've given up on America.
On its cover, the Pledge to America says it is an agenda "built on America's founding values."
Again, it makes me ask, "Whose America?"
The founding values I was taught, growing up in a heartland town of new American immigrants, begin with the fact we are all created equal and all entitled to the same benefits of a great nation. That we are all free to worship as we choose, free to associate, free to enjoy basic security and the opportunity for success. That's not color based. Not ethnicity based.
One of the photos I didn't count in the Pledge to America was that of the Statue of Liberty -- who invites the world to "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Those sacred words don't include a postscript saying: Just don't expect to see those huddled masses included in the GOP Pledge to America.
This weekend, One Nation will issue a very different pledge to America. One that I--a white guy--will be part of, along with my brothers and sisters of many colors, many beliefs, many backgrounds.
I hope you will come to the National Mall this weekend. And when you do, take a photo. Capture what America really looks like. And make your own pledge to the country we love.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow: Justice Still Denied: My Mini-Sermon at the 'One Nation Working Together' Rally
By Sam Hananel
"...WASHINGTON — The federal agency that oversees union elections plans to speed up its review of cases where employees are fired during union organizing drives.
The National Labor Relations Board said Thursday it would act more swiftly in seeking federal injunctions to get workers reinstated when officials believe a firing was illegal.
It is against the law to fire workers because they want to form a union. But some fired employees can wait months or years to get their cases resolved.
"Firing an employee in the middle of a union organizing campaign can quickly destroy the campaign by creating a climate of fear in the workplace," said Lafe Solomon, the NLRB's acting general counsel...."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h4vtd7F98l_8MFfsDQVk5ab_Z_4AD9IIFO180?docId=D9IIFO180
Those who foster inequality are neo-feudalists, chopping away at America's greatest virtue: Economic, social, and political equality [See deToqueville, Alexis, Democracy In America, ch. 1]
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-23-2010/postcards-from-the-pledge?xrs=eml_tds
(note: sarcasm - remember the days when people would recognize ridiculously ignorant posts as jokes because no one would seriously post such a silly comment)
They think whatever they parade past us as the bread and circuses of econonomic empire will keep us distracted. Our short attention spans flitting to the next irrelevant issue du jour flitting by.
So remote in their towering offices and gated communities. No contact with the people whose lives they've ruined. No contact at all with working people except the virtually invisible of the "service" economy, whose membership in the middle class was cancelled a decade ago.
It is galling when these regressives have the nerve to speak about values. What they mean is money, not morals. We ordinary humans are of no value to them.
Bravo! Fanned and faved!
ZF
"Two years ago the election of Barack Obama, the US president, was hailed as a turning point in US race relations. The country was said to be entering a new era of post-racial politics, on the path to a future of greater diversity and tolerance.
But while crowds flocked to Washington to witness their new leader's inauguration, others were refusing to join the party. Racially motivated threats against Obama rose to new heights in the first months of his presidency, with the US seeing nine high-profile race killings in 2009.
Meanwhile white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups claim their membership is growing and that visits to their websites are increasing.
With important Congressional elections in a few weeks time, People & Power looks back at this earlier report which set out to investigate whether the racial undercurrent that has long structured US politics was reasserting itself.
Filmmakers Rick Rowley and Jacquie Soohen went inside the white nationalist movement to investigate.
In the process we uncovered links between white nationalists and a conservative movement that has since become a force within more mainstream politics."
This is an EXCELLENT but disturbing documentary, even more topical now then when it was first aired. No American TV networs would dare touch this! If you have not seen this, it is definitely worth the 23 minutes of your time!
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2010/01/201015124739316797.html
Sorry, can't patronize that site...refuse to do so. They too have been known to push the terrorists' agenda as well as lies from other shady dictator/extremist types.
It's not real news....
ZF
ZappaFreak, you should watch it first and then decide if it's 'real news' or not.
people... 2 cheerleaders, a msn who appeared to be a Secret Service agent and a man and his young son "positioned" directly behind and above the podium, do as to be clearly visible to the TV cameras!
Ensure Access For Patients With Pre-Existing Conditions:
Health care should be accessible for all, regardless of pre-existing conditions or past illnesses. We will expand state high-risk pools, reinsurance programs and reduce the cost of coverage. We will make it illegal for an insurance company to deny coverage to someone with prior coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition, eliminate annual and lifetime spending caps, and prevent insurers from dropping your coverage just because you get sick. We will incentivize states to develop innovative programs that lower premiums and reduce the number of uninsured Americans.
They are promising something that is already law.
All kids covered, no pre-existing conditions for kids
Can’t get dropped if sick – no recisions
No more lifetime limits.
Children stay on insurance until age 26
The Republican plan includes 3 of those 4 parts of the HCR bill that are already in effect. I'm sure the irony of promising to do something that is already done doesn't escape you.
Wow. That takes balls.
ESTRANGE[ment] YOU CAN BEREAVE IN.