Has there ever been an Inauguration Day that has generated this level of excitement? Not in my lifetime. Here in the New England "happy valley," as we locals refer to it, people are planning to watch the ceremony en masse. Nearly a thousand people will gather to watch it on the big screen at the Academy of Music, a venerable old movie theater in Northampton, Ma. The chancellor of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst has asked supervisors to release their staff to view the broadcast in the student union. Not only do we want to witness this event, we want to do so in the company of as many others as possible.
What lies ahead? Much of the focus of the media has been on Obama's cabinet appointments and policy hints. With good reason--the stakes have rarely been higher for a majority of the population. For precisely that reason, however, what matters most over the next few years is not what Obama does, but what we do. It is vital that we figure out what we want, where our interests lie, and then organize ourselves around them. Or as Obama himself said during the campaign, we need to make it clear that the election was ultimately about us.
To express this idea, my girlfriend and I have written a flyer to hand out at one of the community viewings of the ceremonies tomorrow. We make two points. First, that democracy is incomplete without some basic economic rights, like retirement security. What does it mean to be free when our lives can be so drastically disrupted by the market, in which the most powerful players are not elected, and in which most of us have such little say as citizens? Second, that it is up to us to ask for these economic rights, just as previous generations did for the civil rights that we value so highly.
The flyer appears below.
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OBAMA NEEDS OUR HELP
We celebrate his victory in the shadow of the worst economic crisis since 1929.
What we need now is not a New Deal but a new democracy--
one in which we have not only political rights but basic economic rights.
Don't we need rights to housing, fair pay, job and retirement security?
Without these rights, can we really say we live in a democracy, when our lives can be so dramatically affected by the market, controlled by players we haven't elected?
Without these rights, how can the President keep the economy from going back to business as usual?
As much as Obama might want to help us, one person can't do it alone.
In decades past, citizens demanded civil rights, and leaders finally delivered them. Now we must demand our economic rights.
The Ad hoc Committee on Economic Rights seeks local residents who want to explore these issues in light of Obama's victory.
Please send your contact information to economicrights@gmail.com to get details about an upcoming meeting to discuss these issues as a community.
The Ad hoc Committee on Economic Rights is not affiliated with the Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, or the Obama campaign. We will not disclose your contact information to anyone else without your permission.