Adapted excerpt from We Can All Do Better, by Bill Bradley. Published in May 2012 by Vanguard Press.
Just as no one guaranteed that the Greek, Roman, or Ottoman Empires would last forever, no one has guaranteed America its continued dominance in the world. If overreaching abroad and decay at home cause us to falter, the world will be a place with considerably less hope.
America's idealism, optimism, and spirit of self-reliance -- all these have created the unique American character, a character that has inspired people around the globe. But the America of today is in a state of confusion. We don't see our problems clearly, or if we do, we often -- out of inertia, fear, or greed -- fail to deal with them. The federal government has amassed an enormous debt in just the last 10 years. Many of our state and local governments, have pursued the "free lunch," spending lavishly on pensions and health care and then handing on the bill to future state administrations. The corporate sector is consumed with the short term, trapped in a financial prison of stock buybacks and quarterly earnings reports, unable to invest or hire in its own long-term interest. Ten years ago, 61 U.S. companies had triple-A bond ratings; today there are four.
As long as you act a hair's width within your lawyer's definition of the law, you get a pass that exempts you from doing what is not just legal, but also right. I had a friend who worked at the highest levels in three major investment banks over 25 years. He told me that once when he refused to work on a deal because he didn't think it was right, the head of the firm came to him and said, "I know what we're doing is unethical, even immoral, but I can assure you it's not illegal."
Exacerbating these failings is a mass media that champions the superficial, sensational, and extreme view. Only a few major newspapers, all of them under relentless financial pressure and apparently unable to reinvent themselves in order to attain a level of profitability, still attempt to ferret out the truth, but reporting, the craft of going out to discover what isn't known, too often gives way to opinion pieces.
The losers here are the people, who would like to know: What happened in the city council meeting? Or in the congressional committee room? How was the money for schools spent? How did that special-interest tax break make it into the tax code? Who agreed to the pensions that bankrupted our town? What did corporation X do for the ten thousand workers it just fired? How will the latest technological innovation affect jobs? These are the kinds of questions that rarely get answered, at least on television. If people in power are not held responsible for what they do, it will be easier for them to abuse that power. Without facts to challenge a government official or a CEO, the peoples' questions and accusations are parried by elementary public relations tactics.
Copyright © 2012 by Bill Bradley
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The truth is "the unique American character" is / has over the last few decades really become a sham. And the "inertia, fear, or greed" started in the highest reaches of power and govt - may be even when Bill Bradley was a US Senator.
Despite the exceptional wealth of those elected and who serve in Washington DC, all of them voted for themselves to receive generous lifetime pensions, healthcare and other perks paid for by the average citizen who own only a fraction of their wealth and by the yet-to-be born Americans who will foot the bill for the national debt, thanks to these very elected leaders.
So perhaps Senator Bradley, starting with himself and through example, should impress on his retired colleagues to end their largess and self-indulgence at the public trough.
In the spirit of the book's title and the senator's comments about the failings of the mass media, I wonder how Sen. Bradley and others in The Huffington Post community feel about the role of social news networks like HuffPost and the Wall Street Journal Facebook beta as news gatekeepers. Will social news media be able to ferret out the truth and provide responsible reporting, or will these new media just amplify the the trend toward superficial, sensational, and extreme views?
It would also be interesting to hear Sen. Bradley's perspective on The Huffington Post winning a Pulitzer Prize for journalism and the implications of that reward for the mass media.
Blaming the Great Mess on ALL Americans is dried bull pucks, Bill! Neither pensions nor health care plans did this. The 99% don't have access to lawyers that can help them game the System. Let's start pointing the finger at the real culprits and then maybe we can generate even motivation to do something about it.
Life could be much simpler. I will mow your lawn if you will babysit my kids. Trade me some apples I will give you some eggs. Everyone has value this way. Not to be forced into 40 hour work weeks too struggle in fear and stress that if you make a mistake or get sick that you will lose all.
Money and credit are tools to enslave.
That is why gold and silver are money, not paper. Paper has no value.
You give them blood, sweat and tears, your goods and your land. And in return they give you paper.
Its really quite ingenius
NEITHER major party will add campaign finance reform to their platform or even discuss it any longer. And, members just let their staff work with the lobbyists when 'writing new Law'. Guess where those staff of members mostly go and what they become next when the members they work for no longer seek office and those folks become unemployed? They have the access and already know who to approach for getting anything done.
Uh huh...
Nothing will change, sir, until the Congress finally decides to eliminate this corruption.
Please, Senator, propose a law to criminalize contribution 'bundling' by anyone as a form of 'petitioning government'. It doesn't really help the small voice to be heard as is continually rationalized. It DOES, however, allow corporations seeking profitable influence to 'buy votes' - legally.
We have so many difficult choices to make as a nation but yet it seems to be an all for one mentality. Could you imagine our country now facing something like WW2?
One of his quotes that I refer to most often is.............
"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."
Which begs a question?
Where do the American people GET those REAL FACTS?
Why is it, that Canada, and Great Britain have laws requiring news to be factual, and the U.S. does not?
It's worse than that, in the case of Cable? there apparently are no regulations there at all. Anyone can say anything they want, represent it as truth, justice, motherhood, and the American way, be lying through their teeth, and cannot be held accountable for single lie they say.
So the question remains, Senator, where do we, the American people, get the facts?
And why has Congress done nothing to make the "real" facts more available to us?
Extremely well said!
Groups such as Wall St., The Military Industrial Complex, etc have learned how to game the system for their benefit. They seem to have no limit in their appetite for a larger share of the ecomic pie. When will we have the first trillionaire?
But, how does the NY Thruway System justify paying people to hand out paper cards?