There's been a lot of talk about "freedom" lately. There always is when Republicans gather.
"Everything in America is free, but us." Cute.
"Our rights come from God, not from government." Not so much.
Republican guests on both my public television and public radio shows, including former presidential aspirants Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee, have suggested to me that the latter is the line that Romney/Ryan need to repeat over, and over, and over again if they want to truly inspire turnout amongst their conservative political base.
As a Black man, I've got nothing against freedom, to be sure. Especially with Joe Biden talking about folks wanting to put me back in chains. (Although, for me, there is a distinct difference between "freedom" and "liberation." Black Americans in particular may have acquired one, but not quite the other. But that's another blog, so back to the matter at hand.)
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941 imagined an America in which we would all experience not only freedom of expression and religion, but also freedom from want and fear.
Roosevelt's words invite us to consider not just the freedom of speech, religion or choice; but also the freedom from joblessness, hunger or inadequate housing. As long as fellow citizens go hungry, have not a decent place to live, lack medical care, are unemployed or underemployed, receive an inadequate education, are hated for their race, gender or sexual preference, are subject to random violence, or are intimidated out of their right to vote -- they are not truly free.
It's high time we start to focus on the freedom from want in America. This is why the conversation about poverty can no longer be kicked down the road like a can. We're just days away from the U.S. Census Bureau's release of the official numbers on poverty in America. The timing couldn't be more propitious. The takeaway couldn't be more unsettling.
How do we so easily accept that poverty has become the new American norm? The housing and jobs crisis has fostered a poverty unseen in five decades --- not just in inner-city ghettos and barrios, but in suburbs and rural areas crossing racial, age, and gender lines. Nearly one-third of the American middle class, mostly families with children, have now fallen into poverty.
Senator Barack Obama ran in 2008 on a platform of "eradicating poverty in America." Unfortunately, we haven't heard much about his plan to actually accomplish that in his first term as president. We'll see what he and his fellow Democrats have to say about economic injustice in Charlotte this week. Moreover, let's see which presidential moderator has the moxie to ask Obama and Romney about poverty this fall.
In any event, those who continue to preach the gospel of "American Exceptionalism" are going to have to get a new sermon if something isn't done quickly to rescue our democracy from the growing gap between the rich and the rest of us.
When people are without hope, democracy is threatened. The country is ominously headed to a point of no return.
It's time for a righteous indignation toward poverty in America. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "A good indignation brings out all one's powers." It's time to marshal our collective power in an all-out offensive against poverty in America.
This post is part of the HuffPost Shadow Conventions 2012, a series spotlighting three issues that are not being discussed at the national GOP and Democratic conventions: The Drug War, Poverty in America, and Money in Politics.
HuffPost Live will be taking a comprehensive look at the persistence of poverty in America August 29th and September 5th from 12-4 pm ET and 6-10 pm ET. Click here to check it out -- and join the conversation.
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http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11032-truthout-interviews-chris-hedges-about-why-revolt-is-all-we-have-left
" I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."
29 NOV 1776 Ben Franklin
-- Abbie Hoffman, "Steal This Book"
LBJ's social programs cut the poverty rate from 20% to 10% in five years. Reagan and Clinton dismantled it, Bush caused this Depression, so now it's back to 18%.
Here's the thing: here in the US you can be so poor that you die because you can't afford the medical care. That never, never happens in Europe or Canada, nobody is that poor. You are wrong, everybody else is curing poverty. Repubs don't want to because it means helping black people.
Really? Funny, when I worked in a hospital in Spain we treated many people that had been turned away. We even saved several of them. Ya see socialized care is based on numbers. Doctors that contract to see patients 3 days a week with a patient load of 15 patients per day, do not get paid for seeing 16 patients a day. So there are long waiting times for patients, One lady I helped treat had a heart condition and was on a 6 month waiting list to see a cardiologist. I guess they didn't get your memo.
In Canada I have read numerios medical articles about parents bringing their children to the US for life saving treatment because Canada does not cover those treatments. So I guess saying NO is, in a way, different than just turning them away, but........
Somehow the concept of freedom has been co-opted as some catch all feel good state of being derived from empty promises made possible in choosing one ignorant view versus another. Mainly by reacting in selfish ways that destroy the means to be proactive. Good luck!!
Attention Congressmen and Congresswomen! This behaviour has to stop. Your job is not to block the President at every turn and oust him from office. Your job is to do everything you can to improve the lot of the citizens, the general economy and the country. Failure to do this results in a grade of F, which is reflected in Congress' dismal approval rating.
Get it together people or there won't be much of a country left for you to "govern".
Look here, No, the job of elected officials is to do the bidding of their constituents. That is why in a republic (for which it stands) we have representative to represnt us in the government. When they don't represent us and do their own thing, they don't get re-elected. Thats how it works.
Every chance you get...ain't that right Tavis. You almost sound like a repub.-all was well until Jan '09...then all heyell broke.
Unless a new integral perspective is developed, where mutual responsibility is the go-to, rather than the same old "seeking national interests," we won't be able to recover. The rules to the game have changed and we have yet to adapt, not in Washington, and also not in the other regimes around the globe.
We need chiefly two things: Leadership which acknowledges that global participation and cooperation is now the only way to go, and new education to teach us, the American people, about this interconnected and interdependent world that we now live in.
We need leadership that acknowledges that American Exceptionalism is a lie. We don't have the best health care, or provide the best educations to everyone. Because here in the US the private sector does that. The government does it in successful countries. Governments do most things better and cheaper. Mercenaries are lousy soldiers, Blackwater cost 5x per-soldier more than our own, and they were total failures.
Countries make their own rules. The rest of the developed nations have rejected privatization in favor of a social welfare state. They are successful, US and capitalism are a failure. That's what 2008 was. Wall St and US home buyers caused it. The so-called global recession was 100% made here in the US. Now, that's "exceptional" - exceptionally bad.
As for your "mercenaries are lousy soldiers" comment. I also don't like the use of Merc's, but for reasons other than your point. However, did you join up to go instead? Do you think a draft would have been a better idea? Also for your information, many of your beloved socialistic governments have conscripted (forced) military members and Merc's to include UK , France, Swedan and Finland just to name a few.
Look at this suffering.
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Express_Yourself/topic/4907843/1/
Some of those people don't have running water, and their bathroom is an outhouse.
Len Haglund Fb, g+, or lennyhaglund at gmail
Let's begin with Tavis: what have you done to help end poverty? Did you donate you time, money, or both?
It's great that you say you care but in the amount of time it took you to write this article you could have donated either your money or your time, or even both to helping those in poverty.