Yesterday evening, something historic happened in the homes, campuses, and community centers of America. From Biloxi, Mississippi to Monrovia, California, more than 4,000 people attended 375 teach-ins -- all volunteer-driven -- to learn "How the 1% Crashed the Economy, and What We Can Do About It."
The Occupy Wall Street movement has struck a chord with millions of Americans. It has given direction to our outrage and inspired curiosity about certain fundamental questions. How could the richest country in the history of the world find itself in such a grave economic crisis? How could the wealthiest in our society score record-breaking profits, while millions of Americans struggle?
People are searching for both answers and solutions. So Rebuild The Dream Innovation Fund (an organization I co-founded) and our partners created a special curriculum -- a teach-in toolkit to help people make sense of what's happening in America.
The teach-ins are based on an evocative slide presentation that describes the state of our economy, how we got here, and what we as progressives must do to restore the economy and reclaim our democracy. November 9th was just a start. The materials and information are available online for anyone to host a teach-in, tailored to our own communities.
In addition to powerful facts, the presentation weaves a powerful story. Ryan Senser, who created the story and the presentation, breaks down the narrative as follows: "We all have dreams, and freedom means being able to pursue them. But right now, the vast majority of people can't move forward because we're hitting a wall. It's a wall of extreme inequality, of debt, of joblessness, of social division. It's the largest barrier to opportunity we've seen since the 1920s, and it's holding our country back. We know who built this wall - Wall Street. Wall Street big corporations and the 1% built it, paid off our politicians to help them do it. And these are Wall Street's results: extreme inequality, which always leads to economic disaster for rest of us. We must elect politicians who will help us pave the path to shared prosperity, and not build walls that keep us from it."
Another major contributor to the teach-in curriculum was Heather McGhee, an economic policy expert at progressive think tank Demos, which works to create a more robust democracy and fair economy. Heather explained why the precursors of our crisis are key to understanding how we move forward as a nation.
"The economy is not like the weather," she said. "It's not something that goes up and goes down and that we have no control over as human beings. It's actually a very human-made structure in our political system that is guided by the decisions we make together as a people in a well-functioning democracy."
Our society today, which grants everything to the 1% at the expense of the rest of us, puts greed over common good, justice for some over justice for all, and next quarter over next generation. This is not an accident.
As Heather said, "The personal, individual problems that keep us up at night -- student debt, foreclosures, mortgages, credit cards, why rent is up and housing prices are down, why work isn't paying how it used to, why both parents have to work and there's no support for child care -- all of these private questions are part of our story. And the story says there are public causes and public solutions that have evolved over the last 3 decades."
In the 1930s, America emerged from the Great Depression with a vengeance. Ordinary American wrested the unjust concentration of political and economic power from the hands of the 1% to build the first and biggest middle class the world had ever seen. Our great-grandparents and grandparents deliberately paved a road to shared prosperity. But starting in the 1970s, the 1% again began to tear away at the accomplishments of our predecessors and they built the wall again.
We overcame once and we will overcome again. The Occupy movement has set off a wave of energy and enthusiasm that is determined to tear down the wall built by the 1% and create an economy that works for all. November 17th will be a day of mass action for the 99% to begin tearing down that wall. And possible solutions have already been outlined in the Contract for the American Dream created by 131,000 Americans and signed by over 300,000.
We will continue taking to the streets, starting with the mass mobilization on November 17th. Across the country, there will be hundreds of events at the very places that can put America back to work: our crumbling bridges, understaffed schools, and other sites that represent a failed economy. And next year we will occupy voting booths and ballots all over the country.
We must continue growing the extraordinary momentum of the 99%. The story we weave about ourselves, our economy, and the political power we hold will shape how we move forward from this unprecedented moment. We will tear down this wall.
Follow Van Jones on Twitter: www.twitter.com/VanJones68
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They will always be Propaganda Mills & Re-education Camps.
While I favor this from a Progressive Stance, in reality, I fear they will stress runaway liberalism
AND, right next to your Teach-ins will popup
. . . RightWing Teach-ins promoting low taxes & deregulation
as the path to Nirvana (sans Kurt Corbain)
**************
WHAT IS REALLY NEEDED is both Short & Long Term Education
SHORT-TERM EDUCATION
1) Wall Street is not the problem, they problem is that all the OWS clowns are not infromed, intelligent, & active voters. This allows the power of the dollar to overcome the power of the vote
2) WE ARE A TWO PARTY DEMOCRACY
DEMS CLAIM that our meltdown is due to too little effective regulation
GOP CLAIMS that our meltdown and lack of recovery is due to TOO MUCH REGULATION
GOP CLAIMS that they are for low taxes, WHICH ALWAYS MEANS:
a] A mountain of DEBT, Reagan Tripled Natonal Debt, GWB Doubled National Debt
b] Primarialy responsible for overseas income of US Corps not being taxed, Financial Types not paying normal income tax on their income, because they define it as Captial Gains
c] Wants Flat Tax Schemes which lowers taxes on the rich, and raises them on everybody else.
d] Want to shift Social Security to Wall Street so that they can rip us off on our there like they do with 401(k) with high fees & commissions
DEMS
Clinton last one to Balance Budget
Thank you for your reply.
I hope you are correct!
I doubt it though, I am almost certain that you are just as naive as they are.
I don't see that they have shaken anything up.
And as far as getting anyone talking about any taboo topics, I cannot imagine what you can be talking about.
The only real effect that I can see from their Temper-Tantrum/Protest-Festivals is that they are creating a high visibility distraction from the REAL ISSUES, and any practical solutions.
The folks that brought this economic trainwreck upon us
. . LOVE WHAT THE OWS IS DOING
AGAIN,
I sincerely hope that time will prove me wrong, and prove you & the OWS to be right.
Van likes Drama and Guilt !
Get a real Job and be Honest.
In Van's world, the banks just started spontaneously making $750K loans to illiterate vegetable pickers? There was no repeal of Glass Steagall? There were no baseless accusations by Frau Reno of redlining? There was no Fannie and Freddie soaking up all of this toxic product? There was no Alan Greenspan taking rates to 1%? There was no fraud or foolishness on behalf of of the public, who borrowed more than they should have?
No, in Van's world, it is simpler to pedal propaganda that portrays a make-believe world of evil bankers and innocent victims.
And, Van, there is one other thing. The OWS movement has degenerated and degraded in record time into a seedy and violent thing. You better move on to your next scam before the rubes catch on that OWS is no longer a bunch of confused college kids who were told that Goldman Sachs made them borrow $100k to get an art history degree.
But, I have faith in you Van. You can can always have a nose for the next scam.
There are still not enough citizens in real economic pain for us to be able to move forward (or backward actually) to where we need to be socio-economically.
You are right, in that we aint seen nothin' yet
SMART MONEY would bet that our nation/economy will collapse just like Rome, The British Empire, Greece, & etc
I THINK YOUR 2ND POINT IS WRONG
The idea that once we experience enough pain, we will all start to to work together to rebuild our country is misguided in my mind. This is because we live in a fractured society and will probably not be able to agree on the way forward.
THE BASIC DIVIDE HERE IS THIS:
One side believes that Income-Equality & Preservation-of-the-MiddleClass should be a Government objective
THE OTHER SIDE BELIEVES that Government should sell everything possible to the highest bidder, (aka The Austrian School of Economics, Free Markets Rule Everything)
LEADERSHIP CAN'T HELP US.
Democratic Leaders since Carter have always been demonized as semi-Satanic Evil doers by roughly half the country with no evidence or argument, just by declaration
Republican Leaders are only interested in carrying water for Big Money interests & promoting Social-Conservative initiatives so that they can maintain they electoral base
Bill Clinton: Well, maybe everybody does that a little bit. I think the responsibility the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/260301#ixzz1dMa2EzfK
Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
Good Lord what a bunch of clap trap! Times are tough for most people right now. Times are tough for me. I haven't had a job in 3 years and no longer expect to have one. I do whatever work I can garner. The difference is I remembered a saying from my youth: save for a rainy day. Well, I saved. I didn't buy new cars, a computer every year, I phones, or go out to dinner every night. I lived on sandwichs and hot dogs while I went to college and worked to pay my way during the summer. I didn't apply for a student loan because I didn't want to be in debt. Today, I own my home, I own my car, and I don't live off a credit card.
The 1% has put their interests first, now its time to put the voters interests first because they are no longer the same as the 1%. If you have bought a car, you know the meaning of value. You can buy a a cheap Korean car or you can buy a BMW. The lowest price does not mean the best quality, in the case of the 1%, they want to get the lowest price for the consumer, but what about the consumers quality of life? The schools, the roads, the bridges, police, etc are all paid for by taxes generated by workers in the US, not in China. Without a strong tax base, the standard of living falls for everyone and so we may have cheap shoes from China but we have crappy schools and lousy roads.
It's your choice, blame yourself, or blame the person responsible for your problem.
This issue will be at the top of the 2012 elections and the GOP holdout and attempts to justify the tax cuts for the rich will be hard to spin.
The enthusiastic supporters of the President need to turn out to elect legislators who can commit to help the middle class get back in the game.
IMHO The OWS not only hasn't done anyone any service;
. . they are actually making things worse
the Republicans who are the Engineer/Architechs of our Meltdown
LOVE WHAT YOU ARE DOING, which is distracting attention away from them!
THANKS OWS !
********
I'm A PROGRESSIVE DEM,
But I'm gonna borrow a line from the Hermanator
If you want someone to blame, blame yourself.
THE PROBLEM ISN'T WALL STREET, The problem is Congress
AND the fact
That we have the best government that money can buy.
AND THE REASON FOR THAT, is due to the fact that
The Power of the Dollar is more powerful than the power of the vote
AND THE REASON FOR THAT is due to the fact that too many of our citizens are so ill-informed and unconcerned that they believe that our government can run on AutoPilot without their attention.
IF THE OWS CLOWNS WERE AS INTELLIGENTLY ACTIVE AT THE BALLOT BOX, as they are at these Protest Festivals, then we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.