A FB friend recently posted the following assertion - Like it or not, America works. I countered with - Instead of pretending that all is well in America, as the GOP would have us believe, how about working jointly toward creating a more empathetic, compassionate, just, and equitable society? He asked me to propose how one might achieve those goals. I thought that I would share my reply for your review and comment - I dont purport to know how to achieve a more empathetic, compassionate, just, and equitable society but there is much we can learn from history and the experience of other countries. There are also things we can do individually to help bring it about. We must first ask ourselves, what do we want - a just and well-regulated free market” for all, or simply a nanny state for the rich? We must also accept the notion that Politics and justice do not necessarily need to be in conflict. Then we must look in the mirror and engage in some serious myth busting. We must stop lying to ourselves. We must stop subscribing to the absurd notion of your country, love it or leave it and the unpatriotic notion of my country, right or wrong, is a thing that no patriot should think of saying except in a desperate case. I believe, as President Clinton eloquently stated that there is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. I also believe, as Darrow Clarence pointed out, that true patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else. Instead of pretending otherwise, we must acknowledge that concentration of ownership leads to concentration of power and that power corrupts. So, we must resist electing representatives who support unfettered and unregulated free-markets that operate only on the principle that greed is good and seek to ultimately eliminate any competition. As Senator Bernie Sanders often remarks, If you are too big to fail you are too big to exist. E. Nelson reminds us that it is time to turn the page and agree that both government and free-market capitalism can and must exist in harmony like two kids on a teeter-totter. If one side gets too large and powerful we must demand an adjustment so as to prevent it from holding the other hostage. IMO, banks and multinational corporations have become too large and powerful and they hold not only our government but governments around the globe and the public hostage. A rebalancing is in order. We must strive to expose injustice, to the light of day, wherever and whenever we see it. The numbers may be disputable, to a degree, but the fact remains that we have created a very unequal, non value add, wasteful, non sustainable society and are paying these folks massively for their mistakes and self seeking. Morally they may be bankrupt, but it is a morally and practically bankrupt system that makes them possible and is the underlying cause of poverty in our country. OWS protests are an attempt to expose this flagrant mockery of justice and fair play. To use an oft-quoted tenet, not a handful of rich people, but all the working people must enjoy the fruits of their common labour. Finally, if we are serious about reinstituting fair play, social justice, and reducing poverty, we must, in the words of Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., look - not just look to the poor - but to the whole cloth too - and even to the loom. The whole fabric of our society must be rewoven - and the patterns we must weave are patterns of justice, opportunity, dignity and mutual respect.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 00:29:39 +0000
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