It is encouraging to see Americans taking action against the class war that has been raging in America. It is time because up to now, this war has been primarily waged by the right wing conservative movement in America against the average working class people of this nation. It has been ongoing and relentless. Most Americans would be amazed at the many ways this war has touched their lives. The loss of jobs that pay living wages, the assault upon individual rights to privacy, the way companies have been able to approach everything from collective bargaining to debt collection, banks and profiteers abilities to package and sell off everything from home mortgages to your personal information, have all been an effect of the slow erosion of individual liberties and general well being of the American people. It is indeed warfare on many fronts, and its end game is clear, to return America to its pre new-deal state, socially and economically.
This war began in earnest during the Reagan administration. In fact I predict that future history books will point to the Reagan administration and its efforts to remove regulations everywhere it could as well as Reagan's actions concerning the air traffic controllers union as the seminal time in understanding when America began its greatest decline and most destructive period as regards individual rights and opportunities for prosperity for the average citizen in America.
What has been most interesting while being amazingly effective is how once again America became the victim of the manipulation of media. I cannot help but be impressed with a strategy so simple yet so effective; Say whatever you have to, no suggestion is too outrageous if the insinuation benefits the cause, outright lies are encouraged when cleverly wrapped in half truths or widely accepted assumptions. repeat, over and over again until even those who should know better began to accept this mental programming and start to reflect through thoughts and actions the totally surrender of common sense and decency.
Over and over, through the worlds history this manipulation of the mind has proven effective, from Emperor Constantine and his successful co-opting of the message of Jesus of Nazareth, the campaigns of Napoleon, the amazing way the simple citizens of the southern U.S. were convinced to squander their lives during the civil war for a cause that would not benefit them at all, to Adolph Hitlers seduction of Germany, we have seen this strategy successfully employed.
But decent people have had their moments and what is really great is understanding that for the most part decent people generally prevail, although at times it takes so long and so much is sacrificed as a result. This is what I think of when I witnessed the phenomena now taking place referred to as the 99% movement. As a person who grew up a witness to America's civil rights and anti-war movements of the 60's, I am proud to see the decent people once again rise up and speak out against tyranny and injustice. And it must become the spark that ignites the fire that flares brightly and refuses to be extinguished by ignorance and greed.
Truth will always prevail no matter how long it takes or what the sacrifice is that is required. This is the proof that God lives.
Think right and all things are possible. So today I would like to suggest a few basic principles designed to reverse years of right wing brainwashing, for without strong clearly defined principle there is no integrity:
Be kind to each other. Only through shared sacrifice can the decent people prevail.
Entitlement is not a bad word, if you are entitled to something, it means you have earned it.
Neither racism nor intolerance are family values.
If you have an idea for a business, but your business plan will not let you succeed if you pay your employees a living wage, your business should not exist. Your plan is a failure. You must find a way to be fair to those you must depend on to help you to succeed.
Your labor is a commodity, if you do not have the ability to negotiate fair compensation for your labor, you are in bondage.
Free markets only remain free if we all agree to protect them, only the greedy and those lacking integrity benefit when markets are left to be controlled and manipulated by the unprincipled profiteer.
This has to become the mindset of the American public if we are to reverse more than 30 years of indoctrination that has been forced upon the American people that began with the deregulation of media.
I long for the golden days of media, when people like Walter Cronkite only reported what they believed to be the truth and the attempt to influence how you felt about it was kept to a minimum.
I dream of an America where the citizens do not tolerate any elected or appointed person who does not put the best interests of the majority first, but instead sells out to the highest bidders.
We must release the tendency to put up with the greedy and dishonest, thinking that someday we will be rich too and we will want those same advantages. If we don't begin to support each other fewer and fewer of you will ever be prosperous on any level, and the few who do will be upset to find out they live in a world where it means far less than they thought it would.
We can go there. The world belongs to the decent people, don't forget that.
This war began in earnest during the Reagan administration. In fact I predict that future history books will point to the Reagan administration and its efforts to remove regulations everywhere it could as well as Reagan's actions concerning the air traffic controllers union as the seminal time in understanding when America began its greatest decline and most destructive period as regards individual rights and opportunities for prosperity for the average citizen in America.
What has been most interesting while being amazingly effective is how once again America became the victim of the manipulation of media. I cannot help but be impressed with a strategy so simple yet so effective; Say whatever you have to, no suggestion is too outrageous if the insinuation benefits the cause, outright lies are encouraged when cleverly wrapped in half truths or widely accepted assumptions. repeat, over and over again until even those who should know better began to accept this mental programming and start to reflect through thoughts and actions the totally surrender of common sense and decency.
Over and over, through the worlds history this manipulation of the mind has proven effective, from Emperor Constantine and his successful co-opting of the message of Jesus of Nazareth, the campaigns of Napoleon, the amazing way the simple citizens of the southern U.S. were convinced to squander their lives during the civil war for a cause that would not benefit them at all, to Adolph Hitlers seduction of Germany, we have seen this strategy successfully employed.
But decent people have had their moments and what is really great is understanding that for the most part decent people generally prevail, although at times it takes so long and so much is sacrificed as a result. This is what I think of when I witnessed the phenomena now taking place referred to as the 99% movement. As a person who grew up a witness to America's civil rights and anti-war movements of the 60's, I am proud to see the decent people once again rise up and speak out against tyranny and injustice. And it must become the spark that ignites the fire that flares brightly and refuses to be extinguished by ignorance and greed.
Truth will always prevail no matter how long it takes or what the sacrifice is that is required. This is the proof that God lives.
Think right and all things are possible. So today I would like to suggest a few basic principles designed to reverse years of right wing brainwashing, for without strong clearly defined principle there is no integrity:
Be kind to each other. Only through shared sacrifice can the decent people prevail.
Entitlement is not a bad word, if you are entitled to something, it means you have earned it.
Neither racism nor intolerance are family values.
If you have an idea for a business, but your business plan will not let you succeed if you pay your employees a living wage, your business should not exist. Your plan is a failure. You must find a way to be fair to those you must depend on to help you to succeed.
Your labor is a commodity, if you do not have the ability to negotiate fair compensation for your labor, you are in bondage.
Free markets only remain free if we all agree to protect them, only the greedy and those lacking integrity benefit when markets are left to be controlled and manipulated by the unprincipled profiteer.
This has to become the mindset of the American public if we are to reverse more than 30 years of indoctrination that has been forced upon the American people that began with the deregulation of media.
I long for the golden days of media, when people like Walter Cronkite only reported what they believed to be the truth and the attempt to influence how you felt about it was kept to a minimum.
I dream of an America where the citizens do not tolerate any elected or appointed person who does not put the best interests of the majority first, but instead sells out to the highest bidders.
We must release the tendency to put up with the greedy and dishonest, thinking that someday we will be rich too and we will want those same advantages. If we don't begin to support each other fewer and fewer of you will ever be prosperous on any level, and the few who do will be upset to find out they live in a world where it means far less than they thought it would.
We can go there. The world belongs to the decent people, don't forget that.
