This Fight Is Our Fight

This Fight Is Our Fight

Adult nonfiction
"People who hire lobbyists and wield a lot of political clout
are often the same people who can pay for the finest private
preschools and the most exclusive prep schools for their own
children. Some of them don't get terribly alarmed when there are
forty-two kids in a sixth grade class and tiles are falling off the
walls in the kids' bathrooms, because those things don't happen at the
schools their children attend. And even if millions of kids have
fewer and fewer opportunities, they know their kids will be guarnateed
plenty of opportunities--all the opportunities money can buy. For
some people, the problems faced by everyone else's children seem very
far away."
In the above quote, excerpted from her This Fight Is Our Fight:
The Battle to Save America's Middle Class, Elizabeth Warren is
alluding to education. But her main point applies equally well to
just about every aspect of American life these days. The people who
make the rules don't have to live with the consequences. The people
who opine that the minimum wage should not be raised aren't the ones
struggling to raise families on it. The crowd whining about welfare
cheats don't experience the desperation of the growing number of
Americans who live at a poverty level usually associated with third
world countries. Polluted drinking water does not seem all that
urgent to those who can enjoy clean or sip the priciest of bottled
water.
For all Donald Trump's claims that he's making America great
(whatever that means) again, Warren asserts that he's dragging this
hostage nation in the exact wrong direction. She brings us back to a
time when although not perfect, this nation came a lot closer to
liberty and justice for all. It was right after the Great Depression
and World War II. America invested in schools, infrastructure,
research, colleges, and people. My father was able to go back to
school on the GI bill. Unions protected nonmembers as well as
members. There wasn't the obscene gap between earnings of workers and
bosses. Between 1935 and 1980 70% of income growth went to the bottom
90%; between 1980 and 2015 virtually all went to the top 10 %.
Now we're at a point where:
"•Nearly one in four Americans can't pay their bills on time.
•Nearly half of Americans would not be able to cover an unexpected
expense of $400.
•A lower proportion of Americans own their homes than at any time in
the past half century--63.5 percent.
•The typical man working full-time earns less today than his
counterpart did in 1972.
•Nearly one-third of the country's adult population--76 million
Americans--describe themselves as either 'struggling to get by' or
'just getting by.'"
Something to be proud of? Warren and I don't think so.
My parents raised Harriet and me in a country where kids could
very well do better that their moms and dads. Today most parents hope
and pray their kids won't slide too far down.
So what happened? The rich got greedy and clever. They got
lobbyists to work overtime peddling influence. They learned how to
grease palms in increasingly costly elections. America went from one
vote, one voice to money talks. Unions and other protective agencies
were attacked and stripped of power. Corporations and their lobbyist
shills got laws changed to favor them and screw everyone else. Under
the current presidency these ugly trends are on an even faster track.
The good news is that most people want to go back to justice and
fairness.
"• More than 70 percent of the American people believe that students
should have a chance at a debt free education.
•Nearly three-quarters of Americans support expanding Social Security.
•Two-thirds of all Americans support raising the federal minimum wage.
•Three-quarters of Americans want the federal government to increase
spending on infrastructure."
The bad news is we're the 21st century David. Goliath (big
bidness and corporate bedfellows) isn't willing to give an inch. In
fact he wants to screw us even more. We've got to find that slingshot
(I am not alluding here to a physical slingshot or any other weapon)
and put it to good use. In the words of Warren:
"The danger is real, and the time is short. But we understand
what we can do. We can build an America that works for all of us. We
know how; we just need to do it.
Our country's future is not determined by some law of physics.
It's not determined by some preordained path. It's not even
determined by Donald Trump. Our country's future is up to us. We can
let the great American promise die or we can fight back. Me? I'm
fighting back.
This fight is our fight."
Amen!!!!!!!
If you have any doubts about this book's relevance scan three
issues of your local newspaper. I am betting you will find at least
one story showing how important it is. In just today's edition I
found: an editorial on Capital Hill Republicans working to prevent the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from protecting consumers from
getting scammed and cheated by banks, lenders, and credit card
companies, opinion pieces on the stupidity of believing in trickle-
down tax cuts and the weakness of the US climate pledges, and a front
page story on the plight of rural schools caught in the double whammy
of poverty and property tax based school funding:
"I think that's the fundamental paradox in Maine. When you have
economic decline, you have a tax base that's eroded, which increases
in poverty, in need for all families and residents. Not just for young
people. And the ability to then take on the burden of school funding,
and the increased need for schools to get funding, becomes really
challenging. Even while the population has greater and greater needs
that have to be met."
If you care at all for a nation with liberty and justice read
the book mand join the battle. Future generations will thank you for
this.
On a personal note, Elizabeth Warren would have really enjoyed our
Ending Violence Together event in Bangor yesterday. The weather was
perfect. We had a great turn out. People were really into the tables
and the message behind the songs and speeches. I gave the last
speech. It was my op ed that was in the Bangor Daily News Monday. I
so enjoyed making eye contact and feeling the love as I spoke. After I
ad libbed by having people light imaginary candles and join me in
singing This Little Light Of Mine. It was such a perfect experience!
A great big shout out goes out to all who participated.
Only 3 more days til my birthday!
jules hathaway



Sent from my iPod