Class,
Money, Education
and Voting. . .
America has long been portrayed
as a land of freedom and opportunity.
This is one of the reasons why we have attracted immigrants from so many
places throughout our history. Our high standard
of living, and our relatively open society have been a magnet that has drawn
people from all parts of the world. Even
in challenging economic times America
has been a preferred destination for people struggling to survive in other
places. This has been true through
history, and continues even into current times.
At
the same time, those who look realistically and carefully at our history, as
well as our current situation, recognize that America isn't a perfect place. Those who portray America as an exceptional place
purely on the basis of our economic and political systems, ignore the realities
that exist here. America has benefited from a
combination of many different things to achieve our status in the world. Some are physical like our geography, isolated from
the conflicts of Europe, Africa and Asia by
ocean barriers and distance, our natural resources, and the huge area our
nation occupies. Others are the result
of events and actions around the world that allowed our nation to grow and
mature with minimal interference from other world powers. We have been very fortunate as a nation and our
growth into a superpower has not been achieved purely by our own “virtues.” A legacy that includes brutal oppression of
those who disagree with the wealthy elite who control our nation.
The bloody labor dispute of a
hundred years ago continues to reverberate in contemporary political discourse.
By The New Yorker
Our
history has been a constant struggle between the ideals that our nation is
built on, and the reality that the people who hold power in America create
for themselves. While we would like to
imagine that our the United States has avoided the inequities and injustices
that prompted many of our citizens to immigrate to America, the reality is that
our nation has fallen short of the vision that we hold so dearly. We have seen different groups fight for a
share of the "American Dream" and their battles have moved our nation
closer to achieving our goals of "Liberty
and Justice for All." Yet, there is
always a pushback from those who have acquired wealth and status using the
existing social, political and economic systems that serve to benefit their
interests.
These
cycles where we advance Progressive ideals and then see Conservative efforts to return our society to
its previous status have been a part of our history and the largest conflicts
have a visible impact on our nation. We
are currently involved in a time period of historical implications. The changes in attitudes, legislation and
policies that were made during the 1960's and 1970's are being undone now, in
the 2010's. Some of the most noticeable
are the changes in electoral policies, attacks on the regulatory powers of our
government, and the undoing of important Civil Rights legislation. Those who have significant power and wealth
are fighting hard to maintain their status as the demographics and opinions of
our nation shift.
Their
efforts are designed not only to defend their status, but to eliminate the
potential for any significant change to occur in the immediate future. The efforts are many, and impact almost all
areas of our society, but there are some higher profile and more intense
attempts that are easily observed. The
efforts to implement restrictive Voter ID laws that will give Conservatives a
political advantage which can be used effectively to protect special
interests. Another example is the effort
to destroy the power of labor by eliminating the ability of workers to organize
effectively. A third example is the
effort to privatize many important services that have been provided by the
public sector.
The
end result of these efforts is a society that caters to the needs of a smaller
number of powerful citizens. The impacts
of these policies that began being implemented in the 1980's are being felt
right now. They are observable on a
larger, societal scale.
After three decades of slow
growth, median income in the U.S.
trails that of Canada.
Poor Americans now make less than the poor in several other...
The New York Times|By
David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy
A new study by researchers
from Princeton and Northwestern Universities finds that America's government policies
reflect the wishes of the rich and of powerful interest groups, rather than the
wishes of the majority of citizens.
Gawker|By
Hamilton Nolan
They
also have an impact on a personal level that affects a huge number of
Americans. Whether it influences our
personal wealth, our health, our safety, or our future, the efforts to
manipulate public thinking are catastrophic for anyone who isn't in the top
percent of earners in America.
The connection has been
"confirmed by many different studies by different investigators over
different time periods."
Bill Moyers
They don't like paying taxes,
and that's all that matters.
Mother Jones
New AFL-CIO report finds
executive pay continues its upward trajectory as middle class wages remain
stagnant
america.aljazeera.com
The
obvious questions are these, if we live in a democracy why doesn't the majority
vote and act in ways that will promote their own interests? How can a small number of influential people
(even with huge amounts of wealth) control a much larger number of people in a
place where freedom and equality are supposed to be held in such esteem?
The
simple answer is that we idealize the wealthy and strive to achieve the same
status as they hold. We often do this at
our own expense, or at the expense of others who should be our allies in the
fight for social justice. We believe the
hype about the "job-creators" and we allow ourselves to be mislead by
media and advertising that promote an agenda that directly opposes our own
interests.
None of these money-making
methods are productive, or praiseworthy, or suggestive of a meritocracy.
Perhaps demeritocracy is more apt.
Truthout
A California
firm on behalf of an undisclosed client has bought nearly $2 million worth of
air time from Sept. 1 to Nov. 3 in four Wisconsin
markets.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|By Daniel
Bice
Another thing that has allowed
a minority of citizens to dominate the majority socially, politically and
economically is the lack of a unifying force that citizens could rally
around. All of our efforts to advance
the values of social justice have been focused on different subgroups or
interests. Labor has fought for the
goals of labor and different demographic groups have fought to promote their
own interests. This has allowed for the
strategy of "divide and conquer" to be used effectively. There has rarely been a concerted effort by
many groups to unify around the ideals of "Liberty and Justice for All." We have come close at times, for example
under the leadership of Dr. King during the Civil Rights movement, but
eventually the movements fragment under the strain of internal and external
pressure.
The Wisconsin Uprising of
2011 had the potential to be an effort that could combine many different
interests. Yet, as we move further
through time we see how the difficulty of incorporating multiple interests
along with the constant attacks from our opponents weakens the power of a
movement based on combating societal injustice.
The Uprising needs to find
a unifying issue that can take the effort to the next level and propel us to
further action. Education could be that
issue. It is important to labor, impacts
every demographic group, and is an issue that lies at the very heart of the
social justice movement.
To truly improve education in
Milwaukee, we
must start with the assumption that poor children are no less deserving of a quality
education than rich children. As such, the schools that privileged suburban
parents demand for their children should be the yardstick we use to measure the
adequacy of edu…
epi.org
In order to realize the
full potential of education we need to combat the message of education
"reformers" and educate the public about the realities of what is
needed to fully accomplish the goals of equitable and inclusive public
education. This means calling out the "reformers"
and providing a real view of just what is being done to our public education
system in the name of equity and opportunity.
On Sunday, March 23, 2014 in
a speech at Riverside Church in Manhattan,
New York City Mayor Bill de
Blasio, faced with declining public opinion poll numbers, made nice to charter
school companies and their wealthy...
portside.org
In 1848, Sam Brannan ran up
and down the streets of San Francisco
yelling, ”Gold! There’s gold in the American
River!” Brannan had no
intention to dig for gold himself, of course. Just before he ma...
davidsudmeier.com
NEW YORK (AP) — "Just Do It" has been a familiar
Nike slogan for years, but some parents are wondering what it was doing on some
of New York's
Common Core standardized English tests.
MSN
The health care law may be
Republicans’ favorite weapon against Democrats, but the Common Core is also
roiling the party and shaping the establishment-versus-grass-roots divide.
The New York Times|By
Jonathan Martin
This means that educators
need to step up and become active in promoting our profession and making
education an issue that can unify the different aspects of the Progressive
movement. It has been a very difficult
past 3 years, but educators are resilient and our cause is just.
The effects of reform on the
teaching profession.
Washington Post
The end of collective bargaining.
m.lacrossetribune.com|By Lee Enterprises
The Good, The Bad and
The
Ugly. . .
The Good . . . Conservatives and others who oppose virtually everything that
President Obama has done are continuing their crusade against the ACA. They will find some way to spin this in a
negative way, but I fail to see how providing ways for more people to access
healthcare is bad for our nation.
About half of this is through
the exchanges. The rest is via Medicaid and employer plans.
Mother Jones
A great way to send a
message, and to support public schools.
Could something like this happen in Madison?
A grassroots effort to support
schools grows into a sizable donation.
wqow.com|By
Kristen Shill
The Bad . . . Nothing
that we haven't heard before, or that is shocking for people who have been
paying attention. The questions remain,
what do WE do to make changes?
A nationwide study of racial
disparity has been released.
m.policymic.com|By PolicyMic
The Ugly . . . With all of the publicity about mass shootings and gun violence in
general, how is it that nothing seems to improve? The answer lies in a couple of places, our
nation's inability to combat a powerful gun lobby and the NRA is one. The other is our reluctance to address the
mental health needs of so many in our population. Not everyone who commits a crime with a gun
is mentally ill, however, an improvement in our treatment and support of those
struggling with these illnesses could go a long way in creating a safer society
for everyone.
Welcome to America, the land of blue jeans,
rock & roll, and sporadic meaningless mass murder.
Mother Jones
Medicaid expansion would mean
millions more would get mental health care coverage.
Washington Post
