Economic Inequality

Ok, here is another one from and for my liberal friends:

Bill Moyers
The Nation

Thank you for this recognition and the spirit of the evening. Thanks especially for giving me the chance to sit here awhile thinking about my father. Henry Moyers was an ordinary man who dropped out of the fourth grade because his family needed him to pick cotton to help make ends meet. The Depression knocked him off the farm and flat on his back. When I was born he was making two dollars a day working on the highway to Oklahoma City. He never made over $100 a week in the whole of his working life, and he made that only when he joined the union on the last job he held. He voted for Franklin Roosevelt in four straight elections, and he would have gone on voting for him until kingdom come if both had lived that long. I once asked him why, and he said, "Because the President's my friend." Now, my father never met FDR. No politician ever paid him much note, but he was sure he had a friend in the White House during the worst years of his life. When by pure chance I wound up working there many years later, and my parents came for a visit, my father wanted to see the Roosevelt Room. I don't know quite how to explain it, except that my father knew who was on his side and who wasn't, and for twelve years he had no doubt where FDR stood. The first time I remember him with tears in his eyes was when Roosevelt died. He had lost his friend.

We can't revive the man and certainly we wouldn't want to revisit the times, but we can rekindle the spirit. There are 37 million people in this country who are poor; there are 57 million who are near poor, making $20,000 to $40,000 a year--one divorce, one pink slip, one illness away from a free fall. That's almost one-third of America still living on the edge. They need a friend in the White House. My father, with his fourth-grade education and two fingers with the missing tips from the mix-up at the cotton gin, got it when Roosevelt spoke. "I can't talk like him," he said, "but I sure do think like him." My father might not have had the words for it, but he said amen when FDR talked about economic royalism. Sitting in front of our console radio, he got it when Roosevelt said that private power no less than public power can bring America to ruin in the absence of democratic controls.

Don't think for a moment he didn't get it when Roosevelt said that a government by money was as much to be feared as a government by mob, or when he said that the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. My father got it when he heard his friend in the White House talk about how "a small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor--other people's lives." My father knew FDR was talking for him when he said life was no longer free, liberty no longer real, men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness--against economic tyranny such as this. And my father listened raptly when his friend the President said, "The American citizen"--my father knew the President was speaking of him--"could appeal only to the organized power of government."

So thank you for reminding us that liberalism is less about ideology and doctrine than about friendship and faith--the bond between a patrician in the White House and a working man on the Texas-Oklahoma border and their mutual belief in America as a shared project. Thank you for this reminder of how we might yet turn the listing ship of state. My father thanks you, too.

Tammy's update about Grandpa's procedure

Hi all - I just emailed the whole group, but wanted to post to our nifty blog too! Grandpa has anuerisms (sp?) in his upper leg and this can cause trouble. So, his docs did a little lookin' around and inserted two stints in his upper leg to remedy the situation. The procedure went very well and Grandpa is resting at home. Grandma is in good spirits and cooking a bunch of yummy stuff for Turkey Day.
Much love to all!
Elizabeth

TO BE A REPUBLICAN....

I found this on a blog I read for liberals and progressives...some interesting contradictions.

Subject: To be a republican you need to believe:

1. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of
homosexuals and Hillary Clinton

2. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad
guy when Bush's Daddy made war on him, a good guy when
Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush
needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

3. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is
Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital
to a spirit of international harmony.

4. The United States should get out of the United
Nations, and our highest national priority is
enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq .

5. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her
own body, but multinational drug corporations can make
decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

6. The best way to improve military morale is to
praise the troops in speeches, while slashing
veterans' benefits and combat pay.

7. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents
won't have sex.

8. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our
longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and
money.

9. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound
policy, but providing health care to all Americans is
socialism. HMO's and insurance companies have the best
interests of the public at heart.

10. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are
junk science, but creationism should be taught in
schools.

11. A president lying about an extramarital affair is
an impeachable offense, but a president lying to
enlist support for a war in which thousands die is
solid defense policy.

12. Government should limit itself to the powers named
in the Constitution, which include banning gay
marriages and censoring the Internet.

13. The public has a right to know about Hillary's
cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is
none of our business.

14. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a
crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then
it's an illness and you need our prayers for your
recovery.

15. Supporting "Executive Privilege" for every
Republican ever born, who will be born or who might be
born (in perpetuity.)

16. What Bill Clinton did in the 1960's is of vital
national interest, but what Bush did in the '80's is
irrelevant.

17. Support for hunters who shoot their friends and
blame them for wearing orange vests similar to those
worn by the quail.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO GET THE FULL EFFECT...DO THE SAME WITH THE PICTURE BELOW THIS ONE! THEN BE PATIENT WHILE THE PICTURE CHANGES.

I HOPE THIS WORKS THE WAY IT DID WHEN I FIRST SAW IT!