This is the Fight of Our Lives

[midwayer]

This is the Fight of Our Lives
by Bill Moyers
Keynote speech
Inequality Matters Forum
New York University
June 3, 2004

"The middle class and working poor are told that what's happening to them is the consequence of Adam Smith's 'Invisible Hand.' This is a lie. What's happening to them is the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual propaganda, the rise of a religious orthodoxy that in its hunger for government subsidies has made an idol of power, and a string of political decisions favoring the powerful and the privileged who bought the political system right out from under us."
-- Bill Moyers, Keynote speech, June 3, 2004

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0616-09.htm

[Martin Eden]

1. Equality of opportunity

Equality of opportunity does not exist in the United States of America. Opportunity consists of more than laissez-faire capitalism and a legal system that enforces equal rights. It requires an educational system in which every child has the benefit of equal resources. The funding of our public schools and the disparity of educational environments is a national shame.

There will always be exceptional cases of bootstrap pulling-up, but the lifetime achievements of the vast majority of our citizens is largely predicated on their socio-economic class and a public school system that closely matches it. True equality of educational opportunity is a goal that will never be completely attained, but as wealth becomes more concentrated in this country the educational disparity increases.

There should be no law to prevent anyone from spending lavishly on private education for their children, but we must do at least two things to improve equality of opportunity. First, we need economic and tax policies that will foster a more egalitarian society. Second, the funding of public education needs to be a higher priority and much more equally distributed.

This will not be an easy sell to the upper middle class who work hard and choose to live in communities based on the quality of the school system, which they support through local taxes. The redistribution of local taxes to poorer school districts is, in most cases, a political non-starter. I'm not sure if such disparity can be successfully addressed even at the state level.

I think the solution begins with progressive policies at the federal level to alleviate poverty in the world's richest country. The gap can be further closed by fixing a political system of corporate welfare and military/industrial imperialism that consumes so much public wealth. If this treasure was used for domestic needs rather than the projection of military force on an increasingly resentful world, we could make major strides in providing equal opportunity for every American citizen.

This development would benefit everybody, including those who can currently afford a quality education. Our nation would be stronger, less divided, and more capable of fulfulling the promise that the rest of the world would like to see us keep.

[OneBlueSky]

2. Moyers should be a featured speaker at the convention . . .

people respect him, and he has an excellent handle on the state of the nation at this point in time . . . I particularly like what he has to say about the Repbub bastardization of Christianity . . . this is something middle America needs to hear in a prominent forum . . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2003623&mesg_id=2003623