I'm endlessly dismayed by the lack of leadership and moral courage I observe from people and institutions that I would otherwise expect more of. I posted a Quick Hit at OpenLeft called
"Nobody marched at the One Nation "march""
which was about a diary in FDL called
"Progressive "One Nation" Event a Bit Disappointing, We Didn't March: "
in which the question of the lack of strong leadership by unions naturally arises. The contents of this diary flowed from that discussion.
cross-posted from Sum of Change and check out Pam Spaulding's post at PHB for more thoughts and discussion.
Yesterday we sent cameras to Glenn Beck's 828 rally and Al Sharpton's rally and march. We posted a handfull of videos from each. But first, a personal comment, if you don't mind. My parents and grandparents were civil rights activists (not to mention anti-war activists and labor organizers). On the same grass where we stood yesterday, my mother stood 47 years ago to watch Martin Luther King Jr. declare his dream for the world. I highly doubt anyone will remember yesterday the way my mother remembers 47 years ago.
Hello Open Left. I'm reposting this diary to see if anyone responds to it since the message is ever more relevant since the WH is not interested in supporting the most popular element of reform now that reconciliation is on the table; the public option. Yes it would be stronger and robust if the house hadn't rid it of Medicare reimbursement rates, but it's a platform to build on because it has federal administration with the access to care and low cost bringing down the deficit with it.
As you can see it hardly received any attention at all. I put a lot of work in when I decide to write a diary and posting early in the morning doesn't always work either. So I mainly just write comments now and they get more notice.
The Senate bill as it is won't pass the House(Many people need to get over this and accept it) and no one can get mad at the House because they have constituents as well. everything in the 2008 Democratic campaign platform all around regarding HCR was surrendered, not compromised. Compromise is a two way street and the House Progressive Caucus deserves something in order to deliver for their constituents.
Reconciliation can be used and it needs to be used and hopefully we will find the magic 50 that should be there(Feinstein signing on is very good news).
Bipartisanship with no principle is surrender not bipartisanship. I should of named it that, but here's my diary on this important subject and in depth review of what went behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964 relating to today and today's flawed surrender; the correct name for this type of bipartisanship.
Without further ado I re-post this. I hope you read and enjoy it.
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Hello all. Right now I am going to finish up a series I wrote during the Primary (and I was in Primary mode so remember that when looking back) titles Partisanship Never Was the Problem and in most cases where something big had to be passed, this rang true as I outlined with FDR and the New Deal and Truman and his Fair Deal even though only one provision of that passed; it was the fight that Truman brought to put civil rights and UHC on the map building on what FDR created regarding the Civil Rights division in the Justice Department and FDR adopting his cousin's and father of the Progressive Era's platforms, who actually had the first UHC proposal.
In the days just before and after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 80th birthday, I had the opportunity to visit two places that are integral to his modern day legacy: Washington, DC and the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. As I witnessed the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's 44th president, I thought of Dr. King's admonition, in his 1963 I Have a Dream Speech, that "we cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote." Despite some continuing problems at the ballot box, this was an election about which Dr. King could be truly satisfied; African Americans turned out in record numbers to elect the nation's first African-American president.
In the same speech, Dr. King reminded the nation that "when the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the 'unalienable Rights' of 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'"
For anyone who's visited the Gulf Coast recently, it is obvious that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as the people of the Lower Ninth Ward-overwhelmingly poor and African-American-are concerned. The world witnessed in 2005 how our government left the region's people to drown in their homes and suffer unspeakable conditions in the New Orleans Convention Center and Superdome. More than three years later, that abandonment continues.
Over three weeks ago in a posting on DailyKos and other political blogs I launched the Obamathon. A drive to help Barack Obama win on February 5th. Twenty-two states voted that day so it is hard to firmly say who won and who lost but when this campaign started over a year ago I never would have dreamed that we would do so well. Since then eight states have voted and every single one has handed Obama a victory. Now we are hearing that Obama will win Wisconsin, we will see how that plays out. Later tonight the polls will close in Hawai'i and we will see how Obama does there.
But no matter what the final results of those states are one thing is clear. We must March 4th Together for Barack Obama. What does this mean? It means on March 4th four states will vote. Rhode Island, Vermont, Ohio and Texas. It means whatever happens tonight and until then we must keep it going, we must March 4th. And we must do it together. That's why I'm relaunching the Obamathon as the March 4th Together for Obama fundraising drive.
Barack Obama quotes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr a lot on the campaign trail. Particularly he says a lot about how he is running because of what Dr. King called the "the fierce urgency of now."
We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood-it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on."
Those were the words that Dr. King spoke in his address delivered at Riverside Church in NYC on the 4th of April, 1967. The speech was entitled "Beyond Vietnam."
