I originally wrote this for my own site and just posted it a few minutes ago. I envision it more as a short speech if I could be there with them and speak to the crowd (a little pompous but indulge me). It is also a short way of expressing gratitude, empathy, solidarity while stressing the importance of standing up to the powers that be. I mean what ever happens in Wisconsin is not going to stay in Wisconsin. If the Koch brothers, Governor Walker and conservatives win this one - the middle class loses.
An open letter to the protesters in Wisconsin and those joining around the country.
I have no dog in this fight other than my firm belief in the people’s right to have a voice at the table where decision are being made. My mother is not a teacher like many of you. My father is not a municipal employee. There is nothing here for me to personally lose. But each of us share common bonds – they connect us on a deeper level than we are able to fathom. Thus when you lose one of your rights or your voice a piece of our connection is severed and lost forever.
Our interconnectedness is being torn apart by those who would benefit from us going our own separate ways.
More than 45 years ago President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war on poverty with a vision of a greater society – the ultimate fulfillment of the American Dream. Martin Luther King Jr. sought to unite leaders across ethnic, racial, geographic and religious boundaries around the struggle for economic equality. The greatest injustice of their time. Sadly, the powers that be demonized the poor as purely lazy and out to collect a welfare check. It has taken them time to win that battle. They were able to silence the poor and take away their voice altogether.
Now they are on to their next conquest. You. Organized workers who only seek what is fair and just. If they push you away from the table – take away your voice as well – one has to ask what is left?
The only people left at the decision making table are the politicians listening to the corporations sitting across from them. Elected officials merely listening to the profit hungry desires of businesses is no longer a democracy. It is no longer a properly functioning society. It is no longer a place to chase the American Dream let alone a place that Jefferson wrote about – the pursuit of happiness. We will have become a society that merely serves the bottom line of Wall Street while hoping to have some pocket change at the end of the month to take the family out to dinner. That’s not the America I was taught in class. That’s not the America I want to leave for my future children. That is only an America that has gone to hell and needs redeeming. Only the every day citizens of this country can redeem our beloved country by ensuring citizens have a prominent and loud and clearly spoken voice at the table.
Updated by Aaron Krager at Wed Feb 23, 2011, 01:11:26 AM
Wow, another rescued diary and I see that it is in the first blip of recommended diaries. That is all because of the great ways in which DK4 are set up. Also to you so thank you for reading and recommending.
I want to address something that seems to come up in the comments section. I wrote that I don't have a dog in this fight but I also wrote this as though I was speaking to the protesters. Please keep that in mind. What I am saying to them is that I am not directly affected if they win or lose this struggle. I completely realize the indirect consequences of the fight and how they would impact me and the rest of us.
Please think of this as a speech as well as an attempt to diagnose a problem in our country. We need our voices to be heard loud and clear - without them our country is pulled into the abyss.
Thanks again for reading and recommending. Truly appreciate it.