Activists, advocates for social justice, defenders of freedom, and people of the United States:

Every now and then it is appropriate for the people to take a look at themselves and assess their situation; to note the suffering and injustice in their communities and to consider the power they hold as individuals to speak out and act in a struggle for a world more conducive to humanity.

The people of this country have examples they can look at to see that it is times when people stood up and struggled with power that change was effected. Like when John Woolman refused to pay taxes to support the British and spoke up against slavery years before the Revolutionary War, like when Dalton Trumbo wrote "Johnny Got His Gun" and presented a stirring representation of the brutal effects of war on humans who participate in it, like when Ella Baker counseled, supported, and guided young black people in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the militant edge of the civil rights movement in the Deep South that contributed greatly to the fight against racism in America.

One year ago, Obama came to office. Troops were being deployed for third and fourth tours of duty in wars of choice in the Middle East, corporations were manipulating science to further profit at the expense of Mother Earth, many immigrants were falling victim to ICE raids and suffering from an erosion of civil liberties, detainees were being tortured and abused at places like Guantanamo or Baghram Air Force Base, "pay or die" health care was killing around 18,000 Americans a year, No Child Left Behind was opening schools to privatization, free trade agreements like NAFTA were destroying the lives of working class people all over the world, and corporate crime especially casino capitalism on Wall Street had spurred a major recession that was earning comparisons to the Great Depression America experienced in the 1930s.

Many of these problems still exist. The Afghanistan War has been expanded with at least 30,000 troops being sent to escalate a war in a country widely believed to be the graveyard for empires. Guantanamo prisons have not been closed despite a pledge to close the prisons at Guantanamo and instead, policies of rendition have continued and, worse, policies of indefinite and preventive detention have gained popularity. Lack of health care still kills as many Americans if not more and, worse, as Congress is slow to enact "reform" of health insurance private insurance companies prepare for regulations and drop those who have pre-existing conditions they do not want to be forced to cover.

The people of this nation responded overwhelmingly to Barack Obama's presidential candidacy. Record numbers clamored for a chance to see the first black president inaugurated. Unfortunately, many people have found the hope hasn't lived up to the hype.

Change has not come fast enough, primarily, because there is not a groundswell of support for a social agenda that would respond to the needs of the people of the United States. Tens of thousands of people are needed to galvanize leaders into action against policies purveying great immorality are missing in action.

In the past, this nation has proven that people of great decency and great strength will rise up and take on immorality. It is time for those people to rise up and struggle with power again.

Understandably, unemployment at a level far higher than what the government is reporting has been burdening families and tearing apart communities. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 15.4 million Americans were unemployed in November, the "real" jobless rate is likely closer to over 26 million. The current rate reported by the government does not include part-time workers seeking full-time work, discouraged job seekers, and person furloughed from full-time to part-time status."[1]

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act may have done the people some good, but the reality is that it doesn't go far enough to provide Americans especially poor and working class Americans the debt relief needed to get back on their feet. In fact, there has been a huge disparity between what Wall Street casino capitalists have received to bail them out and what Americans have received to help address the suffering being experienced as Americans struggle to renegotiate mortgages on their homes.

As the TARP bill was moving through Congress, there was a significant opportunity to do something to help jobless Americans. An amendment to TARP was offered to fight the trend of American corporations paying foreign workers low wages so CEOs could take multi-million dollar bonuses home. The amendment would have prevented companies with bailout money from discharging American workers and replacing them with foreigners with H-1B visas. Unfortunately, the US Chamber of Commerce and a parade of CEOS from corporations like Microsoft opposed this measure and, at this point, very little has been done to address how foreign workers help corporations keep wages low in America. [2]

President Obama's support for Wall Street bailouts has not come with good measures of transparency and accountability. And there is little indication that the bailouts have had any effect on creating jobs or stemming the rise of unemployment.

Chief watchdog Neil Barofsky has been viciously trying to engage in oversight of the bailout money--the TARP money--but officials in the Obama Administration have been clashing with those tasked with oversight. Members of the watchdog group believe the banks should to account for what has been done with the TARP funds but the administration has opposed those efforts claiming accounting for the money is impossible due to "fungibility." Obama's administration has even tried to involve the Justice Department in ruling the TARP oversight group is not independent and must be subject to the supervision of Timothy Geithner, Obama's Treasury Secretary who has viciously been protecting bank CEOs from accountability. [3]

Thankfully, Americans have been able to root for Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor who has been fighting for the American taxpayers' right to know where their money went and who has been pushing populist reforms such as a consumer protection agency to protect consumers from predatory lending.[4]

Consumers are responding appropriately by leaving Big Banks in high numbers. The National Association of Federal Credit Unions and the Credit Union National Association are seeing "a tripling of volume" on there online systems which provide access and convenience to consumers to switch from a Big Bank to a credit union. This swell of traffic is due to the Move Your Money campaign, which was started to alert consumers to the risks of Big Banks and the fact that moving your money to credit unions will not only secure your money but send the best message to Big Banks that they need to change their anti-consumer anti-taxpayer policies. [5]

Why not punish Big Banks? Big Banks are reclassifying filing categories to make reports hard to decipher, altering year-end report dates, reporting massive rebounds that don't add up or make logical sense, covering up of speculative activities that should be disclosed in SEC filings. [6]

Too big too fail banks are too big to exist and should be encouraged by the people of this country to adopt a policy of too small to fall that prevents the risky business which creates economic collapses that happen every 5 to 7 years. The Glass-Steagall Act should be reinstated.

Our leaders chose to bail Big Banks out with our money. We may not have wanted to bail them out, but we did. And, so we have every right to make demands and engage in actions that create pressure on the government to hold accountable and enact huge systematic reforms that will prevent the American people from having to pay for the damage casino capitalists have done next time this happens because we know if this happens again American taxpayers will be asked to foot the bill.

In terms of infrastructure and public transportation, President Obama had an opportunity to push a real public works program like the program that had been implemented during the Great Depression. But, instead the economic stimulus was poorly allocated and sent to more highway projects instead of public transportation projects. This was done under the assumption that highway projects would create more jobs than public transportation projects would.

Spending on public transportation and highway projects was monitored by groups like the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and it was found that public transportation projects created twice as many jobs because they were more complex and required more labor.

Reports found that public transportation projects would have had a quicker impact on the economy because they were more "shovel-ready." A "Jobs for Main Street" package and could generate approximately 71,415 more job-months for Americans who are suffering from unemployment. [7]

America needs innovation but it does not need innovation that will do further damage to the people by creating health, safety, and environmental threats. It does not need innovation, which will fail to reduce imports of foreign oil or fail to reduce global warming. [8]

Nuclear energy, "clean" coal, and even biofuels are solutions to problems that the U.S. face that need to be rethought and replaced with more appropriate plans that promote innovation in wind power and solar power technology. These innovations could put many people to work especially if a WPA-style plan was used.

Nuclear energy repositories like the one in Hanford, Washington leak toxic brews of chemical and radioactive waste. Nuclear energy corporations do not have to pay for the waste thanks to a deal with the federal government, which forces taxpayers to pay to subsidize the costs of pollution

Taxpayers consistently pick up the tab for nuclear energy. It's estimated that over $100 billion dollars in taxpayer money has gone to nuclear energy companies. If government increases support for nuclear energy innovation, taxpayers can bet they will be paying the bill for increased support and they can count on the prospect of environments being contaminated with cancer-causing radioactive particles.[9]

Clean coal is not an alternative to nuclear energy either. "Clean" coal is kind of like an honest politician. It'd be nice if either existed, but neither really do and we the people have to confront that reality in the same way that many people in Appalachia confront and oppose mountaintop removal--a process of mining that involves blowing the tops off of mountains to get to the coal--on a daily basis.

"Clean" coal presents the American people with tremendous costs and injustices. It increases the rates of disease. The American Lung Association has found that 24,000 people each year die prematurely because of coal-fired power plants. Every year 38,000 heart attacks, 12,000 hospital admissions, and an additional 550,000 astham attacks occur as a result of power plant pollution. And, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that 12,000 miners died from black lung disease between 1992 and 2002.

Also, burning "clean" coal emits mercury due to electrical generation and mercury is hugely responsible for interfering with the development of babies' brains and neurological systems if it gets into a mother's blood or breast milk. This production of mercury also pollutes seafood and freshwater fish.

Mountaintop removal mining destroys mountains and dumps waste in valleys shifting externalizing the costs and forcing people in communities to suffer the burden of mountaintop removal mining. And, contrary to widespread belief, mountaintop removal is not essential to keeping unemployment rates down in communities. It puts coal miners out of jobs by increasing the use of machinery instead of manpower. And, currently, costs taxpayers billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies. [10]

We can look for more ways to export more American goods and seek new markets aggressively, but using free trade agreements will not produce results favorable to the people of this nation and the world.

America doesn't need any more free trade agreements, which cause hundreds of thousands of working families to suffer and lose their jobs. Free trade agreements present union organizing drives with the prospect of corporations threatening to move overseas if they unionize. Giant agribusiness corporations put family farmers out of business. And, high-paying jobs often move to countries with lower wages.

Additionally, it lowers wages in countries outside of the U.S. on behalf of private enterprise and causes extensive environmental damage to forests, waters, and other areas rich in natural resources as countries exploit the land for maximum profit.[11]

When it comes to health care, the people should follow the lead of the Baucus 8, who were put on trial after they interrupted a committee hearing being led by Sen. Max Baucus because he was excluding people who were in favor of a Medicare for All single-payer program for health care. They along with the Mad as Hell Doctors and the Mobilization for Healthcare for All group engaged in social organizing among the people creating support for a system radically different from the one the current health "reform" in Congress promotes and supports.

The Physicians for a National Health Program and the California Nurses Association are familiar with the reality that single payer health care could be a huge economic stimulus for America; 2.6 million jobs could be created in health and social services and then later in retail trade, accommodation and food services, manufacturing, and administrative services.

On the flip side, increases in war spending will likely cost 2 million jobs, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The Center finds that war spending directly drains the economy, reduces efficiency, slows growth, and costs jobs. Yet, the White House and Congress insist on passing record-breaking military budgets that put pressure on families in this country.

Political leaders express support for a government spending freeze yet refuse to subject the same freeze to military expenditures. And so, wars of choice and aggression continue in our name.

How can we the people allow our nation to consciously escalate the war when it is affecting everyone in Afghanistan directly or indirectly especially the civilians who are caught in the middle? How can we increase U.S. military efforts when the war is displacing Afghanis, seriously damaging property, limiting access to basic necessities, cutting people off from their relatives, and disrupting their livelihoods? [12]

Soldiers in Afghanistan are committing suicide at record levels. This number increased the most during the summer months of 2008, a year that is now considered the bloodiest year of the Afghan War. At least 20% of soldiers coming back from the wars in the Middle East are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Soldiers are stop-lossed or forced into third and fourth tours sof duties. [13]

True heroes of the battlefield are resisting the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq in growing numbers. Despite the fact that politicians refuse to support the troops when they resist wars especially ones that they find to be illegal or unconstitutional, more and more soldiers are no longer obeying orders and giving government permission to use them as pawns in their inhumane military adventures in the Middle East. [14]

In the face of growing resistance to wars and military strikes, the government continues to create new theaters of war. The people of Iran are facing the possibility of economic sanctions that will have a staggering effect on the nation's people. Not only that, social movements in Iran will no doubt be suppressed if the U.S. engages in further action squelch the country's economy. More dissidents will be hung and this inevitable tyranny that will come down up on the people of Iran will be used by the U.S. to manufacture consent for a war with another Middle Eastern country.

Americans have responded graciously in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. But, too many in America cared too little about the country of Haiti before the earthquake. The U.S. is responsible for engaging in interventions and the kidnapping of the nation's leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, so that the public sector of Haiti could be penetrated by private interests looking to exploit the land, resources, and poor and working class people of Haiti. All of this made it inevitable that the devastation and death toll would be high.

Now, the Haitians face a growing U.S. military occupation. And, the people should pay attention and be weary of what U.S. forces will do to open the country up to private interests and how it may use Haiti to go after Venezuela, Cuba, or other Latin American countries.

Finally, let's turn our attention back to the people of America. The women of this nation deserve more equality. The wage gap in this nation deserves to be addressed. And, the people of this nation should refuse any kind of health reform that requires gender discrimination in order to be signed by the president; gender rating must be prohibited and anti-abortion language should not be tolerated. This country should adopt the mantra of the abortion doctor Dr. George Tiller who was assassinated by Scott Roeder: "Trust Women." [15]

Time to admit that racism isn't over and done with. Inequities that Blacks and Latinos face must be confronted. Hate groups have risen more than 50% since 2000 and we have seen many of them active as they voice their disapproval of Obama.

It's time for members of the LGBT community to see the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and more importantly the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. Ballot initiatives like Prop 8 in California must no longer be tolerated and activists should regularly hold National Equality rallies in D.C. until they get the rights they deserve.

The leaders of this nation regularly express a supreme desire to be number one---to rank 1^st in the world. We rank 14^th in preventable deaths for selected countries, 24^th in life expectancy. and last in terms of smallest percentage of greenhouse gas reduction needed to reach world per capita average.

We rank 16^th out of 23 countries, according to the Humanitarian Response Index, which determines how well aid dollars reach beneficiaries.[16]And, we are barely in the top 50 countries with the lowest infant mortality rates.[17] We don't even rank on the list of ten best countries to be a mother. [18]

Yet, we are number one when it comes to military expenditures.

Leaders are constantly using 9/11 to push Americans and people from other countries to give up rights and civil liberties. Fear of hidden nightmares is spread to help government maintain support for wars and ridiculously unnecessary homeland security apparatuses and procedures that do little to halt terrorism but plenty for investors who have a stake in the growing security-industrial complex in this nation.

Those in power do not want us to critique the narrative in the "war on terror" that we are being fed but it and the idea that one single catastrophic attack requires us to support a perpetual war for avenging the deaths of civilians and the damage done to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is ludicrous.

The people should not support the country as it produces its chief export --- war, which of course is the highest form of terrorism.

In these times, let us honor the activists fighting for health care for all without regard for the political process, which sucks the humanity out of legislation. Let us honor the mountaintop removal activists fighting King Coal in the name of environmental justice. Let us honor the soldiers refusing to fight in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let us honor the peace activists organizing rallies and marches across the country. Let us honor working class people engaging in strikes or battles for dignity in the workplace in one of the worst economic periods in American history.

Let us support the people of Haiti who need us to send more aid and disaster response teams equipped with medical supplies, forgive their debt, and oppose the U.S. militarization of Haiti. Let us support all people in all countries who are waging battles against free trade agreements strangling their human rights. Let us support the Afghanis and Iraqis and all other people of the world who seek self-determination in the face of a U.S. presence in their country.

Not long ago, the spirit of civil disobedience was spreading to war factories, the battlefield, the halls of Congress, and every town and city and it wasn't going to end until the killing stopped and until the children got a world without war, without fierce transfers of wealth upward, without a nation shakes down people for dimes to pay for the cost of cleaning up ruling class crimes. That spirit should be renewed.

A wise, genuine human being once said the people on top depend on the obedience of the people below. People have tremendous power if they organize, protest, and create strong movements.

Speak up, act, and enjoy the struggle. Peace be with you.

Author's Bio: Kevin Gosztola is a trusted author who publishes his writing regularly to OpEdNews and Open Salon and he is a 2009 Young People For Fellow. He is a documentary filmmaker currently completing a Film/Video degree at Columbia College in Chicago. Currently, he is working on a documentary project on Renaissance 2010 and Chicago Public Schools. On Columbia College's campus, he helps organize events and programming with a humanities/social sciences group known as Critical Encounters. He is currently working with the group to plan a media summit for Chicago in April 2010 and is currently seeking speakers who are willing to participate in talking to artists and media makers about how they can use participatory or social media to create art & media that promotes conversation and action on political, social, and cultural issues.

Jan. 29, 2010

www.opednews.com/articles/The-People-s-State-of-the-by-Kevin-Gosztola-100129-572.html