People aren’t buying it any more!
The American Dream of rags to riches, by virtue of hard work, motivated generations of immigrants and citizens to strive for the top. Its purpose was to silence dissent as corporations expanded and world empire grew to the point where today, over 700 U.S. military bases dot the globe. Our daytime reality is that an individual’s rise out of poverty requires loyal family ties, influential contacts, subsidized higher education, and social welfare support. The gap between rich and poor continues to widen…. the top 20 percent owns over 80 percent of all wealth.
What is shattering the Dream?
Popular political education is awakening people from the Real Nightmare that we live. Gone is the social welfare safety net woven out of the Great Depression. Gone are over two million houses to foreclosure in 2009, more than three million to be recorded by the end of 2010. Gone are manufacturing jobs based in old technology-jobs that are not coming back. Gone, thanks to Julian, are secrets of how politicians and diplomats wield power. Gone, or swiftly disappearing, are our first amendment rights as peaceful dissent becomes a crime. The result? Hundreds of thousands of middle and low income families are falling into poverty. We overthrew a monarchy in the 18th century, but ours has never been a classless society.
A larger class is emerging from the dispossessed. This new class is comprised of vast numbers of the skilled and educated. Members of this group have known better days and want them back. MNPPEHRC volunteers are conscious members of this class struggling to survive without a safety net. Exploding technology enables us to network as never before.
So hang in there! As part of the U.S. Social Forum held in Detroit last June, the Poverty Summit PM created an Assembly of organizations committed to building a long-term economic justice movement to end poverty.
Stay tuned for reports back from the USSF Assembly to End Poverty in coming weeks!
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