>X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 22:13:12 -0400 >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: Bob Olsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Freedom is participation in power: Ralph Nader >Mime-Version: 1.0 > > > > > Freedom is participation in power > Freedom is participation in power > Freedom is participation in power > > >Here are a few snippets from Ralph Nader's speech July 11, 2000. > > > >Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 12:03:46 -0400 >From: Harold Ensley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Text: Ralph Nader's Speech to the NAACP > >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/elections/nader071100.htm > > >Text: Ralph Nader's Speech to the NAACP > >Tuesday, July 11, 2000; 7:53 PM > > > >I just bring to you a little fact from California. For those of you who >are skeptical of people who tell you that things are getting better but >we got to make them even better, try child poverty in California. In >1980, it was 15.2 percent; today it is 25.1 percent. And if you take >near poverty--the children who are near poverty, who I would consider in >poverty because I think the official levels of poverty are absurd, how >can anyone support a four-member family on $17,200 a year--before >deductions, before the cost of getting to work, et cetera? > >If you add the near poverty, 46 percent of all the children in >California are in the category. This is not just a badge of shame for >our country, the richest country in the world, it's a reflection of our >inability to focus on the signal phenomena that is blocking justice, and >that is the concentration of power and wealth in too few hands. > ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... > >What do all these movements have in common? The anti-slavery movement, >the women's right to vote movement, the worker trade union movement, the >farmer, populist, progressive movement, the civil rights, environmental, >women rights movements of recent decades, other civil rights movements, >disability rights--they had one common theme: They took power away from >people and institutions who had too much power and made that power be >shared by the many. > >That is what made it possible. It wasn't just the documentation of >injustice. It wasn't just the feeling by people that they had to have a >better life. It was the strategy of power. It was the strategy of >deconcentrating power. It was the strategy that confronted the dominant >business powers of our history which uniquely were always in the >forefront of saying no to social justice movements. > > ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... > >Who opposed the anti-slavery movement? Who opposed the women's right to >vote movement? It wasn't just some men. It was the railroads, it was the >liquor industry, it was industrial interests that didn't want women to >speak out with voting power against child labor and the injustices of >the Industrial Revolution. > >And who opposed the workers in the steel, coal, textile and other areas >trying to unionize? It was the corporations. And who opposed the >farmers, dirt-poor farmers coming out of Texas? It was the big banks and >the insurance companies. > ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... > >We live now in an apartheid economy. It is an economy of such staggering >inequities that mere words and statistics hardly can do it justice. It >is an economy where one man, Bill Gates, has as much wealth as the >combined wealth of the bottom 120 million Americans. > ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... > >And to give you a further illustration, the top 1 percent of the richest >people in our country have wealth--financial wealth equal to the bottom >95 percent. > ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... > >There are a few principles that I have operated by in my 40 years of >work in trying to advance justice in our country. One of them is the >definition of freedom that goes back to ancient Rome. I think you'll >like it. Freedom is participation in power. Freedom is participation >in power. > >The second is a description of justice as the great work of human beings >on Earth, justice. You notice a lot of politicians give speeches--like >I've read almost all of Ronald Reagan's speeches and it's full--their >speeches are full of liberty and freedom, but they never use the word >justice. I wonder why. Because justice means redistribution of power and >opportunity and income and livelihood, that's what justice means. > >And, third, a society that has more justice is a society that needs less >charity--more justice, needs less charity. > ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... > > > > ............................................. > Bob Olsen, Toronto [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Freedom is participation in power > ............................................. >
