Nonsense. "Reagan's greatest achievement was in liberating corporations from any responsibility for their actions--other than making the most money as fast as possible." The people in Eastern Europe would disagree with you, and Reagan didn't invent capitalism.
"It was under his leadership that we began to hear about how government was bad and corporations were good." Show us the quote. No one ever said this that I know of. "All our woes would be solved if we would just free up our corporations from silly regulations like the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts" Believe it or not, corporations drink water too, and they don't have their own private air supply. "Of course, we aren't supposed to remember how the corporations used these windfall profits to buy out their competition and shut down competing businesses." Think about it. The only monopolies in this country are sanctioned by the government, such as public schools and utility companies. "After all, what did Floyd B Olson do except introduce ... a progressive income tax" Right out of the communist manifesto. Check it out: http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html#Bourgoise ... which is the Taxpayers League's point. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Nelson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 8:55 PM Subject: [StPaul] Response to Taxpayers League push to rename Olson Highway In his article about the petition drive by the Taxpayers League, Conrad Defiebre quotes the Taxpayers League president David Strom as saying, "It is finally time to put official celebration of socialism and communism firmly in the past," he said. "Floyd B. Olson represents the failed path of socialism. It is ridiculous that we still celebrate his vision while not properly honoring Reagan's visionary leadership that liberated so many." Liberated? Reagan's greatest achievement was in liberating corporations from any responsibility for their actions--other than making the most money as fast as possible. It was under his leadership that we began to hear about how government was bad and corporations were good. All our woes would be solved if we would just free up our corporations from silly regulations like the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts and stop taxing them so they could create jobs. Of course, we aren't supposed to remember how the corporations used these windfall profits to buy out their competition and shut down competing businesses. Or how they dumped all their workers who had livable wages and benefits and then turned to temp agencies to hire them back at low wages and no benefits. That was real liberating. And the art of the hostile takeover was perfected leaving many small towns and cities devastated when their major employers were taken over by corporations with no stake in the community and sold off to create boosts in the next quarters profits. Who was it that Reagan liberated? Corporations and the wealthiest individuals in our country who liberated from their fair share of our tax burden and from having to have any kind of social conscience at all. Let's not forget that the homeless man sleeping on the heating grate on a cold winter's night is there because he wants to be! And remember how school kids all over the country worshipped at Reagan's feet when they didn't have to eat those awful vegetables! All they had to do was put plenty of ketchup on those hamburgers because that was reclassified as a vegetable for school lunch programs. Oh, yes, this is a great man to name a road after in Minnesota. After all, what did Floyd B Olson do except introduce public unemployment insurance, old age pensions, a mortgage moratorium on farms, and a progressive income tax, which he managed to get passed in the middle of the depression by dedicating it solely to education for its first 20 years. He also helped to establish cooperative business enterprises because he believed some things belonged to the people and needed to be managed by the people. Of the people, by the people, for the people--what a terrible anti-liberation concept that must be for the Taxpayers League. Let's honor Reagan and our national slide into a government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations. That definitely deserves a monument so let's save it for our first privatized toll road and leave the Olson Memorial Highway alone. Steven M Nelson Willard Hay http://citizenshipchronicles.blogspot.com/ Get UP! Get OUT! & GET INVOLVED!!! _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/ _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
