One nation, saving the American Dream
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Albany Times Union
Maureen Aumand
10/01/2010
Saturday, tens of thousands of citizens will converge on Washington for a historic march.
Participants -- marked in their diversity -- will stand shoulder to shoulder on the Mall under the rubric: One Nation: Working Together.
Organized by a national coalition committed "to putting Americans back to work and pulling Americans back together," the rally will include many of the nation's key human and civil rights organizations, unions and trade associations, youth and students organizations, faith groups and education, environmental, ethnic and peace organizations.
This is an event dedicated to and fed by the common understanding that without a renewed commitment to the social contract that unites us and puts people and their real needs first, the American dream is profoundly compromised. This is an event dedicated to empowering citizens to demand the political will for true and historic change to prevent this from happening.
Underlying the message is the key understanding that the effects of corporate greed and its hold on the political process, as well as a failed foreign policy which has bred unwinnable, immoral wars of choice and an unsustainable global reach, are clearly evidenced in the economic erosion we are experiencing.
That the imperative for an increased national investment in jobs, improved infrastructure, health care and public education, instead of escalating military spending, is incontrovertible.
This unity of voice and moral purpose across such a broad spectrum is what will make this march historic. It allows a platform for demanding that the sacrosanct defense budget, which eats up more than half of our nation's discretionary budget and the vision which feeds it, finally be held up for scrutiny.
More than 1,000 Capital Region residents are expected to form one of the streams that will flow into the river of humanity expected to crowd the Lincoln Memorial. Let us hope they will return with some of these questions in mind:
Why are we continuing to spend $48,000 a minute in Afghanistan alone when New Yorkers, according to estimates by the National Priorities Project, already have paid $97.6 billion since 2001 toward the cost of unnecessary, destabilizing war. At the same time, New Yorkers face a $2.2 billion deficit this year -- and all of the social spending cuts that implies. Deficits also are projected in 47 other states.
What drives Congress to levy such a burden and at what cost to true national security and stability?
Would we be less secure if that money had been encumbered to pay for health care policies, elementary school teachers, Pell Grants for college students, renewable energy adaptation and Head Start placements?
The trade-offs and questions abound.
Hopefully, this march will empower a local, regional, national and unequivocal cry: Justice, Jobs, Education and Peace!
