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| Demonstrators at the new Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington keep his dream percolating |
Jobs. Education. Fairness. Three of many basic human rights being increasingly stripped from the people, here and around the world.
It's no wonder that today was a global day of protests, in cities stretching from San Francisco to Athens. Here in the nation's capital, Al Sharpton spearheaded a march that took protesters all the way onto the grounds of Dr. Martin Luther King's towering memorial, set to be dedicated on Sunday by President Obama.
Will the light of justice ever get through enough to turn this crazy world around so we'll ever see a semblance of balance and equity restored, when the one percenters at long last get their blood-sucking fangs out of the rest of us?
Over at D.C.'s Freedom Plaza, where that city's "Occupy" forces are battle stationed, there were lots of signs of hope and determination that the people will prevail in this desperate struggle for survival.
Clearly one of the big ones is this business of blowing $11,000,000,000 every month to fight two wars of aggression in the Middle East (and agitating for yet another one, against Iran), while giving the elites even more welfare, is the final straw. This, and all the while demanding that we need to "sacrifice" more and more??Unfrigging believable.
Then again, the military-industrial powers that be never let rhyme or reason intrude upon a big fat blood-soaked profit, did they. Some of the other sights in Freedom Plaza:
So many scenes that resonated with memories of past protests against "the establishment"--but this one has an altogether different feel to it. More than just a sense of fighting off corruption. This time it's for our actual survival.
Made me really ruminate today.
I proudly wore the same anti-Teabagger shirt from a year earlier when I attended commedian Jon Stewart's famed DC counter-rally protesting that lunatic Glenn Beck and his fan of right-wing crazies. This time, however, there's not a whole lot to chuckle about.
Everything seems to be at stake now. Those ravenous Wall Street hyenas are more insatiable than they've ever been. They're having millions more of us for lunch, breakfast, dinner, and getting increasingly fatter and more aggressive with each passing day.
Dr. King would have reacted to this appalling situation just as he did in that famous march on Washington nearly 50 years ago. The dream was also about making a living wage and sustaining a life with dignity and hope. Sadly, unlike the victory of winning Civil Rights, this battle continues without end and the coporate forces are hell-bent to turn just about all of us into indentured servants or outright slaves.
Doesn't matter really what profession you might be. Teachers are a choice target for the ruling class predators. But everyone is in their crosshairs, except of course their stockholders. We will continue this fight, however, because the obvious fact is that we've got nothing and everything to lose at this point.
Last year the Nation magazine referenced King's great concerns for economic justice: "In a November 1956 sermon, King presented an imaginary letter from the apostle Paul to American Christians, which stated, 'Oh America, how often have you taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes... God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others live in abject deadening poverty.'"
Those detestable Republicans recently made progress in killing a jobs creation bill, along with further gutting what was already a pitiful excuse for medical care reform. Meanwhile, corporate profits are skyrocketing as Wall Street banksters horde over $2 TRILLION in cash, refusing to invest in any of that "miracle free enterprise job creation" for the ten to twenty million unemployed Americans.
Martin, we need you now, more than ever.
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