Poverty exacerbates the problem of discrimination on any issue: race, gender, belief. Blaming someone else is a way of justifying why we feel suppressed rather than looking at the why of our individual situations. The more society is moving the middle class toward poverty the more society looks to each other to blame rather than looking at ourselves having accepted the illusion that the media presents as fact.
The election of Obama proved nothing Yes, Obama is part black (black father, white mother, largely raised by a white family; Of questionable intellectual ability and no real world or political experience). The result is an America more divided across a mulitude of line than ever before. An America in decline. Was it in decline before Obama? Yes, but under Obama it has excelerated.
As to King, he invisioned a color blind America, and I would say, an America where there were no forms of discrimination---gender, age, race, religion, etc. While much is better, it's certainlly not gone. Indeed, when it comes to race, we even have cases of reverse rascism. "Political correctness" has lead us down the wrong path. It has caused more harm than not. King wanted a society where everyone was equal and treated as such. Not one where one group gets a preference or another. Government was to provide a level field where everyone had the same opportunities. No one where someone pulls the "race card" everytime some disagrees with them or someone doesn't get their way. What was once a serious charge is now used as a means to intimidate and extort, and a s result, carries no weight anymore.
Poverty has not only not gone away, it's gotten worse. Whereas people once hoped to advance into the Middle Class, there is no longer a Middle Class. King warned of too much government "help" as trading one master for another. Well, in that issue he was right. We are all now economic serfs. Nowadays there's a sense of entitlement. People rarely achieve based on their own abilities. Slums still exist, except it's just as likely to include whites, Hispanics as black. The black family unit is still broken, and nowadays, the white family unit is just a likely to be broken too, especially at the lower economic end. On a plus side, we see more mixture of races. Whites, blacks, Asians, and Hispanics are more likely to mix todays. In short, I think King would be very disappointed if he could see where we are today.
Thom & Louise at a "private audience" with His Holiness Pope John Paul II at his summer palace, Castle Gandolfo, Italy
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom is a national treasure. Read him, embrace him, learn from him, and follow him as we all work for social change."
—Robert Greenwald, political activist and founder and president of Brave New Films
From Screwed:
"Thom Hartmann’s book explains in simple language and with concrete research the details of the Neo-con’s war against the American middle class. It proves what many have intuited and serves to remind us that without a healthy, employed, and vital middle class, America is no more than the richest Third World country on the planet."
—Peter Coyote, Actor and author of Sleeping Where I Fall
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom Hartmann seeks out interesting subjects from such disparate outposts of curiosity that you have to wonder whether or not he uncovered them or they selected him."
—Leonardo DiCaprio, actor, producer, and environmental activist
Poverty exacerbates the problem of discrimination on any issue: race, gender, belief. Blaming someone else is a way of justifying why we feel suppressed rather than looking at the why of our individual situations. The more society is moving the middle class toward poverty the more society looks to each other to blame rather than looking at ourselves having accepted the illusion that the media presents as fact.
The election of Obama proved nothing Yes, Obama is part black (black father, white mother, largely raised by a white family; Of questionable intellectual ability and no real world or political experience). The result is an America more divided across a mulitude of line than ever before. An America in decline. Was it in decline before Obama? Yes, but under Obama it has excelerated.
As to King, he invisioned a color blind America, and I would say, an America where there were no forms of discrimination---gender, age, race, religion, etc. While much is better, it's certainlly not gone. Indeed, when it comes to race, we even have cases of reverse rascism. "Political correctness" has lead us down the wrong path. It has caused more harm than not. King wanted a society where everyone was equal and treated as such. Not one where one group gets a preference or another. Government was to provide a level field where everyone had the same opportunities. No one where someone pulls the "race card" everytime some disagrees with them or someone doesn't get their way. What was once a serious charge is now used as a means to intimidate and extort, and a s result, carries no weight anymore.
Poverty has not only not gone away, it's gotten worse. Whereas people once hoped to advance into the Middle Class, there is no longer a Middle Class. King warned of too much government "help" as trading one master for another. Well, in that issue he was right. We are all now economic serfs. Nowadays there's a sense of entitlement. People rarely achieve based on their own abilities. Slums still exist, except it's just as likely to include whites, Hispanics as black. The black family unit is still broken, and nowadays, the white family unit is just a likely to be broken too, especially at the lower economic end. On a plus side, we see more mixture of races. Whites, blacks, Asians, and Hispanics are more likely to mix todays. In short, I think King would be very disappointed if he could see where we are today.