Tuesday, May 27, 2003

Citizenship Cross posted to www.freedom2004.us. No American must aspire to be anything more than a citizen, and no American shall endure to be anything less. This is my paraphrase of a quote from G.K. Chesterton that I found here.  I like this.  I'm reminded of a blog entry recently (I don't remember whose, unfortunately) that spoke of corporations today as "super-citizens."  It also goes to the core of our horror at the trampling of civil liberties, which devalues our citizenship in this great nation.  It reiterates that crooked executives who choose to enrich themselves through fraud, environmental destruction and the impoverishment of others are patently unAmerican.  10:33:40 PM    Put your John Hancock right here!

The Four Freedoms Cross posted from www.freedom2004.us How about this for a theme: The Four Freedoms.  Here's how FDR first spoke of them: "The first is freedom of speech and expression --everywhere in the world. "The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-- everywhere in the world. "The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants --everywhere in the world. "The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor --anywhere in the world." You can read the whole speech here: http://www.libertynet.org/~edcivic/fdr.html.  Actually, the whole libertynet.org/~edcivic/ site seems pretty interesting and perhaps a source of inspiration for some of our work.  (I've only glanced at it, so I might turn out to be wrong there.  Don't hold it against me if I am.)  We would obviously have to streamline them for our purposes, and certainly reframe them as domestic.  We could use them as touchstones in contrasting our traditional American values against the Republicans' corporate, political and military greed.  Freedom of speech and expression is an easy one.  Freedom of religion could be used to attack Bush's religious initiaves from a position that wouldn't alienate religious liberals.  Freedom from want could be used to point out Bush's unraveling of the social safety net for ideological reasons.  Finally, freedom of fear could be used to highlight the administration's craven use of terrorism fear for political gain.  Another phrase I found in that speech which could be useful is "putting patriotism ahead of pocketbooks."  This could help weaken the media message that what's good for business is good for the country.  The danger of using these themes is the context of the speech.  FDR was speaking in support of intervention in World War II, and if Republicans were to do their research, they could possibly turn that context back upon us in support of their neocon imperialism.  In spite of that danger, I feel these are good themes.  To recap: The Four Freedoms: 1) Freedom of speech and expression 2) Freedom of religion and worship 3) Freedom from want 4) Freedom from fear and Put patriotism ahead of pocketbooks! What do you think?  10:29:39 PM    Put your John Hancock right here!

They're Not Conservatives, They're Radicals quoted from Stating the Obvious By Paul Krugman "But the people now running America aren't conservatives: they're radicals who want to do away with the social and economic system we have, and the fiscal crisis they are concocting may give them the excuse they need. The Financial Times, it seems, now understands what's going on, but when will the public wake up? " 8:12:55 PM    Put your John Hancock right here!