Blog Action Day: Poverty

I had no idea until a few minutes ago that today October 15 is Blog Action Day. I learned this from a Twitter post by http://twitter.com/redstarvip. The theme this year is Poverty.

From the website: What is the aim of Blog Action Day?
First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.

With that in mind:

Here's something you can do to make your voice heard: Be independent. Don't accept the current political culture as the be all end all of human relations. More and more Americans are becoming independent, concerned that partisan politics is destroying our country -- and the world.

And it's not enough to be anti-partisan. Though that's a start! Americans, and independents in particular, are increasingly becoming pro-people, speaking out, advocating for nonpartisan pro-voter reforms, and having a huge impact.

IMHO, we're at a crossroads. America is on the verge of something very different. We need everyone's participation, from the veterans of the sixties to Gen X and Y, from the super-rich to the most poverty-stricken, from the left to the right, black and white, we all need to think out of the box and come together to create a new world where NO ONE IS LEFT OUT. It's the human thing to do.

Also, please welcome to the discussion a couple of my life-long friends and colleagues, Fred Newman and Jackie Salit, recenly talking about the issues of the day on Talk Talk at independentvoting.org and Fred Newman Ph.D.

SOCIALISM! HELP ME!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Every Sunday CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist and philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from their dialogue on Sunday, September 14, 2008 after watching "The Chris Matthews Show," "Meet the Press," "The McLaughlin Group" and "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

Salit: I want to start with Bill Clinton, interviewed by Tom Brokaw, in the midst of Clinton doing his Global Initiative Project. Brokaw asks him, is the economic crisis and the response to it a political game changer? And Clinton says, 'Yes, it could be.' How so? It changes the political culture. It changes the conversation. It changes the imperative for both parties to work together, for Congress and the White House to work together. Do you agree?

Newman: Well, I don't know about that. That's just speculative. We'll see. But, what it has done, it seems to me, is it has introduced the word "socialism" back into the American lexicon. Potentially, even as a good guy. Does that change the behavior patterns of the antagonists who are gathered in Washington? It probably intensifies it, if anything.

Salit: It comes back in, but at the moment it's as a "bailout" that the American people are very suspicious of.

Newman: Yes, the American people are, in general, opposed to the package, and justifiably so. I think that opposition is best understood as a reaction to the hypocrisy of this free market Republican government, which has been in power for some time, suddenly saying, Socialism, quick, help me out! It's a reaction to that. But, in the long term, the awareness that socialism has its place, will change the political scene somewhat. Not dramatically. After all, in Western Europe they've had a mix of socialism and capitalism for a long time. That has been the driving force behind nationalized healthcare systems in Europe, and I think it might influence the direction here in this country, too. I can see the American people saying, If we're going to bail out Wall Street, why don't we bail out this wasteful and misdeveloped healthcare system, too?... (continued here)