Behind The Curtain
No Longer
By Todd Huffman
15 September, 2005
Countercurrents.org
In
January of 2001, a newly elected, though some would argue selected,
president spoke in his inaugural address of an unfolding American
promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that
no insignificant person was ever born. Of the American ideal,
these lofty words are among the finest ever spoken.
But lofty words
float hollow and weightless when not spoken with the gravity of conviction.
In the more than four years since this president spoke these words,
millions more Americans have been shut out of belonging, of getting
their chance, and of ever again believing that their country considers
them significant. This national migration into poverty went largely
unnoticed, until Katrina.
Hurricane Katrina
not only flooded a city and flattened a coast. She also blew away the
thick curtain our nation had drawn across our most poor. Pay no
attention to the poor behind the curtain! those controlling the
levers in Washington will now say, as they desperately try to distract
us with more smoke and loud noises. But it is too late; Katrina has
exposed our poor for all the world to see.
Since January 2001,
when those lofty words were uttered, the ranks of the poor in America
have swelled by over four million. Today, one in five children in the
greatest nation on earth live in poverty. Nearly 50 million Americans
are without health care. Meanwhile, astoundingly, out of spite or simply
in oblivion, Republican leaders in Washington are readying for a vote
to repeal the estate tax.
That Republicans
would even consider another giveaway to the richest among us just weeks
after a national tragedy became a national disgrace reveals the dark
truth of America in the 21st century: powerful people run America for
other powerful people. As starkly evidenced by the hundreds if not thousands
who died in New Orleans from sheer neglect, there is no longer anyone
running America for the rest of us.
The American people,
no matter what they believed to be their party affiliation before, must
no longer stand for this. No longer can we neglect the American ideal.
No longer can we neglect the important issues and challenges of our
day. No longer can we allow our government to fail to serve the public,
and fail to provide for the general welfare.
A half century ago,
another president, Harry Truman, said: The president is the only
lobbyist that 150 million Americans have. The other 20 million are able
to employ people to represent them and thats all right,
its the exercise of the right of petition but someone has
to look out after the interests of the 150 million that are left.
There are many more
of us now, lacking representation, and getting mad as hell. Were
out here, and were still holding on to that American ideal. We
believe that America is still the land of equal opportunity, where everyone
has an equal chance of finding success. And we believe that anyone who
works hard and plays by the rules deserves a chance to build a better
life for themselves and their families, and to live out the American
dream.
We believe that
we all have the same worth. We believe that liberty and justice are
for all, not for some. We believe that no one should be left out or
left behind. We believe in improving government, not eliminating it.
And we believe that America needs poverty relief, not tax relief for
the rich.
But these are not
the things Republican leaders in Washington believe, even as they are
still the things most Republicans as well as Democrats outside the Beltway
believe. Republican leaders in Washington say that they want to shrink
government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.
Well, while we certainly know that they've not shrunk wasteful spending
or the national deficit over these past four years, Katrina showed that
they have succeeded in shrinking the agencies meant to serve the public
good.
Only it wasnt
government that was then drowned; it was a city, and its poor.
Todd Huffman, Eugene,
Oregon
[email protected]