June 11, 2003
One of my long-time heroes, Bill Moyers, again tells it with eloquent honesty in the text of his speech to the 'Take Back America' Conference held June 4, 2003 in Washington, DC.
In it, he says:
In one way or another, this is the oldest story in America: the struggle to determine whether "we, the people" is a spiritual idea embedded in a political reality – one nation, indivisible – or merely a charade masquerading as piety and manipulated by the powerful and privileged to sustain their own way of life at the expense of others.
Let me make it clear that I don't harbor any idealized notion of politics and democracy; I worked for Lyndon Johnson, remember? Nor do I romanticize "the people." You should read my mail – or listen to the vitriol virtually spat at my answering machine. I understand what the politician meant who said of the Texas House of Representatives, "If you think these guys are bad, you should see their constituents."
But there is nothing idealized or romantic about the difference between a society whose arrangements roughly serve all its citizens and one whose institutions have been converted into a stupendous fraud. That difference can be the difference between democracy and oligarchy.
Read his entire speech here at Common Dreams.
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Old Comments (1)
dzwonki polifoniczne nokia on 14 Jun 2004
Hmmmmm interesting !!!