Veterans of WWII were part of what is now known as The Greatest Generation. By veterans, I don't just mean the soldiers, but also the women in the factories, union members and racial minorities that stood up to produce for their country and were rewarded with higher wages and (limited) new opportunities. In a nation's time of moral crisis, ages old glass ceilings were battered, even if they weren't shattered. One's gender or race become lesser questions, as everyone asked how you can provide for your country.
On the battlefield, non-white soldiers stood up in face of one of WWII's most decisive battles:
In December 1944, the Nazis launched a massive counter- offensive to halt the Allied advance toward Berlin. On a 50- mile front along the German-Belgium border, surprised American troops retreated as the Battle of the Bulge began....
More than 2,000 African-American soldiers left their units to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with their white counterparts on the front lines. Many of the soldiers even accepted demotions in order to fight alongside whites. After the battle was won, they were sent back to their segregated units and eventually discharged from the service as privates.
Today we have a different type of war. The war is really a pillage, and the fight, instead of being on foreign soil, is right here in America.
The axis are Wall Stree,t, K Street and the old boys network. Our "leader" (at least until January 20th) tells us to ignore the war, he encourages us instead to "to go shopping" more. Meanwhile a rabid army of corporate soldiers are flooding our Treasury Department, Congressional offices and White House.
The descendants of that Greatest Generation are now seeing glass ceilings rebuilt, reinforced and preserved by these Corporate soldiers.
Women workers, who kept the supply lines and factory belts humming in WWII, are still being told to this day that they do not deserve equal pay for equal work:
As women are seeing glass ceilings as strong as ever, many double minority women are facing a very harsh time as they struggle to raise families without the benefits of marriage rights:
3 out of 4 adult lesbians said they feel the impact of the severe economic downturn will affect individuals and households like theirs more than others.
In contrast, this opinion was held by 60 percent of heterosexual women and 55 percent of gay men.
When asked about spending for entertainment generally, over four out of 10 lesbians said they likely will reduce their spending, in contrast to fewer than a quarter of gay men...
more same-sex households, especially women are raising children...
The thousands of marriage rights that come with the legal contract are tremendous economic aids in raising a family. Many people, Lesbian women in particular, struggle in this dark economy.
People of color communities now find it harder to stand up against pay discrimination in the work place and doubly suffer with the xenophobia and the effects of the "Last Hired, First Fired" phenomena. In this crisis, African-Americans are often hit with the ludicrous argument that affirmative action is stealing white people's jobs. Also as our economy falters immigrants and "others" get blamed for "stealing jobs", when immigrants have actually helped subsidize our lifestyles. The reality is gruesome for black and brown communities:
The FBI reports that hate crimes against Latinos rose almost 40 percent between 2003 and 2006, and Hispanic activists say they are being targeted with threats and intimidation.
The nation’s unemployment rate bolted to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October as another 240,000 jobs were cut. The latest release of information by the Labor Department shows the crucial jobs market deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace. Economists are calling these numbers proof that the economy is almost certainly in a recession...
The unemployment rates for adult men, women and whites rose. For men, it was 6.3 percent; for women, 5.3 percent; and whites, 5.9 percent. It also rose for Hispanics, 8.8 percent. The jobless rates for teenagers, at 20.6, percent and blacks, 11.1 percent, remained about the same.
The rate for African Americans is consistently in double digits and nearly twice that of whites.
Via Hispanic Trending:
for the 4th straight year, hate crimes against Latinos continue their upward tick in the downward spiral of hate in our "post-racial" society. 4 years; 4 years in the face of an overall decline in hate crimes means that anti-Latino hatred is becoming dangerously normalized, even institutionalized when we consider who profits economically and politically from hate.
And let’s remember that these are pre-economic meltdown statistics. Common sense and the statistical record tell us that spikes in hate crimes are inversely proportional to declines in key economic indicators. I fear we are entering a new, more institutionalized stage in which hating Latinos, especially immigrants, has become "OK", "normal" and even "patriotic."
WWII gave rise to The Greatest Generation. Today, as we hear that we've spent as much to bail out companies as we have to fight a World War, we have another generation emerging: The Debtest Generation.
As our country demanded we sacrifice for corporate largesse, we complied, some involuntarily, by giving up the hope of health insurance, taking our children out of college, foregoing quality time with our families and charging on our credit cards necessities like groceries and school supplies.
Meanwhile, "sacrifice" takes on an entirely new meaning to those corporations that have led America's youngest generation into a bondage contract, where our future is sold to make up for the mistakes of the previous generation. As a college student, I can tell you all, we're beyond pissed, we're getting rowdy:
The companies, which set aside revenue throughout the year to pay bonuses, haven't commented on plans for year-end awards, typically decided this month or next. A study released last week said the firms are likely to cut bonuses for top executives by as much as 70 percent.
``Even really sober people are saying this is the worst financial crisis since the Depression, and they're saying bonuses are just going to be reduced?'' said Patrick Amo, a 53-year-old retired merchant marine in Seattle. ``Oh my God, you read that and your jaw drops.''
So as the unemployment rate is now projected to hit 7.5%, the job market finds nearly 20% of teenagers unemployed. My generation. Fuck that.
70% may sounds generous. When your bonus can be as high as $68 million dollars annually however, (in addition to your $600,000 salary, as the Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs receives), it doesn't begin to seem like much of a sacrifice.
America prevailed in WWII because so many sectors of American society sacrificed. We can only prevail today if the pain of this current economic crisis is shared by all of us. Our nation's economic elites haven't come to realize this. We have many hard battles ahead to dethrone these economic dunces, but we must, because one's company owner should not be receiving tens of millions of dollars in bonuses as it lays of tens of thousands of workers.
We need to remember WWII, remember how resilient Americans can be in times of crisis. We need to also remember that time when government was not afraid to interfere in the fake "free-market" shenanigans of these would be robber barrons.