Budgets are Moral Documents Part II: Real Security
by Jim Wallis, Founder of Sojourners, speaker, author, activist -- huffingtonpost.com, March 9, 2007
We need bold leadership and an agenda that sets clear priorities and seeks to empower families. We need to protect critical programs and increase aid, but also recommit ourselves to the notion of the common good.
Rev. Jim Wallis: The Economy, Financial Reform, and Values
http://www.youtube.com/...
Rev. Jim Wallis:
Washington DC is wired to Block change -- it really is. [...]
And now these big Financial Giants on Wall Street -- they spent 300 Million Dollars, I'm told to keep themselves from being regulated. [...] Ben Bernake says this Crisis caused by Deregulation, by this lack of Accountability.
[...]
You're a veteran of Washington Politics right, and you know how much Money controls Politics. Privately a lot of these Senator and Congresspeople they lament how much time they have to spend fund raising; How it feels -- how they feel Dirty by this, practically and personally. [...] and CEO's too.
[...] I think People realize that things have gotten of control, the Economy has spun out of control. So there could be a Citizen Movement here. A real Movement about Money in Politics.
[...]
Adam Smith wrote The Moral Sentiments Before he wrote The Wealth of Nations -- without the Moral Framework, the Market goes crazy ...
Adam Smith was not just another Multi-national Capitalist?
Who knew?
The Theory of Moral Sentiments begins with the following assertion:
[ Adam Smith: ]
How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortunes of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it. Of this kind is pity or compassion, the emotion we feel for the misery of others, when we either see it, or are made to conceive it in a very lively manner.
That we often derive sorrow from the sorrows of others, is a matter of fact too obvious to require any instances to prove it; for this sentiment, like all the other original passions of human nature, is by no means confined to the virtuous or the humane, though they perhaps may feel it with the most exquisite sensibility. The greatest ruffian, the most hardened violator of the laws of society, is not altogether without it.
Compassion. Sharing. Helping out the least among us.
It's only Human. It's a prime mover, to the Human Condition.
It's also desperately needed, still -- despite all the Unheeded Sacrifices callously offered at the Alters of Austerity and Olympic Profits.
By those who would dare to lead the Nation ...
Republicans are watching and are ready to push the nation even closer to the brink of default if anyone suggests that revenue from the wealthy be a part of the solution. Democrats are watching, but, with a few notable exceptions, they don't say the word "poor" out loud anymore.
Anyone who could end up paying more in taxes is watching, even though taxes as a percentage of GDP dropped from 20 percent in 2000 to just over 14 percent in 2010. The average effective tax rate for the wealthiest is now only 17 percent of their income, and many corporations do not pay any taxes at all.
At the same time, nutrition programs for low-income mothers and children are at risk of being cut, as well as children's health programs, education for low-income students, early childhood development, and the most effective initiatives in the world, which are dramatically reducing both disease and hunger. These programs are at the risk of being cut because nobody has been watching out for them.
[...]
The markets are watching, the Republicans are watching, the Democrats are watching, the media are watching, the pollsters and pundits are watching. The public is watching and is disgusted with Washington, D.C. [...] the whole nation and even the world is watching.
God Is Watching -- by Jim Wallis, Christian leader for social change -- huffingtonpost.com, July 28, 2011
And I would hasten to add, History and Opportunity are watching too.
History hinges on such pivotal, political events.
As do the millions of livelihoods, of all the bit-players lost somewhere, in the backdrop, of this Shakespearean stage.