Monday, June 6, 2011

Lady Liberty turns her back.

Linda had a dream last night where the Statue of Liberty had turned her back on New York.

Well, I think technically, she already is turned outward, to welcome the immigrants. But I love the image, and I feel the metaphor. And it works the other way -- turning her back on

" your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,



There is a new book out about the building of the transcontinental railroad that flays the corrupt and mean-spirited men who got rich off the government subsidies. Here's the crux of the mystery:

"...how so many powerful and influential people are so ignorant and do so many things so badly and how the world still goes on." RAILROADED; Richard White.

Sound familiar?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I think the most frustrating thing for me about this return of similar patterns is how oblivious people are to the entire thing. We all get so caught up in the minutiea of day to day living that attrocity and outright wrongs are either quickly passed over or just ignored. If history has taught us anything, change starts with one simple thing: the one that is willing to stand up for what's right.

Duncan McGeary said...

There is a fantastic graph over on Big Picture that shows the percentage of total wealth owned by the top 1%.

Every country out an out of proportion 1% in the 1920 -- but through most of the rest of the 2pth century, it settle down to about half that large a ratio.

Then, in the 1980's, that 1% started growing and growing in the U.S.A. (but not, interestingly, in the rest of the world.)

It now equals the 1920's.

But to mention this disproportion is "class warfare."

We've lost our way.

H. Bruce Miller said...

Americans are ignorant of other countries and of basic facts about their own country, and the right wing wants it to stay that way. If Americans weren't so ignorant the wingers would have a tough time peddling the "greatest country in the world" myth -- a myth so cherished and universally believed, in spite of all evidence, that no politician dares to openly challenge it.

H. Bruce Miller said...

BTW, the woman who wrote the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty -- Emma Lazarus -- was a SOCIALIST. Bet Sarah Palin doesn't know that -- or wouldn't admit it if she did.