Jim Hightower comments on the spirit of real Americans:
THANKS FOR AMERICA'S REBELLIOUS SPIRIT
jimhightower.com
11/27/2003
On this Thanksgiving Day, one thing that I'm thankful for is to be a progressive in America – even in this age of bushwa.
What makes me thankful is the great rebellious spirit and progressive ideals that I find among the great majority of our people – a spirit and progressivism that can't be drained from us even by the collective efforts of BushCo, the Corporate Kleptocrats, and the Wobblycrats in Washington.
Luckily, I get to travel a lot, speaking and working with folks all across America. So I don't have to take my impression of people's beliefs and attitudes from the establishment press, pundits, pollsters, and politicos. And I can tell you that, contrary to the contrived conventional wisdom of these establishment elites, Americans are not a bunch of meek, trust-authority, just-go-shopping corporate conservatives clutching duct tape and religiously watching Fox television to learn what it is we're supposed to think and do.
Rather, we're the same bunch of restless-and-raucus rebels, anti-establishment mutts and mavericks who've always been drawn to this big brawling and sprawling country – and who've steadily extended our egalitarian ideals over the decades. Everywhere I go, I find that ordinary grassroots Americans are lighting little prairie fires of rebellion against the economic and political exclusion being practiced by the power elites.
You hear little about it from the media barons, but more than 112 cities have already passed living wage initiatives, students on more than 50 campuses have outlawed sweatshop goods from Nike and others, nearly 200 towns have defeated Wal-Mart and other big-box bullies from bulldozing into their communities, more than 200 cities, towns and counties have passed formal actions against the liberty-busting USA Patriot Act, and... well the list goes on of modern-day rebels fighting – and winning – to take our democracy back.
Thanks to all of you on this Thanksgiving Day for your great rebellious spirit! |
