This week feels like a "grab bag" of information--sort of an amalgamation of issues I have been commenting on for the past few weeks--which feels appropriate given the first quarter of the school year is about to wrap up.
What started all my posts last spring on the problems with disproportionate wealth distribution was the parallels between what is happening now and the excesses of the late 19th century Gilded Age in America. I blogged about how such disparate distribution leads to a host of societal ills, which eventually--at least according to precedent--will lead to reform. Otherwise, without change, opportunity is lost for the vast majority of Americans and it begins to become a Constitutional issue. I haven't heard anyone mention Constitutionality yet, but lo and behold, in the October 9 2011 issue of the NY Times, there's an article glossing over the loss of opportunity resulting from overly concentrated wealth in America.
On that note, I've been wondering what the average person can really *do* as a response to the problems of wealth and the commercialization of human beings in America. Besides protest, obviously, besides the empty-feeling "write to your congress person," what can we do that will make a difference? What will let the financial institutions that be know there are consequences to their policies, consequences which are meaningful to them? I've already closed my bank account with BOA and switched everything over to a credit union, mainly because I was tired of being talked to and treated like a child. Looks like other people are doing the same thing (applause!!!!!).
I've been mentioning the drama committee work I've been involved with and the spoken word pieces generated by students from last year's conference. Here's a link to one of the performances. The quality isn't so great but the message and performance is pretty amazing, given where it came from. The kids come to the conference with basically nothing and after 4 days of intense work/workshopping, arrived at this performance. Yay poetry track!
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