This week Congressman Paul Ryan released the new Republican budget for the federal government. One thing was notably missing: anything different from the budget he proposed last year. Rep. Ryan and his colleges on the GOP budget committee produced a document that turns Medicaid into a voucher system, makes further cuts in programs that many Americans rely on for their daily survival and his core proposal being the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.… [Read more]
The stock markets soar and the rich get richer, but the middle class has lost ground and the poor live in stagnation. For many, the “American Dream” is nowhere in sight. Teachers, cops and other civil servants have seen their salaries erode before their own eyes as they struggle to try to fulfill a dream rigged by the powers that be.… [Read more]
Perhaps there was no greater lightning rod in the President’s State of the Union Address this past Tuesday than the following statement:
Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour…let’s tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on.… [Read more]
The American dream of the 1950s — owning a home in suburbia — is no longer what it seems. Single income households are generally a thing of the past, and residential renting became much more practical when the housing market turned downwards at the onset of the economic recession. As single family home sales stalled, condominium purchases picked up some slack.… [Read more]
So here we are, the grand finale of my little saga of pissing and moaning about how sick and mean and cruel our schools are. Reading back on the previous three installments, I sometimes cringed; I sounded petulant, whiny, brash in that sophomoric know-it-all way that many 15-to-21 year-olds are before they get tossed feet-first out of their little adolescent test tubes and get their asses kicked by real life.… [Read more]
This is part two of my interview with Daniella P, a woman living and working in the United States without proper legal documentation, in the Shadows of The American Dream.
MI: How did the events of 9/11 affect your chances of obtaining legal authorization to live and work in the U.S?
DP: My family and I were in line for ten years, our petition for residency was done June of 1995.… [Read more]
On Friday I had the privilege of attending a talk by Van Jones at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC and wanted to report back on what Van Jones said about achieving economic justice. While the talk was designed to promote Jones’ new book, Rebuild the Dream, many topics were covered and there was a question and answer session at the end.… [Read more]
I usually agree with everything that comes out of Bill Maher’s mouth. We are simpatico on every topic. Sorry I just love the word simpatico, have ever since I heard Dana Scully use it during a Season Three X-Files episode. I apologize for the momentary digression. Anyway, last week on Real Time with Bill Maher, one of his New Rules was that voters should determine presidential elections the way they decide everything else.… [Read more]
That is the truth. I’d like to pretend that I know what is occurring in the world around me, but I really don’t. Recently I got into an argument with a close friend about how oblivious I appear to be with regard to what is going on in the world around me. In her opinion, I should be more concerned about current politics. … [Read more]
We are spoon fed a dream growing up in America that is akin to a grandiose fairy tale. We are programmed to believe that the corporate ladder is there to be climbed – and if we sweat and bleed enough, one day we will reach the top of it victorious. It is ingrained in us that the path to reach the top of the highest mountain is to buckle down and study, avoid excessive idle time and make sure to pad our academic resumes with lots and lots of meaningful extracurricular activities. … [Read more]
