Dear Cori:
Grandpa Mike is justly proud of you. I see his mug at St. Anselm's Human Concerns and Social Justice meetings.
Also, welcome to the Fordham family. You will make a wonderful contribution.
Peace,
John
John Cosgrove, PhD
Professor and Associate Dean Emeritus
Graduate School of Social Service

Well Done!

IF OUR WEALTHY ELITE AMERICANS IN THE WEALTHIEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WILL NOT TAKE PROPER CARE OF OUR POORER U.S. CITIZENS,IT'S TIME TO ASK FOR INTERNATIONAL FINANCING !!!

THERE ARE NOT MANY MORE DISTRACTIONS LEFT WHICH ARE AVAILABLE FOR OUR WEALTHY ELITE AMERICANS TO HIDE BEHIND IN MAKING SURE THAT FUTURE PROPER AND JUST CARE OF ALL OUR AMERICANS (IN A HUMANE AND JUST FASHION) CONCERNING THIS BLATANT NATIONWIDE LACK OF PROPER LEGAL REPRESENTATION AND HEALTH ~ CARE.

AMERICAN IVORY TOWER U.S.CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD HAVE PASSED FEDERAL LEGISLATION IN WASHINGTON DC TO SPEND 50 BILLION AMERICAN TAX $$$ ON THE INTERNATIONAL FIGHT AGAINST AIDS OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS WHILE THEIR OWN AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE BEING TOLD BY THIS SAME U.S.CONGRESS THAT NATIONAL HEALTH CARE AND PROPER LEGAL REPRESENTATION FOR MIDDLE CLASS AND WORKING POOR CITIZENS IS UNAFFORDABLE.

*** WEALTHY ELITE AMERICANS (WHO ARE ONLY 1% OF OUR USA POPULATION) SADLY ALSO CONTROL HOW OUR U.S.CONGRESS SPENDS THEIR BUDGET TRILLION$ AND HAVE OBVIOUSLY FOUND MORE WORTHY INTERNATIONAL CITIZENS THEN OUR OWN DESPERATE AND NEEDY POOR TO ASSIST !!!
~Poorer Americans Nationwide only get 400 million $$$ per year for legal representation allocated them by CONGRESS~

Middle Class and Working Poor Americans are unable to afford proper legal representation in their Civil, Criminal and Family Courts of law all across America causing tremendous hardships nationwide,but these great minds and callous hearts in our American Congress have found others Worldwide more needy then their own citizens who are being falsely incarcerated,wrongfuly executed,losing their homes or apartments,losing child custody or visitation with their children etc…

Not being afforded proper legal representation by our U.S. Congress has created a total breakdown of the American judicial system for our poorer Americans because the our U.S. Courts punish all of us little people if we are not assisted with proprer legal counsel.it is a known fact that our average Middle Class and Working Poor Americans without proper legal representation in all of our American Courts of law lose their legal cases to the better financed who are able to afford lawyers.

Lawyers For Poor Americans is now actively in the hunt for International Countries and Leaders Worldwide to help raise 5 Billion Dollar$ for our slighted poorer Americans who have had their own American Congress turn their backs on their desperate needs in not affording them proper legal representation.

Troy Davis and Mumia Abu – Jamal are 2 perfect examples of American citizens who never had proper legal representation afforded them by our U.S. Congressional Leaders Of The Free World in their initial criminal trials in (Georgia and Pennsylvania) who might very well have to pay the ultimate price of possibly being completely innocent and falsely executed in the near future.

This is the first of many www International pleas by Lawyers For Poor Americans for other leaders and countries to help raise the needed monie$ to correct these blatant injustices that have been inflicted on poorer Americans for the last few decades.

Lawyers For Poor Americans has many other written articles that can be viewed with any www search engine by our name or our telephone number.

Lawyers For Poor Americans is a www lobby group of volunteers that sing out about the decades old neglect,abuse and injustices being inflicted on our poorer Americans that have become Crimes Against Humanity issues for the International World Court to investigate.

lawyersforpooreramericans@yahoo.com
(424-247-2013)

It’s clear that there is great economic and environmental injustice in the U.S.

Most of the comments on CD point out these injustices and lament their effects.

But the big question in my mind is how can we who are not rich or powerful make a significant difference.

And the best answer I can come up with is the following:

1. Reach out to as many people as possible, in whatever way works. For us at the Grassroots Coalition, we contact people in churches and colleges and high schools.
2. We’re starting this in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states.
3. Focus on what they care about. Most people are not much into altruism. So now we are appealing to people on the basis of economic self-interest.
4. Which means that we are seeking out people who are a) unemployed, 2) underemployed, 3) employed but seriously worried about their economic future. More than half the population.
5. We are inviting them to form into democratically-run worker-owned cooperatives. Modeled on the highly successful network of cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain.
6. Starting first by selling products that are made in an economically and environmentally just manner. Buying them wholesale and selling them retail
7. Using the profit to a) pay themselves and 2) accumulate until there is enough to start manufacturing.

We hope to grow and grow and thereby acquire economic and political power which we use to transform society.

If this interests you, contact John Conner at grassroots1@pa.net

re: "Fighting for the good" we must carry on this fight ourselves. Politicans (including Obama) are corrupted by "Corporate Influence"

HANDS ACROSS AMERICA RALLY for SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE

August 23, 2:00(CST) at/on your local mainstreet

Pick-up a sign and lend your voice to the "GOOD FIGHT"

As a human being that remembers what it was like to be 18 in tumultuous times, I understand your position. You aren't cynical. You think that our leaders are basically interested in the nation's welfare. When I was your age, JFK had been recently assasinated and I was on my way to West Point to begin life as a plebe in the US Military Academy. I believed the same as you do now, that our leaders were sober, intelligent, serious people. I have since read about what was really going on in government then with MacNamara and LBJ and the rest. I was dreaming. The reality was corruption without restraint. LadyBird (LBJ's wife) had big money in a construction corporation that benefited hugely from the Viet Nam war. Moyers was in the White House Staff and has guardedly spoken about how "deluded" many were then. He never has been able to unmask the corruption of those times but at least he is telling it like it is now.
Take my advice, dear. NEVER trust a member of the corporatocracy (Republican/democratic whores) to do ANYTHING for the good of the USA. I know you want a good job and when you look around, all you see are large corporations where the money is. They ALL will make you "make your bones" by stomping on your workmates and customers for profit. If you are willing to do that to make money, you'll make lots of it. If not, plan on being your own boss with a small business. And plan on having to fight tooth and nail the corporate monsters.
I've come a long way from wanting to be an Army Officer to a pacifist. The road was painful. Perhaps you can learn from my experience. Perhaps not. It's up to you. Start being cynical NOW and you'll have a better life. Look to Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez for the truth.

Cindy Sheehan is kick-starting the ridiculously moribund peace movement, protesting against Obama's wars just like she courageously did against Bush. Anyone capable of getting to Martha's Vineyard to take part should do so! Contributions would be good. Her website is cindysheehansoapbox.com. Go, Cindy!

"President Obama: Stand Up for the Change We Voted For"???

Sorry, Goldman Sachs pays better

I have volunteered for President Obama's campaign and have made over 2,000 phone calls over a 2 month period. I, like many progressives, doctors, nurses, etc., strongly believe a single payer system to be the easiest, most effective way to deal with the health care crisis.

With the understanding that we live in a world of compromise, progressive have settle on the compromised position of a public option in order to accommodate the interests of the much too powerful insurance industry and its representatives in Congress, the Republican party.

The elimination of the public option would be an unacceptable capitulation to the will of the minority (70% of Americans have consistently supported single payer over many years) and for this reason, it will not be something that I, and many other progressives would support.

The President, and the Democratic party should better pay attention to the following: any health care bill that shall pass without a strong public option will simply be seen by progressives like myself as a mandate to deliver more customers to private health insurance companies; and if that is what comes to pass you will have lost my support for the foreseeable future.

If the Democratic party capitulates to the pressures of big business and deny the people the choice of a strong public option, it will be the final nail in the coffin of the party as the representative of working people. I, for one, will actively begin working to build a truly progressive party to the left of the apparently centrist, corporate driven Democratic party.

"please keep fighting the good fight"

Obama stopped fighting that long ago, if he ever fought it at all. He just pretends to.

"These headlines disappoint and sadden me, as they seem to signal the end of the "hope" you inspired and the "change" you promised, threatening to derail the trust I placed in you, and the trust the millions who voted for you placed in you."

So torture, spying, wars, mass imprisonment, destruction of our civil rights, $23 trillion gift to Wall Street, and pervasive environmental degradation wasn't enough for you, huh?

"Now, months into your historic presidency, there are many domestic (and foreign) policy issues on which I have an opinion, for which there are no easy solutions and I refrain from commenting on. But I have a personal stake in what happens to the education system, the health care system and our economic system.""

"No easy solutions"! What a perfect example of the disgustingly detached nature of the American people. "Mr. Obama, I've heard you torture Muslims, well, I admit there are no easy solutions, and it doesn't concern ME, let's talk about issues effecting ME." On what issue is there not an easy solution? Expansion of nuclear power? Coal mining? Bombing Pakistan? Giving billions of dollars in military aid to Israel? Expanding our military presence in Columbia? Pick any of our lethal and disastrous policies and the solution is quite simple: end the policy. The US is not a victim. These are problems of our own creations.

"But I have a personal stake in what happens to the education system, the health care system and our economic system. "

A "personal stake"! Is that all you have a personal stake in?

Do you honestly believe that the other "domestic (and foreign) policy issues" don't effect you? Right now the media trumpets that we can't afford to pay a trillion dollars for healthcare. Do you recall any such debate on the 23 dollars given to banks? The trillion dollars for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? The 1-2 trillion that disappeared from the Pentagon budget?

"So, President Obama, as a young Latina heading off to college,"

You're Latina? Is that supposed to be important? You sound like a Latina who is not terribly concerned about other groups - such as Muslims.

"I'm asking you to please keep fighting the good fight"

What fight is this? "Keep fighting"??? Obama's been a Senator since 2004. Are you referring to his funding of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his bombing of Pakistan, his war on the environment, his war on civil liberties, his war against socialized medicine, his war against public education? What fight are you talking about?

There IS hope for America, and she just wrote a great essay for CD.

I do think there's another option CD posters are missing when they blame Obama. Perhaps he, like any other well-meaning person, when elected is presented with "an offer he can't refuse" ala the Godfather.

What would you say if the star rookie quarterback all of a sudden starting missing passes, making mistakes etc.? I mean this rookie had everything going for him, deals were coming in, salary was in the stratoshpere, fans loved him, teammates loved him. And yet he keeps funbling, throwing interceptions, etc. Would you say he sold out to his sponsors? Or might you think "somebody got to him".

I never hear the latter expressed. I wonder if MLK himself was elected what would happen? I do not put it past some of the powers that be to literally threaten death if the president, any president, doesn't play ball within the parameters they define.

My daughter is a young Latina heading off to law school this week. Last year she and her boyfriend went to see Obama speak in Portland and was so moved by him. I was my usual-born of years of political activism-cynical self and told her things like "no one gets a free ride, with a three ring circus into the WH, with the approval of the mainstream media unless he's sold his soul to Wall Street, etc."
As a parent, I wanted Obama to be like Santa for my daughter and her generation but as a political activist, I knew he was a fraud.
It makes me very sad that this souless jerk conned an entire generation into believing he was the modern version of MLK. It makes me sad that as a society we are so gullible into embracing mainstream politics/media without proper discernment.

Well, at least we finally have a president who matches the color of Shithead. That's the only Truth projected by this administration.

Alice in Wonderland is a fairy tale with remarkable insight for understanding the modern political duopoly. In fact, it is a metaphor for our political system. Nothing is likely to change until the people wake up from the dream.

" Threatening to derail the trust I and millions of others placed in you". That was your first mistake Cori! Too bad so many people like you were conned! I tried my best to inform people like you, but to no avail. Next time support a third party candidate and even if they do not win, at least you will not be politically naive.

Like the others posting on this thread, I have nothing but admiration and best wishes for Ms. Ring-Martinez and nothing but contempt and anger for the "hope and change" man who has so callously thrown her under the crowded bus those who have supported him both personally and politically. I would like to hope (against all odds) that the President of "all the people" would in fact read your letter and re-think the whole nature of his self-serving career.

At age 65, I've lived through a number of presidencies - and NOT ONE of them has lived up to its campaign promises.

The United States and all of its citizens, including the President and all of Congress, are now completely owned by Corporations. And you can be sure that nothing is really being done, or will be done, to change that.

My hope for America's future has steadily diminished throughout the years, with the horrors of Viet Nam and now the Middle East. Today, the Military Industrial Complex is as firmly ensconced in our governmental system as President Eisenhower warned in his farewell address would happen if the citizens weren't careful.

Obama, like his predecessors, has already begun to back down on the promises he so blithely made during his campaign - and has openly said as much during his town hall meetings.

It seems that the primary quality required for individuals to enter politics is that they have absolutely no conscience and no concern for the well-being of those who elected them. The only difference between them rests in the lies they tell in order to get themselves elected.

And, the funny thing is, I'm not surprised any more. They say that "Hope springs eternal." At my age, I can't say that is true!

C'mon kid - you got your Latina representative on the high court - what else do you think the leader of the free world can do to make it look like he cares about everday Americans? He's got big banks, corporations, energy companies, and war profiteers to look after now. So be a good girl and study hard and maybe one day you can get a job on cable news informing the world about our great country. Good luck and don't forget to vote!

You sound like a great kid, Cori. Thanks for your letter. Unfortunately, you're learning a lesson many of us had to as well; and that is there are very powerful people and corporations that are truly the ones who run the government. Politicians, sadly, are just front men for these "special interests." Obama has already caved to the banks and the military industrial complex; and will soon to the health insurance industry.

I suggest you turn to the internet and news stations like Democracynow.com to find the truth. Obama was/is not an agent of change. Many of us new this well before the election and did not vote for him. I guess we were right.

Thank you Cori. I want nothing more than for your generation to thrive and do what my generation hasn't done, bring a return to integrity. It's hard to watch someone like Obama, who looks and sounds like he could be "the person" to stand up and speak truth to power...cop out and choose the corporate path.

Cori don't let anyone tell you "you have to wait" for change. You go out and make change!

President Obama: Stand Down for the Corporate Interests that Put You in the White House

What a wonderful essay, Cori. What is a stark reality, however, is that all of the great role models for integrity and fighting for heavenly causes came to a violent end. Unfortunately, I don't see Obama as seeing himself as martyr material. He is too invested in the perks of power and the "good life" to want to do the right thing.

The true heroes of life turn out always to be from ordinary people and those who represent them, not the politicians. It took me years to realize this truth.

Lawd, would I love to be so innocent again! From the beauty of your innocence, Cori, to the ears of a deaf politician....may they be open to the sound of your plea.