Join Together With The Band

You know, I'm just some everyday American, an average Joe. But even I can see that America has a serious problem on it's hands with the ever-increasing polarization of wealth.

I don't have all of the answers to fix the serious problem I see with the 99% of Americans continuing to be marginalized by the moneyed-interests of the other 1% of Americans sitting at the top of the economic pyramid. I don't know how to specifically change things, but I do know that I'm upset with the deteriorating democratic situation for most Americans.

What I also know, is that we've reached a point where if we majority of Americans don't join forces to fight against this growing unfairness and economic inequality in America, then we're doomed to be continually marginalized forever.

But how do we find people to believe in? How can we tell who's on our side? Many of us Progressives believed in Barack Obama and his promises of "hope and change" only to be disappointed when things remained the same (or deteriorated) after his elections, and the criminals remained in charge.

We've spent the last 5-years of our lives expecting things to change for the better only to watch the 1% gain even more wealth and power, while our political representation has disappeared, our standard of living has declined, and our Constitutional rights have eroded even further.

It's obvious to me that our political (and judicial) system has been captured by the 1%.

So what do we do? Do we keep voting for corrupted politicians who serve the corporate interests, that both the GOP and Democratic parties keep throwing at us, or do we seek to find "new and improved" leaders to represent us that aren't part of the corrupted political establishment? Where do we find such leadership? Who can we trust to serve our interests without compromise, and to affect change?

Again, I don't know. But what I do know is that first - We Need To Unite!

And someone much politically smarter than me thinks the same.

According to the New York Times, Richard L. Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., has a bold new plan to reverse organized labor’s long slide in America: let millions of nonunion workers — and perhaps environmental, immigrant and other advocacy groups — join the labor federation.

That sounds like a great solution to me, or at least the beginning of change.

According to that same article, Mr. Trumka says he believes that if unions are having a difficult time increasing their ranks, they can at least restore their clout by building a broad coalition to advance a worker-friendly political and economic agenda. And according to me, who's to say that clout can't be used to serve the agenda of the majority of Americans?

Maybe we should put our faith in Mr. Trumka. WHO knows? We 99% could band together as one.