Why I Support World Can’t Wait

Hello. My name is Linda, and I would like to take a moment to share with you about why I support World Can’t Wait (WCW).
 
In my view, what our leaders in government are doing in my name – and that of every other American – is plain wrong. Yet we all play a role in the kind of government that we have. Many of us simply opt out, because we feel overwhelmed by the pressures of our lives or by the sheer volume of conflicting information coming at us. But we must realize the price for not standing up to tyranny in all its forms. Democracy and freedom are not free!

I worked on the Obama campaign and really believed that he, as a black American, would make a difference. But I now realize that what he said on the campaign trail amounted to empty words. As his first term draws to a close, I am deeply disappointed, indeed outraged, at what the Obama Administration has done, on the one hand, and not done, on the other.

If you look at the Obama record, it closely resembles that of the Bush II Administration. Very little real change has taken place: We remain embroiled in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which I consider immoral. I even heard on a radio news program, Democracy Now!, that President Obama favors developing a whole new generation of nuclear weapons, something that not even George W. Bush undertook during his eight years in office.

Many millions are out of work, and health care is a national disgrace. Most Americans are even worse off than they were before Mr. Obama took office. The cost of living continues to rise, even as people’s real wages decline. Our government has done little, if anything, on behalf of what they so cynically call Main Street. What is our government doing to put people back to work?

If I am honest, I do not believe that most people in government care about the future of the vast majority of  Americans – and they don’t have to: Once they are inside the Washington Beltway, they are insulated from the realities of everyday life, enveloped in a world of lobbying, power and campaign donations. I now know for sure that elections are not going to solve our problems, because most Americans do not have the power to elect sincere, principled candidates who will not sell out. Candidates who represent my core values can no longer run for national office, because they don’t have the money to campaign. As Ralph Nader often says about the choice of candidates, "Do you want Mr. Visa or Mr. Mastercard?"

For these reasons and many more, I support World Can’t Wait with a small, monthly donation. I used to march with WCW when we lived in a major U.S. city. Now that we live in a smaller town, I continue to follow all that WCW is doing to fight for genuine change through grass roots actions all over the country. (The Tea Party, by contrast, is a pseudo-grass-roots organization funded by multi-millionaires and billionaires, for example! This, too, is so cynical that it makes my blood run cold.)

WCW is fighting the good fight, and I hope that you will join me by supporting them with your time and resources. The future of coming generations may depend upon our willingness to stand up now for what we believe is right. And we must do so in greater and greater numbers as things become increasingly urgent!

Yours truly,

Linda