Monday, February 28, 2011

R.A. Salvatore On The Fight Against The Middle Class

Fantasy writer R.A. Salvatore posted this at the Daily Kos yesterday:

"I stand with the protesters in Wisconsin."

http://www.facebook.com/...

And started a firestorm...

This will be a very short diary, as others more in the know are covering Wisconsin brilliantly.

As an aside to the larger issue: I have been wringing my hands for years over whether it is right and wise to speak my mind politically, or to only do so anonymously. My first account at Dkos was under a different name.

in truth, I really can't believe that I went to a Facebook fan page and let fly on Wisconsin, even in such a minimalist way. That tells me something about how strongly I feel that THIS fight in Wisconsin is a pivotal battle in the future of America. Personally, I believe that an America where the middle class can't afford their health care, their college education, their retirement, even their homes, is an America doomed.

A couple of posters have already said they won't read my books anymore...oh well.

To the bigger issue: unions are the only things that are going to save the middle class. The Democrats - even those who believe in the middle class - won't be able to do it, or won't dare try, but the Republicans will continue to go after them for the benefit of the already obscenely rich.

I'm a blue collar kid from a blue collar neighborhood. Shared sacrifice? How about making the wealthy pay a bit more?

Indeed.

4 comments:

  1. R.A. Salvatore is my favorite fantasy writer. I have almost all of his books in my library. Pretty awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. R.A. Salvatore is my favorite fantasy writer. I have almost all of his books in my library. Pretty awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I grew up in the middle of Nassau County,Long Island, in an idyllic, xenophobic, working class neighborhood. My Dad was a factory worker and former radical in the '30's. Politics was often a topic of conversation with him and my mother, who got him involved to begin with. Having grown up with a labor union benefiting our family tremendously, and having been involved with education for over 35 years, I feel as you do,that our future looms large in these new schemes to kill the middle class. Turning kids' classrooms into data production laboratories isn't exactly turning out the informed populace that Thomas Jefferson said was needed for a democracy to thrive, either. I am past hand wringing at this point; I am also ready to take a stand and take action when I can. A new political party and movement must form in this country, perhaps some kind of Labor Party. Otherwise, I will encourage my child to emigrate, since there will be no future to this country. It will have been wasted by the oligarchs and fascists.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ...Australia...New Zealand...Canada...English speaking countries with promise...

    ReplyDelete