Humble Musings. . . on adding a 2nd Bill of Rights

With so many big political issues being discussed right now, from education reform to health care, I wanted to share this part of a speech that I came across the other day, along with my feelings regarding the state of our great nation in relation to it. Click read more to take the jump.

(All bolding and brackets are my own, for emphasis)

Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The Economic Bill of Rights”

Excerpt from 11 January 1944 message to Congress on the State of the Union

It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

(1) The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

(2)The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

(3)The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

(4)The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

(5)The right of every family to a decent home;

(6)The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

(7)The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

(8)The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.

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This, to me, is amazing. Amazing for two reasons. The first being that, in the middle of the greatest war human kind has known, just a few short years removed from the great depression, the president was looking forward to a bright future, full of hope and promise for not only Americans, but for the entire world. The second thing that amazes me is that virtually none of these proposed "Rights" are enjoyed by the majority of American's today and many of them have been a fantasy since they were read to the American people in 1944.

Let me show some statistics, because everyone love to see those. The numbers correspond to the () numbers above.

(1) - The unemployment rate in the U.S. as of February 2010 is 10.4% http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=usunemployment&ctype=l&met_y=unemployment_rate&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=state&tdim=true&tstart=631152000000&tunit=M&tlen=241&hl=en_US&dl=en

(2)&(3) - The poverty rate was 13.2% as of 2008, from a study conducted in 2009. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty08/pov08fig03.pdf

(4) - I could not find the number for this, but it is generally considered to be an issue that big businesses like Wal-mart, Big Banking, etc. are pushing out Mom and Pop small businesses and home town banks.

(5) - A 2007 survey shows that on any given night 672,000 people are homeless. 37% of these are families while 63% are made of of individual adults. http://cflhomeless.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/how-many-are-homeless-in-america/

(6) - In a fall 2009 study, it was estimated that 45,000 Americans die EVERY YEAR due to lack of health insurance. This number is greater then deaths from kidney disease. http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/study-45000-americans-die-each-year-for-lack-of-insurance/

(7) - This also goes along with the problems of the health insurance industry, along with other types of insurance, but also extends to social security (which will almost assuredly not be available for my generation.)

(8) - Major players from all political parties now agree that the education system in this country has been broken and needs a drastic overhaul. I remain optimistic that this issue will be resolved and the solution well on it's way by the end of 2010.

This is not the fault of the current administration, the previous administration, or any administration going back 30, 40, even 50 years. This is the fault of the American mentality of "ME FIRST." The thinking that, "As long as I'M set up, even one else can figure out their own way," or "people are weak if they need help." And when we are truly honest with ourselves, everyone not only has had, but needs help from time to time. To get back on their feet. To find direction. And then once we are good to go, we pat ourselves on the back for getting there all by our lonesome. It is a common expression that "a country (civilization) can be judged by how it treats it's poorest citizens," but do we ever really stop to think about what that truly means for our country. No, because if we judged ourselves based on this standard it would be too hard to look in the mirror in the morning. And that is the saddest thing of all.

As a people, we have lost the ability to show compassion to our fellow man. We tell ourselves that help should not be given because people take advantage of the system, or they are just lazy. This thinking neglects the majority of people who use this assistance, the good hard working people who have fallen on hard times due to this countries economic collapse. And a collapse it truly is. The news might talk about being in an economic upswing from last years recession, but if history has taught us anything it is that if we do not learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it. This is a short respite, and if the way things are done, at all levels, is not changed the country will be back in this position before you can bat an eye. I'm not championing for socialism or democracy, for capitalism or communism. I'm simply stating that what we are doing does not work and that things need to change.

Albert Einstein once said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." And I think we can all agree that he was a pretty smart fellow.