Black & Green Wed, July 4 - Independence from the Financial Tyranny of the 1%
Celebrate a Green July 4! Come at 7:00 pm (or before), Wednesday, July 4, 2012 to Legacy Books and Café, 5249 Delmar (near Union) 63108. Join the Greens for a panel discussion on “Independence from the Financial Tyranny of the 1%.” Speakers will include:
· Fred Raines, Occupy St. Louis
· Amari Sneferu, Universal African People’s Organization
· Mimi Signor, Missourians for Single Payer
· Brian Kaller, Irish Greens
· Don Fitz, Green Party of Missouri [moderator]
The weirdest thing about Independence Day is the increasing lack of financial independence of Americans. As the standard of living of the 99% deteriorates, the 1% control more and more of our lives.
This is nothing new. Slavery was a part of everyday life during the American Revolution. Frederick Douglass knew well how Africans in America were excluded from sharing the wealth that they created.
Today, no contradiction is greater than the gluttony of the few while millions go without medical care. With such enormous wealth in the US, why should health care not be a basic right for all?
But we must ask how we can improve the quality of our lives without leaving our descendents a poisoned environment emptied of biodiversity with runaway climate change and no natural resources. Where are there examples of people living decent lives without ravaging the planet? Such a path would provide genuine economic independence from the 1%.
Fred Raines is retired from teaching economics at Washington University. He is running for the Green Party of St. Louis Central Committee and is active with the Gateway Green Alliance and Occupy St. Louis. Fred frequently speaks at St. Louis events describing the unequal distribution of wealth.
Amari Sneferu is active with the Universal African People’s Organization. He has studied the writing of Frederick Douglass and will share with us the meaning of July 4 to slaves.
Mimi Signor, RN, MSN, is Vice President for Missourians for Single Payer. A staff nurse at Barnes Jewish Hospital, she advocates and agitates for universal health care through a not-for-profit single payer program.
St. Louis native Brian Kaller worked as a newspaper reporter and editor, and has written for the Dallas Morning News, Big Questions Online, Front Porch Republic and Permaculture, as well as a weekly column for an Irish newspaper. He frequently writes about the eventual end of fossil fuels, along with related problems like climate change and environmental problems, and about the “long emergency” of crises they will create.
Several years ago Kaller and his family moved to rural Ireland to be near his wife’s family, and since then he has collected dozens of interviews with elderly people there. Until recently Ireland was the poorest Western nation. Even in the 1970s some people lacked electricity, indoor plumbing or automobiles, and the average Irish made a tenth as much money as modern Americans.
Yet, surprisingly, the Irish then were healthier, safer and happier than Americans today, at least in survey responses. Crime was one-twentieth the USA’s current average, and people were highly educated and lived in close-knit communities. By studying how people could thrive in such austere conditions, Kaller hopes to learn what Americans today have forgotten: how to live self-sufficiently and independently of the mainstream corporate elite.
Articles by Brian Kaller:
Big Questions Online: www.bigquestionsonline.com/columns/brian-kaller/osterity-old-virtues-in-the-new-ireland
Permaculture Media: http://www.permaculture-media-download.com/2011/02/patch-of-somewhere-else-by-brian-kaller.html
Low-Tech Magazine: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2012/02/basketry-the-art-of-producing-sustainable-consumer-goods.html
Dallas Morning News: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sunday-commentary/20091218-Brian-Kaller-Being-part-of-8037.ece
Sponsored by Gateway Green Alliance and Universal African Peoples Organization. For more information call 314-727-8554
