We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, February 26, 2010

White House healthcare summit

from the Guardian. Just in case you missed the live TV coverage yesterday, this is a somewhat cynical, but quite entertaining report on the health care summit which brought some leading figures from both capitalist parties together by Obama to try to move health care proposals forward. Yesterday's live stream coverage from Pro Publica was very useful in understanding why so little has been, and will in the future not be, accomplished to provide health care for all Americans. In that article they made reference to a study which also documented the political reality that "our" Congressional legislators serve at the behest of their sponsors.
... this study [4] (PDF) conducted by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington detailing information on health industry donations to the summit's participants in recent years. According to the report, over the past five years the 21 politicians at the summit have received nearly $47 million from the industry.
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