“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” -- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, April 4, 1967.
Since then, corporate greed, technology and consumerism have come to reign supreme in the U.S., and the inherent evils of racism, materialism and militarism as we were forewarned by Dr. King appear now to be invincible.
Unfortunately for today’s Americans, their press is anything but free since the vast majority of communications media in the U.S. is owned by six corporations: General Electric, Walt Disney, News Corp., TimeWarner, Viacom and CBS.
While America may have an independent judiciary, which some consider to have been a model for the rest of the world, access is restricted to those who can afford it, and incidences of racial and ethnic discrimination occur with alarming frequency.
Not so subtle is the blatant racism within the U.S. judicial system, which imprisons a disproportionate number of blacks and ethnic minorities as documented in a report by Human Rights Watch.
Additionally, there are concerns over concentration of executive power...when the U.S. president can bypass it at will to incarcerate or assassinate anyone, including American citizens, anywhere in the world who may be on “The List”.
Perhaps the youth will cause an American awakening to blossom this spring.
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