Not Those of Poor Americans, That’s For Sure
Tom Dispatch
by Liz Theoharis
February 16, 2021
In June 1990, future South African President Nelson Mandela addressed a joint session of Congress only months after being released from 27 years in a South African apartheid prison. He reminded the political leadership of the United States that “to deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity. To impose on them a wretched life of hunger and deprivation is to dehumanise them.”
MoveOn
February 14, 2021
Tom Dispatch
by Liz Theoharis
January 17, 2021
2020 will go down as the deadliest year in American history, significantly due to the devastation delivered by the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, count in nearly two trillion dollars in damage from climate events (many caused by, or heightened by, intensifying global warming), a surge of incidents of police violence inflicted on Black and Native peoples, and millions more Americans joining the ranks of the poor even as small numbers of billionaires soared ever further into the financial heavens. And it’s already obvious that 2021 is likely to prove another harrowing year.
They must reject the politics of austerity and fulfill their commitment to policies that address human needs.
By William J. Barber II and Liz Theoharis
The New York Times
Dec. 25, 2020
Before he was elected in November, Joe Biden promised that his “theory of change” for reforming the economy would be “ending poverty.” He pledged to champion a $15 minimum wage, affordable health care for all and federal action to address systemic racism. In the midst of an economic crisis, a pandemic and an uprising for racial justice, low-income Americans — Black, white, brown, Asian and Native — voted to overwhelm a reactionary base that President Trump had stoked with lies and fear.
Tom Dispatch
by Liz Theoharis
December 13, 2020
Martin Luther King, Jr., offered this all-too-relevant comment on his moment in his 1967 speech “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?”:
“The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the upper classes until they gag with superfluity. If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent.”
Tom Dispatch
by Liz Theoharis
November 17, 2020
In the two weeks since Election 2020, the country has oscillated between joy and anger, hope and dread in an era of polarization sharpened by the forces of racism, nativism, and hate. Still, truth be told, though the divisive tone of this moment may only be sharpening, division in the United States of America is not a new phenomenon.
CNN
by William J. Barber II and Liz Theoharis
October 21, 2020
On Thursday evening, Americans have one last chance to hear President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden on the same stage for 90 minutes. While neither candidate is likely to change course or depart from their stump speech, Americans deserve to hear both candidates address the pressing issue of poverty.
Inequality.org
by Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis Nijmie Zakkiyyah Dzurinko
September 30, 2020
At the start of Tuesday’s unhinged presidential debate — as the pandemic continued to rage outside the walls of Case Western University — the American people were offered an anemic vision for promoting and expanding public health. In the shadow of more than 200,000 deaths from the novel coronavirus, viewers heard pushback on the use of masks, critiques of publicly funded healthcare, and lies about nonexistent plans to mend a broken and inhumane healthcare system.
Tom Dispatch
by Liz Theoharis
September 27, 2020
On August 26th, during the Republican National Convention, Vice President Mike Pence closed out his acceptance speech with a biblical sleight of hand. Speaking before a crowd at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, he exclaimed, “Let’s fix our eyes on Old Glory and all she represents. Let’s fix our eyes on this land of heroes and let their courage inspire.” In doing so, he essentially rewrote a passage from the New Testament’s Book of Hebrews: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.”
The urgent case for setting our sights higher.
In These Times
By Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis
August 19, 2020
It is powerful symbolism and historical substance to have a Black woman, a woman of color, on the presidential ticket of a major U.S. political party, a multi-racial ticket that could lead this nation still struggling to deal with the vestiges of what Rev. James Lawson described at Congressman John Lewis’ funeral, as the disease of “plantation capitalism.”
