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<div class="node-header"> <span class="submitted"> "I'd start a
r[3vol]ution...if I could get up in the morning" - Aimee Allen<br>
<br>
*<br>
I found this piece in Common Dreams this morning and find several good
points here,<br>
and it might be an interesting discussion piece.<br>
<br>
<br>
Published on Monday, January 23, 2012 by <a
href="http://www.commondreams.org">Common Dreams</a><!-- I converted this one -->
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<h2 class="title">Ten Steps for Radical Revolution in the US</h2>
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<div class="author"> by <a
href="http://www.commondreams.org/bill-quigley">Bill Quigley</a> </div>
</div>
<p class="rteindent1"><em>“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.” </em><strong> --Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. 1967</strong></p>
<p><strong>One.</strong> Human rights must be taken absolutely
seriously. Every single person is entitled to dignity and human rights.
No application needed. No exclusions at all. This is our highest
priority.<span class="image-right" style="width: 325px;"><span
class="caption"></span></span></p>
<p><strong>Two.</strong> We must radically reinvent contemporary
democracy. Current systems are deeply corrupt and not responsive to the
needs of people. Representatives chosen by money and influence govern
by money and influence. This is unacceptable. Direct democracy by the
people is now technologically possible and should be the rule.
Communities must be protected whenever they advocate for
self-determination, self-development and human rights. Dissent is
essential to democracy; we pledge to help it flourish.</p>
<p><strong>Three.</strong> Corporations are not people and are not
entitled to human rights. Amend the US Constitution so it is clear
corporations do not have constitutional or human rights. We the people
must cut them down to size and so democracy can regulate their size,
scope and actions.</p>
<p><strong>Four.</strong> Leave the rest of the world alone. Cut US
military spending by 75 percent and bring all troops outside the US
home now. Defense of the US is a human right. Global offense and global
police force by US military are not. Eliminate all nuclear and chemical
and biological weapons. Stop allowing scare tactics to build up the
national security forces at home. Stop the myth that the US is somehow
special or exceptional and is entitled to act differently than all
other nations. The US must re-join the global family of nations as a
respectful partner. USA is one of many nations in the world. We must
start acting like it.</p>
<p><strong>Five.</strong> Property rights, privilege, and money-making
are not as important as human rights. When current property and
privilege arrangements are not just they must yield to the demands of
human rights. Money-making can only be allowed when human rights are
respected. Exploitation is unacceptable. There are national and global
poverty lines. We must establish national and global excess lines so
that people and businesses with extra houses, cars, luxuries, and
incomes share much more to help everyone else be able to exercise their
basic human rights to shelter, food, education and healthcare. If that
disrupts current property, privilege and money-making, so be it.</p>
<p><strong>Six.</strong> Defend our earth. Stop pollution, stop
pipelines, stop new interstates, and stop destroying the land, sea, and
air by extracting resources from them. Rebuild what we have destroyed.
If corporations will not stop voluntarily, people must stop them. The
very existence of life is at stake.</p>
<p><span class="pullquote">We respect the human rights and human
dignity of others and work for a world where love and wisdom and
solidarity and respect prevail.</span></p>
<p><strong>Seven.</strong> Dramatically expand public spaces and
reverse the privatization of public services. Quality public education,
health and safety for all must be provided by transparent accountable
public systems. Starving the state is a recipe for destroying social
and economic human rights for everyone but the rich.</p>
<p><strong>Eight.</strong> Pull the criminal legal prison system up and
out by its roots and start over. Cease the criminalization of drugs,
immigrants, poor people and people of color. We are all entitled to be
safe but the current system makes us less so and ruins millions of
lives. Start over.</p>
<p><strong>Nine.</strong> The US was created based on two original
crimes that must be confessed and made right. Reparations are owed to
Native Americans because their land was stolen and they were uprooted
and slaughtered. Reparations are owed to African Americans because they
were kidnapped, enslaved and abused. The US has profited widely from
these injustices and must make amends.</p>
<p><strong>Ten.</strong> Everyone who wants to work should have the
right to work and earn a living wage. Any workers who want to organize
and advocate for change in solidarity with others must be absolutely
protected from recriminations from their employer and from their
government.</p>
<p>Finally, if those in government and those in power do not help the
people do what is right, people seeking change must together exercise
our human rights and bring about these changes directly. Dr. King and
millions of others lived and worked for a radical revolution of values.
We will as well. We respect the human rights and human dignity of
others and work for a world where love and wisdom and solidarity and
respect prevail. We expect those for whom the current unjust system
works just fine will object and oppose and accuse people seeking
dramatic change of being divisive and worse. That is to be expected
because that is what happens to all groups which work for serious
social change. Despite that, people will continue to go forward with
determination and purpose to bring about a radical revolution of values
in the USA.</p>
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