[Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] News notes 2005-03-06: social security

[David Green]

--- "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
wrote:

--4 of 5 said it was the government's
> responsibility to assure a
> decent SOL for the elderly.

I made the mistake of responding to an e-mail from
Democracy Now this past week to watch Amy Goodman on
Hardball with Chris Matthews. The first 55 minutes was
occupied with people like Cokie Roberts, who lauded
Laura bush for being smart and funny, although her
White House literary salon was so rudely disrupted by
Bush critics.

Finally at 6:55, Amy came on with a woman from San
Francisco to debate social security. Matthews grilled
her about the crisis, which she of course she said was
manufactured, although Matthews implied that she must
be in denial. The woman from SF commented that it's
too bad that old people are hurting young people. Amy
referred to Gandhi's comment about western
civilization being a good idea, and deftly undercut
the SF woman's insistence on generational warfare--to
paraphrase, how have we gotten to the point when
taking care of old people is seen as hurting young
people. SF was speechless, and time was up. Actually,
Noam Chomsky aside, Amy is a master of concision.
Perhaps it was worth the whole hour, since I was
exhausted from work anyway. And I got a little
education on what passes for discussion on MSNBC.
Nauseating. But I really think Amy Goodman shouldn't
allow herself to be consigned to this spectacle.

DG