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Progressive Values Stories: Norman Solomon on We're All in it Together
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I interviewed Norman Solomon at the 2008 Democratic Party Convention in San Jose, California. Norman is a columnist and his book "War Made Easy" was recently made into a movie with Sean Penn narrating it. In this second part of the interview, he talks about the progressive value of responsibility for each other. This responsibility is the basis of the popular progressive phrase, 'We're All in it Together' which stands in contrast to the more conservative view of 'Every Man for Himself'.
Progressive Values Stories: Norman Solomon on We're All in it Together
My name is Norman Solomon. I’m an activist, writer, author, and columnist. I’m a delegate to the State Democratic Party Convention in 2008, because I was elected as a representative to the Central Committee of the Democratic Party. The overall value to me that is crucial to progressive movements and progressive sensibilities and beliefs is all about the conviction, the deep-held belief that we’re all in this together. That we all have a responsibility to each other. That we all should as human beings strive to be the antithesis of the crabs in the tank trying to crawl over each other to get on top of each other and step on others in the process.
Unfortunately, because of economic and other reasons, often that’s the behavior that is reinforced. And there is so much in human beings that is cooperative, collective, working together, caring about each other, whether you see it in terms of I am my brother’s keeper or you see it in terms of the family of humanity. Families are very much that expression of that, at least at their best, about we’re all in this together. And if you can extend that to the notion that it’s human beings on this planet – we’re all in this together – then there’s a mutual responsibility and a mutual accountability. And I think nurturing that we can create and build into our economic and political systems. Edwin: Do you have any kind of personal story wherein you learned a lesson about it? Norman: For me, it’s been very gradual, growing up in fairly middle income United States during the Fifties and Sixties. For a year and a half, because my father was in the foreign aid program, I lived in India when I was eight or nine years old, and the contrast between the way in which most of us, anywhere, in the United States live, with the minimal amount of nutrients, nutrition, housing, some sort of security, was, of course, in very sharp contrast to Calcutta, India. And I think that as well in many other encounters, some of which were not really with conscience awakened at the moment, really did over a period of time – like water on the stone perhaps – shaped me in a certain direction, when I responded to seeing the world as way too filled with inequity for my own sense of human comfort – not literally that it’s my own wealth or something that’s at stake, but comfort in a difference sense. A moral comfort, you might say. So, I would say it’s been an aggregate for me. I’m 56 years old, and we’re all sort of an aggregate of what we’ve experienced and what we’ve drawn from our experiences. I think in human terms there is this person evolution that takes place, and sometimes we’re not aware of it very much until after the fact. And in retrospect, we can see that we’ve been on trajectory. And I think the best way to see that trajectory is to check out one’s own values internally, and not simply hook on to some slogans or some media agenda or some easy path that seems to have already been cleared. We need to make our own path individually, and most, especially, in social terms – being with others to create a sense of mutual accountability and consecutiveness. More Progressive Values Stories: Edwin Rutsch
I am working on a documentary to answer the question, What are Progressive Values? So far, I have interviewed over 100 progressives and have placed over 500 video clips on YouTube with the various replies. This is part of a continuing series of interviews of progressives telling their personal stories about their progressive values.
What Are Progressive Values? Documentary Project
http://ProgressiveSpirit.com
and Study Group
WUFT FM classical music trivia question for this Friday -- this composer had the misfortune to stage his version of La Boheme about a year after Puccini's became the sensation of Europe. So this composer's version was met with ho hum reaction. Name the composer.
regarding what campaign is behind the VP talk.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/23/14429/7415/394/521337
Let me guess..............
The Clinton campaign created the classical "straw man" (VP info "leak") then denied having any VP info and proceded to blame it on Obama's campaign.
Picking up where ThinkProgress and Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Scott Lilly left off, the Washington Post’s fact checker Michael Dobbs describes as “fantasy” Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) claim that he can “eliminate $100 billion of wasteful and earmark spending immediately.” In fact, Dobbs gives McCain four Pinocchios, his highest rating for deceit:
McCain’s talk about eliminating $100 billion a year in earmarks is largely fantasy. His advisers are now promoting a more realistic plan of eliminating $100 billion in overall spending. But it is difficult to take even that promise very seriously given the fact that the senator refuses to identify exactly which projects he will be cut. To use a phrase coined by George H.W. Bush, this is “voodoo economics,” based more on wishful thinking than on hard data or carefully considered policy proposals.
Just when you thought it was safe to come outside?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080523/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake
I wrote last Sunday that, while at an Obama cook-out, the MC began talking about free bus rides to Washington, free food, free hotel, free everything. Just sign up to go protest for Florida's delegates to be seated.
One guy spoke right up and asked what we were all thinking, "What does this do for Obama???"
Her answer was that it would "help unite the party" which got a ton of laughs. We knew it had to be a Clinton deal, (the MC had campaigned for her previously) and sure enough it was. I doubt anyone opted to go unless they wanted to ignore the protest and go visit their Aunt Sofie.
The Clinton people are devious. They spend money they don't have, though I expect the free, all expenses paid trip was probably funded by a 527 group.
You may have already read this too:
(Florida) State Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller filed a federal lawsuit today against the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to get the full Florida delegation seated at the party's national convention - with its votes weighted to reflect the results of the disputed Jan. 29 primary.
I'm proud as pink to be a Floridian -- NOT!
Our youngest son, the one with the broken shoulder/collar bone, a converted Republican, then Independent, now a Democrat, is down in Broward County this afternoon hoping to get into the Obama rally there. I sent him an Obama bumper sticker which he proudly displays on his SUV. He says noticed that he was the only one on I-95 displaying a political bumber sticker.
It won't be long before the stickers will be everywhere!!!!!!!!!!
On Aug. 1, 2000, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appeared on PBS’s Newshour with Jim Lehrer. When asked about the possibility that he might run for president in 2008, McCain said that he would probably be too old:
LEHRER: Finally for the record, you have not lost your desire to be President of the United States have you?
McCAIN: Certainly it’s been put in deep cold storage. haha..
LEHRER: You haven’t lost it?
McCAIN: Well, in 2004, I expect to be campaigning for the reelection of President George W. Bush, and by 2008, I think I might be ready to go down to the old soldiers home and await the cavalry charge there.
"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing calls to drop out.
Waiting for Obama to be assassinated? This has to be some kind of all time low -- even for her.
"The Field has learned that Cardoza is the first of a group of at least 40 Clinton delegates, many of them from California, that through talking among themselves came to a joint decision that all of them would vote for Obama at the convention. They have informed Senator Clinton that it's time to unite around Obama..."
exactly why she'll never be on the the ticket. Good grief - these people are disgusting.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/23/14314/2587/387/521328
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/23/143820/786/388/521335
I had squamous cell carcinoma last May (back of my neck) in addition to two melanomas several years ago (thank goodness where you can't see evidence). It is a life-long battle. I am healthy but so vigilant and I'm in much better shape than McCain and a heck of a lot younger. I think he was dishonest to not release that he had this surgery just two months ago.
is that he's doesn't need Hillary's corrupt funders, and is in fact better off without them. PLEASE let them sit on their too fat wallets until their spines grow as crooked as their purposes.
You are taking the Republican line on the gay marriage question down to the framing (which is your right).
I'm not sure how me agreeing with a panel of Republican judges in California, brands me anything other than a person who believes rights not proscribed belong to the citizens, which always used to be a moderate position.and if they are spelled out apply to all
In my mind there has to be a compelling communal need to restrict individual rights, and I see no Constitutionally correct way to arbitrarily restrict legal contractual obligations that go along with marriage in our society without it being discrimmination.
where is the harm?
always lead to residual anger in the loser, just look at how long it took Al Gore to get back in the saddle of public life
give the Clinton's some space as they go through those stages of grief
they are only hurting themselves and their causes right now, one of which is the DLC, and it couldn't happen to a better crew, lol
had Hillary began a race to the mountaintop after Ohio she very well could have pulled it off, but now the naked truth is out there
politics as usual exposed
everyone of us has seen some version of the Clinton's campaign style, and quite often it results in the gain of 50% plus one
Obama's victory does give us a different template for the future and it's about time
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/23/14465/2217/369/521346
America's mayor (Rocky Anderson) will hold a peace and human rights rally in Utah. s m, hope to hear about it from you.
The "Clinton Brand" is dead.
Bubba has behaved abominably , and helped to torpedo Hillary's campaign.
Hillary is also behaving abominably
- No need for Nixon?
By Pat in Colorado on May 23, 2008 2:51 PM
.....No, Obama is not Kennedy. He is Obama, and that's outstanding in my view. I'm not sure I really understand your comment, former.
Is Hillary not responsible for her actions? By actively disrupting the credentials committee, she will not be contributing to unity within the Democratic Party, and if we are divided, John McCain will reap the rewards. Is this okay in your mind?
-----------
What I was trying to say is that times have changed and our understanding of the past times are changing too.
Kennedy WAS NOT a threat to this very system and Nixon realized it very well, Obama IS...and Hillary realizes it the same as well.
Hillary's desperate attempts to stay afloat look suspiciously.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/23/155636/683/322/521393
She has crossed so many lines but to bring up RFK's assassination as a reason to stay in - I am speechless. When will Gore and Carter show this a**hole the door? Jeezus.
There isn't a place for Hillary Clinton in politics any longer. I am speechless.
- by Phil Specht on May 23, 2008 4:00 PM - thanks for answering my question Fred
By Fred from Oregon on May 23, 2008 4:45 PM EDTYou are taking the Republican line on the gay marriage question down to the framing (which is your right).
I'm not sure how me agreeing with a panel of Republican judges in California, brands me anything other than a person who believes rights not proscribed belong to the citizens, which always used to be a moderate position.and if they are spelled out apply to all...
======================
Well, Phil, believe it or not, I don't have a position. That is for the people to decide by the ballot, not the courts.
Gay marriage is not a right, it is a definition. The court invented it as a right with far-reaching absurd comparisons to bans on interracial marriage between women and men of different color or ethnicity, and inventing the belief that what society calls the union decides the lifelong happiness of gay couples.
The Constituional amendment against the definition including gays was already in progress when the Republican Judges made this ruling, obviously happy to see it become a more heated issue in November, a la Rove.
The definition imposed by the courts must define "gay marriage" to mean any two people of the same sex to get married. The bottom line is that they need not be gay, that is, there is no legal test as to whether they are or are not. This flies in the face of the "genetic" argument that people have no choice of how they are born.
The conclusion is that marriage is between any two people, of either gender whether they are gay or not. Courts don't have a right to impose such radical beliefs upon people without a vote.
Labeling people by how they feel and ostricizing them based on the position of interest groups, not the majority
The kind of Democratic thinking that made the GOP successful for 30 years. This honeymoon won't last forever. I hope Democrats like you can learn how to respect people without slapping labels on them because they don't follow the leader.
With accomodations made for civil unions, and/or domestic partnerships there is no harm.
There is a harm to our democracy though when judges distort an issue in order to brand it as a right when no such violation of right has occurred, only the word of the language to define a relationship.
I don't think the majority of the people of CA citizens who vote against gay marriage believe they are violating peoples rights, only the judges who voted that way do. I think the people of CA just want to keep the definition of marriage the way it is.
- I guess Obama and Dean have a "Republican" position too
By Fred from Oregon on May 23, 2008 4:59 PM EDTMy view mirror theirs.
- Read the case. The opinions you express are not germaine to the case.
By Thankful2Thankful4Dean on May 23, 2008 6:15 PM EDTMarriage is a right long established in CA laws and courts.
To deny a couple their right to marriage simply because they happen to be a same-sex couple is discriminatory.
There is no compelling reason to discriminate against same-sex couples.
Can you expand on it? I agree on the surface that Obama is definitely a threat to the politics of collusion, influence, and adversarial ideology. But, I'd like your take on it.
Mary vb, unbelievable, Clinton's remark? Is she stupid, careless, vicious, incapable of diplomacy and good sense? Whew! That is mind blowing that she would make such a remark. Is this the real Hillary Clinton?
I had the thought yesterday that if Hillary is the autocratic, controlling figure she seems to be demonstrating, one could almost sympathize with Bill. But, maybe that's going a bit far.
She was pointing out a time reference with regard to past milestone events that stand out in her mind
I don't think she was alluding to the fact that she hopes Obama will get shot. And I don't think Obama would see it that way either.
Don't know about past schedules of primary races but
IMO she needs to stay in until the primary is races are over because her supporters need closure. Past that she should not continue if it is obvious the number don't add up and she'll never win. Campaigning against Obama without any primaries ahead is crazy.
I haven't been following the argument except superficially, but frankly, who cares? We need all the love, commitment, and devotion to relationships that we can muster. Given the decimation of species on this earth, the over population, and the destruction of the planet, it's not surprising that there would be changes in sexuality in proportion to the heterosexual mating that has allowed such overpopulation.
Everyone knows from childhood on that there are different degrees of sexuality, and people are indeed unique, one by one. To discriminate against people for race, culture, gender, beliefs, and sexuality is not only oppressive and unjust, but destructive to civil society.
As far as sympathizing with Dean and Obama's position, there is a sense to it that I will suspend judgment for. Let churches sanction marriages, but let everyone be equal under the government.
As for me, the more people love and care for each other, the more happiness and harmony on the planet, the greater the consciousness of the sanctity of all life. Just my take.
- I agree - just feel such ruling aggravate the issue
By Fred from Oregon on May 23, 2008 5:27 PM EDTI say live and let live - if gays want to call it a marriage, let them. If voters want to officially call it marriage, I have no objections.
Just find it counter-productive to judges/government to force terminology on people not ready. In the case of Massachewsett, we were like and over a year's time people got used to the idea of gay marriage and the terminology.
That doesn't mean it will always be the best modus operandi politically
I'm anxious to read what Jeffrey Feldman writes about Hillary's latest statement. He'll call it violent rhetoric guaranteed.
Later gators.
Keith Olbermann will make a special comment this eve. on Clinton's *unfortunate words*. She also made the same comment (verbatim) in March to Time Magazine so her non-apology today is not quite sincere stating that she had the Kennedy's on her mind.
I must be the only person on this blog who is outraged. Unbelievable.
- Fred if you are using the exact same arguments as the Republicans
By Phil Specht on May 23, 2008 6:27 PM EDTHow does it make me anything to state it.?
Judges have often been the ones who have pointed out the fact that the Constitution guarantees rights against the majority's wishes which are not always so egalitarian as our legal framework demands them to be.
I do find the legal priciples compelling.
I number myself among those on the ground with a pitchfork demanding the expansion of rights from the King on horseback at Runnymeade.(now I'm "elitist" I take it that is the new word for liberal)It is time my class of white male property owning yeoman get off the notion that all battles about rights are centered on them even if we have that long history.
Freedom is the condition into which we are born until someone takes it away,and equality the principle upon which this nation was founded, even if we haven't always lived up to it
gay couples not allowed to marry are the legal equivalent of the Japanese Americans in WWII's internment camps stripped of rights
it might take decades here as well but courts down the road may even see the "damages" inflicted by the denial of rights that are afforded other couples who form unions
The majority should be lucky if they get off just to be forced to acknowledge equal treatment under the law as a right.
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