Bob Herbert's powerful good-bye column -- It should be a wake-up call

[Armstead]

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert is moving on to other endeavors. Although not as high-profile as some writers and pundits, he is one of the best truth-tellers out there. He will be missed, but I hope we'll see more from him.

His last column for the Times -- "Losing Our Way" -- lays out where we are as a nation in scorching clarity. This ought to be a wake-up call to the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26herbert.html?_r=2

Excerpt:

....The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.

Nearly 14 million Americans are jobless and the outlook for many of them is grim. Since there is just one job available for every five individuals looking for work, four of the five are out of luck. Instead of a land of opportunity, the U.S. is increasingly becoming a place of limited expectations. A college professor in Washington told me this week that graduates from his program were finding jobs, but they were not making very much money, certainly not enough to think about raising a family.

There is plenty of economic activity in the U.S., and plenty of wealth. But like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an unconscionable 100 percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most recent extended period of economic expansion.

Americans behave as if this is somehow normal or acceptable. It shouldn’t be, and didn’t used to be. Through much of the post-World War II era, income distribution was far more equitable, with the top 10 percent of families accounting for just a third of average income growth, and the bottom 90 percent receiving two-thirds. That seems like ancient history now.

The current maldistribution of wealth is also scandalous. In 2009, the richest 5 percent claimed 63.5 percent of the nation’s wealth. The overwhelming majority, the bottom 80 percent, collectively held just 12.8 percent......
MORE

[madrchsod]

1. the president of the usa better wake the hell up....

we know what the hell is going on while he courts the very people who repress us.

[Elwood P Dowd]

2. He has hired foxes to guard the depleted hen house Bush left us.

He will not wake up until it's too late. That is, if he actually wants to WAKE THE HELL UP?

[rtassi]

35. He is the Fox in the Hen House, the office is compromised

... has been that way for decades ... Maybe better that you awaken to that, and stop believing in the President's intentions to help the American People. He his awake, but to a much different reality then helps you or me!

[msongs]

6. umm maybe he IS awake and things are going as planned? nt

[indepat]

22. Whether true or not, there's enough out there to make an inquiring mind wonder

:patriot:

[russspeakeasy]

26. Maybe he awake and looking for his comfortable shoes...

[rtassi]

36. Yep ... that's it! n/t

[kysrsoze]

7. He spends all his time tap-dancing to the whole "International" thing, yet

he ignores his own constituency in its own country. He's letting it all just go to hell, and not saying or doing anything other than installing more corporatists.

[tomp]

11. or what?

you imagine, apparently, that obama doesn't know what is going on.

you imagine that he will wake of and find he has lost his progressive way and be struck with the light of revelation, like Paul on the road to Tarsus.

Obama is doing what he is doing because that is who he is, as every president is: defender of the rich.

do not expect change. it is we who better wake up.

[northernlights]

14. + 1,000

"It is we who better wake up."

exactly.

[WillyT]

15. + 1,000,000,000... What You Said !!!

:kick:

[hfojvt]

17. wake up and do what?

So we wake up and become cynical or disgusted with Obama. Then what? Can we even elect 5 or six progressives to Congress? or to State Legislatures? Not in very many disticts, and it will be even less by the time Republicans get done re-districting.

[tomp]

23. you still think the system is workable for the masses.

how quaint.

[hfojvt]

24. so you prefer

2nd amendment remedies?

Or tuning in and dropping out?

Or just being an internet gadfly?

Reminds me of a Matt Groenig cartoon. One type of husband was the guy sitting on the couch and saying "People are idiots, the world is going to hell, get me another beer."

[liberation]

30. Your internet bitching and lecturing is so much more constructive and effective...

... than the internet bitching and lecturing of others.

[hfojvt]

76. well, it might be

for one thing because I dig up facts and then try to disseminate them http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/135
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/138
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/142

and also because it is not the only thing I do, or suggest for other people to do
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/145

[tomp]

43. interesting that even with recent events to jog your mind...

...you leave out the most effective option, mass peaceful protest and resistance. your bias toward anyone challenging the system is obvious. naivete or knowing misleading?

we cannot rely on the democratic party or obama. the two party system is the problem.

[hfojvt]

74. so even though we cannot get people to come to the polls

we are gonna get people to come to protest rallies, in mass?

I leave that out because it seems to have been even less effective than elections. I went to one of those before the Iraq war, even renting a car to drive to it. It didn't stop the Iraq war. I did the same to protest the Bush visit in KCMO. The crowds protesting were much smaller than the crowd standing in line to listen to the Liar in Chief, and he was still re-elected. Even the protests in Madtown don't seem to have accomplished anything yet. The recall effort may accomplish more, but (gasp) that involves those election thingies that you say are useless.

[sabrina 1]

53. Are those the only remedies you can think of?

I am sure that the powerful can think of a few others, and are very aware of the powers we the people have IF we choose to use them. And it doesn't involve violence. I'm surprised you left out the most effective way for the people to use their power. Maybe because the people actually doing that has become 'unthinkable' in this country?

[hfojvt]

75. you seem to have left out this mystery power yourself

In the words of Ross Perot "if you have a better idea, I am all ears."

[LarryNM]

38. Continue Working for Candidates and Causes You Believe In And

Work with People, Groups and Organizations of the Same Principles in All Areas of Life. Work must be done on and through the State but outside of it as well. As has been mentioned elsewhere - The Moral Underground.

[Moostache]

44. I'm running out of causes to believe in...

And I do not believe in ANY candidates any longer. Obama was the last one. I BELIEVED him in '07/'08. I trusted that with a good man in office and majorities in both houses of Congress that we would honestly get Change You Can Believe In....well FUCK ALL THAT.

We are still at war.
In THREE countries now....not only STILL at war, but EXPANDED WARS.
We are still running an illegal prison system.

We are still torturing people.
We are still wiping our ass on the Constitution vis a vis the "Patriot Act".
We are still having people go broke because they get sick - and broke is the BEST outcome, death is also on the table...

We are still watching the rich receive their Bush era tax breaks, now the O'Bush Tax breaks.
We are still cutting taxes for the rich and cutting EVERYTHING ELSE FOR EVERYONE ELSE (rights, programs, educations, mercy).
We are still waiting for a single arrest in the greatest financial swindle of all time.
We are still living in homes with dwindling values or on the edge of bankruptcy every month.

We are still looking for change in media coverage from the mundane and depraved to the significant and relevant.

We are still burning fossil fuels at record levels and show no signs of stopping (as I sit in the middle of another "freak weather event and watch another 5-6 inches of snow falling, in St. Louis...almost in April).

We are still every bit as fucked as we were with the jackass idiot in charge and now we are 2 1/2 years into further decline in the process.

The problems are SIMPLE to solve - the WILL to anger the money men is totally lacking.

End the wars.
Close the prisons.
Fund the new infrastructure.
Return the tax code to 1985 levels and HOLD IT THERE BEFORE TAKING IT BACK TO 1961 LEVELS IN 3 YEARS.
Nationalize the entire healthcare industry.
Re-establish the rights of the people to be secure in their homes, possessions and effects in ALL ASPECTS.

Five things.
Five small steps that are as out of reach today as Neil Armstrong's "one small step" was in 1961.

The biggest difference?
No JFK is around to save us from our paymasters and owners now.

[freshwest]

50. Yeah, what you said. My actions, however, are all local and won't make the news.

[LarryNM]

66. Those are Five Very Good Points

To work on locally/nationally/globally. Keep Working with others. It isn't All government/politics.

[Justpat]

61. Welcome to DU Larry.

:hi:

[LarryNM]

67. Thank You. It is very Appreciated. n/t

[ArcticFox]

69. Elections are useless

The only way things will change is by mass protest or violence. Elections have become part of the propaganda machine and nothing more.

[markpkessinger]

21. +1000000!!!!

At this point, Obama is who and what he is. Unfortunately, that who and what isn't what many of us thought we were getting, based on the marketing of candidate Obama, but here we are. The sooner we progressives recognize we accept that fact and move past it, and quit wasting our time hoping for some kind of epiphany or revelation for him, the better off we'll all be. That would free us up to begin to think of alternative strategies to effect change.

The "progressivism" of this president is little more than an expensive-looking veneer pasted over the same old flakeboard paneling.

[Starry Messenger]

25. +2000

[Catherina]

34. +1. Thread rec'd too n/t

[rtassi]

37. truth be told ... n/t

[senseandsensibility]

31. He IS awake

That's the tragedy.

[polichick]

32. GE's chief exec, Jeffrey Immelt, is the leader of the prez' Council on Jobs and Competitiveness...

Obama sold his soul long ago - we'll get nowhere waiting for him to lead. He's part of the problem.

[pa28]

3. What a pithy and relevant farewell note.

Like all of us I have my own set of top shelf issues and Herbert seems to touch on them all here: historic maldistribution of wealth, intentionally regressive tax laws and a legally sanctioned system of influence peddling that virtually guarantees a corrupt status quo.

This short piece was a pleasure to read and I certainly wish him a long future of truth telling in some other venue.

[pacalo]

4. I wish Mr. Herbert all the best. His columns have been outstanding.

[howmad1]

40. What the hell is going on with the NYT?

Frank Rich gone. Now Bob Herbert. Hey NYT, I hear Brightbart is available. Or maybe James O'keefe. Something stinks in NYT land.

[pacalo]

70. You said it! May as well hire Judy Miller back, too, as a senior editor.

[jaysunb]

5. k & r

[highplainsdem]

8. K&R. I'll miss his NYT columns, but I'm looking forward to reading whatever he writes,

wherever he goes. I hope it won't be long before we're hearing regularly from him again. We need his insights and eloquence.

[emilyg]

9. knr

[democrank]

10. Bob Hebert will be missed.

His truth-telling was a rarity in the world of mainstream journalism.

[progressoid]

12. Wake up call?

We've had thousands of wake up calls in the last couple decades. No body is listening.

[WillyT]

13. HUGE K & R !!!

:kick:

[barbtries]

16. thanks for the link

we are as a country so completely messed up. i wrote to him to thank him and see about his future endeavors.

[shireen]

18. we need billboards with these figures

plastered all over the country next to major highways. Not enough people are angry for the right reasons.

[Shandris]

27. To what end?

'Angry' people aren't going to do shit, and that's on the assumption that they don't all already KNOW the figures, or at least a ballpark of the figures. The thought that goes through their head when they see the numbers is simple -- "Yup...and one day I'll be one of that 5%". If not that, then another large number believe "See, that's how success works, they earned it!"

What are we going to do? Stand around and shout slogans at the thieves with the resources while they blithely ignore us and scuttle out the back before flying to their fortified island or what-have-you? What do you expect these 'angry' people to do? What options are they being presented? Because from here, the options I see are a) ignore it, has worked for decades or b) get angry, work yourself up, and maybe, just maybe, go...stand in a gathering and get ignored or possibly framed for violence.

[butterfly77]

19. Kicked&Recommended!

[Enthusiast]

20. K&R! I'm growing tired of wake up calls.

They keep coming, almost daily now.

[DeSwiss]

28. The last line of the column.....

"New ideas and new leadership have seldom been more urgently needed."

- Yup.

K&R

[patrice]

29. Okay, some of it is Greed, but does anyone else wonder why, Why, WHY??? Greed. It's so Crazy!!!

Of those who really do have it all, including all of us as slaves, what!!!??? could they possibly want with More? They have no Needs.

To me this suggests that More, is a Big Bubble that's beginning to burst, because we're coming down to the price of "disposable" lives for whatever More is, in a situation of rising "health" "care" costs, in this pseudo-Pro-Life, Endless Wars culture of "ours".

Solidarity with US Labor!

END THE WARS!!!

Sat Nam!

p

[A Simple Game]

42. It gets to the point that it's no longer about money, but power. nt

[xxqqqzme]

54. I caught part of a program called

Hoarders the other night. It suddenly struck me that 400 families are hoarding the wealth of the Nation. But we are the people having to live w/ the grotesque overindulgence of those very few. Their controlled media sing their praises, revel in their 'accomplishments' and use them as examples of what we should all strive to be.

They are hoarders - smothered by piles of money they will never use for any good purpose because their reasons for hoarding are for no good purpose. It would appear the hoarders have now moved on to hoarding people. Those purchased souls are as unprincipled and utterly lacking in any humanity as the hoarders. It seems they are unaware they are now part of the hoarders collection.

Yesterday I was saddened to read about Andrew Cuomo. If it is true that he has joined the assault on the middle class, then it appears he, too, has been snatched up by the hoarders.

[polichick]

33. K&R - Herbert tells it like it is, and it's UGLY AS HELL!

[steelmania75]

39. That was great. Bold and to the point. We need a savior, sadly, I don't see that happening.

[TBF]

46. A "savior" is most certainly NOT what we need.

We need to band together and strike on a national level.

[carincross]

41. Chronicler of the Great Recession

Bob Herbert has been writing columns like this for years. Again and again he has decried the policies of both Bush and Obama for failing to improve the lot of the poor, the sick, the disabled, the uneducated and the disappearing middle class. This column is just another in a long series of attempts to remind the holders of power and wealth that they need worry about the rest of us and about the Republic at large. I sense that Mr. Herbert is both frustrated and exhausted. He has been a voice crying in the wilderness. Others need to take up his cause.

[RATM435]

45. Bill Hicks on every new president

obama whats my agenda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MRykTpw1RQ

[closeupready]

47. Totally K&R. I am going to miss his columns more than any. On this column, what he fails to accoun

for is while his observations are correct, historically, such inequality does not last. For one reason or another, such a system dies - sometimes naturally, sometimes not, but it's clear that the economic inequality we are facing today is temporary.

What frightens me is the notion that, perhaps people with the most to lose realize that this can't last, and is this why our civil rights have been eroded - laying groundwork for martial law in order to preserve, or even strengthen, the inequality?

[bbgrunt]

48. .....uuuh..is the inequality in Haiti temporary?

[Botany]

49. Frank Rich and Bob Herbert gone from the NY Times?

:cry:

[KoKo]

51. Has anyone noticed the MSM's few people who reported on Real Americans are now leaving (fired?) by

the Mainstream Media?

Anyone notice that there are few truly Left Wing Supporting of Workers Websites still in business?

The Left Movement for Workers Rights started to suffer a slow death at the Inauguration. Folks said that it was due to lack of interest ...because a Dem President who supported the VALUES of the Democratic Party had been elected and, therefore, it wasn't necessary to support an indy Left Media because the Dems/Left had WON the Election!

What do DU'ers on the Left think has happened? I see fewer media outlets that are activist or encouraging. BUT....I do see a hard core "Underground" that is swelling up.. The funding will be cut off from them, eventually. But, it didn't have to be like this. Many American Workers who used to be Mainstream Dems feel betrayed. We will eventually be a force with the "new underground" that is darker...more radical than what needed to be if our Party had listened.

There's still a chance for our Dem Party to listen with the new election. But, why would they need to listen to us? What's in it for them to do this? :shrug:

[RoccoR5955]

56. The Left will rise again.

We are already gearing up for a protracted offensive in the coming months. A non-violent offensive. Wait and see. It's coming. It may not get covered in the MSM, but it will get covered on other sources.
The revolution may not be televised, but you will be able to see it on the 'net.

[Ramulux]

57. What do you mean?

Who will be doing taking part in this offensive? Why haven't I heard of this?

[RoccoR5955]

58. April 9 is when it starts

http://www.unacpeace.org

[JDPriestly]

71. New York and San Francisco?

We need a nationwide strike and march that is coordinated and that takes place in every city across the nation.

We marched in Los Angeles today, but there should have been 10 times the number of people. We will need to keep marching until more and more people join us.

[SpankMe]

52. Death spiral

...an enormous segment of the population struggles while the fortunate few ride the gravy train...

And yet those who struggle keep voting for the party that fuels the gravy train. We're just plain fucked.

[RoccoR5955]

55. The US has become a fascist state. By definition. n/t

[ProSense]

59. Two articles by

Bob Herbert that should have gotten a lot more attention because they attempted to focus on job-creating programs.

July 2010: A Jobs Program That Works

Is it possible that there is a federal stimulus program that is putting many thousands of struggling individuals to work and is getting rave reviews not only from Democrats but from officials in conservative states like South Carolina and Mississippi?

It may be hard to believe, but it’s true. The program, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, allows states to use federal dollars to temporarily subsidize the salaries of individuals placed in private- and public-sector jobs. More than 30 states are participating.

The program, though small, appears to be working exceptionally well. States expect to have placed more than 200,000 individuals by this coming autumn. Some of those workers would otherwise have landed on welfare.

The catch — there is always a catch — is that the program will expire at the end of September if Congress does not act to extend it.

<...>

March 2011: The Master Key

The United States is not racked with the turmoil that is shaking the Arab world, or the tragic devastation that has hit Japan. We are not in a state of emergency. We’re in a moment when it is possible to look thoughtfully at the American landscape and take rational steps to ensure a better, more sustainable future.

But we’re not doing that. The big news out of Washington this week was Representative Peter King’s Muslim witch hunt. Policy makers at all levels of government are talking austerity — sometimes sensibly, but most often mindlessly. Creative ideas regarding energy, education, jobs and so forth have trouble even getting a hearing.

Now comes Senator John Kerry hoping to buck the frustrating tide with a modest proposal. He mentioned in a speech in January that through most of its history America could build things — not just manufacture goods, but build the infrastructure that is required for a nation to be great: “We built a transcontinental railroad. We built an interstate highway system. We built the rockets that let us explore the farthest edge of the solar system and beyond.”

<...>

Creation of an infrastructure bank would be an important indication that leaders in Washington are still capable, despite most of the available evidence, of moving beyond partisan paralysis to engage one of the biggest challenges facing the country. If there is such a thing as a master key to a better American future, investment in the nation’s infrastructure would be it. That is the biggest potential source of jobs. That is how you build the foundation for new and innovative industries.

<...>

[humanityisfree]

60. So well stated - Thanks Mr. Herbert

Wow - one of the best op-eds I've read in a long time. we are really in a bad way America - And they've got us right where they want us...too poor to buy our way into power like ALL politicians, and too tired to fight because we struggle and strive to stay afloat and raise our families and provide for those we care about. What to do? I like the mass peaceful protest idea someone put out up near the top - what are the alternatives?

[Iwillnevergiveup]

62. I for one hope we see a lot more

of Mr. Herbert on the teevee. He's an excellent speaker - cuts to the chase and lays it out in a very succinct, but profound style. He will be a helluva lot less constrained now - however he chooses to make his voice heard. And I hope it's heard in more than one book. The NY Times has lost two powerhouses, and I wonder if Nicholas Kristof is next.

K&R

Yeah, we need to thank Mr. Herbert - [e-mail]

:patriot:

[defendandprotect]

63. Our people's government and our president were taken from us

in a right wing coup in 1963 -- an extremely powerful coup in which our CIA seems

to have played a prominent role -- and it couldn't have been done without the

office of the president -- LBJ -- cooperating in the cover up. And without their

holding onto power over decades to hold onto the cover up.

It was fascism then -- it is fascism now -- only a little more deeply embedded on

our government now. And every day we permit the wealthy to grow wealthier we're

giving them the means to further subvert citizens and to buy/bribe/own our elected

officials.

This is simply organized crime by elites.

[lordsummerisle]

64. K&R n/t

[DallasNE]

65. Thanks Citizens United

While it didn't start with Citizens United, that SCOTUS decision stands four-square in the way of reversing course. Yes, that means social unrest and a cloudy future.

[Doctor_J]

68. Frank RIch and Herbert both leaving

the takeover is complete. There will now be no one writing for our side in Big Media

[Project Grudge]

72. Class Warfare.... Guess which side is losing

This is the biggest issue of our time. You never hear any politician actually say it. I'd love to hear these statistics uttered in a prime-time address to the nation.

[DiverDave]

73. I dont read the Times

But I bookmarked to read his stuff.

TY for the headsup.

[Kumbricia]

77. It's probably just as well NYT is going behind a paywall

since some their best columnists are leaving and giving people less reason to go to the site