The video below is a portion of ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis's speech to the Young Democratic Socialists. Please watch her speech before reading the following transcript of the speech delivered...somewhere...after Ms. Lewis' by T. Ruth Hertz, motivational speaker.
Transcript:
Thank you, Bertha, for such a lovely introduction. And thank you, Young Democratic Socialists for this opportunity to speak to you today.
I look out over this beautiful audience of young enthusiastic faces, all willing to step up and bring change to this country and I am filled with awe. With your help...and as Bertha so aptly pointed out...with your willingness to do whatever it takes to turn this Constitutional Republic into a socialist state, we can succeed.
We must have a plan. It's vital that everyone understands what tools we possess at our disposal to bring about social justice; the same social justice that has worked so well in many other countries. Even though some people will say that many of these countries have moved away from socialism and its big brothers, communism and fascism, we know social justice works and we know its faltering, and now its financial decline, has come about because of racist capitalists who refuse to support those individuals with less. We will not allow that to happen here! We willingly accept our responsibility to protect even the lowest person on society's scale from being forced into poverty, regardless of their choices or educational level. Everyone must be seated at life's abundance table and each portion on the plate must be equal. Yes, we have the tools, and today I'd like to talk to you about a few of these simple, yet effective, techniques.
First, I'd like to recognize the esteemed mentors of our movement, men and women like Saul Alinsky and the professors Cloward and Piven. Brilliant minds, all of them. These are the parents of hope and change in this country and each brings to the table a unique ideology to slowly but steadily erode the public's perception that they are better equipped to manage their own lives and resources than federal legislation can mandate. Each of these mentors presents us with unique methods to expose the greedy people who believe they should be charitable according to their own whims and to expose the ones who have no idea the reason behind their greed is racism. We know better. Don't we?
Productive members of our society have long held the erroneous belief that they are entitled to what they earn. They have long believed that they are the ones who have taken the risks of entrepreneurship; that they are the ones responsible for guiding a company to success or failure; that they are the ones who got an education or learned a trade to better themselves. And, by this self-serving creed, they have prospered, leaving behind those who were strong enough to resist succumbing to being merely another cog in a selfish game to success. These self-serving capitalists want to decide what they should do with their own earnings...as if their choices are superior to the democratically elected officials chosen to make their decisions for them! We must stop this destructive philosophy now! We must call them out.
Do not be deterred by those who say taking from the productive and giving to the unproductive will result in a burden that creates less expansion of business and inventiveness or that it will destroy incentive among those who produce. Do not let them tell you that sharing their wealth will then result in increased government dependency and will cement poverty into place for people whose self-esteem and human potential is destroyed by enablers who know they cannot control independent people. It's this kind of violent rhetoric that clouds reason. We must call these people what they are: selfish individuals who took risks on the backs of people who have never worked for them. Yes, these business owners have become wealthy at the expense of people who never even knew their company existed. This greed for personal wealth has left millions without a share of the profits. This greed has taken from the downtrodden what is rightfully theirs. Don't let them hide behind claims that they have given to or established charities or that they've set up scholarship and training programs for youths--young people like you! Don't let them hide behind the fact they already pay 60% of all taxes collected. What about the nearly 50% who pay no taxes at all? Why shouldn't they benefit from earnings as well? These wealthy capitalists still have money. There is no justice, socially or morally, in allowing the greedy to continue their greed. We must call them out!
Yes, we must call them out. Whenever possible, we must call them out by name. Focus on a person or a group and call them what they truly are. For instance, take those selfish, tea-party hatriots. They cry out for the Constitution to be upheld. They cry out for reducing the debt. They even cry out to be able to own guns, under the guise of self-protection and as a guard against tyranny. They are the tyrants! We've seen them! They are angry mobs pushing baby strollers and carrying signs and pretending to be as congenial as people attending a 4th of July party. Do they think we are fooled for one second? We know the violence that simmers in their minds, hidden behind tacky red, white and blue shirts and deceptive smiles. We know when they oppose socialism that it is they who are anti-government and it is they who are dangerous and subversive. Yes, we know the core of this tea party movement is nothing but racism! Yes, racism. They don't want to share any of their money or power with you. No, not you. You are nothing special to them. They simply think you're a human being with the same rights, privileges and choices as they have. But we know better. Call them out!
As Bertha said earlier, we must take to the streets and work in our own communities to encourage people to register to vote for politicians who demonstrate their commitment to giving to those entitled their share. And we will encourage our friends and neighbors to take their righteous anger and utilize every available facet of the system. We must get people the help they deserve by seeing they are enrolled in all programs that provide for their needs. It's vital we get as many people as possible onto these rolls. It will force a system controlled by greed to release more and more funds to the people who need it and it will force more and more money from capitalists into the system. We will bring the system down!
Poverty, we have heard, is the great equalizer. But I say no one should be denied because the lion's share of resources is held by a few people at the top...and that includes the selfish, so-called middle-class! Absolutely not! They do not fool us with their self-serving complaints about struggling themselves! Not for one second! We will bring the wealth hoarders down while we raise ourselves up and we will all dine at the abundance table as equals! We will bring down the capitalist system until everyone's hand is filled equally and the greedy can no longer lay claim to their labor's fruit. We will take them down! We demand it! We will not play by their rules anymore.
You are our future, Young Democratic Socialists. Listen to me good. There is nothing more important than our work to further this movement away from a flawed document that doesn't address sharing the wealth...doesn't address what government should do for you! No, that piece of paper is nothing more than a list of unalienable rights that acknowledges your freedom to pursue excellence; it does not grant you your share of the wealth! Our president stands with us on this and has openly and publicly supported our vision. This Constitutional oversight must be corrected. It has left generations of people doomed to dead-end jobs that pay based on education, skill and work ethic. Generations have been doomed to watch while the greedy storm ahead to use their wits and will to create wealth. These selfish earners work hard to take from you what is rightfully yours.
Do not forget your brothers and sisters in this fight. We must earnestly and forcefully correct them if they have fallen prey to the wolves who would devour our share. We must remind them that they have sold their souls for filthy capitalist lucre, that they have betrayed their very roots and people, that they cannot escape the past by choosing to move forward in their lives and thinking. We must not let them forget that they have not succeeded because they have earned it, but because a racist system used them to further deprive us all. They must not be seduced by the fake promise of accomplishment determining their path. No! They must be called out as well, by any means necessary, and made to stay in their place with us! Call them out!
Do not stop! Do not ever give up! Do not be distracted by listening to the calls of false freedom that say you can be self-sufficient or that you can seize opportunities to better yourself or that you can find success through education and hard work. Never be distracted by the lies. We know better. It's time for the selfish to share their wealth with you. Stay strong, Young Democratic Socialists! You are our future.
04/21/2010By: Richard Bastian aka Sebastian @
The times, they are a changing, can you feel the winds blowing, can ya feel the changes from deep within, can't ya just feel the changes, can't ya feel the earth shaking, the hot sun baking all the earth to dry crust, from moisture's waters to dust, can't ya just feel all the changes.
All the changes, there commin down, commin down hard on me, oh my heart just can't take it, and, I wonder about the children and those yet to experience birth.
I feel for all of us as well, for were acting as if life has no worth and that there's really nothing to tell or see,
Oh but how much so there is, just look, fill your cup, fill it till it's full, full of all the meaningful things you feel, let it run over, let it spell into the hearts as nourishing drink for all mankind and earth.
Oh say can ya see, can ya see, oh say, can't you! can't you see!
Look just what your doing to not only me, but to the memory of those who fought and died for you and I, so that we could have a life that had true meaning, something dear to honor and hold, oh say, can't you SEE!
Life was never meant to be a wholesale market place
Say you can't see! go ahead and sell yourself that lie,
that lie, that lays deep within that say's, no I don't see, I really just don't understand.
You lie, you lie, you lie, and now ya want to sell your lie too me, after all this time that you dreamed and schemed on how someday that lie would pay you big dividends.
Now that were near the end, and you see and know your lie really has no worth, you want to wholesale your lie to me .
Lying on a wholesale scale, come and get the lie before it's to late.
Come get your phony shallows worth of lie's, buy into what you deeply know that ain't
Wholesale mankind's heart, go ahead, sell it off piece by piece until it's torn all a part.
We have Wall Street and Walmart standing side by side,
yes we have Wall Street marching to the drum in step with the bull market beat, hedging the funds, while Walmart and other big chain markets go out into the small towns of this country, to sell yet another one, oh see how all the bull market boys are playing with our money, while having fun.
The markets down, with no one left to trust, and here you and I are left lurching in the dust.
All is good, all is calm, all are working for next to nothing, sound the alarm!
Like marching ants in and out the doors, shoppers searching the merchants floors for all the bargains they came for.
Only to find a welcome sign, and beneath it the tag which reads, ..discount!
Ah, were in heaven, we've saved a dime, not yet a life however that slaved to produce your item in hand, but we saved a dime.
Cheep labor is a must for markets to rise, go not hear for these Americans ask way to much.
Go to some far off land, where slave labor can be controlled ,while Walmart and other big chain markets beat the Wall Street drum,
look out shoppers cause here we come.
Were coming to a city near you,
too a small town, look! another small one going down.
Read the signs, build, invest and save a dime while we hedge you're funds for more money to us make come.
Oh happy days are here again, there here again, and you lie, you lie, you lie.
Not only me, but my children and theirs to come will be working twice as hard to pay the debt which the Wall Street boys sold to you and I...
We trusted and this is what we got, oh my Lord is it too late to turn the tide, tell us how rough the the ride will be, and what it is we must now do if were to survive.
Do we continue to trust as we have, or do we now stand as the creation of man, that which we were made too be.
Let us now begin to tell them we know they lied, and that we refuse to ever be lied to again.