June 7, 2008

All Together Now was launched on June 1, 2008, in the waning months of what some argue was the most disastrous administration in American history. And yet 62 million people—50.7% of the electorate¹—voted for that administration in its winning bid for a second term in 2004.

Among facts that cannot be debated are the following:

• As of June 2008, war had been raging for over five years in Iraq, a war that had claimed over 4,000 American lives² and hundreds of billions of dollars in deficit spending. As of that date, it had failed to stabilize the country after imposing a regime change;
• The price of a gallon of midgrade gasoline in January 2001 was $1.16 and by June 2008 it was over $4.00³;
• Americans earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000⁴;
• “The average compensation of a CEO in 1980 was 40 times that of the average worker in his company. In 2004, it was more than 500 times!”⁵

And we haven’t even mentioned global warming, the world food crisis, a deepening worldwide recession, or the human rights abuses which have infected even the most civilized western nations.

All Together Now’s mission is threefold:

• To get our facts straight. Let’s understand the nature and extent of the problems we face, problems that threaten our own well-being on this planet, and, even worse, threaten to radically degrade the standard of living of our children and grandchildren;
• To acknowledge and celebrate the work of the individuals and groups that are working for a better world;
• And to roll up our sleeves and get to work ourselves, whether by sending a few dollars to those individuals and groups mentioned above, or immersing ourselves in the rough-and-tumble of social change.

We can’t depend on our so-called “leaders.” They are, after all, the ones who got us where we are today. They are, after all, the masters of war who have slaughtered their subjects by the hundreds of millions throughout history. They are, after all, the ones secure in their privilege and their wealth, who use that privilege and wealth to maintain the status quo at any cost.

No sane mother wishes to see her baby hacked to death by gangsters posing as liberators. No sane father wishes to sacrifice his boy or girl to a war that doesn’t need to be fought. And yet the world is filled with mothers and fathers who witness these enormities every day.

Here at the dawn of the 21st century of the modern era, at a time when our understanding—of nature, of the universe, of our own selves—is so far advanced; when this world could be a paradise for all its inhabitants, when life no longer need be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”; when for the first time in history we have the knowledge, the motive, the means, and the opportunity to bring life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, health, prosperity, and joy to every human being; we stand, instead, on the brink of natural and man-made disasters so frightening to contemplate that the mass of us do nothing but apply the blinders, continue to shop, and vote Republican or Democrat, hoping, perhaps, that it will all just go away.

Well, it won’t. We’re going to have to fix all this. We’re going to have to do it together and we’re going to have to do it now. And that’s why we’re here. Doing our small part to rally the forces, focus on where we have to go, and help us all get there.

¹United States presidential election, 2004. [Source: Wikipedia]
²Iraq Coalition Casualty Count [Source: Department of Defense]
³Retail Gasoline Historical Prices [Source: Energy Information Administration ]
⁴2005 Incomes, on Average, Still Below 2000 Peak [Source: David Cay Johnston, citing IRS data, in the New York Times]
⁵Wages in America: The Rich Get Richer and the Rest Get Less [Source: Rasmus, Jack, The War at Home: The Corporate Offensive in America From Reagan to Bush]

June 7, 2008
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Thanks, and Welcome to All Together Now!

Dale Copps
Webmaster