Good journalism is essential not only to document, narrate and disseminate the events that are part of collective life, but also to raise public awareness so that it is the protagonist of its own history. But there are days, weeks, when it seems that the only thing we do – and it is something that has to be done – is to document so much cruelty, injustice and hypocrisy that we end up nurturing disappointment and hopelessness.
For example, it was revealed that poverty is the fourth cause of death in the richest country on the planet and in history. According to new research, including one published in the Journal of the American Medical Association ( jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2804032), poverty silently kills 10 times more people than homicides, and 2.5 times more than drug overdoses; 500 people die on average every day due to poverty, according to some calculations. Only heart disease, cancer and smoking-related deaths surpass poverty as the leading cause of death. The United States is number one in poverty among the 25 richest countries in the world, and one in five minors live in poverty. According to one expert, you could lift everyone out of poverty with just 1 percent of GDP, about $177 billion.
Last week, the Senate approved a military budget of 886 billion dollars; the largest ever in the country’s history and five times more funding than it would take to lift everyone out of poverty in this country. The military budget approved by the Democratic-controlled upper house will surely be approved by the Republican-controlled lower house and signed into law by the Democrat in the White House, proving that there is nothing more bipartisan than the military-industrial complex. . But it seems there are never funds to address social deficiencies and needs, from health, housing and education to living wages.
On the other hand, Gov. Greg Abbott, apparently in an intense competition to see who is the cruelest ruler after issuing orders to push women and children into the Rio Grande and install a floating barbed-wire wall there, signed into law a measure that annuls the obligation of employers to offer breaks to drink water to workers who work outside; all this in the midst of an unprecedented heat wave.
Also in Texas, in Houston, the Food not Bombs organization, which has been around since 1994, has now been fined by local authorities at least 30 times—$2,000 each fine—for “feeding the homeless.”
And while various parts of the country continue to suffer from record temperatures, storms, floods, droughts and other effects directly linked by scientists to climate change, the United States government, like many others around the world, declare that they are committed to doing something, but continue to refusing to do the bare minimum, including declaring a “climate emergency” and stopping approving new hydrocarbon projects. ( 1684738570911948800?s=43&t=q1o0F6JgQVtYKI9AXcl-nw)
Fragmented and divided but larger and with more current and potential power today than in decades, America’s progressive movement is responding to all of these challenges and more with strikes, rallies, civil disobedience actions, and political expression at both the local and local levels. as a national and denounced the hypocrisies of the self-proclaimed leader of freedom, human rights and democracy while violating almost everyone. Maybe it’s about to produce big news.
But there are weeks in which one only consoles himself with that saying that it is always darkest just before dawn. If so, in the United States these days, it is time for dawn to break. Maybe it’s already happening and we just need to report it. News on hold.
Congratulations Mick: Rolling Stones. Little Red Rooster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-nT_joqmeM; It’s Only Rock & Roll. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGaBlygm0UY; start me up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGyOaCXr8Lw; Satisfaction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBVxWKlK7dU.
