The State of Opportunity

Instead of enforcement-only quick fixes, what we need are real workable solutions that reflect our national commitment to fair and dignified treatment, and that bring our country together.

Shirley Sherrod, as most of us know by now, is the Agriculture Department official vilified this week after a distorted video posted by right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart went viral. When the facts were in, it was clear that Breitbart had engaged in an intentional and callous attempt to smear Ms. Sherrod, an African American, and the NAACP with a false charge of racism.

Call me late to the party, but I heard what has apparently become the song of the summer, “Billionaire,” for the first time this past weekend.  Actually, I heard it three times this weekend, including twice in situations where I had no choice but to actually sit and listen to all the lyrics.  The Travie McCoy single, currently number five on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, is a paean to the type of high-flying, me-first greed that brought us such classics as The Economic Collapse of 2008 and The $3 Billion and Counting BP Oil Spill That Could Have Been Prevented by a $500,000 Acoustic Trigger.  And, in this crucial moment, with our economy on a tipping point between continued, albeit slow, recovery, and slipping back into recession, this catchy ditty promotes the precise values we DON’T need.

A coalition of over 150 social justice and public interest groups has come together to call for job creation and investment in opportunity, including for the country's hardest hit communities. They'll launch their call in a march on Washington October 2, 2010. It's the right call at the right time.