I say let’s go back to a truer use of the word ‘freedom.’ Let’s start with President Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. I would add the freedom to bargain collectively. Those freedoms are under attack today.
Category Archive: Richard Trumka
Time after time we’re told corporations should have freedom from pesky job safety regulations, environmental protections and labor standards – giving working people the freedom to be crushed in collapsing mines, choke on filthy air and get paid too little to live on.
I do believe that freedom isn’t free – but today the corporate and political right wing is trying to cheapen this truly American value. They’ve been cynically using the word ‘freedom’ to rally the American public against its own best interests.
What I care about is whether or not a leader will work with America’s working people, whether or not a leader cares about responsibility and honest work and whether or not a leader will fight to keep the American Dream alive.
When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, Sarah Palin tweeted, ‘Obama lies; freedom dies.’ She’s referring, I guess, to the freedom to go without health care when you’re sick.
You see, without hard work and responsibility, there is no American Dream. Hard work lays the foundation. Our solidarity makes work pay – for all of us. For the greater good. That’s what our vision of shared prosperity is all about.