Jack & Jill Politics

Prometheus 6 says that brand new Rep. Keith Ellison from Minnesota is a better man than him for speaking cordially to hate-baiting Rep. Virgil Goode. I’m not sure about that as I like Pro 6, yet I agree that Keith Ellison has so much more to offer America than token status as the first Muslim elected to Congress.

Check out his widely read opinion piece “Choose Generosity, Not Exclusion” he wrote for Newsweek that was linked by the Washington Post. His progressive voice of tolerance, compassion and common sense is badly needed in an American agenda gone awry.

Read it. Here’s a snip:

If scarcity is a myth, then poverty is not necessary. America need not have 37 million Americans living below the poverty line. It is a choice. Hunger is a choice. Exclusion of the stranger, the immigrant, or the darker other is a choice.

We can choose generosity. In America today, we spend more on health care than any other industrialized nation, yet 46 Million people have none. Canada spends half of what we spend and covers everyone. Perfectly? Of course not. But adequately. That’s more than what a lot of people have right now.

We live in a society which says that there is enough for a tax break for the wealthy but not enough for an increase in the minimum wage or for national health care. There is enough for subsidies to oil and coal companies but not for families who are struggling to afford child care or a college education. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

We need more men in the CBC like Rep. Ellison.