"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." - Emma Lazarus

These words from Lazarus' sonnet "The New Colossus" are inscribed within the Statue of Liberty. They have been used to represent a vision of America which I grew up with, and grew in scope to encompass The American Dream as an extension of a fictionalized but inspiring history: here, in America, the melting pot of the world, we are all equal and we are all free.

How did we get from that vision to the present sorry state of the nation? We've moved from "Liberty and Justice for All" to "Money Talks." Simply watching Fox News, that bastion of right-wing media integrity, I was aware New Orleans would be a disaster two days before Katrina hit. We all knew, including the director of FEMA, your representatives and the many corporate influences which combine in the person of George W. Bush.

Why wasn't every single bus, truck, helicopter and plane mobilized from surrounding areas to evacuate the danger zones? Why are the people still suffering and dying in New Orleans predominantly dark of skin and poor?

Because money talks.

If you have money, you can leave easily. If you have enough money to be one of the people Bush calls "his base," you'll get the inevitable reconstruction contracts and tax breaks once those poor blacks are all out of the way in Louisiana. It costs less to let people die than it does to move, house and care for them, and the Conservative and Christian Right which currently dominate the political landscape have never shown much mercy to those they scapegoat as responsible for the decline of our nation.

It's easy to forget just how recently women became eligible to vote, how recently slaves were freed and blacks became full citizens, how recently we jailed our own people for being Japanese, how recently we realized the Industrial Revolution brought with it environmental and health consequences, and just how recently science and technology transformed our world into one of human proportions instead of ignorant make-believe guided by a divine hand.

Some people are still smarting after being on the wrong side of those battles. Some of them, in the form of our current administration, are determined to change the tide of the war.

Yes... war.

We have a government which has proven, many times over, that only the wealthy matter and all others are second-class citizens.

Your government doesn't care about you.

Chief Justice Rehnquist died today. This same uncaring government is now poised to change the laws of our land through two or more appointments to the Supreme Court. These changes will benefit only the rich and corporate, and the ideologies of those who keep them in power.

Since Bush's election, I've heard endlessly about the death of the Left. The Republican talking heads have repeated the funeral message and demonized every group associated with Leftist principles and values.

Don't believe it.

If you're not one of Bush's millionaires, you're a member of the Left. If you're a union member, an honest educator, a policeman, a firefighter, a car mechanic, a waitperson, an artist, a student, you're a member of the Left. If you voted against your interests and now find Bush's "ownership society" means you won't own anything, you're a member of the Left. If you're one of the tired, the poor, the huddled masses, you are a member of the Left.

Now is the time for all decent human beings to rise from the dead, stand up and fight like hell. This can be a bloodless battle if you register to vote and send these despicable people and their corporate backers packing in 2006 and 2008.

Elsewise, the future is more like post-Katrina New Orleans than The American Dream.