Needed: People Power
To the Editor:
The influence that personal experiences have on public opinion, public policy and allocation of public resources cannot be overemphasized.
Voices of courageous individuals and media describing personal challenges, struggles and suffering are what form the foundation on which progressive legislators, influential activists, protestors, celebrities, business leaders, philanthropists, scientists and academics stand when advocating for positive and enduring social change benefiting everyone.
A dramatic example appeared in July’s Senior News [“America’s 250th Birthday”] recounting refugees’ personal experiences escaping fascist Germany, igniting most Americans’ conscience prior to WWII.
The current administration understands the power of personal accounts and is prioritizing their removal from public schools, libraries, museums, monuments and parks whenever they represent historically oppressed classes.
Consider how our predecessors risked retaliation by publishing detailed accounts of families devastated by house fires due to inadequate fire insurance, thus exposing the public costs of corrupt political and industry officials’ lucrative investment opportunities in private fire companies, eventually overwhelming the cruel charade of blaming uninsured victims, as one municipality after another began providing universal coverage protecting everyone.
No sane individual or community today would advocate returning to private fire departments, even if mandated to cover a percentage of uninsured homes, yet this is the corrupt system currently imposed under privatization of essential, life-sustaining public services, placing everyone at risk.
Disturbing statistics reported at livewellhumboldt.org, are impacting a large percentage of Humboldt County’s population. Finding solutions to the personal suffering revealed by these statistics requires empathy that comes from a deeper understanding of the challenges so many individuals and families are facing.
Continued self-censorship of individuals’ experiences in navigating a corrupt economic system — especially among the young, elderly, ill, disabled, un-housed and unemployed — merely prolongs a system designed to advantage privileged individuals who least need it, at profound cost to those who can least afford it.
George Clark, Eureka
