Freedom. Defined by Cash Back Rewards

[Alan Grayson]

My 16-year-old daughter Skye got a credit card application in the mail yesterday. I guess I should be glad that we still get them. If we didn’t, that would be a strong sign that we’re broke.

Anyway, the envelope for this credit card application said: “FREEDOM. Defined By Cash Back Rewards.”

One could say that those six crass words, directed to a 16-year-old, sum up exactly what has gone wrong with America.

Honestly, I have no idea how “freedom” could be depicted by, associated with, or derived from – much less “Defined By” – cash-back rewards. Is that what the Revolutionary War was all about? Cash-back rewards?

Don’t get me wrong; I like cash-back rewards almost as much as I like cash. But they don’t have anything to do with freedom.

A great deal of advertising, just like a great deal of political discourse, reads like assault and battery on the English language. You don’t have to take my word for it. Just read Karl Rove’s playbook, “Words That Work,” by Frank Luntz. Or Newt Gingrich’s “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.” Or George Orwell’s “1984.” (Note to right wing: “1984” was not intended as a how-to book.)

And one of the all-time favorite tricks of the tricksters is their corruption and debasement of the word “freedom.”

After all, who can forget the twisted phrase, “they hate us because we are free”?

When a politician speaks about “freedom,” it’s usually meant to deflect your attention away from the gross disparities between the rich and poor. To paraphrase Anatole France, the rich and the poor are both free to lose their homes, and sleep in their cars.

But there was one American leader who knew what freedom really means: Franklin Roosevelt. He recognized that the term “freedom” includes freedom from certain things: freedom from poverty, freedom from ignorance, freedom from discrimination, freedom from disease, freedom from war. Listen to what FDR said in his ninth State of the Union address, after he was elected to an unprecedented third term:

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want—which, translated into universal terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation."

It still is – 70 years later, in our time and in our generation.

My conception of freedom is that you can be all you can be, unchained by mass unemployment, bigotry, poor health and poverty. And it sure is different from Rick Perry’s, or Michele Bachmann’s, or Eric Cantor’s, or Sarah Palin’s. Janis Joplin summed up their kind of freedom this way:

"Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose."

Courage,

Alan Grayson

“I’d trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday,
To be holding Bobby’s body next to mine.”

Kris Kristofferson, as recorded by Janis Joplin, “Me and Bobby McGee” (1970).

Click here to support a leader who knows what freedom really means.

[notadmblnd]

1. my son gets them all the time too

I just throw them away before he sees them. I don't want him neck deep in debt at such a young age. He's working hard and I want him to enjoy the money he's making for a little while. And yes, he's saving 100.00 a week.

[AzDar]

2. K & R

:kick:

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Welcome back, Mr. Grayson. Perhaps it's better than "freedom defined by compulsory ID cards"

which is what Tony Blair's personal pollster, Philip (Lord) Gould try to sell the the British public a few years ago:

Lord Gould of Brookwood: Both the previous speakers—the latter with great emotion—were arguing for freedom. We have to ask what greater freedom is there than the freedom to place a vote for a political party in a ballot box upon the basis of a mandate and a manifesto. That is the crux of it: the people have supported this measure. That is what the noble Earl's father fought for. But that is too trivial an answer. I know that. The fundamental argument is that the truth is that people believe that these identity cards will affirm their identity. The noble Lord opposite said that he likes to be in this House and how he is recognised in this House because it is a community that recognises him. That is how the people of this nation feel. They feel that they are part of communities, and they want recognition. For them, recognition comes in the form of this identity card. Noble Lords may think that that is strange, but it is what they feel. This is their kind of freedom. They want their good, hard work and determination to be recognised, rewarded and respected. That is what this does.

Of course it is right and honourable for noble Lords to have their views, but I say there is another view, and it is the view of the majority of this country. They want to have the respect, recognition and freedom that this card will give them. Times have changed. Politics have changed. What would not work 50 years ago, works now. It is not just me. I have the words of the leader of your party:

"I have listened to the police and security service chiefs. They have told me that ID cards can and will help their efforts to protect the lives of British citizens against terrorist acts. How can I disregard that?".

This is not some silly idea of the phoney left. It is a mainstream idea of modern times. It is a new kind of identity and a new kind of freedom. I respect the noble Lords' views, but it would help if they respected the fact that the Bill and the identity cards represent the future: a new kind of freedom and a new kind of identity.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldhansrd/vo051115/text/51115-19.htm

Luckily, people were sceptical about Gould's Orwellian attempt to re-define freedom, and compulsory ID cards were eventually scrapped; it seems it's a word many will try to shape for their own ends. I'm glad to see you resisting a commercial attempt.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. The Four Freedoms - a beacon leading to world peace, harmony, and security

The speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iHKtrirjlY

And the illustration that always comes to mind:



Thanks Congressman! We need more folks like you with brains, heart, and guts.

[Firebrand Gary]

5. K&R

[OffWithTheirHeads]

6. Debt is slavery. Nothing worse than having to put up with a shitty job,

an oppressive boss or pathetic working conditions because you are in debt, especially to some blood thirsty credit card co.

[givemebackmycountry]

7. Just sayin' my sig line ain't going nowhere.

Anytime soon.

[WillyT]

8. K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

:kick:

:hi:

[rhett o rick]

9. R&K

[Lorien]

10. I swear, when I talk to the repugs I know here in Orlando I get the feeling

That "freedom" to them means the ability to evade taxes so that they can blow more money on cheap chinese made electronics from Walmart. Funny how they view "dying for your nation" as a noble thing (that mostly poor people do). But sacrifice 27% of one's income to keep the nation and it's people strong? Terrible idea! Our lives are worth less than their tax dollars, apparently, and freedom is measured in trinkets from overseas.

[xchrom]

11. recommend

[Lorien]

12. Kick. nt

[Wilms]

13. ^