Paul Sassone

Not quite a year before the United States was plunged into war, President Franklin Roosevelt defended the values of democracy in his 1941 State of the Union Address. He defined four freedoms that flowed from democratic government: Freedom of speech and expression, freedom to worship God in his own way, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

All people, everywhere, should have these freedoms. And democracy is the best way to provide and guarantee those freedoms.

Those freedoms are in short supply for millions of people throughout the world and, unfortunately, for millions of Americans.

When President Roosevelt gave his Four Freedoms Speech, America and the world were on the brink of staggering change.

And though world war is not imminent, we are on the brink of a major shift in where the United State is heading. Question is where the shift will take us.

Will the federal government provide more opportunity and success for all its citizens? Or will the federal government become the palace guard that preserves, protects and defends the treasure hoarders of the wealthy?

To shape the kind of government that serves all its citizens, not just a few, a new list of freedoms is needed. The list should be of goals toward which the federal government should be working. The freedoms needed now are five:
1. Sufficient nutritious food that creates a healthy people.
2. A decent place to live.
3. Adequate medical care.
4. Free public education.
5. Work that provides a decent standad of living for the job holder
and his/her family.

These are the birthright of all Americans. And because they are a right, they do not depend on a person’s ability to buy them. Let the wealthy pile up their millions. There needn’t be a top. But there has to be a bottom below which no American can drop. And that bottom must be at more than subsistence level. All Americans — all — have a right to a good life.

To the extent that any federal government’s action arc toward one of these five goals, that action is good.

And it is up to us, citizens of the United States, to demand the government stays on track and works for all.

If it doesn’t, we must holler like hell and throw out the elected officials who stand in the way of making the American Dream a reality.

–Government should work for these 5 goals–