It is time for a revolution. Government does not work for regular people. It appears to work quite well for big
corporations, banks, insurance companies, military contractors, lobbyists, and
for the rich and powerful. But it does
not work for people.

The 1776 Declaration of Independence stated that when a long
train of abuses by those in power evidence a design to reduce the rights of
people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the peoples right,
in fact their duty to engage in a revolution.

Martin Luther King, Jr., said forty three years ago next
month that it was time for a radical revolution of values in the United
States. He preached “a true revolution
of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of
our past and present policies.” It is
clearer than ever that now is the time for radical change.

Look at what our current system has brought us and ask if it
is time for a revolution?

Over 2.8 million people lost their homes in 2009 to
foreclosure or bank repossessions – nearly 8000 each day – higher numbers than
the last two years when millions of others also lost their homes.

At the same time, the government bailed out Bank of America,
Citigroup, AIG, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the auto industry and
enacted the troubled asset (TARP) program with $1.7 trillion of our money.

Wall Street then awarded itself over $20 billion in bonuses
in 2009 alone, an average bonus on top of pay of $123,000.

At the same time, over 17 million people are jobless right
now. Millions more are working part-time
when they want and need to be working full-time.

Yet the current system allows one single U.S. Senator to
stop unemployment and Medicare benefits being paid to millions.

There are now 35 registered lobbyists in Washington DC for
every single member of the Senate and House of Representatives, at last count
13,739 in 2009. There are eight
lobbyists for every member of Congress working on the health care fiasco alone.

At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that
corporations now have a constitutional right to interfere with elections by
pouring money into races.

The Department of Justice gave a get out of jail free card
to its own lawyers who authorized illegal torture.

At the same time another department of government, the
Pentagon, is prosecuting Navy SEALS for punching an Iraqi suspect.

The US is not only involved in senseless wars in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Pakistan, the U.S. now maintains 700 military bases world-wide
and another 6000 in the US and our territories. Young men and women join the military to protect the U.S. and to get
college tuition and healthcare coverage and killed and maimed in elective wars
and being the world’s police. Wonder whose assets they are protecting and serving?

In fact, the U.S. spends $700 billion directly on military
per year, half the military spending of the entire world – much more than
Europe, China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea, and Venezuela – combined.

The government and private companies have dramatically
increased surveillance of people through cameras on public streets and private places,
airport searches, phone intercepts, access to personal computers, and
compilation of records from credit card purchases, computer views of sites, and
travel.

The number of people in jails and prisons in the U.S. has
risen sevenfold since 1970 to over 2.3 million. The US puts a higher percentage of our people in jail than any other
country in the world.

The tea party people are mad at the Republicans, who they
accuse of selling them out to big businesses.

Democrats are working their way past depression to anger
because their party, despite majorities in the House and Senate, has not made
significant advances for immigrants, or women, or unions, or African Americans,
or environmentalists, or gays and lesbians, or civil libertarians, or people
dedicated to health care, or human rights, or jobs or housing or economic
justice. Democrats also think their
party is selling out to big business.

Forty three years ago next month, Rev. Martin Luther King,
Jr. preached in Riverside Church in New York City that “a time comes when
silence is betrayal.” He went on to
condemn the Vietnam War and the system which created it and the other
injustices clearly apparent. “We as a
nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing
oriented” society to a “person oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives
and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant
triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being
conquered.”

It is time.

Bill is legal director
of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola
University New Orleans.