In Obama Era: Can We Think Big and Make the Changes We Really Need?

By Rep. Keith Ellison, AlterNet. Posted June 11, 2009.

You know -- years ago, you and I used to talk about people who we called allies -- am I right about this? So like, if I care about the rights of the GBLT community, but I'm not of that community, I would be called what? An Ally. And what if I care about the racial justice, and I was a white person, I might say, "Well, I'm not a person of color, but I am an ally."

And you might say to yourself, "You know what, I'm not in a labor union, I'm not a worker, but I care about workers rights, so I'm an ally."

When it comes to the amazing changes we have got to make with regard to creation and this environment that we live in, there are no such thing as allies. If this planet continues to overheat, and the oceans continue to acidify, there ain't no Martians to become our allies folks. You and I have to find a way to come together in a whole new way. Everybody has skin in this game, and we have to make sure that as we begin this argument, because House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman [Rep. Henry] Waxman, D-Calif., has put a mark down: He has passed a bill through committee, and we are going to see some climate-change legislation. My question to you is: Will it be progressive legislation that is designed to truly make the conversion away from a carbon economy that we must make in order to save our existence on this planet? Because the planet is going to keep on turning whether we can live on it or not.

This is the issue. If you go up to Alaska -- I'm not talking about some country like Norway or Iceland or Greenland or somewhere like that – Alaska, America, your country -- what you see now are areas the size of America, east of the Mississippi, where the layers of ice have melted, and there's open water. And whereas before they used to reflect the sun rays, used to reflect off the ice -- now they go into the earth and warm it up and release methane gasses, which accelerate this process of global climate change.

The fact is, that whether you are black, white, whether you are Latino, Asian -- no matter who you are. Whether you are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, or have no faith at all; this is your problem, this is our problem and you and I cannot let this climate-change debate go by unless we are fully engaged, plugged in and literally shaping the agenda.

We can't aim low. The Employee Free Choice Act, bare minimum. Bare minimum. It's not much to ask for, but until we make it into the law, it's just something we're hoping for. Are we going to bring the pressure we gotta have to get the 60 votes we need to end the debate?

You better believe that the chamber is loaded for bear to stop this effort, for workers to get the rights that they need. Are you loaded for bear? This is the question that I put before you. I'm going to tell you that I trace every single financial and economic problem back to the weakness and fragility of the labor movement since 1957.

If workers were stronger -- if workers were stronger, we'd have universal health care already. If workers were stronger, we'd have the rights of gays and lesbians protected. If workers were stronger, we wouldn't have had to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Act a few weeks ago; we'd have been had legislation to make sure that women get paid for equal work; it is only just, and it's only right.

We would have had this stuff done already, but it is because, it is because, it is because our movement lacks muscle and bone density that we're not able to drive the interest that we need, and that means starting with strengthening labor. The Employee Free Choice Act must be made a reality, and all of us have to take personal responsibility in doing it.

Absolutely, we must investigate the criminal wrongdoing of the last administration. How can we do less? How can we do less??

Look -- if all of a sudden you get a warm heart and a soft heart for the likes of [former Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and [ex-Vice President] Dick Cheney, if all of a sudden you all of a sudden get like, "Well, they're gone and done -- I guess we don't have to worry about that." I ask you to have some foresight. There might be an administration one day who says, "Well, they did it, why can't I do it?" "They tortured people; I can torture people, too."

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Keith Ellison, a Democrat, represents Minnesota's 5th Congressional District.

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