At the university there was an old professor who stood out in the lecture halls. A booming, undulating voice that could wake even the sleepiest of us sitting in those godforsaken wooden chairs when universities were so devoid of all of today’s technologies and persuasions. I remember it like it was yesterday. Professor Franklin, we would all call him. White shirt, bow tie, brown jacket with patches on the elbows and always those gray pants. Unmistakable were those trademarks. They all recognized Professor Franklin.
But, on one particular day in late fall, the theme of his lecture was “Humanity, Humility, Benevolence, and Compassion in an Otherwise Compassionless World.” Vietnam was taking its toll on young people who couldn’t keep their student deferments. Everywhere, discontent among radical ideas pervaded almost every college campus. I still remember sitting, yes, on those awful stiff wooden chairs, listening with feverish intensity to every word of Professor Franklin. What he said still resonates today. He said that everyone, regardless of their status in life, rich or poor, black or white, Catholic, Protestant or Muslim, everyone at some point in their lives has something as important, as relevant or as profound to say or write. But, it is up to the rest of us to listen, hear or see; because they could say or write something so profound and so important that perhaps the course of humanity would actually become more humane, more compassionate and more benevolent towards their fellow human beings. Everyone has a story to tell.
Some 50 years later, the world I once knew no longer exists. It is as if the world has forgotten, failed to recognize and totally ignored the wisdom of what Professor Franklin read about it many years ago. When he spoke of humanity, humility, compassion and benevolence in a world devoid of compassion, he or I did not realize that today the alarmingly increasing rate of the number of instances in which man has shown his lack of humanity, its lack of compassion and its extreme lack of benevolence towards man and nature has so impoverished virtually all nations that their future stability is in serious jeopardy.
As Professor Franklin said “Everyone has a story to tell.” Now is my turn. “This is my story. It’s sad but true. It’s about a world I once knew.” A cover of an old Del Shannon hit from the early ’60s. But very appropriate for today. Back in the 1950s and 1960s America was practically invincible where our economy, public education, and government policies actually benefited the majority of Americans. The distribution of wealth in the United States was proportional to population, with more families reaching middle-class status and more people having more disposable income. Williams’ theory of economic evolution was actually making the US economy the envy of the world. A troubling question that is rarely asked today: what has happened to the United States to end up with one of the worst economic disasters in our history in 2008 and yet another potential financial calamity set to hit today?
The complexity of that question continues to baffle elected officials entrusted by the American public with the economy of the United States, the welfare of Americans, and the national security of the nation. In answering, we must begin with a direct relationship to the demise of the American experience going back to what actually happened to the American auto industry in the late 1960s and 1970s. There is a correlation between this industry, the United Auto Workers, and our government’s reactions that fueled the flames of this storm of economic turmoil that derailed the American experience for most Americans.
What has happened in the ensuing decades has been an erosion of our public education system, a widening income disparity, a virtual extinction of middle-class income-generating jobs, relentless fraudulent financial practices, and corruption at all levels of government. . All of this has manifested itself to the point where today our entire society has been sucked into the tidal wave of incompetence, gross negligence, and habitual disregard for the quality of life of the majority of Americans by the smallest minority of now More rich.
The question remains; How can the United States reverse this transvestite? One that has befallen most Americans. One that can prevent further erosion not only here in the United States but in all other nations that have been victims of the enormous economic, financial and social crisis of 2008 and another that is just around the corner. History lessons, the wise words of Professor Franklin, and Williams’ theory of economic evolution may be instrumental in ensuring an end to what is now a continuing global economic crisis.
First we have to realize that variations of the same policies today are not working. Once we recognize this fact, we can now start with a totally different approach. One that uses the lessons that history has taught us. One that took place during America’s darkest hours. The 1930s produced the greatest turn of economic revival in history. Today, no mention of the policies that produced that economic expansion has been evaluated for its relevance to the current economic crisis. It might be a good time to review what really happened and how the economy grew after the period of the greatest economic blight that destroyed so many lives.
The United States has to have a complete reversal of trade and trade policies to one that actually encourages American economic expansion, consumer confidence, and eliminates our trade deficit. How this is achieved is by being selective in imports and eliminating only those that contribute to our trade deficit. As long as nations import the same value of goods they receive from us, the trade differential is equalized. something that NAFTA has not done and this new TTP Agreement will not do. All the nations that have almost equal trade with the United States will now be able to benefit because they will have more opportunities to sell in the US The free trade policies that we have have done nothing but eliminate the manufacturing base in the United States. For the most part, it is our free trade policies that are responsible for the great out-of-country migration of middle-class income-related jobs that has impoverished an entire nation. We must invoke trade policies that emphasize Fair Trade and not Free Trade.
Once we rewrite our trade agreements that provide for fair trade and not free trade as we have done and are doing with this new TTP treaty, eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels and implement the Ten Articles of Confederation of National Economic Reform, America it will now be able to sustain economic growth, renewed stability, and ensure our national security. It is to this end that the words Professor Franklin used in many of his lectures; that if people do not listen, hear or see what others are trying to convey, the problems that could have been avoided, the solutions offered and the remedies to the crisis implemented would continue to go unnoticed and humanity would continue to suffer.
Will the powers that be continue to ignore the plight of so many millions? For my part, I certainly hope that the reason for this upcoming presidential election outweighs hype and bravado. In today’s political arena, it’s refreshing that a presidential candidate is keenly aware of the rationale that Professor Franklin conveyed to many of us college students more than 50 years ago. What people have to say, do and write has an impact on the reaction and actions of others.