Leonard C. Goodman is a Chicago criminal defense attorney and co-owner of the newly independent Reader.
Since the coronavirus forced businesses to shut down, our economy has lost 40 million jobs, and millions more workers have had their wages cut or been forced to work part-time. Desperate to maintain their profits, many large corporations are planning additional massive layoffs. The temporary relief provided to working people included onetime $1,200 stimulus checks and $600 unemployment supplements that expired this summer. Tens of millions of Americans cannot pay their rent and are at risk of eviction. The lockdown has also forced U.S. cities and states to cope with plunging sales and income tax revenue by slashing social services and depleting their pension funds savings to pay bondholders. Many experts are predicting a new pandemic of homelessness if nothing is done.
The connection between military spending and the destruction of the planet could not be more clear. First, the U.S. military is the biggest polluter and consumer of fossil fuels in the world. Then this week it was reported that as Oregon battles the worst wildfires in living memory, more than half of the state’s National Guard helicopters are unavailable to help fight the fires as they are deployed in Afghanistan.
There is one group of Americans, besides mega-donors, who have the power to get their voices heard. They are professional athletes. Last month, Milwaukee Bucks players went on strike to protest the Kenosha police shooting of Jacob Blake. There was reportedly significant momentum among a certain group of players to walk away from the season to protest police brutality and the disproportionate use of deadly force by cops against Black men and women. So serious was the threat posed by these players that former President Barack Obama was enlisted to talk the players out of striking. While the NBA season was saved, the episode showed the potential power of professional athletes who someday might join with the voiceless majority of Americans to demand some of the things the big-money political donors won’t let us have; such as health care, jobs, a living wage, the preservation of the planet earth, and an end to foreign wars. v
