Posted Jun 29, 2008 at 05:01pm
Football Hall of Fame: Bush Hall of Shame
CANTON, OH - Canton is best known as the home of the Pro-Football Hall of Fame. Saturday the city got a visit from a museum of a different sort. Although we can’t boast Joe Montana’s jersey or the Vince Lombardi trophy, our museum on wheels left a lasting impression on the people who went through it on Saturday.
The bus rolled into downtown Canton on Saturday afternoon. Canton local, Dan Fonte of the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans summed up the need for change in his speech. Fonte discussed how local workers are impacted when corporate greed coupled with complacent government overpowers unions and destroys their possibility of a dignified retirement.
“Right here in Stark County we have an example of pensions being dismantled. A local steel company filed for bankruptcy in 2001. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. took over the control of the pensions along with the courts and eliminated tenure for a lot of people. Now, we have over 1,100 retirees who have been told their pensions will be cut, and in some cases drastically. But did the CEOs of the company have to give back their pensions and other perks? No!!!”
Fonte summed up the need to cement the Bush legacy and the failures of conservative governance perfectly.
“Are you better off today than before conservatives took control of government? Let’s see: higher gas prices, higher food prices, higher home heating prices, higher electricity bills, more debt, record home foreclosures, school systems in trouble, and heath care we can’t afford. The conservative agenda has created a government that does not protect its people. How can we let this happen in America? Because we let it happen.”
