Hero of the Week Award: September 23, Elizabeth Warren

Hero of the Week

This week Elizabeth Warren really stood out amongst her peers and showed true leadership, when addressing a crowd and talking about the deficit and fair taxation.  Her video/speech earns her this week’s HWA.  If she does not win the Senate seat in Massachusetts, I fear this is a bad harbinger for the country.

Here is a part of Warren’s speech regarding taxation and class warfare:

I hear all this, you know, “Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever.”—No!
There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.
You built a factory out there—good for you! But I want to be clear.
You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for.
You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate.
You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.
You didn’t have to worry that maurauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.
Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea—God bless. Keep a big hunk of it.
But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

I love this speech and I love that she refers to the Social Contract. Here is my enormous fear: I worry there are too few Americans who know what the Social Contract is and have never heard of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.  I so wish Americans knew history; it sure would save a lot of time, anguish, and lives if we did.  Click here to see  the video of our Warren, provided by “Voice of the Trailer.”

I also have to give an honorable mention to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).  Ros-Lehtinen is the first Republican to have the social courage and integrity to break from her party and sponsor legislation repealing DOMA.  Our Ros-Lehtinen is a wonderful straight ally.

Honorable LGBT Ally