Guest commentary: Political Graffiti Part III — A moment to seize greatness

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By Rodolfo F. Acuña / Guest contributor

We all have a moment in which we can choose greatness or enter the ranks of the mediocre. That moment is not distinguished by winning the lotto or becoming a martyr. It involves every day choices that separate us from the pack.

I have been thinking a lot about a very special email I received from Sal Castro’s widow, Charlotte, in which she said that Sal used to say that it “takes guts to grow old.” This was a very profound statement from one of the few people I knew who never sold out.

Sal had a certain naiveté that drew a bright line under the obvious. Armed with a report showing that participants of the Chicano Youth Leadership Conference (CYLC) graduated at a higher rate from high school and went to college in greater proportional numbers than other LAUSD students he approached former LAUSD superintendent of schools John Deasy for support. Deasy, who it must be remembered, professed having the interest of students, brushed him off – statistics meant little to him.

Sal had ceased greatness during the 1968 East LA School Walkouts that he led when he unpretentiously said during the walkouts “It’s a beautiful day to be a Chicano!” Sal seized the moment – putting his job on the line.

Barack Obama had a similar moment in 2008 when he took over a nation on the throes of economic disaster. Obama, however, failed to seize the moment. He entered the presidency with astronomical favorable ratings that reached 70 percent. The time was ripe to straighten out a system that George W. Bush had worsened.

It was no secret that as in the case of Depression of the 1930s that the collapse was caused by deregulation of financial market and the corruption of the banking system.  Capital had seized control of government and Humpty Dumpty took the great fall.

FDR entered with a plan, assembling a diverse team called his “brains trust” that rolled out the New Deal. By the eve of his second term the struggle with the financial sector was bitter as the latter prepared to retake control of government. In a “Speech before the 1936 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 27, 1936, Titled “A Rendezvous With Destiny,” he called out Wall Street, derisively calling critics economic royalists:

“For out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capital – all undreamed of by the Fathers – the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service.”

Roosevelt continued,

“These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.”

FDR concluded,

In this world of ours [as] in other lands, there are some people, who, in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded their democracy.

 I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope. They begin to know that here in America we are waging a great and successful war. It is not alone a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world…

Contrast Obama’s actions. His answer was to ace out progressive economists and elevate the pawns of the “economic royalists” such as “Larry” Summers and New York Fed President Timothy Geithner to positions of power. It was equivalent of letting the “foxes guard the chicken coop”

As a consequence of this direct action, Roosevelt remained popular to the end, elected to four terms. In my home, my grandmother who did not speak English had an altar with candles blazing under the photos of the Virgén de Guadalupe,  the Sacred Heart and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Obama could have been a contender. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QsNXd57Ppw . However, he went along with foxes to the point that today Humpty Dumpty is ready to take another great fault and the economic royalists will be in control of the house, the senate and the Supreme Court setting the table for a clean sweep in 2016.

As you get old, you become more aware and critical of the wasted moments. You look around at your own circle and realize what Chicana/o Studies could have been and how the chickens sold out to those guarding the coop in order to maintain pinche jobs. Chicano males were the first and now they are joined by Chicana cohorts – selling out our “Rendezvous With Destiny”.

The second disappointment is Latino elected officials many of them trained by Chicana/o Studies many of whom are in the pay of the economic royalists. Their conduct often borders on the sleazy with their obsequious deference toward the Eli Broads and the Richard Riordans.

I have known Tony Villaraigosa since he was young. I know that he once shared the vision of that “Rendezvous With Destiny”. Tony above most could have been a contender, but he let greatness slip away and he today is ridiculed in many sectors. For me that is tragic.

Obama ‘s case is different because he could have done so much. He meant so much to so so many. It was important not only for him but everyone that he succeed and build for the future. Democracy is not a dirty word but in the hands of the economic royalists it is an illusion.

— Rodolfo F. Acuña is an historian, professor emeritus teaching at CSU Northridge. He is the author of “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.”  Visit http://rudyacuna.net  for more information.