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: the 13th juror

Innocence and guilt are funny things in America

"If you are rich and guilty, if you have defrauded banks and customers and investment firms of billions of dollars," writes Chris Hedges, "if you wear fancy suits and have degrees from elite universities that cost more per year than Brown used to make, you get taxpayer money. You get lots of it. You maintain the lavish lifestyle of jets and spas and million-dollar bonuses. You live a life of unchecked greed and have too much in a world where most have too little. If you are moral scum in America we take care of you.

"But if you are poor, if you are, say, Tearyan Brown and African-American and 39 years old with four kids and no job and you live in the inner city, you are in trouble. No one comes to help you. You don't get a second chance. This is what being poor means."

This incredibly powerful story about Tearyan Brown is must reading.

Once we know about this stuff and do nothing, aren?t we as complicit as the robber barons who get all the cash? How do we turn things around?

Full post as published by the 13th juror on September 30, 2009 (boomark / email).