This is not just a budget crisis; it's a values crisis. Our strongest position is talking up traditional American values about how workers, families, and the disabled should be treated. I assure you the right wing defines the world as a titanic conflict of values. Economist Paul Krugman in his October 20, 2002 New York Times Magazine cover article claims the present accumulation of wealth into the hands of the super rich is the result of a change in social norms as well as government policy. He goes on to label the period of the 1930s through the 1960s an economic anomaly between gilded ages. It was a time of government regulation of prices and wages followed by two decades of marketplace norms that prohibited the unalloyed greed we now see (remember Eisenhower's now-quaint warning about the rise of the military-industrial complex?). As the economy slips into its fourth year of stagnation we need to get the simple message out that it's not fair the rich get richer while the working people who make this country great can't get ahead.

Hard times have only begun to hit the middle class. We need to be ready when middle-class Americans really feel the pinch. The American middle is just awakening from the party of the late 1990s and realizing they're the ones who got the bill. As soccer moms try to make sense of their social and economic crisis, we need to be there to remind them the super rich are laughing up their sleeves. When we successfully motivate the suburbs to align their interests with those of the working poor, we strike at the heart of the ultra-right power base.

Every day we stand in classrooms across the country explaining complicated social phenomena, educating and motivating our undergraduates. Our present course is clear: we must hold classroom dialogues on today's budget mess at the state and national levels, and use university and community forums to express of our views and model social action for our students.