Just petty familial warfare.

Au Contraire.

This press coverage as well and the sense of some members of the old KPFT Local Advisory Board expressed during my meetings with them over these past months are the condescending judgement that our issues are "so 60's", "so yesterday"; just fighting old battles now won. The inference of those who criticize reform at KPFT is that this is the 21^st century and we need to relax. We’ve come a long way and now it’s time to kick back and listen to some music.

I’m here to tell you, as one who was in the trenches in the 1960’s, that many among you who characterize yourselves as "liberals" have let your success and comfort delude you. You look fondly back on those days when you did your thing in the civil rights or anti-war or women’s movements, and think the job is done. Look again. True, we made some headway, but far from adequate progress on those and other fronts.

While we were busting our asses in the streets and legislative chambers to get a larger piece of democracy for Blacks, Chicanos, women and others (including foreign victims of our War Machine), different forces were busy selling our democracy to the highest bidder, Corporate America. Thirty years later, the democracy we thought we’d won is now a shriveled shadow of its former self.

And this change began long before the stolen election of 2000 or Ashcroft’s obscene "Patriot Act" or the Bush-conceived retrenchment of civil and criminal procedure to the good old days of McCarthyism. To some degree, we on the left deluded ourselves during the Clinton years since the country (or at least the Executive branch, after l994) was once again in the hands of Democrats. With the opponents of Reagan and Bush policies now in control, we could rest easy knowing that our issues of economic and social justice were again being addressed.

For the better part of the 1990’s many so-called "liberals" abandoned their vigilance on the issues, trusting they were being addressed, especially in comparison to the Reagan years. I certainly was among those (although I was wary early on of Clinton’s disregard for some civil liberties). It was my reading of the Democratic Leadership Council’s manifesto in the mid-90’s that awakened my skepticism that the Democratic Party, under DLC control, was not serious about leading us into a more just era. In fact, the DLC tracts on international economics clearly promoted partnership between government and corporate America in a quest for international domination and exploitation.

In hindsight, many of us were also oblivious to where Clinton/Gore were taking us in the arena of media communications, including towards corporate control over public radio and even our beloved dissident community radio. Democratic Party leadership was instrumental, through their agents and allies, in stealing public media from the people. After all, they knew what was good for us!

This background informs the significant ideological differences between the reform community and members of the old KPFT Local Advisory Board and a significant number of the current KPFT listener base. This portion of KPFT's audience is largely apolitical or perhaps politically moderate/liberal, drawn mostly to the station for its Texana and Americana music. They appear to share a belief that all is mostly well with our nation, though I think most of them would prefer it be in the hands of Democrats and that this messy "war" in Afghanistan be completed soon. A war they believe is being conducted solely because of an act of horrific terrorism. They appear content with the headlines offered by the corporate media, and accept that Election 2000 was Bush’s by a hair and have now "moved on". It is a mind-set that trusts that multinational corporations have partnered with our government for the betterment of the national and world economies.

And because these folks have done well financially in the 90’s, they have willingly bought the Democratic Party disinformation campaign that we have all been lifted up economically in America. Their liberalism remains, expressed in a general belief that most government programs are good, and that while heavily taxed, we mostly benefit from the services provided. Excepting for environmental protections, this breed of Texas liberal bought into deregulation of utilities and the energy industry. A deregulation that allowed Enron to flourish without oversight.

This is where we "progressives" part company with "liberals" and this substantive ideological conflict has expressed itself in the battle for the return of community radio to KPFT. The divide is deep. Progressives are advocating systemic, not superficial change, in many facets of our society. We point out that overall personal buying power is lower now than it was in the 1970’s under Nixon. The chasm between wealthy and poor is ever widening. Our collective support of vulnerable children and elderly in this supposedly compassionate society is an international scandal, with a public education system which is failing many of our less affluent children. Civil liberties are tragically diminished and racism lurks below the surface. The Fortune 500 multi-national corporations have hijacked our political system. Our foreign policy and its emphasis on free-market globalization have been designed to extend America as Empire, while much of the world lacks the basics for survival, never mind a life with dignity. We have been led into a "war" whose justification (an act of terrorism) masks its chilling origins in our insatiable appetite for oil. Most of our citizenry now freely accepts an illegitimate Presidency and seem oblivious both to the loss of our democracy and to our bullying world image. These are not superficial ills requiring only tweaking by a change in Administration or elected officials. These are deeply rooted systemic problems that we must all take responsibility for.

Locally, KPFT has historically been a vitally important vehicle for education and community discussion to open the hearts and minds of our fellow Houstonians. It must be again. This is the mission of the progressive community and it is a just and essential cause.