Part One:
We speak with Lyz Lenz, a journalist and writer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, about sending her kids back to school in a pandemic. Aside from all the logistical complications, she described feeling conflicted because, on the one hand, her children are very happy to be back in school with their friends and supportive teachers, but on the other hand, she is terrified that (despite the best intentions and surprisingly smart disease-prevention protocols by the school) her kids are nevertheless at the forefront of a risky decentralized worldwide experiment trying to deal with a pandemic that threatens unknown and newly-discovered post-illness complications.
She is doing what people do when confronted with no good options. This leaves her frustrated, angry, feeling somewhat powerless, while keeping her fingers crossed. Failures of leadership at every level – from Pres. Trump all the way down through federal and state officials – have jeopardized the well-being of her and her children. As Lyz put it, “the only Reaganomics that I believe in is the trickle down of failure.”
We also discussed her article entitled “Theresa Greenfield will not make you squeal,” about the Iowa race for the U.S. Senate. Ms. Greenfield is the Democrat challenging Sen. Joni Ernst, and the race is getting tight. Ernst has supported the Trump administration’s harmful policies. She recently talked about that support at the Republican National Convention, a speech that may not have helped her chances for re-election.
We (like most Americans outside Iowa) had not heard much about Theresa Greenfield. In her ads, she describes herself as a “farm girl” and emphasizes her down-home ordinariness. Greenfield is a centrist Democrat and not likely to shake things up in Washington DC. This does not please Lenz. She quotes a Texas writer: “No one belongs in the middle of the road except yellow lines and road kill.” Perhaps Greenfield’s most attractive asset is that she didn’t kill 200,000 Americans by mismanaging a pandemic. But perhaps that will be the only asset she needs!
Part Two:
We speak with Ben Phillips, co-founder of the Fight Inequality Alliance. His new book will come out next week: “How to Fight Inequality: And Why That Fight Needs You.”
Inequality is the crisis of our time. The growing gap between a few at the top and the rest of society damages us all. No longer able to deny the crisis, every government in the world is now pledged to fix it – and yet it keeps on getting worse. According to Phillips, winning the debate is not enough: we have to win the fight. How can we win that fight?
We discuss this question through the lens of Ben’s recent article: “Covid is a Great Unequaliser, But the Crisis Could Enable us to Build a More Equal Future.” The results of rising inequality are many: It holds back progress on poverty, widens mistrust and instability, exacerbates violent conflict, and delays action on climate change, among other consequences. The damage caused by inequality has been recognized by mainstream economists, the IMF, the World Bank, and the UN. All governments have committed to reducing inequality: they have signed the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Their verbal commitments have not stopped inequality from getting worse. Phillips offers lessons for transformational social change and addresses how to win the fight against inequality by connecting history, ethics, stories of inspirational frontline activists he has worked alongside, and his own experience in civil society leadership.
Phillips shows how the battle against inequality has been won before, and he shares a practical plan for defeating inequality again. He sets a route map for us to overcome deference, build our collective power, and create a new story. Many discussions about inequality are about what other people ought to do about it. Phillips argues that winning the fight against inequality needs all of us, working together.
