I just caught a radio interview of Florida Congressman Alan Grayson on Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s "Ring of Fire" Air America program this afternoon.

I was distracted, working on something that required focus, but the things I caught Grayson saying were so penetrating I kept grabbing a pen and jotting them down. I would like to hear the show again, maybe find the podcast, with my full focus, but before his points drift out of my mind or I lose my scribblings or can no longer decipher them, let me share. Keep in mind, this is me paraphrasing his points. So these are not quotes. These are my interpretations!

1) Grayson said citizens and media focus on our personal freedoms and minimize or ignore our CIVIC freedoms. Personal freedom is the freedom, say, to buy a flat screen TV. A civic freedom – say, protection not to be tortured. The citizenry has lost the power to impact civic “policy” and this is worrisome and destructive. Majority of country including the President would like to see universal health care, but can’t even get close to it this year because of moneyed special interests. Where is our civic power?

2) Grayson said Republicans do extensive fear mongering. He said the personal freedoms they are railing on about that they say need protecting right now from government: freedom to lose your home; freedom to lose your job, etc. He said one of the freedoms that FDR spoke of was FREEDOM FROM FEAR. We certainly don’t have that now in America. The Republicans promote fear, not reduce it by protecting citizenry.

3) Grayson was involved with prosecuting war profiteers in Iraq before becoming a Florida Congressperson. He said that the rampant and exploitive privatization have reversed the role of our troops’ responsibilities. He said, for example, that the Army Corps of Engineers no longer has the power or responsibility to build a bridge. They only have the power to make a contract with, say, oh, maybe Halliburton, for THEM to build the bridge. Something is terribly wrong with this picture.

4) Grayson said that many members of Congress are unhappy with what has been happening in America but are intimidated by the bullying media. Fox News, for example, will take a statement, and then twist its meaning, and repeat it over and over over the course of 24 or so hours, and quickly and powerfully do a handy job of damaging a representative’s intent concerning the statement and/or his or her general reputation and political capital.

5) Grayson said that what Wall Street has done to America is use extortion to get its bail-outs. If you don’t rescue us with billions of dollars, your economy will be destroyed was the threat. He claims he has no evidence that the bail-out has avoided a dire domino effect as was claimed by hysteria-mongering banksters. It was a CON GAME. He asks why would bad banks get rewarded and not good banks. Where is the authentic internal logic? If someone fails with a scholarship, they should not be rewarded with more money. The scholarship does not get renewed. Grayson is now fighting to prevent recipients of our bail-out money to distribute bonuses. This is bottom line common sense.

Ps. Grayson quoted Jesse Jackson at one point (I have forgotten the EXACT context) in addressing what Jackson calls "the dispossessed, despised and the damned." Tragic members of the citizen constituency who our representatives, particularly the Republicans in Grayson’s reference (both parties IMO!), find repellent and thus abandon. (How horrifying that they might get help and empathy from their fellow citizenry, their government – my words, now). How refreshing for a representative (Grayson) to give voice to the needs of America’s underclass!!!!

UPDATE: Here is the Ring of Fire podcast. It is the full show on 11-28-09 and the Grayson part with RFK Jr. starts at 55:15 minutes into it.