Analysis

Wonder how so much of your paycheck gets siphoned off at the gas pump or burned up heating your home? Wonder no more … this week energy giant ExxonMobil announced record profits of over $36 billion — the largest annual profit in corporate history.

The grainy black and white television footage and still photographs capture only a snippet of the struggle of millions symbolized by the First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement, Coretta Scott King.

Last October 12 U.S. Senators sent a letter to nine major oil companies, asking them to donate part of their record profits to help poor Americans faced with large increases in their heating oil costs this winter.

For everybody who isn’t asleep, it’s obvious that American employers intend to destroy all hope of “golden years” retirement. They intend to work us until we die. The latest nail being driven into our collective coffin is the announcements by IBM and Verizon that they will “freeze” employee pension plans and substitute 401(k) programs. Current employees are to accrue no more benefits, future employees will get none, and everybody who already has a pension is likely having trouble sleeping at night.

Jan. 23 was the 33rd anniversary of the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision, which “recognized and guaranteed women’s constitutional right to control their own bodies,” as Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, put it. We invite our readers to reflect on what’s at stake in the current battle to preserve that right.

It’s all too coincidental. The former vice president of the United States of America draws considerable media coverage when he charges the current president is a threat to the republic and calls for a special, independent investigator to probe spying and other possible crimes against the American people.

Last December, the House of Representatives passed anti-immigrant HR 4437, introduced by GOP Rep. James Sensenbrenner (Wis.). It is another way of diminishing the democratic rights of the people in our country.