Ignorance of past mistakes may have led the nation into its current economic crisis, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood told a group of about 100 members of the Lowndes County Federation of Democratic Women.
Lessons learned by survivors of the Great Depression nearly a century ago may have been lost or ignored throughout the past few decades, the Democratic state official told the group, which held a fish fry with state and local Democratic leaders Thursday evening.
“President Roosevelt got us out of the Great Depression, and the entire nation learned from that experience,” Hood said. “Now, many of the survivors of the Great Depression have passed on and we have forgotten what they taught us.
“Our lack of education has led us to believe things that are not true,” Hood added. “We were told what we wanted to hear, and we believed it.”
The attorney general urged those at the event to reconsider their ways of life and to have faith in the nation”s youth.
“My hope is that we will be able to back to a ”we” generation instead of a ”me” generation,” Hood said. “We have to step on the gas and invest in our young people.
“We need to send kids to kindergarten at 4 years old. If we get our kids educated at a young age, we will see big benefits 30 years down the road,” Hood added. “It is my hope that we can pull through this crisis and that our children can learn from it.”
The nation”s economic collapse may have been caused by “corporate special interest groups” who “controlled the last presidential administration,” Hood said.
The state official also criticized Republicans for seeking to heavily tax the nation”s poor during a period of economic uncertainty.
“Those out there who want to tax and hurt the poorest and weakest of our country will get what”s coming to them one day,” Hood said, drawing applause and cheers from the crowd.
“Anyone making less than $250,000 a year ought to vote Democrat just based on the economics of it,” Hood added. “If you make more than that, you should vote Democrat just out of the kindness in your heart.”
Though Hood said he was attempting to give those at the event a “history lesson” on the recent economic downturn, the attorney general also briefly touched on a few of the nation”s current events.
“There”s no way to learn or listen when people are out there screaming at each other,” Hood said, referencing recently televised footage of heated town hall meeting debates on President Barack Obama”s proposed health care plan. “That”s not speaking with your mind, that”s speaking purely with emotion.
“But folks, we”ve got to something about the health care costs in this country,” Hood added. “If we don”t, the United States is going to go the way of Rome.”
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