A tragic Minneapolis bridge collapse claimed lives, but not as many as an unhealthy national lifestyle. (DANI BORA/WORLD PICTURE NEW)

The American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated that $1.6 trillion is needed to bring the nation’s infrastructure up to the level enjoyed by other industrialized nations.

“The U.S. used to have the most advanced public transportation system in the world by far,” said Transportation Department head Earl Blumenauer. “Now, of course, it’s pretty much the worst, at least in the developed world. Our love affair with the automobile has got to stop.”

Brice Terra is a spokesperson for Rebuild Sustainably, a group that formed when the funding bill was initiated, and that now counts nearly 400,000 members. The group has helped keep public pressure on senators to aim high in crafting the rebuilding bill. “We must minimize environmental impact with dense yet fully liveable cities, convert rural suburbs back to farmland, and provide access to services rather than just sheer mobility,” said Mr. Terra.

Under pressure from their constituencies, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pushing for a version of the bill that frees the U.S. from dependence on fossil fuels.

“We don’t want a patch that just preserves business as usual,” said Rahm Emanuel, Representative of Illinois, who has been leading the push for sustainable rebuilding in the Senate. “Rather, true convenience must be our top priority.”

“What we’ve realized is that we need to move away from the automobile,” said Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama. “We need to transition the United States to a more convenient, livable, economical, and enjoyable way of life.”

Mr. Blumenauer cited as instrumental to the bill’s passage the widespread public outrage which began in reaction to $10 gasoline prices and was quickly channeled by groups like Rebuild Sustainably. “When gas hit $3.50 back in March 2008, people drove 11 billion miles less per month than they had the year before,” said Blumenauer. “When it hit $10, people realized that the problem wasn’t high gas prices — the problem was gas. Fortunately, we Americans have always had the imagination and will to meet challenges.”

“Once we make our own country more livable,” says Mr. Blumenauer, “we can begin exporting the best practices of affordable transit and sustainable planning to developing nations.”

Light rail and buses
One key to the Infrastructure Modernization Bill will be light rail in cities, as well as high-occupancy overland vehicles — i.e. buses — operating at higher speeds in segregated lanes and roadways.

“We can dig out some of our old streetcar tracks, which are now buried in asphalt, but new buses are also a good solution, and much less expensive,” Mr. Blumenauer noted.
In 1922 there were fourteen thousand miles of streetcar track in American cities, according to Colleen Burgess, a representative of the Surface Transportation Board. “Berlin had the most extensive network in Europe, but that was smaller than 22 American cities. Today, we’ve got next to nothing. But we’ve got to look forward.”

National rail
One major element of the D.O.T. plan is the reconstruction of a national rail network for people and goods, and the elimination of most long distance trucking. “The rails are there,” said Ms. Burgess. “They spider across all of North America. They need maintenance, and in some cases expansion, but they’re basically there.”

“We have a passenger railroad system that the Bulgarians would be ashamed of,” noted rail advocate James Howard Kunstler. “Restoring passenger rail service would put tens of thousands of people to work at all levels, decongest airports, and revive central cities. And nothing needs to be reinvented — the infrastructure is already out there.”

Senator Emanuel noted that current airline subsidies would be rechanneled into Amtrak, especially into high-speed rail connections already common in Europe, Japan, and China.

Bike Infrastructure
The Urban Bicycling Expansion Program began with the D.O.T.’s Bicycle Commuters Group in late 2007. The program’s funding is now on a par with that of a newly-shrunken Federal Aviation Administration.

“In 1990 we got the Americans with Disabilities Act, with provisions for ‘full and equal enjoyment,’” said Mr. Blumenauer. “Now there are ramps, elevators, and other accommodations. There’s no reason a few simple rules can’t permit the full and equal enjoyment of public roadways by bicyclists.”

“It’s something my predecessors at D.O.T. didn’t take very seriously,” said program head Leah Shahum, former Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “But bicyclists across the country have shown us it can work.”

The first task will be to enact “complete streets” legislation, with safe lanes for bicyclists, bicycle parking areas, and bike racks on city buses and light rail, so that cyclists can commute longer distances.

Even more ambitious will be the development of commuter bicycle lending programs in all major cities. For an annual fee of around $40, users will be able to check out three-speed bicycles from entirely automated stations. The programs will be modeled after those in Paris and Barcelona, which already have hundreds of stations and thousands of public bicycles in circulation.

Blumenauer noted that the benefits of expanded bike use are likely to impact another typically American problem: that of obesity. “Bicycles are also an investment in the infrastructure of the human body,” he said.

Zoning
One key element of the D.O.T.’s plan to get people out of their cars will occur solely on paper. “We need more mixed-use zoning; more medium-scale, high-density development; incentives for businesses to locate near residential areas and for individuals to work close to home; and better public education about the health benefits of being active,” Mr. Blumenauer said. He said that the Transportation Department will be working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to draw up guidelines that focus on access, rather than mobility.

“As we rebuild the national infrastructure,” said Housing head Rene Oswin, “building tighter communities needs to be at the forefront. When the places we live, work, and shop are closer together, quality of life improves dramatically.”

“A suburbanite who commutes for an hour and drives to the store for a cup of sugar is going to have a lower quality of life than one who walks or bikes to work and buys food at a farmer’s market,” noted Oswin. “Big box stores, malls, and peripheral office parks have been a catastrophe for our national happiness.”

The building guidelines, soon to be written into legislation, also include prescriptions for solar, wind, and geothermal energy, and grey water systems. Details are available on the H.U.D. website.

Air
In response to the government’s comprehensive Climate Control and Infrastructure Modification Act, the Federal Aviation Administration is considering two different proposals to phase out air travel.

The first calls for the nationalization of airlines, and the transition of many airports wholly or in part into transit hubs for rail and bus services. The other, more market-based plan, mandates the elimination of billions of dollars of federal subsidies for airlines.

In the first plan, the price of travel would remain the same, but there would be far fewer trips available. In the second, only the relatively wealthy could afford to fly.

“We advocate the second plan, of course,” said United C.E.O. Glenn F. Tilton.

“Even if flights become a luxury,” said Transportation head Blumenauer, “it won’t be a catastrophe for most people. An average family can afford to spend some much-needed downtime on a comfortable train between New York and Los Angeles. As for business customers who choose to fly, they will have to pay the true cost of their habits to society.”

AMNIA LENDUND

The Ohio decision began with Governor Ted Strickland’s 2006 campaign promise to assure that “where you grow up in Ohio should not determine where you end up in life.” Hundreds of grass-roots campaigns throughout the state, including The Ohio Coalition For Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, took the cue from Mr. Strickland’s statement and spent the last two years working hard to hold him to it.

“Finally, this is a real step towards the equality our Constitution recommends,” says Amanda Fullerton, of Columbus. Ms. Fullerton, a mother of two, voted for Mr. Strickland because of his long history of support for educational reform, but was soon disappointed by the governor’s inaction in office. When she first heard about the proposed bill in the Ohio Senate, Ms. Fullerton decided to occupy the Governor’s office to demonstrate how important she felt the bill was. Over two hundred mothers soon joined her, camping out for six days. Many observers feel that actions like the mothers’ played a key role in convincing Governor Strickland to push hard for the bill.

Following the announcements of twenty-three states that they would be voting on similar bills, the U.S. Department of Education said it would be developing a plan for a national tax base for schools, to finally assure that as in most other developed countries, a child’s opportunities to learn will not depend on his or her birthplace.

A tragic Minneapolis bridge collapse claimed lives, but not as many as an unhealthy national lifestyle. (DANI BORA/WORLD PICTURE NEW)

The American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated that $1.6 trillion is needed to bring the nation’s infrastructure up to the level enjoyed by other industrialized nations.

“The U.S. used to have the most advanced public transportation system in the world by far,” said Transportation Department head Earl Blumenauer. “Now, of course, it’s pretty much the worst, at least in the developed world. Our love affair with the automobile has got to stop.”

Brice Terra is a spokesperson for Rebuild Sustainably, a group that formed when the funding bill was initiated, and that now counts nearly 400,000 members. The group has helped keep public pressure on senators to aim high in crafting the rebuilding bill. “We must minimize environmental impact with dense yet fully liveable cities, convert rural suburbs back to farmland, and provide access to services rather than just sheer mobility,” said Mr. Terra.

Under pressure from their constituencies, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pushing for a version of the bill that frees the U.S. from dependence on fossil fuels.

“We don’t want a patch that just preserves business as usual,” said Rahm Emanuel, Representative of Illinois, who has been leading the push for sustainable rebuilding in the Senate. “Rather, true convenience must be our top priority.”

“What we’ve realized is that we need to move away from the automobile,” said Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama. “We need to transition the United States to a more convenient, livable, economical, and enjoyable way of life.”

Mr. Blumenauer cited as instrumental to the bill’s passage the widespread public outrage which began in reaction to $10 gasoline prices and was quickly channeled by groups like Rebuild Sustainably. “When gas hit $3.50 back in March 2008, people drove 11 billion miles less per month than they had the year before,” said Blumenauer. “When it hit $10, people realized that the problem wasn’t high gas prices — the problem was gas. Fortunately, we Americans have always had the imagination and will to meet challenges.”

“Once we make our own country more livable,” says Mr. Blumenauer, “we can begin exporting the best practices of affordable transit and sustainable planning to developing nations.”

Light rail and buses
One key to the Infrastructure Modernization Bill will be light rail in cities, as well as high-occupancy overland vehicles — i.e. buses — operating at higher speeds in segregated lanes and roadways.

“We can dig out some of our old streetcar tracks, which are now buried in asphalt, but new buses are also a good solution, and much less expensive,” Mr. Blumenauer noted.
In 1922 there were fourteen thousand miles of streetcar track in American cities, according to Colleen Burgess, a representative of the Surface Transportation Board. “Berlin had the most extensive network in Europe, but that was smaller than 22 American cities. Today, we’ve got next to nothing. But we’ve got to look forward.”

National rail
One major element of the D.O.T. plan is the reconstruction of a national rail network for people and goods, and the elimination of most long distance trucking. “The rails are there,” said Ms. Burgess. “They spider across all of North America. They need maintenance, and in some cases expansion, but they’re basically there.”

“We have a passenger railroad system that the Bulgarians would be ashamed of,” noted rail advocate James Howard Kunstler. “Restoring passenger rail service would put tens of thousands of people to work at all levels, decongest airports, and revive central cities. And nothing needs to be reinvented — the infrastructure is already out there.”

Senator Emanuel noted that current airline subsidies would be rechanneled into Amtrak, especially into high-speed rail connections already common in Europe, Japan, and China.

Bike Infrastructure
The Urban Bicycling Expansion Program began with the D.O.T.’s Bicycle Commuters Group in late 2007. The program’s funding is now on a par with that of a newly-shrunken Federal Aviation Administration.

“In 1990 we got the Americans with Disabilities Act, with provisions for ‘full and equal enjoyment,’” said Mr. Blumenauer. “Now there are ramps, elevators, and other accommodations. There’s no reason a few simple rules can’t permit the full and equal enjoyment of public roadways by bicyclists.”

“It’s something my predecessors at D.O.T. didn’t take very seriously,” said program head Leah Shahum, former Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “But bicyclists across the country have shown us it can work.”

The first task will be to enact “complete streets” legislation, with safe lanes for bicyclists, bicycle parking areas, and bike racks on city buses and light rail, so that cyclists can commute longer distances.

Even more ambitious will be the development of commuter bicycle lending programs in all major cities. For an annual fee of around $40, users will be able to check out three-speed bicycles from entirely automated stations. The programs will be modeled after those in Paris and Barcelona, which already have hundreds of stations and thousands of public bicycles in circulation.

Blumenauer noted that the benefits of expanded bike use are likely to impact another typically American problem: that of obesity. “Bicycles are also an investment in the infrastructure of the human body,” he said.

Zoning
One key element of the D.O.T.’s plan to get people out of their cars will occur solely on paper. “We need more mixed-use zoning; more medium-scale, high-density development; incentives for businesses to locate near residential areas and for individuals to work close to home; and better public education about the health benefits of being active,” Mr. Blumenauer said. He said that the Transportation Department will be working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to draw up guidelines that focus on access, rather than mobility.

“As we rebuild the national infrastructure,” said Housing head Rene Oswin, “building tighter communities needs to be at the forefront. When the places we live, work, and shop are closer together, quality of life improves dramatically.”

“A suburbanite who commutes for an hour and drives to the store for a cup of sugar is going to have a lower quality of life than one who walks or bikes to work and buys food at a farmer’s market,” noted Oswin. “Big box stores, malls, and peripheral office parks have been a catastrophe for our national happiness.”

The building guidelines, soon to be written into legislation, also include prescriptions for solar, wind, and geothermal energy, and grey water systems. Details are available on the H.U.D. website.

Air
In response to the government’s comprehensive Climate Control and Infrastructure Modification Act, the Federal Aviation Administration is considering two different proposals to phase out air travel.

The first calls for the nationalization of airlines, and the transition of many airports wholly or in part into transit hubs for rail and bus services. The other, more market-based plan, mandates the elimination of billions of dollars of federal subsidies for airlines.

In the first plan, the price of travel would remain the same, but there would be far fewer trips available. In the second, only the relatively wealthy could afford to fly.

“We advocate the second plan, of course,” said United C.E.O. Glenn F. Tilton.

“Even if flights become a luxury,” said Transportation head Blumenauer, “it won’t be a catastrophe for most people. An average family can afford to spend some much-needed downtime on a comfortable train between New York and Los Angeles. As for business customers who choose to fly, they will have to pay the true cost of their habits to society.”

STRICK FRANKLIN

Treasury Secretary Paul Krugman stressed the importance of the bill. “Markets make great servants, terrible leaders, and absurd religions,” said Krugman, quoting Paul Hawken, an advocate of corporate responsibility and author of “Blessed Unrest, How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming.”

“At this point, the market is our leader and our religion. No wonder the median standard of living has been declining so much for so long.”

Krugman said that the new Treasury bill seeks to ensure the prosperity of all citizens, rather than simply supporting large corporations and the wealthy. “The market is supposed to serve us. Unfortunately, we have ended up serving the market. That’s very bad.”

Much as Roosevelt, after the Great Depression, put the brakes on C.E.O. wages and irresponsible banking practices, administration officials claim that today we need to rein in the industry that has caused such chaos and misery.

“The building blocks of post-World War II American middle-class prosperity have all been swept away,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who initially opposed the proposals before overwhelming public support helped change her mind. “This bill brings a level of sanity and restraint back to the system that allowed companies like Enron, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac to fleece Americans for all they were worth.”

Merrill Lynch C.E.O. John Thain disputed Ms. Pelosi’s account. “High C.E.O. salaries, sophisticated financial instruments, and the freedom to speculate freely have for the past thirty years been instrumental in driving us to achieve the highest shareholder returns in the world outside of Russia. Shareholders have been very grateful for those returns. We mustn’t look at one rash of foreclosures, or one system collapse, and forget the decade of high returns that enabled a new wave of prosperity for a certain number of people.”

Treasury Secretary Krugman cited the pressure applied by progressive activist groups as instrumental in the S.A.N.E. Act’s success despite overwhelming counterpressure from financial industry lobbyists, who have been working overtime in anticipation of the likely passage of the “Ban on Lobbying” bill, which prohibits lobbying on behalf of private individuals or corporations earning more than $1 million annually.

“We’ve got popular pressure to thank for letting us make the market serve humans once again,” Mr. Krugman said. He also stressed that even passage of the S.A.N.E. bill would be meaningless without passage of the “Ban on Lobbying” bill. Only by banning lobbying, Mr. Krugman added, would it be possible to assure that the changes mandated by the S.A.N.E. Act are not rolled back through the influence of big corporations.

Doctors operate on a patient who previously would have been denied care.

After the bill passed, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared, “We can now proudly say that the United States has caught up with the rest of the developed world in granting all our citizens access to high-quality, comprehensive medical care.”

Prior to the bill’s passage, the U.S. health care system was widely regarded to be in a state of severe crisis. Over 46 million Americans have been without health insurance and another 50 million have been under-insured. Despite spending more money per capita on health care than any other nation, the U.S. has lagged behind many countries in such key health-related categories as life expectancy, infant mortality, and preventable deaths. The Institute of Medicine estimates that in recent years approximately 22,000 people have died annually in the U.S. due to a lack of health insurance. Furthermore, nearly one million Americans, many who have private health insurance plans, have filed for bankruptcy each year because they have been unable to pay medical bills. In recent polls, a clear majority of Americans have said they believe government should guarantee health care for all U.S. residents.

Despite growing popular support for a single-payer system, Pelosi acknowledged that Congress would not have voted for this bill without the dedicated grassroots organizing of national groups like Healthcare-NOW and Physicians for a National Health Program, regional groups like the California Nurses Association and the New York-based Private Health Insurance Must Go Coalition, and over 450 union organizations across the country that had endorsed H.R. 676. Pelosi said that many formerly undecided congressional representatives were also swayed by seeing Michael Moore’s film, “Sicko,” and by the cogent arguments presented in a 2008 pocket-sized book, “10 Excellent Reasons for National Health Care,” edited by Mary E. O’Brien and Martha Livingston, that was given to every member of Congress.

Under the private insurance system that has been in place until now, 30 percent of health insurance premiums have gone toward administrative costs, including advertising, profits, and executive salaries. This compares with a 3 percent cost for administering Medicare. Moving from the private health insurance system to single-payer is expected to save $350 billion dollars each year, enough to fund health care for those who are currently uninsured or under-insured. Under H.R. 676, the expanded Medicare for All system will be paid for through a 3.3 percent payroll tax on employers and employees, a stock transfer tax, an income tax surcharge on the top 5 percent of taxpayers, and by reversing the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans. According to the Congressional Budget Office, most U.S. residents — including those who previously received employer-based coverage–will pay less for this new public health insurance than they did for their private insurance, since there will no longer be any premium, copay, or deductible charges.

Eliminating private insurance companies, including HMOs, and moving to a publicly administered system will be no simple task. The private health-care industry is enormous, employing over 14 million people and costing 2.3 trillion dollars in 2007.

“The transition to a single-payer system will be our biggest challenge for the next 3 years, and a significant struggle even after this bill is signed,” said John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan, who introduced and fought for the legislation. “But with the support of the American people, I have no doubt that we will reach our goal.” In order to make the transition easier for industry workers, H.R. 676 gives former employees of private health insurers first priority for the public-sector jobs that will need to be created to run the new program.

Many Republicans in Congress remain opposed to the new plan, arguing that quality care is best provided by private industry and free markets. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich released a statement saying: “Only market competition can bring choice and lower prices. To see the opposite trend is to be obtuse and shortsighted.” During the House floor debate, some cited claims about long waits for treatment under a similar single-payer system of medical care in Canada; these claims have been discredited by most independent researchers.

The medical services industry is promising to challenge the new bill. In an e-mail to investors, Kaiser chief George Halvorson wrote: “I remain exclusively committed as always to our investors and we plan on using every resource to protect our interests, against which this measure is obviously aimed.” Cigna C.E.O. H. Edward Hanway issued a similar statement: “HMOs have been in business for decades. Now Washington insiders want to take away our profits, our investments, and our property. That is unacceptable, and we will fight tooth and nail to insure our rights under our nation’s Constitution.”

“There has been a long-accepted myth, which is now thankfully receding, that if it’s private, it must be more efficient,” said Secretary of Health and Human Services, former Oregon Governor Dr. John Kitzhaber. “Yet our private, largely for-profit system was bloated, redundant, inefficient, and much more expensive than the better-performing national health care models of many other countries. Plus, many Americans were growing increasingly frustrated with private insurers acting as gatekeepers interfering in doctor-patient decisions, and with receiving denial letters from insurance bureaucrats sitting in cubicles far removed from their medical diagnoses. The single-payer system we will be implementing under H.R. 676 will be a vast improvement over the previous, dysfunctional health care model. And it will pay for itself by eliminating the waste and duplication of the private health insurance industry.”

When reached, a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Private Health Insurance Must Go Coalition noted that the momentum for a single-payer health care system grew after the October 2008 Wall Street bailout: “After the bailout, the American people saw more clearly than ever that our social needs were not always going to be met by private industry or the so-called ‘free market.’ There were no more valid excuses for inaction. If government was able to provide a safety net to Wall Street, it was capable of providing the American people with some real health-care security. After all, it’s not only the financial industry that has been affected by the economic downturn. It’s about time that the U.S. has joined the rest of the planet in recognizing that health care access is both a necessity and a human right. During these difficult times, a single-payer system should help to ease the financial strain that people are feeling and might even help stimulate the overall economy.”

Unlike the response from company executives, reaction to the passage of H.R. 676 among insurance industry employees has been largely positive. Sarah Schwartz, a Cigna medical records specialist in Ohio, said: “I’ll get retraining. They need people who do what I do. I’ll get different forms and procedures, that’s all. Plus this new system will be much better for the patients, so that feels good.” When asked about other changes the new law will bring, Schwartz told the Times about her aging mother who, at 71, continues to work at a full-time office job. “She almost got laid off last year, which meant my dad wouldn’t have been able to see a doctor for his heart problems anymore, since he was covered under her plan. For our family, this bill passed just in time.”

“Health care should be like water — a right for everyone. Anything less is barbaric,” said a spokesperson for Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization that has advocated for health care reform since 1987.

In recent years, a majority of physicians had grown tired of the growing, confusing, and sometimes disruptive role of the private insurance companies, with a 2008 poll showing 59 percent of doctors supporting a single-payer system. At an American Medical Association banquet last night, a spontaneous standing ovation occurred when doctors learned of the bill’s success. A.M.A. President Nancy Nielsen, M.D. said in her speech: “We’re trained to save lives. We’re trained to practice medicine. Finally, we can do what we entered this field to do — practice with the interest of patients at heart.”

Protests organized by Witness Against Torture helped pave the way for the close of the Guantánamo facility. (KC IVY/The New York Times)

“In education and health care, most notably, but also in housing, banking, and the environment, we have documented unprecedented responsiveness on the part of political leaders,” said Dr. Joyce Wellmon, director of the Plains Institute for Policy Analysis, a New York-based think tank. “Our data show a direct correlation between the level of activity of particular coalitions, on the one hand, and specific legislative action, on the other. It’s popular pressure that is responsible for the swiftness and scope of legislation emerging from the White House and Congress.”

The institute’s report shows a three-fold increase in the incidence of letters, phone calls, faxes, and email received by congressional offices, 88 percent of which were from people who identified themselves as new members of particular activist organizations. The report includes extensive interviews with House and Senate staff, who speak of “unimaginable change,” a “dramatic policy shift,” and “a new era of accountability” since the elections.

“Not since the Great Depression has the interaction between popular movements and public leaders been so robust,” said Jorge Lazaro, head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Lazaro cited, in particular, the Wagner Act, also known as the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which recognized the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively with their employers.

“Roosevelt showed no interest in the Wagner Act until it became clear the unions were going to force it through regardless,” Mr. Lazaro noted. “At that point he jumped on it and helped push it into law.”

Mr. Lazaro also pointed to the Depression-era organizing of the Farmers’ Holiday Association, when farmers refused to sell or bid on crops, blockaded roads, and even once used a torpedo to halt a train carrying livestock into Iowa. Such direct actions helped push courts and legislatures to adopt measures that granted relief from debt caused by low crop prices.

“The similarities between the two periods are remarkable, and the lesson that emerges is simple: if you want change, keep our feet to the fire.”

Dr. Wellmon agrees. “The only reason the current President and Congress have been able to implement all these changes, was because of pressure from popular movements that made them have to.”

The Plains report, due out next month, cites the work of groups associated with United for Peace and Justice, an umbrella for anti-war groups, for galvanizing public support for ending the war, and for pushing the Administration to resist the oil lobby and other interest groups. It also cites the work of groups such as Healthcare-NOW, United Students Against Sweatshops, Housing Works, the A.C.L.U., and others for helping advance progressive causes such as universal health care, worker rights, civil liberties, and economic justice.

“There’s no question that in all areas, mass movements made the difference. Without them we wouldn’t be close to a national health program, a wind and solar bill, a plan to guarantee fair and equal funding for public education, or the banking oversight bill, expected to pass next month in both houses.”

“I never anticipated the rapid advances made in the past six months,” Dr. Wellmon said, “but the public has shown a fierce desire for change. It’s a virtuous cycle: with the breaking of market manacles, human and financial resources are becoming available to support even more real changes in all areas of American life.”

Also available on archive.org.

July 4, 2009

Download PDF Version: With Spreads | Without Spreads

Mr. Arar was a software engineer changing planes at J.F.K. Airport on his way home to Canada from a family vacation when he was detained, kept from counsel, and sent to Syria for a year of torture and interrogation.

The letters in support of Mr. Arar were part of a campaign organized by a coalition of human rights groups including Witness Against Torture, Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and MoveOn.org. His case has come to represent some of the worst excesses of the previous administration’s national security policies.

The context for the apology is the White House’s new Truth and Prosecution Program, which has exposed and reversed policy on secret C.I.A. interrogation and torture centers worldwide, warrantless wiretapping, illegal infiltration of activist meetings (and Quaker quilting bees), and extraordinary rendition, the extrajudicial transfer of suspected terrorists to countries known to torture prisoners.

The program works to assist the Attorney General’s criminal prosecutions of former Bush administration officials for their role in torture policy and taking the country to war under false pretenses.

In a prepared statement, White House Press Secretary Samantha Bee said, “We will not condone torture, nor outsource torture. Maher Arar can never regain that year of his life, when our country sent him to be tortured in Syria, but the Medal of Freedom at least recognizes his heroic fight to assure that what happened to him will never again happen to anyone else.” Bee also noted that the U.S. is matching Canada’s $10 million compensation to Mr. Arar for his ordeal, “but in real money.”

In a tearful interview on ABC’s daytime talk show “The View” earlier this week, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, currently awaiting trial, told Elisabeth Hasselbeck that he hoped the world would not remember him as the man who brought torture out of the dungeon and into the Executive branch. “Maybe the whole torture thing wasn’t such a good idea after all,” he said. “I just hope people also remember my way with words, and peer through that to the essence, where I am also a, at least some kind of, father.”

The last American and Iraqi to die during the war will be commemorated by obelisks in downtown Baghdad. (Mike Ernst/The New York Times)

An enormous granite obelisk to the Iraqi dead, 300 feet high, will stand in Firdos Square, where coalition troops famously attempted to topple a 40-foot-tall statue of Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein in April 2003. A 15-foot-high obelisk will stand nearby, honoring the coalition casualties.

The difference in size between the two obelisks will represent the different numbers of casualties. For the Iraqi dead, the most conservative estimate of 93,067 was chosen to avoid the coalition monument being absurdly small or the Iraqi monument prohibitively large.

On the side of the allies, the last to die was Corporal William Whitman, age 28, of Quinnesec, Michigan. Just as fighting began to wane, he took up an exposed position while on a foot patrol and was struck by a sniper’s bullet. He died instantly, the 4,314th American casualty of the war. In retaliation, a U.S. attack helicopter fired rockets into a nearby apartment building, killing the sniper and six Iraqi civilians. Moments later, U.S. soldiers received word that they were to cease fire immediately and prepare to return home.

Mr. Al-Maliki commemorated Ahmed Yahya, a 5-year-old boy who was inside the building the sniper had fired from. Rescue workers dug him out of the rubble from the rocket blast. The boy survived overnight but succumbed early the next morning to internal injuries, and was either the 93,067th, the 755,265th or the 1,233,657th Iraqi civilian casualty of the war. (No accurate records were kept, and estimates from different sources conflict wildly.)

“Ahmed’s life coincided with the absolute worst episode in the history of the Middle East,” Mr. Maliki said of the boy, who was born just after the Iraq War started. “May his life and death represent the importance of never again seeing such catastrophe rain on our heads, whether for false pretenses or even real ones.”

“I stand before you as a representative of the American people to tell you that some of us tried,” Mr. Ritter told an audience of mainly Iraqi veterans and their families. “We may have failed to stop this in time, but at least we did try. It only remains for us, the heirs of our victims’ legacy, to have the courage and the character to make sure it never happens again.”

Ritter’s statements were met with polite applause.