Perhaps a national awakening

What a relief (and a joy) last week to see Arizona senator Russell Pearce recalled and Ohio governor John Kasich's anti-union law thrown out by voters. This just might be the beginning of a nationwide awakening...this and of course the unshakeable perseverance of the Occupy Wall Street protestors.

But what a challenge ahead. A few examples:

* There are still 13.9 million people out of work (9%). 3.3 million of them are workers between the ages of 25 and 34.

* Hard working people who have been contributing here for many years are still being deported, often causing merciless family separations.

* House Republicans remain in their endless obstruction mode, fixated on their singular goal of getting rid of Barack Obama.

* Republican presidential candidates are uttering one absurdity after another, yet they maintain their following. Example: Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann have just said that they would approve waterboarding of prisoners, a practice that has been defined as torture since the Spanish Inquisition. Romney has kept silence on the issue.

* The Guantanamo prison remains open. costing taxpayers $800,000 annually for each of the 171 captives -- more than 30 times what it would cost to keep one of those prisoners on U.S. soil.

* Representatives of our government have been lobbying countries to quietly sign a new law that allows use of those monstrocities known as cluster bombs.

* From New York City to Oakland and Berkeley, riot police have been let loose on non-violent Occupy protestors at a cost of millions of dollars. (In NYC, they cut up the tents with knives and sawed through tent poles.) In the meantime, the protestors are being demonized by the FOX propaganda machine.

It will be a tough winter road ahead. But one can feel the warmth of human solidarity and resistance.