"Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
— Eugene V. Debs
There's more to this than simple solidarity with the oppressed. There is the very real consequence that while one people oppresses another, they cannot be free. There is no choice in this, for no man is an island but a part of the whole.
There are consequences to the oppression of other people, and it has only been the high level of wealth extracted from these people that had allowed the U.S. to have a period of seeming calm. But we've been seeing our freedoms erode for a while now, accelerating more after 9/11. These are not freedoms we can simply gain back by marching for a right here or there. The natural tendency of our system is toward one that is more and more overtly oppressive.
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