Over my years as a political agitator, a special joy has been getting to know and learn from so many other practitioners of the agitating arts who dare to stand up to moneyed elites.

Yes, if you push for a little more fairness and democracy in our “Land of the Free” you will certainly be labeled an agitator. But so what? Wear that proudly, for mavericks and agitators are the ones who’ve advanced America’s democratic possibilities. As Jesse Jackson put it, “the agitator is the center-post in the washing machine that gets the dirt out.”

Indeed, it’s those everyday people who do the hard travelling and heavy lifting to produce grassroots change. For an exemplary model, consider the life of Dolores Huerta. This jewel of a human being died last week after 96 years in the field, inspiring, organizing, and mobilizing supposedly powerless, mostly-impoverished people.

I got to know and occasionally work in her shadow as she crisscrossed the country again and again, organizing farmworkers, immigrants, women, outcasts, and others who’ve been knocked down, held back, and routinely-abused by a morally-corrupt power structure. Astonishingly, despite political disappointments, repeated arrests, brutal beatings by corporate thugs, and devastating personal abuse – she never lost her deep belief that an organized, focused, people’s movement will prevail. Si se puede was her inspiring mantra: “Yes we can do it!”

She was a momentous labor leader and progressive icon, but for me she remains a touchstone for those seeking a life of grassroots agitation. You don’t need to become Dolores Huerta, but see if you can find her spirit inside you.

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Inequality in America doesn’t just “happen” – it’s deliberately created by the self-serving actions of corporate powers and political autocrats.

You might have noticed, for example that your health care costs keep rocketing into the stratosphere. This has left millions of our families with no medical coverage at all, and most of the rest of us are struggling to pay ever-higher prices to insurance giants for ever-worsening coverage.

Lately, even those whose employers provide health insurance, are being socked by their companies’ top executives – who, by the way, get platinum-level medical coverage paid by the company. Steadily and stealthily, though, the bosses have been making rank-and-file workers pay for health benefits, which are considered part of the pay they earn. This pick-pocketing was modest at first, but it’s now major thievery, taking an average of $7,500 a year from each employee’s paycheck.

Well, bark corporate apologists, that’s just the natural working of the free market system. Excuse me, but my family’s health is not a market, and there’s nothing “natural” about inequality being foisted on working families by corporate elites.

Speaking of unnatural, take a look at Mark Zuckerberg, the wonky-zonky gabillionaire chief of Meta, Inc. An infamous profiteer at the expense of communities and workers, Mark has become so royally rich that he would owe billions in a proposed California wealth tax. No problem though – elites at the top take care of themselves, so Zuck just had Meta rig its entire stock structure so his new tax obligation would cost him zero!

So billionaire bosses keep pampering themselves by rigging their own corporate rules while robbing their employees’ paychecks. And that, boys and girls, is how the widening inequality gap between the rich and rest of us happens.

Do something!

* Over at Inequality.org, they cover the multitude of issues surrounding pay inequality, and have an action center around CEO pay loaded with information.

* There are also rich people who believe in paying their fair share, and are actually advocating for it! Check out patrioticmillionaires.org.

Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

There’s a hunter’s nightmare in which a group of them flush some rabbits out of the brush. But rather than scampering away, the furry bunnies turn toward their stalkers. “Run,” shouts one of the hunters. “Run for your life – the rabbits have guns!”

Arming animals would make the sport of hunting a bit more sporting, wouldn’t it? Well, what if we did give all wildlife a fighting chance against the destructive firepower of profiteers who so carelessly ravage their habitats and kill them off? Of course, we can’t arm nature with guns, but we could recognize that other species and ecosystems are living creatures with intrinsic legal rights to exist and flourish, thus giving nature its day in court to defend its well-being.

Like us humans, the lakes, forests, wildlife, etc. could have legal status to sue and be represented by lawyers to protect themselves from mindless exploitation, injury, and death. This Rights-of-Nature concept is already being applied in such countries as Ecuador and New Zealand – and more than three dozen US cities and towns have passed ordinances acknowledging that various natural resources in their areas have inherent rights to take polluters and other despoilers to court.

Ironically, the corporate powers – who have perverted law, logic, and nature to have their lifeless, profiteering entities declared “persons” – are aghast that Mother Nature can have rights that can counter the corporate claim that their right to profit is absolute.

At its core, the Rights-of-Nature movement is asserting the obvious: Earth’s biosphere is not a free candy store for our taking. We are one with the natural world and must find ways to cooperate fully with it for our own survival. To learn more and connect to action, go to the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund: www.celdf.org.

Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.