We must not be willing to accept relentless and unconscionable cuts in funding for K-12 education. For our children, these budget cuts have resulted in crumbling schools, skyrocketing class sizes and teachers being denied the support they need to do their best.

We must not be willing to accept workers being told we cannot afford decent wages, health care and pensions because we are giving more and more tax breaks to the wealthiest and already extremely profitable corporations.

We must not be willing to accept banks, bailed out with our tax dollars, foreclosing on hardworking Americans who are out of work or working for far less because of the financial crisis these banks created.

We must not be willing to accept one in four American children living in poverty and hunger.

There are so many more examples of the growing injustice in America and, sadly, this is no accident. It is a result of rampant greed — the deliberate manipulation of our democracy and economy by a tiny minority in the 1 percent who amass ever more wealth and power at our expense.

We are at a crossroads as a country. We have a choice to make: greater wealth for a few or opportunity for many; tax breaks for the richest or a fair shot for the rest of us; a government that can be bought by the highest bidder or a democracy that is truly of the people, by the people and for the people. The choice is in our hands. We must not be complicit with the suffering in our neighborhoods and communities for another year. We must come together to rebuild a fair America for all.

I know great change is possible. We inherited a great American history of everyday people standing up for their own dignity, freedom, and self-determination, shaping our direction as a country by people like the seamstress in Alabama who launched a bus boycott; the farmers in New England and Virginia who imagined we could be a free nation; the workers in Flint who occupied their plant to win collective bargaining rights; the farm workers in California who liberated our fields; the women in New York who dreamed they could one day speak with equal voice; the mother who stood up in Love Canal to stop the poisoning of her community; and the students who risked their lives during Freedom Summer to register voters.

In the last year alone, we watched people of conscience in Wisconsin stand for the rights of workers. We were inspired by Occupy Wall Street to stand with the 99 percent. We will rise this spring, because we do hold these truths to be self-evident - that all men and women are created equal, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We invite everyone who is unwilling to accept the growing injustice and inequality in America to join us in the 99 percent spring initiative. If you want to join with us to rebuild a fair economy for all, visit www.the99spring.com for details on times and locations for this great initiative.

Will you join us April 9-15 to stand with the 99 percent for America?

REPRINTED FROM THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR