Change Agents
Change Agents
Academy of Achievement
Ralph Nader
14 minutes Posted Jun 21, 2007 at 1:00 pm.
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Show notes
"There's no ticket of admission for active
citizenship. Anybody can get through that gate, and anybody can
ask that basic question that gets the ball rolling." In 1965
Ralph Nader asked a question that shocked America. In his book
Unsafe at Any Speed he asked why thousands of Americans were
being killed or injured in car accidents when the technology
already existed to make our cars safer. The automobile industry
resisted Nader's suggestions furiously, but public outcry forced
government and industry to apply new safety standards, and to
include devices like shoulder harnesses and air bags which have
saved thousands from death or injury. Ralph Nader didn't stop
there. His concept of full-time citizenship led him to form
groups such as Public Citizen which have exposed corporate and
governmental negligence and corruption and won important new
protections for Americans as citizens and consumers. More than 30
years after he began his crusade for automobile safety, Ralph
Nader continues his efforts to make government and business
accountable to the people, and to make all Americans aware of
their rights and of their own power to defend
them.