The Georgia Chapter of Black Women for Obama recently held a highly successful town hall meeting where many of the state’s most notable political figures and activists were in attendance.
By Patricia Wilson-Smith
As the 2012 Presidential Election makes its way towards the ever-important party nominating conventions, African Americans in this country are busy waging a quiet war within over its continued support of President Obama.
The issue? His personal stance on same sex marriage.
Just this week, a group calling itself The Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP) announced that they will actively oppose President Obama’s re-election bid on the basis of his evolved opinion of same sex-unions. As a “…grass roots movement of African American Christians who believe in family values”, they apparently liken gay marriage to something so heinous that they’re willing to cede the election to a party whose policies have done more to wreck the American family than anything else in this country ever could.
By Patricia Wilson-Smith
There is an incredible dichotomy at work in the Republican Party these days.
Mitt Romney’s campaign has gone out and hired political strategist, and famed black female Conservative Tara Wall to head up its outreach efforts, in particular outreach to African American voters, in an attempt to…do something. Let’s save what for later.
It wouldn’t be particularly illuminating at this juncture to point out that the Republican Party and their “trickle-down-economics-‘til-we-die-fool” policies haven’t been exactly, well, good for the average black American. As deregulated financial institutions and barely taxed mega corporations gathered up their profits during the Bush years and shipped them off shore (that would be to the Cayman Islands I guess for Mr. Romney), our economy bled jobs in apocalyptic proportions, and the resulting financial carnage hit African Americans harder than any other ethnic group in the country.
But then – it always does.
(Source: ThinkProgress.org)
Progressives have been working to expose the American Legislative Exchange Council’s work for years, but, as we reported last week, the campaign against ALEC significantly escalated in recent weeks.
ThinkProgress’ Scott Keyes explains today’s big news:
ALEC came under intense scrutiny over the past few weeks after progressive groups like Color of Change began pressuring corporations that fund ALEC to drop their support. The Center for American Progress also released a report highlighting the right-wing group’s role in pushing voter suppression efforts around the country. As a result, 10 companies, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Kraft, have pulled out from ALEC.
In response to the exodus of corporate funding, ALEC made the decision today to scale back its operations and focus on “economic” matters. The group released the following statement:
We are eliminating the ALEC Public Safety and Elections task force that dealt with non-economic issues, and reinvesting these resources in the task forces that focus on the economy. The remaining budgetary and economic issues will be reassigned.
By Patricia Wilson-Smith
It’s been a long time since I lent my voice to any debate. Life has taken some twists and turns, and I’ve been busy holding on for dear life. But it’s time to blow the dust off my laptop.
I’ve kept a keen watch as the health care reform debate has raged; I’ve watched earlier on as the Democrats did everything they could to woo the likes of Olympia Snowe, who of course supported health care reform just long enough to vote it down once the Senate bill was up for a vote. I’ve watched as the large insurance companies skillfully rallied the well-meaning, but sometimes painfully ignorant radical right to protest in very ugly public ways against reform, screaming and yelling at the tops of their lungs for “the government to keep its hands off of Medicare.”
And I’ve even watched President Obama try with all his might to take a bi-partisan approach to reforming health care, over and over again, reaching out to one Republican or another, only to hit the brick-hard wall of truth that is the right’s complete inability to see beyond their political aims. And I’ve watched the media, who in their zeal to report on each new development, gave voice to the legions of morons around the country who educate themselves by watching 30-second soundbites on cable news, while thousands and thousands of people struggle or die because this country is too consumed with the spectacle of the debate to just get this right.
I’m sick and tired of this. I want health care reform for this country and I want it now! I don’t have to tell anyone this, but it bears repeating – we are the only western nation that does not provide some form of universal health care for its citizens, and that fact alone should be enough to warrant a change. The problem is, those who oppose health care reform have done a masterful job up to now of scaring the bejeezus out of the American people with stories of ‘health care rationing’, and ’6-month waits’ for treatment. Even though the facts just don’t prove these scare tactics out.
I recently visited London, England and spent time with my husband’s lovely family. I had a blast – I sat around the dinner table with cousins, and nephews, and uncles, and we laughed about the differences in life in the United Kingdom and the States. Mostly, we joked about innocuous things like our use of the word ‘cookie’ and their use of the word ‘biscuit’; how we call the storage areas in our cars ‘trunks’, and they call them ‘boots’; we even joked about how the U.K. really has no concept of an SUV because their streets are too narrow to accommodate them.
But when the talk turned to health care, things toned down a bit. I asked the questions I’d been dying to ask since this debate first begin to rage in this country, when lawmakers were warning us not to look to England’s National Health Care System as a model for care here. I asked them – “are you guys happy with the level of care you get under your system?”
The answer I got was a resounding, “yes”. And what’s worse, because they have access to the very same cable stations that we do, they get to see the lies and misrepresentations being regularly disseminated in the American media, and they’re dumbfounded. For the most part, they are perfectly happy with the level of care they receive, accepting of the level of taxation it takes to support the system, and had no horror stories to tell about long waits, poor care, rationing – nothing.
In particular, my mother in law recently had heart bypass surgery to clear up a blocked artery. She raved about the experience – how she visited her doctor when she wasn’t feeling well, how quickly she was diagnosed, and how even more quickly she was admitted to the hospital and how well she was treated. The whole experience of discussing England’s health care system with my new family left me confused, and aware that I had bought into the lies more than I’d realized.
According to Wikipedia, an independent survey conducted in 2004 found that 92% of British hospital inpatients were satisfied with the level of care they received; 87% of outpatients were satisfied with their treatment. If you don’t trust Wikipedia, how about Gallup? In March of 2009, Gallup reported the results of a survey of residents of OECD nations, and guess what? The United States lags behind the UK in overall satisfaction with our respective health care systems. Let THAT one sink in.
And so I have no choice but to believe that the vehement opposition to either a truly universal single payor system, or its weaker younger brother, the public option, is the evil creation of health care lobbyists and the pathetic members of Congress who would rather continue to align themselves with their benevolent benefactors than stop the carnage that is being caused by our current health care system. I am no expert when it comes to these issues, but I don’t exactly hear anyone disputing the fact that each year 45,000 Americans are dying simply because they’re uninsured. And it’s an undeniable fact that millions of Americans each year are being driven into bankruptcy because of out of control costs, while greedy insurance companies yank their coverage just when they need it most to maximize profits and secure the bloated bonuses going to their inept CEOs. My mother was one of those people who was driven into bankruptcy by medical bills. After decades of working hard and taking care of her family, she had to suffer the humiliation of declaring bankruptcy all because our country won’t do enough to provide for it’s citizens. It makes me sick to my stomach.
So it’s time stop talking about this now, just as President Obama says. There’s too much at stake – too many lives, and I believe the future financial viability of our nation. When President Obama and other Democrats say that our current health care system is not sustainable, I believe them. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist. People are using Emergency Rooms as last-chance health providers, often when they’ve neglected their health for so long, there’s nothing that can be done for them. Employers are gearing up to begin shifting more health care costs to already cash-strapped American families, and the cost of health care has risen 2.4% faster than the GPD since 1970. Our system is a freight train running down hill, and it’s time to stop it.
We have a unique opportunity right now, today. We can either keep walking around like zombies, acting as though we’re powerless to get anything done, or we can drop everything for five minutes, get off of FaceBook or Twitter, or whatever our social network of choice is and call our representatives and DEMAND that they pass a bill now! I’ve had it with this crap! We need to extinguish pre-existing condition denials now! We need to insure the 30 plus million Americans who have no insurance now! We need to ease the financial burden on American workers, the elderly, and we need to do it now! If you do nothing else today, call your representative and tell them – we’re tired of the games, we’re tired of the political spin, we’re just plain tired! Pass the friggin’ bill already! DO IT NOW!
To find your representative, visit the site below:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
It’s crunch time. Blow the dust off YOUR laptop or telephone and make your voice heard.
By Steffini Bethea
This past Saturday, I went to delegate training in Atlanta. As I sat through the training, the gentleman that served as the facilitator mentioned several times (in jest) that being a delegate allowed you access to “ALL OF THE PARTIES”! That sounds like fun to me but I also had to sit back and think, “Why exactly do I want to go to Denver in August?” Now don’t get me wrong, I want to party like everyone else, but there is also a deeper more relevant reason. My reason has nothing and everything to do with Senator Barack Obama.
The reasons that have nothing to do with Senator Obama are:
A broken system that has my 68 year old father still having to teach in the Detroit public school system because he can’t quite yet “afford to retire.” (Fortunately, he does love his job)
A broken system that forced my mother to retire earlier than she wanted because after working 20 years at Ford Motor Company as a Systems Analyst, her job was outsourced to India.
A broken system that allowed my Aunt Pat to lose the $250,000 home that she owned outright because she could not pay a $40,000 medical bill once she became disabled.
A broken system that has allowed 2 of my friends to lose their homes to foreclosure.
A broken system that does not offer affordable healthcare for me and my family. It would cost my family of 6, $800/month for coverage. My husband and I are self employed.
A broken system that has my 65 year old mother-in-law still having to work at that school cafeteria, on the railroad tracks in Dillon, S.C., that Senator Obama always speaks of.
A broken system that has schools in Gwinnett County not making AYP because of the language barrier due to the influx of immigrants legal and illegal.
A broken system that has the elderly and sickly having to stay indoors on those days that we have a smog alert.
A broken system that has me paying $55 to fill up my car, while Exxon/Mobil just had a profit of $46 billion. (Somebody explain that to me PLEASE!)
A broken system that has cost some relatives, and children, of friends of mine to lose their lives in Iraq.
A broken system that has moved me out of the comfort of my previous neighborhood, just so that my children can get the best education.
A broken system that has millions uninsured, losing their homes, losing their jobs, losing hope!
Am I bitter? No! I am however, sick and tired of politics as usual! I want to go to Denver in August to cast a vote for CHANGE. That vote has everything to do with Senator Barack Obama. Tiger Woods was an agent of change for golf after he won the Masters in Augusta. Venus and Serena Williams became agents of change and now Black folks actually attend Wimbledon and the US Open. Magic Johnson became an agent of change for the NBA with the “Fast Break”. Doug Williams became an agent of change for the NFL after Super Bowl XXII. RUN DMC was an agent of change for Hip Hop. Spike Lee was an agent of change for Black filmmakers. Oprah, well she has just changed the game period (smile). I want to go to Denver to cast my vote for CHANGE on behalf of, my Aunt Pat, my mother in law, my parents, my best friends, my kids, my county, state, country and the 7th Congressional District. I believe Senator Obama will be an agent of change for OUR future!
If you happen to live in the 7th Congressional District in Georgia and are a registered voter, please support me by attending the Caucus on Saturday April 19, 2008. Help me get to Denver to vote for change.
By Patricia Wilson-Smith
If you’re like me, you likely ask yourself the same goofy question every year – “Is it me or have the Holidays come around earlier than usual this year?”
It’s not you, and it’s not me. The fact is, anxious retailers are surreptitiously planting seeds of holiday cheer into our psyches earlier and earlier with each year that passes. If our greedy merchant friends have their way, before long, we’ll all be decorating for the holidays the day after Memorial Day.
But finding new ways to separate us from our money is the capitalist way; free enterprise and all that. Just like zeroing out our credit card balances only to sucker punch them again, holding lavish holiday feasts, and buying gifts for people we barely speak to all year are all part of our annual national psychosis. If you’re like me, you too have fallen victim to this mindless trap year-after-year. You’re powerless. Resistance has become futile.
Not to say that the holidays are not a special time. Any opportunity to spread good will and eat until you’re catatonic can never be underrated. Still, for me anyway, this year is different. This year for perhaps the first time, I am feeling an overwhelming need to give to someone who doesn’t already have an extensive CD collection, or buy for someone who’s not distressed over their need for a wall-mount kit for the new 50 inch flat screen TV they just bought for themselves. This year, before I dust off the plastic and head out to the mall, I’ve decided to take a look around – and I mean a very long hard look around to see what else needs my attention.
I could start on the continent of Africa on the western Sudan in the Darfur region. Since 2003, the Sudanese government has been providing arms and assistance to militia groups who are committing genocidal acts in numbers that have been estimated between 50,000 to 450,000, though most experts believe the number of the murdered to be on the higher end of the range. Almost as bad, more than 2.5 million people are believed to have been displaced. Whatever the politics, whoever the aggressors, there are hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who are in need of help – people who are suffering that couldn’t give a crap about when the Macy’s one-day sale starts.
Or I could head down to New Orleans. Or more accurately to the place that used to be the thriving multi-cultural land of music and fine cuisine. There I’d find the abandoned homes and shattered lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, some who struggled in poverty even before Katrina, and who now, having been virtually abandoned by relief efforts, and having lost everything in the disaster, are actually being told by their insurance companies that while flood damage is covered by their home owner’s policies, the breaking of the levees that ultimately caused the devastating flooding is not. Those people don’t give a hoot about when the new Sony Play Station 3 is going on sale.
Or maybe I could take a leisurely stroll through the streets of downtown. I could have a sit down with a few of the thousands of homeless people who live on my city’s streets. People from all ethnicities and walks of life, who are facing down the prospect of another cold winter without a roof over their heads. I could have a pointed conversation with the city leaders who in their flaccid attempts to breathe life back into some areas of the city, sweep the needy and the destitute under the proverbial rug to make the city look ‘better’. I could wait for one of these clowns to walk by me, stick my foot out, and watch them fall flat onto their over-stuffed faces. The people they step over everyday couldn’t care less about this city’s image.
The problem with us and the ease in which we give in to our banal holiday pleasures is that it leaves us scant little time to remember those people who have suffered all year in silence, who needed for us to see them all year when we would not, and who, during this most blessed season should expect nothing less than that we will open our eyes, our hearts and our coffers if only to help make a few of their days during the season of giving a little more bright. The problem is, the holiday decorations in October, the pre-Thanksgiving-day-Christmas sales, the office parties, the half-hearted gift-giving, takes us away from the activities, rituals, and just plain simple kindnesses that should serve to help us remember why we do it all in the first place. I would submit that there is much besides the normal Yule tide distractions that need our attention.
To make a difference this holiday season, consider making a donation to one of the many fine organizations created to aid victims of the genocide in Darfur and the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, organizations like “Help Darfur Now” at http://www.helpdarfurnow.org, or the joint initiative between former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush to benefit the Katrina relief fund, whose website can be found by going to http://www.bushclintonkatrinafund.org. You can of course also help by calling your local Red Cross and donating to the cause of your choice.
This year, let’s do something different. Before we spend one thin dime on a video game, or deck a single hall with holly (what the hell is a ‘bough’ anyway?), let’s all find someone, anyone who needs a hand, a leg up, a small kindness, and give it to them. If just for one day we all chose charity over opulence, sharing over mindless consumption, and giving to those in need before giving to those who don’t, well, it would just make having Christmas trees show up in our neighborhood drugstores in October a little more palatable. That’s all I’m saying.
Black Women for Obama is a grass roots organization dedicated to the re-election of Barack Obama in 2012. In the 2008 election, we played a pivotal role, especially in the southeast, canvassing and volunteering, and we plan to do so nation-wide in the months leading up to the 2012 election as well.
Joining the organization is free - click here for more information, or call us at 404.692.5251.
We are the voice of black women around the nation, who believe that America needs President Obama to stay right where he is.
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