Whose Schools? Our Schools!

    

On July 22, 2017, I had the privilege of speaking at the Charlotte March for Education representing NOW Charlotte. The March for Public Education was held simultaneously in cities across our nation including Washington, DC. The mission statement for the march was that "our public schools will be safe, inclusive spaces for learning and critical thinking, where all children discover their passion(s) and role(s) as citizens. As members of March for Public Education, we aim to advance policy and recursively address issues of: equity, inclusion, accountability, a well-funded institution, and the right to organize." The Charlotte March for Education was held at Marshall Park in uptown Charlotte. There was a small but very enthusiastic group of supporters on a very hot Summer day.  This is an excerpt from that speech:

    Public Education is very dear to my heart. My mother was a public-school educator and I am a proud product of public education. I spent my life in public education and now teach at Central Piedmont Community College. I believe in the power of public education to lift all students out of poverty and adversity and into the realm of opportunity. I have had the privilege of being part of the lives of many public-school students who have dreamed dreams and achieved those dreams.

     As a public-school educator during the first few years of desegregation, I saw firsthand the ravaging effects of poverty and discrimination. I see those same ravaging effects of poverty and discrimination still in our schools today. I see school systems being desegregated. I see the continuing inequity of education in high poverty neighborhoods. But we all know that with the proper funding, support and the belief that all students can achieve and succeed no matter what the circumstances of their birth are, we can raise up all our students- including our most vulnerable- our children in poverty, our homeless and our English language learners.  Education is not a luxury for the wealthy, it is a human right and human rights are not optional!

     Today we stand in a very dangerous place. Our public schools are under attack, not by a foreign force, but by our own President and Secretary of Education. The Trump administration’s policies have become synonymous with educational disparity, misguided focus and inhumane cuts to programs and services. Trump’s proposals to cut public education are a direct threat to the very heart of our democracy. The DeVos plan will cause cuts in vital areas of education- with Special Education, Bilingual Education, medically and emotionally fragile students and our socio-economically disadvantaged students taking the hardest hits. Under the Trump/DeVos education plan, class size reduction is eliminated, professional development is ended and thousands of educators will lose their jobs. Title 1 funds for our high poverty schools will decrease because that money can now be used for other things before even being given to the schools that it is designated for. Twenty-two programs are to be eliminated including after school programs that serve 1.6 million children, most of whom are poor.  Arts programs, foreign language programs, programs for gifted students, mental health services, physical education, advanced placement courses, science and engineering instruction and even the Special Olympics are on the chopping block. Our colleges and universities will suffer the same types of devastating cuts with the elimination of over $700 million in Perkins loans for disadvantaged students and work study programs being cut.  Programs that provide child care for high poverty parents attending college and adult literacy programs are cut. I could go on all day! These cuts not only harm our children, but our families and our single mothers who are trying to improve their lives, making it almost impossible for them to get an education. Due to the race/gender wage gap, women have a more difficult time repaying student loans once they complete college; therefore further cuts to grants and loans are devastating. 75% of educators are women so the loss of thousands of jobs will again hurt working mothers.  And who will benefit? Religious, Private and Charter Schools! Public dollars, OUR dollars unconstitutionally supporting religious and privately-run schools, with little or no accountability.
  

     When I look at our own city with 4,400 students identified as homeless, we are looking at a demographic that Trump and DeVos have only seen from the backseat of their limousines! We are looking at a population that they simply do not care about. We have a President that travels with a moral compass that only points to himself! We will never find common ground with an administration that is cruel and callous to our children. Public school children are not products that Trump and his cronies can make money off of!

     We must stand together to fight this injustice to our public schools across our country and in our state by letting our voices and our votes be heard. We must tell our friends and foes in Raleigh and on Capitol Hill to fully fund public education and that public money must go to public schools. We must demand the schools that our children need to be successful in the 21^st century! We must resist and we must persist- starting today- starting right now! We will not give in and we will not give up! We know the power of education to change lives, neighborhoods and nations. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world.” When we are here on a hot Summer day in the middle of July defending our public schools, we are defending our vision for a better world! Thank you for being here today!

Breaking The Cycle: Women Incarcerated

     

Marissa Alexander receiving the Woman of Courage award from NOW President Terry O'Neil.

     I recently had the opportunity to attend the 2017 National Organization for Women Conference in Orlando, Florida. Although there were many outstanding speakers, I met two women who really touched my heart; perhaps because their message was especially personal for me as I reflected on students I had taught during my teaching career. Two Afro-American female students stood out in my mind. While teaching at the community college, I often taught students who were on court probation and attending class wearing ankle bracelets.  I remember one female student who was particularly distraught by her current situation. Kanesha was a very bright young woman about 20 years old.   She had gotten caught up in a drug deal orchestrated by a young man she was in a relationship with.  The transaction had ended in a murder. She possessed no drugs and was waiting in the car while he went inside, not knowing what was transpiring.  Kanesha was anticipating a long prison sentence. She could not talk without crying. I hugged her every day and tried to encourage her but knew she was up against a stone wall legal system that had enveloped her.  Kanesha had extremely low self-esteem and had been sexually assaulted as a child. My heart ached because I knew she had so much potential.   Another student, Latisha, I met in an elementary gifted classroom. Latisha was a very bright and eager to learn third grader. She came from a high poverty crime ridden neighborhood.  In an effort to help keep her off the summer streets, I secured scholarships for her and a few other students to attend summer programs at various facilities including a science camp at a private school and James K Polk History Camp. The students also received tennis and golf lessons over the course of the summer. The scholarships were secured but at the last minute, CMS backed out on providing transportation for these students.  Not wanting them to miss these opportunities, I spent my summer transporting Latisha and the other students to camps in my van. Latisha was the first one picked up and the last one dropped off every day so I got to know Latisha well.  Latisha lived in fear and confided to me that she slept with a baseball bat for fear of being molested. I followed Latisha into middle school, but upon going to her house one day, I found they had moved and I lost contact with her. I have often thought about these two students and wondered where their lives have taken them. My experience in Orlando, brought them both to mind again.  

     At the NOW Conference in Orlando, I first met Marissa Alexander, an Afro-American female,  who received our Woman of Courage award. I had a chance to sit down and talk with Marissa after the award was presented.  Marissa was an MBA graduate, fulfilling her career in IT Management when she was arrested and charged with aggravated assault.  Marissa ‘s estranged husband had appeared unexpectedly, gone into a rage and threatened to kill her.  He had been arrested three times previously for domestic assault. Unable to get out of the house, Marissa fired a warning shot high into the drywall.  Marissa was charged with aggravated assault and sentenced to 20 years in prison under Florida’s minimum mandatory sentencing law.  Her story drew national attention because the Stand Your Ground Law, which was allowed in the George Zimmerman case, could not be used in her case because the Stand Your Ground law does not allow warning shots.  Finally, after 3 years in prison, her case was overturned as a result of faulty jury instructions. She accepted the original plea agreement of three years and strict probation wearing an ankle bracelet. She has now become a domestic violence advocate and speaks out against ineffective sentencing policies.

     Secondly, I attended a breakout session; Casualties of the War on Drugs: The Mass Incarceration of Women in America. The presentation included three female experts from the ACLU and a young Afro-American woman who had been incarcerated. She had been arrested three times for drug possession. Each time she had asked for help for her addiction. Each time she was placed on a waiting list. She too had been sexually assaulted and asked for mental health support and each time she was put on a waiting list. She shared some of the atrocities of incarceration for women. Women had difficulty getting access to feminine hygiene products that women needed and no access to an OB/GYN. They often traded and bartered or created their own female hygiene products using whatever means they could. Women rarely went to the doctor for fear of sexual abuse. Women were often stripped naked and put in solitary confinement for punishment. Incarcerated women were viewed in negative terms rather than human beings with specific needs seeking help. The third time she was incarcerated, she was pregnant.  She delivered her baby with both arms and legs shackled to the table. She was not allowed to hold or even see her baby.  Her baby was given immediately to a family member. Perhaps if she had received the help she needed the first time, she may not have been there the third time. 

     In recent years, the number of women in America’s jails and prisons has skyrocketed.  According to the Bureau of Justice (DOJ), at the end of 2015, there were over 1.25 million women in US Adult Correctional Facilities. That is a 700% increase. The incarceration rate of women since 1980 has far exceeded the rate of growth of incarcerated men. Nearly 60% of incarcerated women are in federal prison for nonviolent drug offenses.  Many times women, like Marissa Alexander, are swept up in minimum sentencing laws and “conspiracy” laws.  Often, the women played very nominal roles in drug crimes and were simply present when men they were in relationships with were the key players in the drug activity like my friend Kanesha.  Furthermore, women of color are no more likely than white women to use or sell drugs but are far more likely to be arrested and incarcerated on drug offenses. The great majority of incarcerated women have experienced domestic and sexual violence and exhibit symptoms of mental health disorders, yet facilities often don’t provide care as stated by the woman I met in Orlando. Placing a woman naked in solitary confinement only exacerbates the trauma.  Finally, upon release, women with felony charges may be banned from receiving financial assistance and food stamps while at the same time they struggle to get into the workforce. They basically have no opportunities to become productive members of society.

         Meeting these two young women was a real eye opener. Our criminal justice system needs dramatic reform. Yet, when there are discussions of reform, rarely do we talk about the specific needs of incarcerated women. We need to address the unique and complex needs of adult women involved in the criminal justice system. We must better understand the experiences of incarcerated women and their families and we must advocate for safe, sensible policies that recognize these distinct needs. We must advocate for policies that eliminate shackling during labor; provide quality access to OB/GYN care; and restrict the roles of male staff in female prisons to limit abuse. Effective treatment of women must address the mental health effects of battering and sexual violence in their past. There should be no waiting list for drug rehabilitation or mental health services. We must address the reasons for the unprecedented rise in the number of women who are entering our jails and prisons. The number of young girls in the juvenile justice system is on the rise. One in three teenaged girls in the US report having been a victim of sexual violence. With young women of color and LGBTQ, the rate is even higher. Trauma related services are not available in our schools and due to zero tolerance policies, these girls are often pushed out of school when they act out in a cry for help.  Young victims of sex trafficking are often viewed as perpetrators and arrested. We must address the needs of these young girls and stop the criminalization of trauma. Reform must start in our schools as well as in our juvenile court system. Reforming practices towards female offenders can bring needed healing and restoration to this very vulnerable population. 

Source of Data:

United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (2016, December)

Panel Discussion: Casualties of the War on Drugs: The Mass Incarceration of Women in America.

                    

 

Fighting For Healthcare!

On Saturday, I had the privilege of representing NOW at the Healthcare Rally in uptown Charlotte. This is an excerpt of that speech.

"Senate Republican leaders unveiled their health-care bill Thursday morning, after weeks of crafting it behind closed doors. The bill, like the House’s, makes steep spending cuts to Medicaid and insurance subsidies, and uses the savings to fund substantial tax cuts for the health-care industry and wealthier Americans. The subsidy cuts fall disproportionately on lower-income and older Americans. Those who live in rural areas, where health-care costs tend to be higher, also stand to pay higher premiums according to analyses by the Kaiser Family Foundation.”  Women and especially women who are not wealthy will be the hardest hit. That should not be surprising since the bill was crafted behind closed doors by 13 wealthy white men. 

The Senate’s new healthcare bill makes it more expensive to be a woman.  If enacted, this legislation will turn back the clock on women’s health care. The bill introduced Thursday defunds many women’s vital health care needs and increases the cost astronomically on others. It defunds Planned Parenthood which provides family planning, birth control and health care for millions of low income women. That means fewer women will have any access to any kind of birth control.   

The bill allows states to redefine what counts as an Essential Health Benefit for Medicaid plans.  Currently, all plans must cover 10 categories of care. These include many women-focused services like maternity care, newborn care, contraception, mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, well woman visits, domestic violence screening and counseling, prescription drug coverage and mental health. The bill allows states to require that new mothers, starting October 2017, return to work within 60 days after giving birth or lose their coverage. This will affect young mothers who need to be home with their newborn and Medicaid will certainly give them no help with childcare to enable them to return to work. Medicaid cuts will affect women in other ways. Seventy five million Americans depend on Medicaid and 70% of these are adult women. 70% of people in nursing homes are women and 80% of these women in nursing homes are on Medicaid.

If that’s not enough, it’s possible that ALL women in the individual market as well as women who have employee provided insurance could also lose those protections, not just women on Medicaid. Again, the bill allows states broad waiver authority in what services are covered by insurance plans and again allows them to redefine the Essential Health Benefits for women. If states are able to redefine these, it is most likely maternity and newborn coverage that’s on the line. The Congressional Budget Office says women could end up paying as much as $1,000 a month for an additional rider that covers maternity care and pregnancy on top of their premiums and other health care costs. It prohibits tax subsidies from paying for any individual market plan that covers abortion. In other words, it is going to make it much harder to avoid a pregnancy and it’s going to make it harder to take care of that baby when the baby arrives. The United States already has the highest maternal mortality rate and the highest infant mortality rate of any industrialized nation in the world and reducing coverage will only make the problem worse.

In addition, although the plan bans insurance companies from refusing care based on pre-existing conditions, the rates for people with pre-existing conditions may be astronomically unaffordable and there can be life time caps of what the insurance company will pay.  Less expensive bare bones plans may not cover all of the medical services the person needs requiring more out of pocket expenses.

Now is the time to get behind a single payer Medicare for All healthcare plan. Healthcare is not a privilege only for the wealthy and women deserve the full range of healthcare services that women need.  Denying people affordable health care is immoral. A single payer plan is the morally right thing to do and the fiscally responsible thing to do.  We must defeat the Republican healthcare plans now and support Medicare for ALL.

(Research for this article is based on readings from Avalere Health, Kaiser Family Foundation, National Information Center on Health Services, Research and Technology NICHSR and Physicians for a National Health Program PNHP)

Led By Example

                                                         

      

    

     I will be speaking at Wedgewood Church in Charlotte this Sunday for Father's Day and would love to invite you to join us in this very special place. The service begins at 11:00 and my topic will be "Led By Example." My message will be about the tremendous influence my father, a Baptist minister, had on me. It will focus on how he led me to be an activist for human rights and justice for all people.  And above all, it was not from his words in the pulpit, it was from his actions. Hope you can join us if you are in the Charlotte area. 

     "Welcome to you if you are female or male or some of each, gay or straight or some of each, black or brown or white or a mix of each, old or young or middle-aged, rich or broke or barely surviving or middle class, doubting or believing or some of each or one or the other depending on what is going on in your life or the world. Wedgewood Church is a community of curious and creative spiritual seekers, striving to learn and embody the Way of Jesus and other religious leaders, striving to love and do justice for all people. Welcome!" ( Wedgewood's Extravagant Welcome)

The Equality March for Unity and Pride

   The Equality March for Justice and Pride was held in Charlotte, NC on June 12, 2017 along with 100 other cities worldwide. I was honored to be able to speak at the event.   Hundreds of marchers walked from First Ward Park to Marshall Park in the hot summer sun. When the rally began at Marshall Park, the crowd was enthusiastic with determination not to give up the fight for LGBTQ equality!  Below is an excerpt from my speech.

" Good afternoon Charlotte! It’s hot out here…but you know, no matter how hot it gets in Charlotte or Raleigh or Washington, DC WE WILL BE OUT HERE FIGHTING FOR LGBT EQUALITY!!  We can never get discouraged! We can never get too tired!  We can never give up! No matter how long it takes, WE WILL BE HERE FIGHTING.

The National Organization for Women has been fighting discrimination since its inception in 1966.   We fight for equal opportunities for ALL people in ALL areas including employment, education, health care, the military just to name a few.  We must continue that fight. We must get out and vote and elect people who will support equality for ALL people. People who believe from the bottom of their hearts that the liberty and justice we talk about in the pledge of allegiance means liberty and justice for EVERYONE regardless of their race or their sexual orientation or their gender identity. Elect people who don’t just talk the talk but walk the walk.  GET OUT AND VOTE!!

And we must educate our children. We must educate our children to respect all people. We must combat this epidemic of homophobia that is being passed down from generation to generation, prevalent in the South!  And we must educate the children who are being taught to hate in their homes.  We must reach out and show them that we are people who believe in love thy neighbor.  NOW is going after the media to portray women in more positive images and we must do the same for our LGBTQ community.  We must not feed that homophobia or the degradation of women with negative portrayals in the media.  Let media know it will not be tolerated and that we will not watch that  type of programing.  

Above all, equality in pay, job opportunities, political structure, social security and education will remain a dream without a guarantee of equality in the Constitution.  The progress we have made towards women’s equality can be lost at any time because those advances depend on legislation that can be weakened or repealed by whatever political group holds the power. Today that is happening under the current administration.  They are trying to take us backwards in our fight for equality. But we will not be deterred or stopped! Although we have not yet succeeded in ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, we have not given up the fight. Winning a constitutional guarantee of equality for women STILL remains one of NOWs top priorities. We are only 2 states away from symbolically ratifying the ERA. The Equal Rights Amendment has been introduced in both houses of the NC General Assembly. LET’S GET THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT PASSED NOW. LET’S GET BEHIND THIS AND MAKE NORTH CAROLINA ONE OF THOSE TWO STATES!!  And just like we have not given up on a constitutional guarantee for women through all these years, we must also work to pass a constitutional amendment that would ban sex based discrimination forever!  No matter how long it takes we will keep fighting and we will prevail!!  The National Organization for Women stands with you! WE WILL NEVER EVER GIVE UP THE FIGHT!! Thank you!"

 

The Wage Gap

"It's Not A Myth, It's Math!"

Presentation to Charlotte NOW on the Wage Gap

The wage gap is one of the most pressing issues for women today. The wage gap affects women from all backgrounds, but its effects vary among different demographics. Women are paid less than men within each racial and ethnic group, and the pay gap between men and women within groups is smaller among African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, and Native Hawaiians as compared with that of whites and Asian Americans.  In North Carolina the median pay for a woman with a year round full time job is $35,481 while for a man with a year round full time job the median pay is $41,857. Women make 85 cents for every dollar a man makes but as you see from the slide above, the wage gap is even wider for women of color. In all 13 North Carolina Congressional Districts, women earn less than men. When we analyze the data even further, the statistics become even more staggering. If you are a member of a group who would like a presentation of the current data related to the Wage Gap, please contact me.  I will be happy to visit your group.

Healthcare Justice, Medicare For All

As the Vice President of the Charlotte chapter of NOW, I spoke on April 8, 2017, at a Healthcare Justice NC, Medicare For All rally.  I related some of the specific  advantages for women in Medicare for All as our national healthcare plan.