By Frieda Takamura
My young friend, Reina, has just completed her second year as a third grade teacher in South Seattle. Reina was a social worker for two years after college, but decided she wanted to work more closely with individual children, so with a hefty loan from the bank, she went back to graduate school to get her masters in teaching with an endorsement in bilingual education. With that specialty in a “hard to fill” position, she quickly got a job and come September, found herself in a class with twenty-two eager students, as racially, ethnically, socially, economically diverse as the South Seattle community from which they came.
It was a tough first year, trying to meet the many needs of her students and families, but it was also a tremendously satisfying year as she saw her students progress academically and as individuals, not to mention the growth she felt as a person and as a teacher. And she had escaped being laid off because of school district budget cuts. Most of the following summer she spent taking professional development classes and preparing for the coming year. Reina was excited to begin her second year. This year, though, her class-size had grown from twenty-two to twenty-eight students.
As the year went on, Reina’s frustration grew. Slashes in state education funding and the school district budget forced the school to reduce or eliminate classroom and student resources. Gone were the full time librarian, the art, music, and physical education specialists, the nurse, and many of the classroom aides. Reina filled the gaps because she knows students need more than the “3-R’s.” At the same time, she faced constant pressure to “raise academic standards and student achievement,” too often measured only in terms of high stakes tests, required without the provision of additional time, resources or support.
By June, Reina was physically and mentally exhausted as once again, she was faced with the possibility that she might not have a job in September because once again, the district was facing a fiscal crisis. Luckily for her students, Reina will return in September for her third year. But for how many more years of uncertainty and lack of resources can an enthusiastic, dedicated, caring teacher like Reina persevere? For how long can she continue to do what she loves and does best?
The passage of Initiative 1098 on November’s ballot will help provide the resources that the thousands of Reina’s in our schools need. By restoring and dedicating funds for education and basic health care, I-1098 will provide the stable revenue needed for the basic infrastructure of a healthy community. It will do this by requiring those who can most readily afford it (couples making more than $400,000 and individuals more than $200,000) to pay their fair share through a modest income tax.
If we truly believe that the “children are our future,” that “it takes a village to raise a child,” and that “public education is an investment for a stronger, prosperous America,” we must vote “YES” for I-1098. We must prove to the Reina’s of our state that we believe in and support them because they are indeed, ensuring that our future generations will be well educated and productive, and that they, in turn, will support us.
(Frieda Takamura is a member of the PSARA Executive Board.)
Back to Home
Friday, September 3, 2010
Immigration reform we can be proud of
By Kendra Anderson, OneAmerica Organizer
We are faced with a moral crisis in our country because of the irresponsible inaction of our federal government in the face of our broken immigration system. Not updated for decades, our current system simply does not make sense for families or businesses across the nation and in Washington State. We are penalizing hardworking immigrants who are needed for our economy to function, and we are tearing apart families who want only to be together—simply because we lack the courage to fix the underlying system to allow people to come in legally.
In light of this moral crisis, OneAmerica is working on the ground with communities across Washington State as part of a national campaign for comprehensive immigration reform including:
• Legalization and a path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants who are here;
• Family reunification and a clearing of the backlogs of applications for those who have applied legally for their family members and yet must endure cruelly long waits to be reunited;
• Full worker protections, and
• Due process and fairness in the immigration system.
We stand united as faith leaders, union members, retired people, veterans, teachers, lawyers, and community members in solidarity with the millions who contribute both to our communities and to our economy while being denied full access to either.
In fact, numerous reports show that immigrants, including those who are undocumented, not only make a substantial contribution to our economy, but could help lift us out of the recession. The Center for American Progress estimates that passing comprehensive immigration reform that includes creating a pathway to legal status for unauthorized immigrants would yield at least $1.5 trillion in cumulative U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years. And in 2009, here in Washington State, the purchasing power of Asians totaled $16.6 billion and that of Latinos $13.4 billion, the Immigration Policy Center reports.
Our leaders in Washington, D.C. continue to do nothing. Both President Obama and the Republicans propose enforcement-only or “secure the border first” strategies that are wasteful, that do not make us safer, and that cost lives. A comprehensive immigration reform bill has been introduced in the House, but leaders there are waiting for the Senate to move on a bill discussed by Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham last spring. And like families across the country, we keep waiting.
But we’re also taking action. Early this year, OneAmerica helped launch the Washington Immigration Reform Coalition (WIRC) FOR America, more than 60 organizations, representing unions and faith communities across the state, working together to pass national reform this year. WIRC has marched in the nation’s capitol, held rallies across Washington State, met with key congressional members, collected thousands of petition signatures, and engaged in civil disobedience actions in downtown Seattle.
And the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans is playing an active part in our success.
To get involved with WIRC in upcoming actions for immigration reform across the state, please contact Kendra@weareoneamerica.org, Join us as we keep fighting for immigration reform we can be proud of.
Back to Home
We are faced with a moral crisis in our country because of the irresponsible inaction of our federal government in the face of our broken immigration system. Not updated for decades, our current system simply does not make sense for families or businesses across the nation and in Washington State. We are penalizing hardworking immigrants who are needed for our economy to function, and we are tearing apart families who want only to be together—simply because we lack the courage to fix the underlying system to allow people to come in legally.
In light of this moral crisis, OneAmerica is working on the ground with communities across Washington State as part of a national campaign for comprehensive immigration reform including:
• Legalization and a path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants who are here;
• Family reunification and a clearing of the backlogs of applications for those who have applied legally for their family members and yet must endure cruelly long waits to be reunited;
• Full worker protections, and
• Due process and fairness in the immigration system.
We stand united as faith leaders, union members, retired people, veterans, teachers, lawyers, and community members in solidarity with the millions who contribute both to our communities and to our economy while being denied full access to either.
In fact, numerous reports show that immigrants, including those who are undocumented, not only make a substantial contribution to our economy, but could help lift us out of the recession. The Center for American Progress estimates that passing comprehensive immigration reform that includes creating a pathway to legal status for unauthorized immigrants would yield at least $1.5 trillion in cumulative U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years. And in 2009, here in Washington State, the purchasing power of Asians totaled $16.6 billion and that of Latinos $13.4 billion, the Immigration Policy Center reports.
Our leaders in Washington, D.C. continue to do nothing. Both President Obama and the Republicans propose enforcement-only or “secure the border first” strategies that are wasteful, that do not make us safer, and that cost lives. A comprehensive immigration reform bill has been introduced in the House, but leaders there are waiting for the Senate to move on a bill discussed by Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham last spring. And like families across the country, we keep waiting.
But we’re also taking action. Early this year, OneAmerica helped launch the Washington Immigration Reform Coalition (WIRC) FOR America, more than 60 organizations, representing unions and faith communities across the state, working together to pass national reform this year. WIRC has marched in the nation’s capitol, held rallies across Washington State, met with key congressional members, collected thousands of petition signatures, and engaged in civil disobedience actions in downtown Seattle.
And the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans is playing an active part in our success.
To get involved with WIRC in upcoming actions for immigration reform across the state, please contact Kendra@weareoneamerica.org, Join us as we keep fighting for immigration reform we can be proud of.
Back to Home
National Day of Action October 2
A mighty “National Day of Action” will bring “potentially hundreds of thousands” to the Lincoln Memorial in the nation’s capital Sunday, October 2. For more information, click here
Under the ringing slogan, “One Nation, Marching Toward Our Dream,” the more than 150 sponsoring organizations declare that “we can put Americans back to work…restore our middle class…(and) rebuild the country we love.”
Sponsors include the AFL-CIO and many of its affiliated unions, the NAACP, La Raza, the Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights, and the Center for Community Change.
“Today we are a nation in crisis,” the sponsors declare. “In the last ten years, we have lost eight million jobs. At least 1.2 million families have lost or are losing their homes. Schools are closing and remaining classrooms are bursting at the seams. Employers have trampled the rights of workers to bargain for fair wages and benefits.
“We can make things right again. As we organize and energize and mobilize, we will show fellow Americans that together we can truly change our country. We are joining together, members of…more than 150 groups in all, to make a difference.”
Back to Home
Under the ringing slogan, “One Nation, Marching Toward Our Dream,” the more than 150 sponsoring organizations declare that “we can put Americans back to work…restore our middle class…(and) rebuild the country we love.”
Sponsors include the AFL-CIO and many of its affiliated unions, the NAACP, La Raza, the Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights, and the Center for Community Change.
“Today we are a nation in crisis,” the sponsors declare. “In the last ten years, we have lost eight million jobs. At least 1.2 million families have lost or are losing their homes. Schools are closing and remaining classrooms are bursting at the seams. Employers have trampled the rights of workers to bargain for fair wages and benefits.
“We can make things right again. As we organize and energize and mobilize, we will show fellow Americans that together we can truly change our country. We are joining together, members of…more than 150 groups in all, to make a difference.”
Back to Home
After Gou-Dou-Gou-Dou: Building Haiti back better
By Peter Costantini
May in Haiti is the last month of the rainy season before the hurricanes begin to spin up out of the Atlantic. It’s a month when armadas of bloodthirsty mosquitoes patrol the enveloping humidity that thickens in the afternoon into slate-gray clouds and driving downpours. It is not a good month to be living in a tent. But about a million and a half Haitians still are, after losing their homes and often their family members in the January 12 earthquake.
I spent the month of May in Haiti as a volunteer and journalist. I saw some encouraging efforts at the grassroots level, where a strong community spirit has survived. I witnessed inspiring generosity, cooperation and inventiveness on the part of many Haitians in the face of unimaginable destruction.
But after the initial outpouring of emergency assistance, many international initiatives by the United Nations, the United States, and large non-governmental organizations seemed to become fragmented and disjointed as they tried to transition towards reconstruction. As for the Haitian government, perhaps a quarter of its employees were killed or injured, and its equivalent of the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court, and most federal departments were leveled. Much of it remained barely functional and disconnected from the needs of its citizens.
Now, over half a year after Gou-Dou-Gou-Dou (a nickname derived from the sound it made), why are so many people are still displaced and living in makeshift, unsafe camps?
The huge scale of the event itself may explain some of the slowness of the recovery. The death toll –estimated by the government at 220 thousand to 300 thousand in a county of 10 million – is equivalent to that of a major war.
The location of the epicenter just west of Port-au-Prince on the coastal plain meant that the full force struck the most heavily populated area. The nation’s capital, where the public and private sectors were excessively concentrated, was decimated. Total damages amounted to nearly $8 billion, about 20 percent more than Haiti’s yearly gross domestic product.
Everywhere, the prevalent poor quality of construction and the marginalization of poor people into unstable areas contributed heavily to the disaster. Fifty years of kleptocratic dictatorships, usually supported by our government, relieved occasionally by weak democratic governments, usually undermined by our government, left virtually no building regulations or urban planning.
Since long before the quake, decades of high-level looting of the economy had left roughly three-quarters of Haitians living on two or less dollars a day, with half of those earning under one dollar. As a result, 58 percent are undernourished and life expectancy is roughly 52 years. Adult literacy is 56 percent.
Some 75 percent of the people still live and work in rural areas, but agriculture accounts for only 28 percent of Haiti’s economic output. Seeking a livelihood, many rural residents have migrated to bidonvilles, the slums that skirt Port-au-Prince, where jobs, drinkable water and basic services are rare.
To respond to such a devastating geological and social blitzkrieg, a sustained Marshall Plan-like effort is clearly required of the world. And much of the initial response was generous. At a March conference in New York, international donors pledged $5.3 billion for the first year and a half, and more than $9 billion over five years. So far, though, only about 10 percent of the promised funds have actually been disbursed. In the U.S., enabling legislation for most of the aid is stalled in the Senate.
In Haiti, however, competing visions of how the aid will be used have intensified a long-running debate over what development should mean.
The initial United Nations plan envisions primarily the same model that had long been imposed on Haiti by international financial institutions and had failed before: industrial agriculture for export and offshore assembly manufacturing competing on the basis of low wages.
Many progressive Haitians and popular organizations say Haiti shouldn’t be re-built in the sense of restoring the previous dysfunctional government and economy – instead, they say, it needs to be built up from the grassroots for the first time to meet the needs of all its people and encourage more just and durable development.
Haiti’s large and sophisticated peasant and community organizations are also advancing alternative visions. Some advocate “agro-ecology”, which prioritizes sustainable small farming building on the organic farming that many Haitians have always practiced out of necessity.
For the 1.6 million people stuck in temporary camps, immediate prospects are dismal. Less than 2 percent of them have been moved into supposedly safer transitional camps with better drainage and stronger tents. The absence of clean water, sanitation and lighting leave women and children particularly vulnerable to crime, exploitation and disease.
Ominously, when a July 12 wind and rain storm well below hurricane strength struck the transitional resettlement camp at Corail, it destroyed the tents of nearly a quarter of the 7,000 residents. If a hurricane hits Port-au-Prince this season, which lasts until November, it could cause many more deaths and injuries.
Those of us who want to support Haiti need to hold donors accountable for disbursing all the aid they pledged. Beyond that, we should follow the money to make sure that it quickly develops safe homes and communities for those in desperate situations and that it empowers Haitian citizens and organizations to democratically build Haiti back better for all.
_________________________________
Peter Costantini writes for Inter Press Service (www.ipsnews.net) and blogs on Huffington Post at (www.huffingtonpost.com/crossover-dreams).
Note: Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group and Architecture for Humanity need experienced masons, concrete workers and building contractors to do training in Haiti. Contact jpetercostantini@comcast.net.
Back to Home
May in Haiti is the last month of the rainy season before the hurricanes begin to spin up out of the Atlantic. It’s a month when armadas of bloodthirsty mosquitoes patrol the enveloping humidity that thickens in the afternoon into slate-gray clouds and driving downpours. It is not a good month to be living in a tent. But about a million and a half Haitians still are, after losing their homes and often their family members in the January 12 earthquake.
I spent the month of May in Haiti as a volunteer and journalist. I saw some encouraging efforts at the grassroots level, where a strong community spirit has survived. I witnessed inspiring generosity, cooperation and inventiveness on the part of many Haitians in the face of unimaginable destruction.
But after the initial outpouring of emergency assistance, many international initiatives by the United Nations, the United States, and large non-governmental organizations seemed to become fragmented and disjointed as they tried to transition towards reconstruction. As for the Haitian government, perhaps a quarter of its employees were killed or injured, and its equivalent of the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court, and most federal departments were leveled. Much of it remained barely functional and disconnected from the needs of its citizens.
Now, over half a year after Gou-Dou-Gou-Dou (a nickname derived from the sound it made), why are so many people are still displaced and living in makeshift, unsafe camps?
The huge scale of the event itself may explain some of the slowness of the recovery. The death toll –estimated by the government at 220 thousand to 300 thousand in a county of 10 million – is equivalent to that of a major war.
The location of the epicenter just west of Port-au-Prince on the coastal plain meant that the full force struck the most heavily populated area. The nation’s capital, where the public and private sectors were excessively concentrated, was decimated. Total damages amounted to nearly $8 billion, about 20 percent more than Haiti’s yearly gross domestic product.
Everywhere, the prevalent poor quality of construction and the marginalization of poor people into unstable areas contributed heavily to the disaster. Fifty years of kleptocratic dictatorships, usually supported by our government, relieved occasionally by weak democratic governments, usually undermined by our government, left virtually no building regulations or urban planning.
Since long before the quake, decades of high-level looting of the economy had left roughly three-quarters of Haitians living on two or less dollars a day, with half of those earning under one dollar. As a result, 58 percent are undernourished and life expectancy is roughly 52 years. Adult literacy is 56 percent.
Some 75 percent of the people still live and work in rural areas, but agriculture accounts for only 28 percent of Haiti’s economic output. Seeking a livelihood, many rural residents have migrated to bidonvilles, the slums that skirt Port-au-Prince, where jobs, drinkable water and basic services are rare.
To respond to such a devastating geological and social blitzkrieg, a sustained Marshall Plan-like effort is clearly required of the world. And much of the initial response was generous. At a March conference in New York, international donors pledged $5.3 billion for the first year and a half, and more than $9 billion over five years. So far, though, only about 10 percent of the promised funds have actually been disbursed. In the U.S., enabling legislation for most of the aid is stalled in the Senate.
In Haiti, however, competing visions of how the aid will be used have intensified a long-running debate over what development should mean.
The initial United Nations plan envisions primarily the same model that had long been imposed on Haiti by international financial institutions and had failed before: industrial agriculture for export and offshore assembly manufacturing competing on the basis of low wages.
Many progressive Haitians and popular organizations say Haiti shouldn’t be re-built in the sense of restoring the previous dysfunctional government and economy – instead, they say, it needs to be built up from the grassroots for the first time to meet the needs of all its people and encourage more just and durable development.
Haiti’s large and sophisticated peasant and community organizations are also advancing alternative visions. Some advocate “agro-ecology”, which prioritizes sustainable small farming building on the organic farming that many Haitians have always practiced out of necessity.
For the 1.6 million people stuck in temporary camps, immediate prospects are dismal. Less than 2 percent of them have been moved into supposedly safer transitional camps with better drainage and stronger tents. The absence of clean water, sanitation and lighting leave women and children particularly vulnerable to crime, exploitation and disease.
Ominously, when a July 12 wind and rain storm well below hurricane strength struck the transitional resettlement camp at Corail, it destroyed the tents of nearly a quarter of the 7,000 residents. If a hurricane hits Port-au-Prince this season, which lasts until November, it could cause many more deaths and injuries.
Those of us who want to support Haiti need to hold donors accountable for disbursing all the aid they pledged. Beyond that, we should follow the money to make sure that it quickly develops safe homes and communities for those in desperate situations and that it empowers Haitian citizens and organizations to democratically build Haiti back better for all.
_________________________________
Peter Costantini writes for Inter Press Service (www.ipsnews.net) and blogs on Huffington Post at (www.huffingtonpost.com/crossover-dreams).
Note: Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group and Architecture for Humanity need experienced masons, concrete workers and building contractors to do training in Haiti. Contact jpetercostantini@comcast.net.
Back to Home
Gay couples’ marital rights are affirmed
By Mac McIntosh
Two federal court decisions in the last month could lead to the legalization of gay marriage. In Massachusetts Federal District Court, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was declared unconstitutional. In a separate case, California’s Proposition 8 was also declared unconstitutional by the Federal District Court. If these decisions are upheld through the appeals process, gay marriage may at last become legally recognized across the United States.
The repeal of DOMA would probably have a more far-reaching effect. As enacted by the U.S. Congress, DOMA describes marriage as between one woman and one man. Justice Joseph Tauro declared that DOMA violates the equal protection principles of the U.S. Constitution.
This decision is especially important because it concerns federal laws and benefits. Many states have passed legislation that gives domestic partners and married gay couples all the benefits and rights that the state is able to give. But married gay couples do not have the federal rights and protections that straight couples have because of DOMA’s definition of marriage.
For example, gay couples are denied survivor benefits from Social Security or other federal pensions unless they are married as described in DOMA. Married couples also benefit in filing their income taxes, including the advantage of filing joint returns or claiming one partner as a dependent.
A very important effect of eliminating DOMA would be that states would have to recognize all marriages from other states. I could list other federal benefits and protections for married couples. The critical issue is that all married couples, including gay couples, should enjoy exactly the same rights, protections and benefits.
In the second case, Justice Vaughn Walker in California Federal District Court declared California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional because it violates the equal protection principles of the U.S. Constitution. Judge Walker asked for a detailed factual record to establish any public interest in supporting Proposition 8. According to Jennifer Pizer of Lambda Legal, proponents were unable to advance any such public interest.
Judge Walker’s decision held that “the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.”
Justice Walker found the proponents’ arguments so flimsy he ordered the California to reinstate gay marriages effective August 19. When supporters of Proposition 8 appealed his decision, gay marriages in California were put on hold again, pending the outcome of the appeal.
The two decisions are important advances along the road to legalization of gay marriages. Unfortunately, going through the appeals process will take years.
Back to Home
Two federal court decisions in the last month could lead to the legalization of gay marriage. In Massachusetts Federal District Court, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was declared unconstitutional. In a separate case, California’s Proposition 8 was also declared unconstitutional by the Federal District Court. If these decisions are upheld through the appeals process, gay marriage may at last become legally recognized across the United States.
The repeal of DOMA would probably have a more far-reaching effect. As enacted by the U.S. Congress, DOMA describes marriage as between one woman and one man. Justice Joseph Tauro declared that DOMA violates the equal protection principles of the U.S. Constitution.
This decision is especially important because it concerns federal laws and benefits. Many states have passed legislation that gives domestic partners and married gay couples all the benefits and rights that the state is able to give. But married gay couples do not have the federal rights and protections that straight couples have because of DOMA’s definition of marriage.
For example, gay couples are denied survivor benefits from Social Security or other federal pensions unless they are married as described in DOMA. Married couples also benefit in filing their income taxes, including the advantage of filing joint returns or claiming one partner as a dependent.
A very important effect of eliminating DOMA would be that states would have to recognize all marriages from other states. I could list other federal benefits and protections for married couples. The critical issue is that all married couples, including gay couples, should enjoy exactly the same rights, protections and benefits.
In the second case, Justice Vaughn Walker in California Federal District Court declared California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional because it violates the equal protection principles of the U.S. Constitution. Judge Walker asked for a detailed factual record to establish any public interest in supporting Proposition 8. According to Jennifer Pizer of Lambda Legal, proponents were unable to advance any such public interest.
Judge Walker’s decision held that “the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.”
Justice Walker found the proponents’ arguments so flimsy he ordered the California to reinstate gay marriages effective August 19. When supporters of Proposition 8 appealed his decision, gay marriages in California were put on hold again, pending the outcome of the appeal.
The two decisions are important advances along the road to legalization of gay marriages. Unfortunately, going through the appeals process will take years.
Back to Home
Alan Simpson must go
Alan Simpson, the co-chair who should never have been appointed to the deficit reduction commission that should never have been established, should resign now or be fired forthwith by the President who appointed him.
Simpson has written his own ticket:
By calling Social Security “a milk cow with 310 million tits.”
By insulting a distinguished woman, Executive Director Ashley Carson of OWL, the Older Women’s League, accusing her of “babbling into the vapors” and inviting her to “call when you get honest work.”
By calling Americans who rely on Social Security “greedy geezers” and “lesser people.”
If there is a “lesser person” in America, it is Alan Simpson.
Ashley Carson speaks for us when she says: “This kind of blatant disrespect for women, and for the social fabric of our country, has no place in a serious discussion about the deficit.”
And OWL speaks for us when it declares:
“Mr. Simpson’s fifteen minutes of sexism and degradation are over. Now is the time for serious people to have serious conversations about how to move our nation forward, protecting the men and women who have worked their whole lives to make this country great.”
Simpson should resign or be fired forthwith by the President. He should also be publicly repudiated by Commission Co-Chair Erskine Bowles and by the full commission.
Back to Home
Simpson has written his own ticket:
By calling Social Security “a milk cow with 310 million tits.”
By insulting a distinguished woman, Executive Director Ashley Carson of OWL, the Older Women’s League, accusing her of “babbling into the vapors” and inviting her to “call when you get honest work.”
By calling Americans who rely on Social Security “greedy geezers” and “lesser people.”
If there is a “lesser person” in America, it is Alan Simpson.
Ashley Carson speaks for us when she says: “This kind of blatant disrespect for women, and for the social fabric of our country, has no place in a serious discussion about the deficit.”
And OWL speaks for us when it declares:
“Mr. Simpson’s fifteen minutes of sexism and degradation are over. Now is the time for serious people to have serious conversations about how to move our nation forward, protecting the men and women who have worked their whole lives to make this country great.”
Simpson should resign or be fired forthwith by the President. He should also be publicly repudiated by Commission Co-Chair Erskine Bowles and by the full commission.
Back to Home
We salute Real Change, a voice for all of us
Real Change is a real friend to the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans. The hard-hitting Seattle-based weekly gives the area’s homeless thousands a voice, even as it crusades for a broad progressive agenda that includes the interests of retired working people.
In recent issues, Real Change has featured articles warning of the looming attack on Social Security, including an interview with PSARA President Robby Stern and a feature story under the joint by-line of Retiree Advocate Editor Will Parry and freelance writer Thalia Syracopoulos.
Earlier, a 90th birthday profile of Parry was given prominent play in its pages.
Homeless men and women earn a modest income selling Real Change for a dollar a copy in front of stores and on street corners throughout Seattle. In doing so, they educate the paper’s readers on social, economic and political issues rarely covered in the major media.
Real Change: Week after week, it sows the seeds of change – real change.
Back to Home
In recent issues, Real Change has featured articles warning of the looming attack on Social Security, including an interview with PSARA President Robby Stern and a feature story under the joint by-line of Retiree Advocate Editor Will Parry and freelance writer Thalia Syracopoulos.
Earlier, a 90th birthday profile of Parry was given prominent play in its pages.
Homeless men and women earn a modest income selling Real Change for a dollar a copy in front of stores and on street corners throughout Seattle. In doing so, they educate the paper’s readers on social, economic and political issues rarely covered in the major media.
Real Change: Week after week, it sows the seeds of change – real change.
Back to Home
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)