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Listen Up! America’s Families Demand Action
In McAllen, Texas, Martha Sanchez doesn't dare drink the water that runs out of the tap, for fear of getting sick. In Augusta, Georgia, Sunny Johnson, a single mother of two, thinks that working full-time as a certified nursing assistant should earn her a wage that puts her above the poverty line. (It doesn't.) In San Francisco, California, Cathleen Muhammad wants justice and good health for her children, who appear to have been made seriously ill by exposure to asbestos from a nearby construction site.
These three stories exemplify the different struggles families are facing in America today; meanwhile we have 37 million people -- 7.7 million families -- living in poverty.
As the country prepares to elect the next president of the United States pundits and politicians will certainly talk about 'working families' -- 'middle class families' -- and 'poor families.' Isn't it time we address the needs of America's families collectively?
All families despite their economic status -- be they two parent or single parent families -- share the same goal: to provide for their families and ensure a bright future for their children. America's families rise and fall together.
Last year, Marguerite Casey Foundation launched the Equal Voice for America's Families campaign -- a campaign designed to hear directly from families as to the challenges they face and to change how we as a country address the social and economic needs of our families.
Between January and June 2008, approximately 12,000 families from diverse backgrounds, often with children in tow, gave up their weekends and evenings to participate in 65 Equal Voice town hall meetings held across America. At each town hall meeting, they were inspired, engaged and motivated. Families conveyed not only a sense of urgency but also their desire to be directly involved in the creation of policies that affect them -- to be drivers of change.
They tied family stability to living-wage jobs, affordable housing, quality healthcare and education. They let us know that their well-being is not tied to a single issue and that piecemeal solutions have failed to address the complexities of their lives. The testimonies of families at the town hall meetings have been synthesized into a cohesive National Family Platform.
On September 6, 2008, at a multicity convention of 15,000 families in Birmingham, Chicago and Los Angeles, we will release the Equal Voice for America's Families National Family Platform and call on the country, lawmakers and the next president of the United States to adopt a comprehensive approach to addressing the issues and challenges that families face.
Families are the backbone of our nation and no family should live in poverty. Everyone who works hard should be able to advance and participate fully in the economic, political, and cultural life of the nation. To do so America's families need income equality and the opportunity to build wealth to insure upward mobility and equal outcomes.
We can no longer ignore that single issued policy solutions are failing families. The needs of families must be addressed universally.
The strength of our country depends on the strength of our families. It's time we listened to the voices of America's families.
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12 Comments so far
Show AllThere are many good points in this article. No American, let alone an American family should have to live in poverty or subsist on slave wages.
Americans as well as American families should indeed be in this together. There is no excuse to allow these three women or anyone like them to experience these problems in our country.
Its time to stop the nonsense and get our house back in order. Bad drinking water for a family while a hedge fund manager takes home 7 billion dollarts and pays 15% in taxes? This is nonsense. Time to stop the lies and start using the truth to fix these problems.
Agreed with all especially "Americans as well as American families should indeed be in this together".
Joe
I will say this again (condensed) ... the CEOs should be forced to live next to their facilities. Let them drink the water that they so greedily pollute.
Better yet, force their kids and parents to live there.
Same goes for smoking and junk "food" ... make the CEO's kids and parents smoke and eat this crap.
Why? Who makes you, or me, eat and smoke the crap?
Poverty and Education.
Of course, last night at the DNC, Obama fulfilled all his talk of 'hope' and 'change' by laying out a series of detailed proposals on exactly what he'd do to make life better for people like this.
Ooops, sorry, I was thinking of the coal and nuclear power industries. They got the proposals for programs for more money to come their way. These people got some fancy sounding rhetoric.
- Nothing from Obama and the Democrats on a living wage.
- Nothing from Obama and the Democrats on affordable housing.
- A health care proposal designed to insure insurance and HMO profits.
- There were some vague promises to put more money into education. Coupled with a Reagan-style attack on teachers demanding 'accountability'.
But, these families did get a Reagan-style lecture from Obama on 'responsibility'. I'm sure that helped them immensely.
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"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
I agree paying 15% of your income in federal taxation is an outrage - its way to confiscatory.
Besides, where in the article was income and tax brackets mentioned? Did you even read the article?
Ever seen an example before? And if you think 15% is confiscatory, you would believe that Corporastions have no civic duty or responsibilities and that every person should be on their own in the global economy? Correct?
Or did I misunderstand?
There does not appear to be a progressive movement sufficiently large enough to drive change. No other movement seems to exist either. So where is the change going to come from? Not Washington!
This spark of hope for change may be just false hope absent adequate support. People are believing that just their vote will make the difference. It will not.
These are different waters we are sailing. People today do not respond to crisis as past generations have. They appear to be incapable of doing so. Perhaps they are fatalists.
Even on a selfish level we need nursing assistants, teachers, factory and service workers of all kinds. If we do not include their needs in our planning, then we are harming ourselves. We will become like a third world country where anyone with a skill will leave and get employment elsewhere.
Workers need a living wage and some affordable housing. I believe that those who get permits and tax breaks to build real estate should be required to include low and middle income units. The minimum wage should reflect the reality of 2008 prices.
In New York they tried to lower the wage for beginning police officers $28,000 (before taxes and not including the uniforms and supplies they had to purchase). Since average apartment rental in New York is $2,000 per month, after taxes this salary does not even pay the rent. They were unable to recruit anyone so had to raise the starting wage to $40,000. Obviously police are more important to our mayor than say nurses aides or day care workers, so they had leverage to require a reasonable salary. But if you don't push back, those in charge will reduce salary, cut benefits, double up jobs as long as you let them.
Also contrary to some popular opinion many poor people are environmentally conscious. They are plagued by asthma since dumps, incinerators, coal burning plants and other forms of pollution are placed disproportionately in their neighborhoods. Buying bottled water is more of a financial burden for the poor than for others. They do not go to their country houses weekends and summers, so lack of fresh air and free green space in cities has an important impact on them. In many places the poor live on low land and cannot afford to move out of flood areas, so global warming will be the worst on them for many reasons.
Poverty is sad and tragic anywhere. But as mentioned we are a rich and beautiful country, have resources and money. The resources are too often carelessly developed, the rewards are unevenly distributed to a point of absurdity, the money is wastefully spent.
Joe