January, 15 2009, 10:16am EDT
The National Coalition for the Homeless Asks Obama to Work for Minimum Wage
WASHINGTON
Back on July 23, 2007, in the "CNN-You Tube Debate" for the 2008 Democratic primary, Pennsylvania citizens Cecilia Smith and Ashanti Wilkins asked the candidates if they would be willing to work for minimum wage if elected President.
Nearly all of the candidates, with Senator Christopher Dodd being the only exception, answered in the affirmative. Then-Senator Barack Obama, soon to take over as the nation's 44th President, responded, "We can afford to work for minimum wage because most folks on this stage have a lot of money.
"We don't have Mitt Romney money," Obama continued, "but we could afford to do it for a few years."
The National Coalition for the Homeless, the nation's oldest national homeless advocacy organization, recently wrote a letter to President-elect Barack Obama encouraging him to remain true to these words. While the President of the United States traditionally earns a salary of $400,000 per year, NCH asks Obama to donate $386, 376 earnings (past his 40 hour per week 52 week annual minimum wage income) to organizations that help bring an end to homelessness, reduce the number of Americans living in poverty, or provide health care to the nation's most vulnerable populations.
The current federal minimum wage is $6.55 per hour, a rate insufficient to ensure that working individuals and families can afford decent housing. Meanwhile, the foreclosure crisis continues to increase the number of homeless and precariously-housed Americans, and recent estimates indicate that the unemployment rate will reach 9% by 2010.
Historically, Obama would not be the first American president to turn down his salary. George Washington donated his earnings back to the state, believing that helping the public was payment enough. John F. Kennedy, too, turned down his salary, choosing instead to donate the money to private organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America and the United Negro College Fund.
NCH believes that such an act of philanthropy by Barack Obama would be consistent with his message of change, and would inspire many other Americans to act selflessly and in the name of the public good. The current economic crisis has highlighted and exacerbated the challenges faced by low-income Americans, and this action by the president would be a fitting expression of solidarity and concern.
NCH, founded in 1982, is a national network of people who are currently experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, activists, advocates, service providers, and others committed to a single mission: to end homelessness. Toward this end, NCH engages in public education, policy advocacy, and grassroots organizing.
National Coalition for the Homeless is a national network of people who are currently experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, activists and advocates, community-based and faith-based service providers, and others committed to a single mission: To end and prevent homelessness while ensuring the immediate needs of those experiencing homelessness are met and their civil rights are respected and protected. We envision a world where everyone has a safe, decent, accessible and affordable home.
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Trump Envoy Ripped for Claim That 'Benevolent Monarchy' Is Best for Middle East
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Tom Barrack, President Donald Trump's ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, faced backlash Monday after arguing that US-backed Middle Eastern monarchies—most of which are ruled by prolific human rights violators—offer the best model for governing nations in the tumultuous region.
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“Every time we intervene, whether it's in Libya, Iraq, or any of the other places where we've tried to create a colonized mandate, it has not been successful," he said. "We end up with paralysis."
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Addressing Syria's yearlong transition from longtime authoritarian rule under the Assad dynasty, Barrack added that the Syrian people must determine their political path "without going in with Western expectations of, 'We want a democracy in 12 months.'"
While Barrack's rejection of efforts to force democracy upon Middle Eastern countries drew praise, some Israelis bristled at what they claimed is the suggestion that their country is not a democracy, while other observers pushed back on the envoy's assertion regarding regional monarchies and use of what one Palestinian digital media platform called "classic colonial rhetoric."
"The reality on the ground is the opposite of his claim: It is the absence of democratic rights, accountable governance, and inclusive federal structures that has fueled Syria’s fragmentation, empowered militias, and pushed communities toward separatism," Syrian Kurdish journalist Ronahi Hasan said on social media.
Ronahi continued:
When an American official undermines the universal principles the US itself claims to defend, it sends a dangerous message: that Syrians do not deserve the same political rights as others and that minority communities should simply accept centralized authoritarianism as their fate.
Syria doesn’t need another foreign lecture romanticizing monarchy. It needs a political system that protects all its people—Druze, Alawite, Kurdish, Sunni, Christian—through genuine power-sharing, decentralization, and guarantees of equality.
"Federalism is not the problem," Ronahi added. "The problem is denying Syrians the right to shape their own future."
Abdirizak Mohamed, a lawmaker and former foreign minister in Somalia, said on social media: "Tom Barrack made public what is already known. The US labels dictators and monarchies benevolent when their behavior is aligned with US interest, and when their behavior isn’t aligned with US interest they are despots. Labeling dictators benevolent is [an] oxymoron that shows US hypocrisy."
For nearly a century, the US has supported Middle Eastern monarchies as successive administrations sought to gain and maintain control over the region's vast oil resources. This has often meant propping up monarchs in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran (before 1979), the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar—regardless of their often horrific human rights records.
While nothing new in terms of US policy and practice in the region, the Trump administration's recently published National Security Strategy prioritizes "flexible realism" over human rights and democracy and uses more candid language than past presidents have in explaining Washington's support for repressive monarchs.
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