AMERICAN FORUM

By Linda Meric

A year ago, dozens of women’s and civil rights activists gathered at the White House to watch President Barack Obama sign his first piece of legislation into law: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act.

The signing was a triumphant moment – especially with its namesake, Lilly Ledbetter, standing with us. The bill restored the ability of workers to seek redress for ongoing pay discrimination and its importance to ending inequity cannot be overstated.

But another year has passed, and pay discrimination persists.

Listen to Camille Bright-Smith's tribute to Lilly Ledbetter!

Click here for the full post



AMERICAN FORUM

By Kathy Miller

During this month’s State Board of Education debate concerning new social studies curriculum standards, sound scholarship once again took a back seat to politics and personal agendas.

At one point, for example, board members voted to delete Dolores Huerta from a standard because the co-founder of United Farm Workers of America is a socialist. The same board members apparently didn’t realize that Helen Keller, who remains in the same standard, was also a staunch socialist. Nor did they seem to know that W.E.B. Du Bois, who helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), had joined the Communist Party the last year of his life. The board had added Du Bois to the standards the day before.

Of course, social studies students should learn about contributions of all three of these important Americans, regardless of their political beliefs. But board members clearly looked misinformed as, during just two days, they made wholesale revisions to standards that teachers, scholars and other community members had spent nearly a year debating and drafting. And many of the changes were based simply on board members’ personal beliefs or knowledge, however limited.
Click here for full post










AMERICAN FORUM

By Barbara Powell

When the Founding Fathers wrote the First Amendment protecting free speech, they were fresh from the Revolutionary War, during which the vast wealth and power of England were overcome by 13 small colonies intent on governing themselves. The First Amendment was meant to protect a citizen’s right to dissent and to ensure that the minority is protected from the tyranny of the majority.

In the stunning Jan. 21 Citizens United ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that, contrary to years of state and federal law stretching back to Teddy Roosevelt’s crusades against the power of money in politics, corporations should be able to spend as much as they want to support or oppose candidates in national elections.

Here in Mississippi, just as in other states, we have seen first hand the corrupting influences of money in political campaigns. An egregious example was the 2000 Mississippi Supreme Court race in which Lenora Prather, a sitting justice, objected to attack campaign ads run supposedly in her behalf. She couldn't get the ads stopped, and even the secretary of state was unable to help. Prather lost the race. This, of course, is nothing in comparison to what Big Tobacco, Wall Street and the behemoths of the banking industry can do now that campaign spending regulations have been dismantled by the high court.

Click here for full post













AMERICAN FORUM


By Linda Meric

Last year, in our tough economy, many of us asked for necessities and basics as holiday gifts. Among the gifts that would mean the most to families is the passage of the Healthy Families Act, introduced by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, along with Representative Rosa DeLauro, in the 111th Congress this past May.

It wasn’t the first time that federal legislation guaranteeing workers a minimum number of paid sick days had been introduced. Previous efforts were unsuccessful. But now, the Healthy Families Act has 145 Congressional co-sponsors and has been endorsed by the Obama administration.

So health professionals, civil rights groups, labor unions, educators, faith organizations, elected officials and women’s groups like 9to5 are optimistic about its passage.

Click here for full post


AMERICAN FORUM
By Prakash Laufer

To add insult to injury to working America, in came the earnings reports from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. At these mega banks, balance sheets are healthy, profits are up and bonuses for top executives are bigger than ever. JPMorgan Chase just reported $11.7 billion in profits and $26.9 billion in compensation and bonuses. Goldman Sachs made a record-high profit of $13.4 billion in 2009 and is slated to hand out $16.2 billion in compensation and bonuses.

These are some of the same institutions whose predatory and unethically risky actions brought our economy to its knees. But, thanks to billions of dollars in government resuscitation, they seem to be recovering nicely from their near-death experiences.

The “earnings report” for the rest of the U.S., however, includes – drum roll, please – higher unemployment and continued foreclosures, with no relief in sight. It sounds like a raw deal because it is. Big banks and Wall Street financiers ignited the foreclosure crisis, setting our economy ablaze, resulting in the loss of millions of homes and jobs.


Click here for full post


GEORGIA FORUM


By Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery

Somehow the forces of justice stand on the side of the universe, so that you can't ultimately trample over God's children and profit by it. - Martin Luther King, Jr., "The Birth of a New Nation," April 7, 1957

As a "chaplain of the common good", I am persuaded that Martin would join in the cry against environmental injustice wherever it seeks to pursue its assault against God's children.

I believe that he would be crying out against any coal-fired plants, rising anew or already operating because they spew dangerous pollutants into the air and drain our precious waters. I believe he would be a mighty force in convincing us that coal plants are no longer needed in our beloved Georgia - or anywhere else. He would preach that coal plants today represent injustice; that they are trampling over God's children.

Click here to view full-op


TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Tony Garr

We are facing tough times. We’ve faced them before and pulled our neighbors and ourselves through by making people a priority. This is what the state needs to do now.

More than a quarter million Tennesseans have lost their jobs and their health insurance since the recession began. It is estimated that more than a million Tennesseans are uninsured and have few options for changing that in the near future. Yet, the state seems determined to continue to whittle away at public health programs that combine to serve as the medical safety net. It’s time to get our priorities straight.

Times are tough in each state, yet Tennessee is the only state to cease enrollment in the Children Health Insurance Program, which we call CoverKids and is viewed as a good program by policymakers from both the Right and Left. Forty-nine other governors understand that this is not time to be blocking health care coverage for children of low- to moderate-income working families. Tens of thousands of Tennessee children are eligible for CoverKids and Tennessee gets three federal dollars for each state dollar it invests in the program, so closing it to enrollment is simply penny-wise, pound foolish.

Click here to view full-op


TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM


By Chris Ford

As we begin a new decade, Tennesseans look to elected leadership that will both understand and honor two facts that should appear self evident: Tennessee is both a land mass in which we are blessed and privileged to live and a unique and diverse people who call the land within these boundaries home.

Our state is home to many of the most biologically diverse and beautiful pieces of the planet anywhere on Earth. From the mountains of the east to the mighty Mississippi in the west, we both cherish and rely upon the beauty and bounty of these resources for economic stability, healthy living and a way of life that is unique and worth protecting.

In order to maintain this sustainable balance, we must both rely upon and call upon our elected leadership to begin to protect these resources in a sustainable manner that does not divorce strong economic development from strong environmental protection. Weakened environmental safeguards and shortsighted economic gains will seek to sell our birthright for the proverbial bowl of stew if we do not advocate a sustainable future for those futures of generations that inherit our state.

Click here to view full-op


AMERICAN FORUM

By Linda Gunter

It is perhaps no accident that the nuclear power industry chose a French word – “renaissance” – to promote its alleged comeback. Attached to this misapplied moniker are a series of fallacious suggestions that nuclear energy is “clean,” “safe” and even “renewable.” And, in keeping with its French flavor, a key argument in the industry’s propaganda arsenal is that the U.S. should follow the “successful” example of the French nuclear program.

France serves as a convenient sound bite for politicians and others advocating a nuclear revival (hypocritically evoked by many of the same people who insisted on “Freedom Fries” at the start of the Iraq War). A failure to challenge this facile falsehood has cemented the myth of a French nuclear Utopia in the minds of the public. It masks a very different reality.

France gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. However, this alone does not constitute a success. Rather, it results in the production of an enormous amount of radioactive waste that, as is the case for all other nuclear countries, has nowhere to go.

Click here to view full-op

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Ongoing Drive for Justice


MISSISSIPPI FORUM

By Rev. Jeremy Tobin

History often repeats itself. Contemporary movements for immigration reform have been driven by a push-back for human rights, fairness and the constitutional protections afforded everyone in America. But once again this nation is seeing a growing anti-immigrant movement fueled by fear, racism and a desire to have the cheapest workforce for maximum profits.

The backlash against immigrants and immigration reform has played into the hands of corporate interests who cut overhead by flouting workplace safety rules because workers are afraid to complain. Organizations that started out anti-civil rights have reinvented themselves to be anti-immigrant rights, and too often the media act as their propaganda wing. When the Republican Party consistently supports anti-immigration legislation it is allying itself with some very unsavory characters.

In Mississippi, the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA) has successfully killed about every piece of anti-immigrant legislation proposed in the statehouse for the last 10 years. In 2008, however, by agreement of the leadership in the Legislature and the governor’s office, SB 2988, a draconian bill to oppress immigrants, passed. The law makes it a felony for an undocumented immigrant to work in Mississippi. Punishment can range from one to five years in prison, with hefty fines of $1,000 to $10,000. SB 2988 also sanctions employers. The sanctions amount to fines, and are often waived if the employer cooperates with ICE. This opens the door for employers to discriminate against Latinos and others. To date, no one has been charged under SB 2988. Click here to read full op-ed

Thursday, January 7, 2010

What Workers Want: Paid Sick Days


By Linda Meric

Last year, in our tough economy, many of us asked for necessities and basics as holiday gifts. Among the gifts that would mean the most to families is the passage of the Healthy Families Act, introduced by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, along with Representative Rosa DeLauro, in the 111th Congress this past May.

It wasn’t the first time that federal legislation guaranteeing workers a minimum number of paid sick days had been introduced. Previous efforts were unsuccessful. But now, the Healthy Families Act has 145 Congressional co-sponsors and has been endorsed by the Obama administration.

So health professionals, civil rights groups, labor unions, educators, faith organizations, elected officials and women’s groups like 9to5 are optimistic about its passage.

Click here to view full op-ed