FORUM
Black women's group
sends open letter to
all presidential candidates
Clinton
Trump
Johnson
Stein
wmm*
In an effort to hear
what issues Black women
are most concerned with
this election cycle, Higher
Heights asked Black
women across the country
(at events and online),
what is the most important
issue facing Black women
and their families. 49 per
cent stated that economic
security was the most
pressing issue.
No wonder this was the
top response, considering
Black women are paid just
60 cents to every dollar
paid to a White man. In
addition to economic secu
rity, the other top issues
included education equity
(19 percent ), police vio
lence (16 percent) and high
quality affordable housing
(14 percent).
According to 2013 U.S.
Census data, 71 percent of
Black women are in the
labor force (69 percent for
women overall). Black
women are more likely
than women nationally to
work in the lowest-paying
occupations (like service,
health care support, and
education) and less likely
to work in the higher-pay
ing engineering and tech
Jields or managerial posi
tions. The U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics shows that
the percentage of Black
women who are full-time
minimum-wage workers is
higher than that of any
other racial group.
The late
Congresswoman Barbara
Jordan once said, "What
the people want is very
simple - they want an
America as good as its
promise." Higher Heights
is asking you, as a candi
date for the highest execu
tive job in the country, to
pledge to make good on
this promise by putting for
ward a comprehensive eco
nomic security strategy
and plan at the top of your
list of priority issues on
which you will focus in the
first 100 days of your
administration, should you
be elected.
Higher Heights is also
asking Black women
across the country to raise
their voices on this issue at
the ballot box this
November. We know that
when you fire up a Black
woman, she does not go to
the polls alone, she brings
her house, her block, her
church, her sorority and
her water cooler. For us,
this election is about har
nessing the power of Black
women's votes to ensure
that you, as candidates,
feel compelled to address
and support building eco
nomically stable communi
ties and the other issues of
the greatest importance to
Black women.
It really isn't that com
plicated. Black women are
voting this November and
economic security is the
No. 1 issue they care
about. The next President
of the United States will
take office at a time of
great opportunity for our
nation. In the final weeks
of the election, we encour
age you to listen and
devise a course of action to
address the concerns of
this very important con
stituency.
Sincerely,
Higher Heights
Higher Heights
(www.higherheights
foramerica.org) is the only
national organization
exclusively dedicated to
harnessing, organizing and
mobilizing Black women's
political power making
sure they have the tools to
effectively engage, advo
cate and lead. Higher
Heights for America is a
national 501(cX4) organi
zation, and its sister organ
ization Higher Heights
Leadership Fund, is a
501(cX3) organization.
Republicans are willing
to dance with the devil
to win the white house
Julianne
Malvearz
Guest
Columnist
House
Majority
Leader Paul
Ryan (R-Wis.)
is anticipating
a Trump win
in Noyember.
Or, at least, he
is preparing
? fhr it Hp cave
that if Republicans hold sway in the White
House, the House and the Senate, he plans
to use budget reconciliation to repeal the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act (also known as Obamacare) and give
tax cuts to the wealthy.
Ryan says he will not even attempt any
bipartisanship, as he shoves his regressive
agenda down the throats of our people.
Instead, he says that he can make it work,
especially if hie has a Trump White House.
This is, perhaps, why Republicans
who appear to have at least a little bit of
good sense are going for Trump's non
sense. They know that Mr. Trump, with
his head in the cloud and his rhetoric in the
gutter, will let them get away with any
thing they want.
He will agree to their tax cuts, because
they coincide with his agenda to reward
the wealthy. Trump will go along with cuts
to Obamacare, because he wasn't loving it
in the first place. He will let conservative
Republicans hold sway, especially if they
reward him with their votes in November.
Paul Ryan calls his plan a "Better
Way" policy agenda. It is an aggressive
move that assumes that Republicans will
control both the House and the Senate.
They might not - if people vote, and vote
down ballot, there is a real chance that
Democrats can control the Senate. The
House is a much bigger challenge, and it is
likely that Republicans will continue to
hold sway in the house. But there are too
many folks who say they won't vote, and
their votes could make a real difference. In
Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida
(among other states), those who choose to
refrain from voting are really voting for a
Trump-Ryan agenda.
The attack on Obamacare is especially
problematic. While the President's
Affordable Care Act is clearly flawed, it
expanded health insurance for more than
20 million people. It isn't the desired sin
gle payer care, but it provides opportunity
and takes the first step in expanding the
social contract since the Roosevelt years.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) can be
used as a foundation to expand health
insurance coverage and, in my mind, get
us closer to the ultimate goal of a single
payer system. But legislators rejected the
single-payer plan that Sen. Edward
Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) proposed for
decades. The Affordable Care Act is a
compromise. We need to move forward in
improving the ACA, not backward in
repealing it. Trump and Ryan would
restrict access to health care instead of
expanding it.
According to Politico, Paul Ryan
thinks that a divided government con
tributes to gridlock. He'd be happy if the
presidency, the House of Representatives,
and the United States Senate were all con
trolled by Republicans. What about the
rest of us? Does he see our voice in this?
Not according to Ryan. He tells Politico
"I'm tired of divided government. It does
n't work very well." He seems to ignore
the fact that there are legitimate differ
ences among legislators and that these dif
ferences need to be worked out. He is
uninterested in compromise. Instead, he
wants to shove his position down the
throats of other people.
Paul Ryan has explicitly called Donald
Trump a racist. He has eschewed many of
his policies. Other Republicans have been
openly repulsed by their bellicose stan
dard bearer and disturbed by his racist
bluster and his wacky rhetoric, but they
have thrown their discernment to the
wind, embracing the man they have
described as a rabid racist, because they
prefer him to an embrace of integrity.
As we count down to the Nov. 8 elec
tion. people are coming forward to say
they are either undecided, conflicted, or
would rather vote for a third party candi
date, because they can't tolerate Clinton
Trump. The bottom line is that either
Illustration by Ron Rogers for The Chronicke
Clinton or Trump will win the Presidency.
Really. Those Republicans who support
Trump are openly supporting evil. TTiey
will dance with the devil to their detri
ment.
African-Americans, especially, need to
look at what Trump has promised. He has
promised discrimination. He has
described our lives as hell. He has been a
bully and a documented discriminator. He
has been too much. He should be enough
to repel us. Paul Ryan has called Trump a
racist, but he is willing to dance with the
devil because it serves his purposes. What
about you?
Julianne Malveaux is an NNPA
Newswire Columnist and an author and
economist. Her latest book "Are We Better
Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy" is
available via www.amazon.com for book
ing, wholesale inquiries or for more info
visitwww.juliannemal veaux .com
Our voices will be heard in November
James B.
Ewers Jr.
Guest
Columnist
America is the home of
the brave and the land of
the free. One of the greatest
privileges that we have is
our right to vote.
Because we are in this
great country called
America, we probably take
? a lot for granted. Don't let
voting be one of them.
We are now experiencing tremendous unrest in our
society. Our political environment is in a constant state of
flux. Initiatives that we thought could never become
enforceable are now laws. Take HB 2, for example, in
North Carolina.
We can now discriminate in 2016 no less on the basis
of who is going to use the restroom. Some estimate the
controversial law will cost the state of North Carolina mil
lions of dollars. Recently, the state dropped a lawsuit
against the Federal government. The reason was that it
would be too costly to litigate.
Don't be fooled and don't be hoodwinked when you
hear a candidate empty on policy knowledge but full of
venom and vitriol start to spout off giving you misinfor
mation.
? ??
Donald Trump has taken narcissism to another level. I
have never heard nor seen any person so full of himself.
He is an embarrassment to his supporters yet he continues
to plow through his own rubbish.
Most of us are rational and thoughtful people who are
not swayed by chaos and confusion. However, we cannot
think that this wolf won't bite, because he will.
Each time I listen to Trump I am even more convinced
that he belongs in his house and not the White House.
My college tennis coach at Johnson C Smith
University in Charlotte, Mr. Joseph L. Alston, always told
our team that you have to kill a gnat with a sledgehammer.
In other words, we must beat our opponents convincingly
and give them no hope of winning.
The same phrase applies to defeating Trump. We must
show up at the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in record
numbers. Our sledgehammers will be our power to cast
our ballot against him.
We must suffocate him with our voting power so as to
give him no chance of winning.
We cannot stay at home on Election Day. Our neigh
bors and friends won't vote for us. We must vote for our
selves.
It is my opinion this election will go down in the his
tory books. Yes, electing^Barack Obama president of the
United States of America in 2008 was historic but we can
not pass on this election.
When elected, Hillary Clinton will become the first
woman in history to be President of the United States ol
America.
Do you want a chance for hope and opportunity? II
you do like I do, don't squander this opportunity to vote.
Wherever we live, work and worship, we must sound
the clarion call to get out to vote. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. said, "In the end, we will remember not the words ol
our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
There is simply too much riding on this election. Think
about those who have shed blood and lost lives in ordei
that we could have the right to vote. When we vote
change happens. Don't be silent at the polls.
Let us exercise our right to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 8
2016.
James B. Ewers Jr. EdD. is a former tennis champion
at Atkins High School in Winston-Salem and played col
lege tennis at Johnson C. Smith University, where he was
all-conference for four years. He a retired college admin
istrator. He can be reached at ewers.jr56@yahoo.com.
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