The Impact of Black Women in the Upcoming Election

Who do you want representing you? The Impact of Black Women in the Upcoming Election

On July 15 of this year, the US Census Bureau released its latest information on voting patterns of US citizens which clearly demonstrated the growing political status of unmarried women. Guess what, that data includes us. Prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 we were practically dis-allowed to vote.
Yes, our votes count ! Women of color. We count, we matter and we tip the scale in almost every measurable way. If you don't read for yourself, then you don't know. We are the highest volume of the population that is: Educated-Driven-Productive-Nurturing.  Don’t forget that. Even in the tough times. You matter most.

In Palm Beach County alone, where I live, there are over 65,000 black female voters that should be courted in every election seeing that our vote is consistent yet all too often, taken for granted.
Ladies, please take note!  Mainstream media will almost always paint a very different picture. So don’t believe the hype that you read, hear and most unfortunately sometimes believe. Ever heard the phrase the ball is in your court? Well, guess what it most emphatically is. You really are in a position to transform the world. Yes, each one of us is capable of being a transformer. We are mother earth and yet, we don't have an economic agenda that should be continuously monitored and balanced like our check books and should always reflect the climate in which we live.

Florida legislatures have taken steps to allow voters to vote with ease and convenience. Use the
You must link to or be a mentor for a cause or a purpose to get up every day. Be it related to your family, an election, a calling, a cause or a purpose. It's really quite the same.  I always say, we all commit to our passions. We've been led to believe our vote doesn't count, but whatever it is that get's you up each day can't be very reticent because you continue to do it. Include voting in your repertoire.

I remember a very dynamic African American woman, politician and more importantly humanitarian Barbara Jordan US Representative Texas, said, equality for all and privilege for none. We are obligated to make this statement a reality. Do not accept what the privileged sell you as your agenda. Make your own.

If you don't get involved in the affairs of your community then don't complain, if you don't vote then you concede to whatever the lawmakers (ummm that agenda is driven by the privileged) design for your life. You were created, born and designed for greatness. We must ban together to make something happen with our vote as our weapon as the title of this blog implies…black women in the upcoming election…have the power.

The impact we have is far greater than we credit ourselves.
Nothing minor about me, my vote or the impact I have - politically, socially and economically!
We are largely to blame for our underrating. It took me a while to realize that unfortunately, SOME whites have a greater infinity for the prosecution of a poached lion in Africa they have never seen, than for blacks lives such as Sandra Bland and many other women slain by officers of the law. It really pulled at my heart strings to watch the dash-cam of the officer responsible for the ending of her life. Do you really know what the phrase "Black Power" means? Baby you got it. Please please please use it.

Do as I say AND as I do. So, first and foremost, register to vote and then vote in every election. Damn it. It’s our obligation. Vote early so you can be free on Election Day to support the efforts of your favored candidates by working the polls, making calls and driving others to the polls. You really have the power to influence a victory.

Engage everyone in your circle of influence (yes you do have one – it’s probably bigger than you think). This includes family, friends, co-workers, past loves, especially your children, because if they grow up committing this action repeatedly, it will be their pleasure to honor their mother/parents while exercising a right that many fought and died for when they cast their respective vote. 
So that’s what I say, here’s what I do: I personally provide oversight for the campaign of Alex Freeman for Sheriff, Palm Beach County in 2016 (visit: alexfreemanforsheriff.com) simply because I am willing to protect the black male from extinction. Therefore; I am lending my skills to the candidate to ensure victory. I also preside as president of a local democratic club and serve as Secretary for the FL Dem Black Caucus, Palm Beach County Chapter as Recording Secretary.
This I do because I need to demonstrate to all in my community that I want equality for my people. I want to ensure that when the law is enforced, a fair and equitable leader, Alex Freeman is at the helm of the sheriff’s office AND most importantly, I am helping to preserve my species, my race and my fellow African-Americans when I a black women of power and influence, put my influence, my vote and my power to use for my people. Black women of power and influence, won’t you do the same?

#blacklivesmatter #blackpower#alexfreeman4sheriff #sayhername

By RoxAnne (Roxi) Harris, PresidentNorth County Democratic Club
www.northcountydems.com


Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of Minority Outreach Solutions.

DPCF / Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida - Policy Position Paper on Public Education

Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida

Public Education

“The American system of public education was created with two vitally important purposes, to prepare our youth for success in a career and equally importantly, to provide the knowledge and skills to be an informed, engaged citizen.”

                        --Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools (Annenberg Public Policy Center)

The Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida (DPCF) supports a quality public education for

all children. Every child deserves an education with a rich and comprehensive curriculum including art, music and physical education. Schools must be adequately and equitably funded. We oppose efforts to divert public education funding to private interests through vouchers and for-profit charter schools.   

“School choice” has proven over time to be deceptive language used to camouflage the underlying goal of privatizing our public schools. Charter schools, under the guise of public status and with taxpayer money, are increasingly being managed and controlled by for-profit management companies. Vouchers are used primarily to pay tuition to private religious schools. Floridians have repeatedly voiced opposition to vouchers, yet the legislature and the governor continue to expand voucher programs. Neither charter nor voucher schools are held to the same accountability standards as traditional public schools. Studies have shown that charter and voucher schools get no better results, and in many cases, charter and voucher students underperform compared to their public-school peers. This is particularly noteworthy considering public schools must and do accept all students, not a select few.

The choice/privatization policy was launched under the administration of former Governor Jeb Bush, and has been primarily supported by Republican legislators. The stated premise of the scheme was that teachers and schools were not being held accountable and that the traditional system was too hamstrung by bureaucracy to allow innovation. Crucial to Bush’s privatization plan were two key mechanisms: the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests (FCAT) and the grading of schools on an A-F scale. High-stakes consequences were attached to these tests and grades, including school funding, student retention and eventually merit-based pay for teachers.

• Standardized Testing -- Standardized tests, such as the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, are not a reflection of a child’s overall skills and knowledge, nor of a teacher’s effectiveness. They are a snapshot of how well a student can perform on one exam on one day. These tests should not be used as weapons to punish or reward children, teachers or communities. Instead, standardized tests should be used as diagnostic tools to assess children’s abilities and identify strategies to help them improve. FCAT and other high-stakes assessments force teachers to “teach to the test.” As a result, children are deprived of the essentials of a well-rounded education.

• A - F School Letter Grades -- The letter grade system is used to justify funding distribution for schools. The grading system rewards schools that are already resource-rich and punishes schools that are resource-starved. School grades are nothing more than an indicator of the economic health of communities. The formula for determining grades is continually changing, making accurate evaluation impossible. Additionally, the system is subject to political manipulation, as demonstrated by the recent Indiana grade-fixing scandal that forced the resignation of Florida’s former commissioner of education, Tony Bennett.

A crucial consequence of this effort is merit-based pay. Calling it an accountability measure, Bush promoted a “value-added model” (VAM) of evaluating teachers. VAM is a complicated formula that attempts to measure a teacher’s performance based on student test scores. It has proven controversial in Florida because teachers have been scored on the performance of students and subjects they did not teach. Studies prove that VAM is not reliable (Polikoff and Porter, American Educational Research Association, April 11, 2014), and there’s no indication that it improves educational outcomes for children. The Democratic Progressive Caucus believes that merit-based pay is a surreptitious attempt to de-professionalize teaching. We support an evaluation system that involves a comprehensive and realistic review of a teacher’s performance. We oppose a market-based approach to schooling that employs high-stakes testing tied to incentives and sanctions.  

In 2012, the Democratic Progressive Caucus joined the Florida School Boards Association and U.S. Representative Frederica Wilson in calling for a suspension of Florida’s school grading system pending a forensic study. Floridians have lost faith in the accountability system, and the stakes are simply too high to continue a system so flawed. Merely changing the formula for the grades, as the Florida legislature did during the 2014 session, will not address the concerns of Florida parents. With the release of this report, the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida again calls for suspension of school grading until a forensic study and thorough review by an independent evaluator is completed.

“The education of children is a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida. It is, therefore, a paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders. Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education and for the establishment, maintenance, and operation of institutions of higher learning and other public education programs that the needs of the people may require...”

                --Constitution of the State of    Florida, Article IX, Section 1

Florida public schools have been underfunded when compared to other states. In a pending lawsuit filed against the state of Florida in November 2009, parent groups and public education advocates argued “...that Florida failed to adequately fund its public education system and failed to provide students with ‘high quality’ public schools demanded in the Florida Constitution. It cited shrinking budgets, low graduation rates and a faulty school accountability system, among other problems” (“Education Suit Against State to Proceed After Supreme Court Action,” Orlando Sentinel, September 11, 2012).

The DPCF agrees that the Florida Legislature has consistently underfunded our public schools. We believe that the current accountability system diverts scarce public dollars from public school classrooms and puts them into the pockets of private interests.

Finally, after thoroughly researching and reviewing the origins, the creation, and the proposed implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in Florida, the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida declares its opposition for the following reasons:

• CCSS were written without input from parents, classroom teachers or others with insight and expertise in childhood development
• Early childhood specialists have criticized the CCSS as developmentally inappropriate
• CCSS were not field-tested prior to implementation
• CCSS are tied to high-stakes tests which are invalid and unreliable
• Students do not develop at the same rate, yet CCSS attempts to force every student into an ineffective one-size-fits-all education model
• The State of Florida rushed the implementation of CCSS before the proper foundation -- curriculum, teacher-training, valid assessment tools, technological infrastructure -- was in place
• The primary forces behind CCSS are those who stand to benefit from privatization of public schools, including former Governor Jeb Bush and testing companies

The Caucus supports national standards that are developmentally appropriate, educationally sound, properly field-tested and written with input from all stakeholders, including parents, classroom teachers and students. There must be a process for review and revision of the standards.

Approved by Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida

Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee 

Susan Smith
President
Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida
stsmith222@aol.com
813-390-3616
@stsmith222

Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Minority Outreach Solutions.

U.S. Foriegn Policy On Human Rights In Israel - By Ahmad Abuznaid Esq.

One of the United State's longest standing foreign policy positions has become a blatant and indefensible injustice to billions of people all across the world, including millions here in the US. The blind support that our nation has extended towards the state of Israel over the past few decades has become so tied to our everyday lives that it is as if the Israeli flag is embedded within the American one. Support for Israel is a mandated hot topic in every presidential election of recent memory, congressional aid and support has never been higher. At the same exact time, the state of Israel has enforced a brutal military occupation on an entire population, with systems that can only be described as that of an apartheid state, Israel privileges people who have ties to the Jewish faith over all others, mainly the native population. 

The United States is currently supporting the state of Israel to the tune of over $3 billion per year, in addition to other loans, emergency funding, and weapons sales. At a time when the entire world is grieving over the more than 2,000 civilian deaths in Gaza, 500 children, injured thousands, arrested thousands of political prisoners, horrifying demolitions of Palestinian homes/hospitals/schools, and brand new Israeli settlement units being littered across occupied Palestinian territory. Many Americans are disgusted to find that the United States could support such atrocities, but the recent massacres do not tell enough of the daily injustice and humiliation that Palestinians feel due to the 60+ year occupation of their homeland. Also important to mention that America has its own sizable amount of issues that need attention, long term commitment and funding from our elected leadership. 

In annual reports published by the United States Department of State, our officials have repeatedly described a system which openly discriminates against its Arab population in every facet of life for its society. These are native Muslims and Christians who are not given a fair share of life because of their ethnicity, and it is fully documented. Most recently, Tariq Khdeir, a Palestinian American high school student was attending the funeral of his recently murdered cousin Mohammed Khdeir, when he was arrested, and brutally beaten by the Israeli police. Mohammed just days earlier was burned to death by Israeli extremists, but Tariq had two saving graces, first his beating was caught on camera, secondly and perhaps more importantly, Tariq holds American citizenship. It is unacceptable, the fact that America's biggest ally can easily escape these atrocities, we are not only failing to condone the behavior, but the US has reinforced it. The time has come for the US to make its actions louder than its words, millions and millions of Palestinian people have been suffering for far too long. Real US leadership and commitment to justice will allow the Palestinian and Israeli people to finally live together as equal human beings.  

The United States must: cease funding the state of Israel until it agrees to a final peaceful and just settlement with the Palestinians; cease providing weaponry of any kind until Israel's military assaults on Palestinian populations are a thing of the distant past; cease providing blind diplomatic cover at the United Nations and other bodies for the state of Israel, and perhaps just as meaningful, the United states should also commit to being a real partner in the solution for peace. The US has never been a fair and objective partner in the "peace process", it is time that real solutions are brought to the table that genuinely regard Palestinians as human beings and partners entitled to self determination, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Best,  

Ahmad Abuznaid Esq.

Legal & Policy Director

Dream Defenders Inc. 

aabuznaid@dreamdefenders.org

www.dreamdefenders.org

(202) 812-3073
 

Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Minority Outreach Solutions.

Labor Day 2014 Op-Ed by Mike Williams President Florida AFL-CIO

Labor Day 2014 Op-Ed

Mike Williams, President, Florida AFL-CIO

Labor Day is the day when we take a moment to celebrate the achievements of America’s workers. There is much to celebrate. We worked hard and pulled together to increase productivity and profits. We built a wave of economic prosperity that, by the numbers, shows us propelling out of the Great Recession. Unfortunately, this rising tide did not float all boats. Workers across Florida continue to struggle to support their families. Wages have not kept pace with the cost of living, all while big corporations, CEO’s and their shareholders enjoy record profits. The harsh reality remains that hardworking Floridians continue to struggle to put food on the table and gas in the tank. Despite our hard work, our sacrifice and our innovation, too many of us are not reaping the fruits of our labor.

Increased productivity has not led to higher relative compensation. Prices for food, gas, utilities, housing, and other consumer goods have continued to rise. Wages have either gone down and stayed down or remained stagnant. Workers have fewer and yet more expensive benefits. This is no accident. It’s the result of corporate policies designed to increase profits by limiting the costs of labor. It comes in many forms including outsourcing, sending jobs and profits overseas, increasing the ratio of part-time to full-time employees, shifting healthcare costs to employees, ending defined benefit pension plans, reducing employer contributions to defined contribution plans, classifying employees as independent contractors and a slew of other special interest policies all leading to the continued economic marginalization of working families.

Consider the fact that over the past thirty years the average earnings of Florida’s wealthiest 1 percent rose by 116 percent, while the wages for the rest of Florida’s 99 percent of workers dropped by 8. The extremely rich continue to get richer, while the rest of us continue to struggle. The rise in political and corporate attacks on working people has meant that for decades wages have declined or remained flat. The drop in labor union participation over the years has contributed to falling labor standards in Florida and across the country. Good jobs with good benefits have become harder to come by.  

It’s not too late to counteract widening income inequality, reverse diminishing economic opportunity and make Florida’s economy work for all of us, not just the wealthy. We need to insist that politicians stop creating policies that benefit their corporate cronies, and instead enact policies to ease the burden on working families. We need policies that make sure people are paid enough to support their families. We need leaders who support increasing investments in research, education and infrastructure that create good jobs, funded by closing tax loopholes for big corporations.

Working people can no longer afford to be victimized by out of touch politicians. We need an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy and big businesses. Workers need a strong voice in their work place and even stronger voices in the halls of the Capitol. This Labor Day let’s celebrate worker achievements, reflect on the struggles ahead and demand change at the ballot box this November.  

Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Minority Outreach Solutions.