Poverty

Andrew Slack

Andrew Slack — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:02:47 -0700

Andrew Slack is creator, co-founder, and Executive Director of the the Harry Potter Alliance which takes a creative approach to activism by mobilizing thousands of kids to spread love and fight for justice in the spirit of the Harry Potter novels. The HP Alliance has been featured in over 200 US publications including Time Magazine, and the front covers of both the Chicago Tribune Business Section and Politico Newspaper. Andrew's HP Alliance piece in the LA Times was the Times' most viewed and emailed piece for two straight days.

In his prior career, Andrew performed comedy at hundreds of venues across the US and produced four videos that have been viewed close to eight million times.

Andrew has studied acting at a conservatory in London, served as a coexistence fellow in Northern Ireland, and done in person interviews with Civil Rights activists from Boston to New Orleans.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brandeis University, Andrew is dedicated to learning and extrapolating how modern myth and new media can transform our lives both personally and collectively. He lives in both Honolulu and Boston.

Contact Andrew at andrew@thehpalliance.org

Paul Young

Paul Young — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:22:48 -0800

Akilah Rosado-McQueen

Akilah Rosado-McQueen — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:49:29 -0700

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Akilah Rosado is the daughter of a Puerto Rican nationalist and Bajan American educator. As a child, Akilah was introduced to and given access to the world of mainstream and “alternative” politics views. She saw first hand the impact of community engagement and activism. She also experienced firsthand the impact of a government’s abuse of power as her father was targeted by the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) for his involvement in the Puerto Rican Independence Movement.

After highschool, Akilah first attended Chatham College in Pittsburgh, PA before transfering to SUNY Purchase (Purchase College at SUNY) in New York. While earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, she became involved in organizing students in protesting Pataki’s tuition hikes and drastic cuts to essential academic programs for SUNY and CUNY schools. Akilah also was invited to join the Judicial Board, a Board made up of students, faculty, and administration which served to address issues of importance relative to breaking and amending policies on campus. This experience brought Akilah back to her passion for politics and influenced her thesis entitled “Insitutionalized Racism and Neo-Slavery in North America.”

After graduating college, Akilah accepted a position as a Legislative Analyst with the NYS Assembly. Between 1997 and 2005, she worked in various capacities including serving as a Legislative Aid, Director of Constituent Affairs, and Chief of Staff for various members of the Assembly. In 2005, Akilah left the Assembly to attend graduate school time, ultimately earning a Master’s of Science in Urban Policy and Mangement from Milano, the New School for Urban Policy and Management where her thesis focused on the need of performance management in early child development, particularly for day care centers that serve Black and Latino children.

Shortly before recieving her Master’s degree, Akilah was offered an opportunity to work as a consultant with The Public Strategies Group. Here she was given the freedom to work with leaders and experts in the field of performance mangement and government accountability. The mission of this work is to move government and relative agencies towards a results based post-bureaucratic system in form and function by providing better transparency and service to citizens.

While her primary work is to help transform government, Akilah’s passion for urban politics continues lead her back to supporting and developing current and emerging leaders in Brooklyn politics through campaign work and leadership development; primarily those committed ensuring that communities have access to and the support of their representatives. In 2008, Akilah successfully secured a seat on the Kings County Democratic County Committe to represent the 24th Election District in the 57th Assembly District.

Akilah resides in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, Kelvin and their 6 year old daughter.

Myopic Selfishness of the Wealthy Leads to Constricting Economy

Gordon Johnson — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:06:21 -0700

The economic stance in favor today is to give breaks to the wealthy under the expectation that if they have more money, they are more likely to be in a position to invest to make our means of production bigger and better. What the stance is missing is that corporations do lots of marketing studies to figure out how much of what to produce. Guess what the marketing studies look at? *How much the rest of us have to spend!!*

Well if the wealthy have all the money, what is the level of production the corporations will gear up for? Instead of a cornucopia of great goods and services for many, it leads to production of extravagances and luxury goods no regular person would or could waste their money on. In essence, it is economic slavery as the rest of us scurry to try and cover our life costs with ever-shrinking wages.

How much profit does that leave the corporations? They myopically think they make as much profit on the big ticket items for the few as they would have on medium ticket items for us all.

Put (or leave) the money in the average person's pocket and something quite different unfolds. We, having more money, can afford more and better things so we all in fact have a better standard of living. Our spending would confirm (realigned) corporate choices to invest in improved production and to hire more people for more medium ticket items, and as more people are hired there is even more money flowing through the system, leading to even more and better goods and services.

The ironic thing is that an increasingly larger flow of medium ticket goods and services will actually end up producing much larger profits for the corporations, and a more stable economy and society to boot: we would have lower unemployment and poverty, higher tax revenue so lower deficit or even a return to surplus (given away by our short-sighted, selfish Republican "friends"), fewer foreclosed houses, maybe even longer lasting marriages. And if our economy is blossoming instead of shriveling, what does that do to the stature of the US in the eyes of the rest of the world? Perhaps even the terrorists would have to acquiesce that the US is good to its people in ways they claim we have not been.

The last 16 years confirm this. What happened to the economy under Clinton? Under Bush?

QED

New U.S. Census Data: Same Reality

Alex Carter — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:27:42 -0700

Newly released data by the United States Census Bureau continues to show how much President George W. Bush has ravaged the American economic landscape.

Since 2000, median income has decreased 1 percent. That decline is magnified by the higher costs for energy, food and other items during that period; what families could buy for a dollar in 2000 now costs $1.25.

For some racial and ethnic groups, the burden is even heavier. In 2007, the median income for white people was $54,920; the median income for African Americans was more than $21,000 less. Median income for Hispanics was more than $16,000 less. Since 2000, white median income has decreased $12; for African Americans it has decreased $1,804, for Hispanics it has decreased $1,256, and for Asians it has decreased $1,030. Those are huge disparities that continue to lay bare the racial and ethnic inequality of America. There is no way around it.

Poverty follows a similar pattern. Since 2000, the number of people in poverty has increased by 5.7 million; the number of families in poverty has increased by 1.2 million, and the number of children in poverty has increased by 1.7 million. In 2007; 37.3 million people are suffering in poverty.

Almost 25 percent of African Americans and 22 percent of Hispanics lived in poverty in 2007. They do not want to be told the fundamentals of the economy are strong—or only have poverty addressed when a hurricane slams into poor and underrepresented communities and their faces, names, and stories become fodder for the 24-hour cable news channels. They want the American consciousness and political system to recognize their plight and put forth real policies to remedy this evil.

On health care, it's more of the same. Since 2000, the number of uninsured in America has increased by 7.3 million and those not covered equal 15.3 percent of the population. The percentages of Hispanics and African Americans without health care are well above the national average.

Nationally, the economy and the conditions for working people are worse since President Bush took office. Haven’t we learned that trickle-down economics does not work? We must revive our economy, take back our industries, and promote economic opportunity for all. Bush is definitely leaving us with a bang: In his last year; our economy is in a recession (even though the administration doesn’t want to admit it), families are poorer, people are losing their homes, energy costs are sky high and we continue to put billions and billions of dollars into the Iraq War—when we need strong investment here in the United States.

Be ready for the United States Census Bureau to release its 2008 data in August 2009. The data will continue to paint a very bleak picture: the poor will be poorer, the number of uninsured will be higher, and America will try to rebuild itself after eight years of economic terror. At that time, the progressive movement must be ready to reassure working-class families that the rescue—investments in our people, our common property and in the green energy that will power the fuure; economic policies that end the upward redistribution of wealth; the end of billions of dollars being sent to Iraq; and the empowerment of workers—is on its way.

lokywoky bitter hussein

Kathie Pomeroy — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:17:45 -0700

Welfare Caseloads Rising

OurFuture.org Staff — Mon, 05 May 2008 08:52:52 -0700

Federal data for the last half of 2007 show welfare rolls rose about 0.6 percent, and 27 states reported increases. That follows a decline of 68 percent since a Cointon-area federal law imposed work requirements, time limits and penalties for recipients who don't follow the rules.

Daniel Maguire

Daniel Maguire — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:42:45 -0700

DANIEL C. MAGUIRE
Professor of Ethics
Marquette University
Milwaukee, WI 53233

Home telephone: (414) 961-0139
FAX (414) 961-2150
Email: maguired@juno.com

BOOKS PUBLISHED:

--Moral Absolutes and the Magisterium, Corpus Books, 1970
--Death By Choice, Doubleday, 1974: republished 1975, Schocken Books; Second Edition, Doubleday, 1984, Translated into Spanish, La Muerte Libremente Eligida, Sal Terrae, 1975
--The Moral Choice, Doubleday, 1978. Republished Winston Press, 1979.
--A New American Justice: Ending the White Male Monopolies, 1980
Republished in a new edition as A Case for Affirmative Action, Shepherd, Inc. 1992
--The New Subversives: Anti-Americanism of the Religious Right, 1982
--The Moral Revolution, 1986
--On Moral Grounds: The Art/Science of Ethics, with A. Nicholas Fargnoli, 1991
Translated into Italian: L=Etica Come Arte e Come Scienza, Edizioni Dehoniane Bologna, 1998
--The Moral Core of Judaism and Christianity, 1993. Translated into Italian, Il Cuore Etico della Tradizione Ebraico-Cristiana, Cittadella Editrice, 1998
--Ethics for a Small Planet (with Larry Rasmussen), 1998
--Sacred Energies: When the World=s Religions Sit Down to Talk about the Future of Human Life and the Plight of This Planet, 2000
--Visions of a New Earth: Religious Perspectives on Population, Consumption, and Ecology, co-edited with Harold Coward, State University of New York Press, 2000.
--What Men Owe to Women: Men=s Voices from World Religions, co-edited with John Raines, State University of New York Press, 2000

--Sacred Choices: The Right to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions, Augsburg Fortress, 2001.
--Sacred Rights: The Case for Contraception and Abortion in World Religions, Oxford University Press, 2003
---A Moral Creed for All Christians, Fortress Press, 2005
---The Horrors We Bless: Revisiting the AJust War@ Legacy and Building and Ethics of Peace, Fortress Press, 2007
Forthcoming from The New Press, 2008 Whose Church? A Concise Guide for Progressive Catholics
ARTICLES PUBLISHED:

Over 250 Articles Published in Various Scholarly Journals and in such publications as:
The New York Times, Atlantic, USA Today, The Crisis: Journal of the NAACP, Ms. Magazine

DANIEL C. MAGUIRE, p. 2

Topics of some of the articles

ADifferent But Equal: A Moral Assessment of Woman's Liberation"
"The Psychotherapist as Moralist"
"The Freedom to Die"
"Pigeon Ethics: The Moral Philosophy of B. F. Skinner"
"Liberal/Conservative Tensions, Doing Justice to Justice,"
AThe New Look of Death"
"Affirmative Action at Bay
Sex and Ethical Methodology.

POSITIONS HELD:

 President of The Society of Christian Ethics, 1981 (This society is the largest professional society in the field, including 900 Protestant and Catholic ethicists in the United States and Canada.)
 President of The Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics, 1994-present

TELEVISION APPEARANCES:

Has appeared on: DONOHUE, NIGHTLINE, TODAY,
THE DAVID SUSSKIND SHOW, NOT FOR WOMEN ONLY,
PRE-ELECTION SPECIAL WITH DAN RATHER,
THE CBS MORNING NEWS, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, ABC EVENING NEWS

HONORS:

 Listed by Ms. Magazine as one of the 40 male heroes of the past decade, men who took chances and made a difference, 1982

 Best Scholarly Book of the Year, for The Moral Choice, The Council of Wisconsin Writers, Inc.1978

 Torch Bearer Award, Cream City Business Association, Milwaukee

 Voted one of the ten best teachers at The University of Notre Dame after 1983-84 year as Visiting Professor

Europe asked to boost anti-poverty aid

Alex Carter — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:13:46 -0700

The European Union's aid chief warned EU nations on Wednesday to increase their assistance to poor countries to meet promises to halve extreme poverty around the world by 2015.

Global Extreme Poverty

Alex Carter — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:28:44 -0700

Globally about 1 billion people still live in extreme poverty.