Last edited Sun Feb 1, 2015, 03:23 PM - Edit history (1)
but the question is, what are they going to DO about it? The poor and disenfranchised can't survive on words (or Bibles). Now, there is a whole lot they *can* do if they are so inclined and here are just ten (10) immediate ideas:
1.) Expand, not retract, opportunities for voting. Restore voting rights for all persons not currently incarcerated.
2.) Support efforts to increase the minimum wage/support a "living wage"
3.) Assist with childcare expenses so that more people don't have to choose between work and childcare
4.) Promote comprehensive sex education (which will have positive side effects on teen pregnancy/abortion/STD rates)
5.) STOP trying to repeal PPACA and find ways to genuinely improve it so that its benefits reach more people (i.e. Stop blocking Medicaid expansions and filing lawsuits to try to undermine it)
6.) Support paid sick/maternity time for workers and their families. Why do businesses insist on making sick people come to work everyday? How does this benefit them or their customers? What about just for good public health sensibilities? Why make parents try to send their sick, germy kids to school? If, heaven forbid, we were to experience some nasty disease that could become a widespread, making people come into work with it is going to guarantee that more people are going to be exposed to it, become sick with it, and maybe even die from it. For all of the "pro-lifers" out there, why not give women (and, for good measure, both parents) some good quality time following childbirth to be to bond with their babies?
7.) Stop trying to tie public assistance benefits to the status of an applicant's bodily fluids. Most poor people don't use illegal substances and already feel humiliated enough trying to apply for benefits. Stop humiliating them further by asking for their pee.
8.) Stop messing around with Social Security, esp. for the disabled. It's not THAT easy to get anyway.
9.) Stop obsessing over the 1% in this country. Most of them are rich enough that they could stop working tomorrow (to the extent that they work at all) and be covered for the rest of their life and giving more to the lower- and middle- class isn't going to destroy them. Forcing the wealthy to give up a Yacht or a new mansion simply ain't gonna kill them but it just might help somebody less fortunate than them.
10.) Stop trying to bust up unions. Let workers freely decide whether or not to form/join a union. Stop pushing so-called "right-to-work" laws (unless, of course, they really ARE interested in able-bodied adults actually having the right to a job).
These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. Let's see them walk the walk...........
Sincerely,
PLD
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