A Good Time to Engage your Local Candidates

The results are in and both Republican and Democratic candidates for government offices across the state of Michigan have been chosen. Now the tough work for regular citizens comes into play: making sure the voices of the communities they represent are heard.

Now is an opportunity to speak about an important issue to all citizens of Michigan: Poverty Reduction. Though many families have fallen into poverty during the recession of the last few years, poverty has been increasing in all types of communities since the start of the last decade.

We need a plan that will successfully reduce poverty in Michigan. This isn't just about creating more jobs in Michigan; this is about providing more opportunity in Michigan for all our residents. It's about figuring out how to create affordable housing. It's about about retraining workers who lost jobs in the industrial sector. It's about figuring out how providing better access to information about services to those in need. It's about mentoring a new generation of youth to take the wheel and drive Michigan towards a successful future.

We are all in this together. When all do better, we all do better. This is an opportunity to talk to your local politician about why poverty reduction is important in your community. The more awareness we spread now, the better chance we have at influencing our leaders when the tough decisions arise.

A list of who will be running for local offices across Southwest Michigan: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/0o/southwest_michigan_election_re.html

Human Dignity and Self Worth

This past week, I had two separate lunches with two older, African American gentlemen.

My church prepares and serves lunch several times a year at the Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen. Serving starts daily at 11:30. From my experience, typically there is an initial rush from the clients who are waiting in line for the Kitchen to open. Inevitably, there is a lull and the number of clients coming through the line slows. I like to use this time to enjoy one of the meals that we have prepared. It is my way of ensuring that the food we have prepared is tasty and hot. (I am not a chef, but I do like to eat.)

It is also a time when I can join one or more of the Soup Kitchen's clients for a meal. This Saturday I plopped my food tray down next to an elderly African American gentlemen. Some poor people are distinguished looking. This gentleman was one. His clothes well worn, yet well tended to.

I inquired about whether he was a life long resident of Benton Harbor and found out that he had moved to the area about 30 years earlier from Alabama, having been born in the South. His reason for moving to the area was employment. I enjoyed his conversation, quite philosophical actually, about the dignity and value of human activity and employment.

The importance to him of meaningful and gainful employment as a younger man could be expressed in one phrase: Self-worth.

Earlier in the week, I was blessed to share a luncheon meal with notable West Michigan artist, Paul Collins. Mr. Collins has painted the rich, the famous, the poor, and the working class. Fascinating fellow who has traveled to the Middle East, Japan, and many other locals.

Mr. Collins' art pieces are expressions of individual humanity. As an artist, he is able to capture the beauty, the dignity, the soul and self-worth of the individual.

There's the connection. Two people. Two residents of West Michigan. And although they may express it in different ways, they both understand that each person has dignity, value, and worth whether they be in a corporate board room or in a Soup Kitchen in the back of the Salvation Army.

Mr. Collins web page can be located at:

collinsart.com

The Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen serves a luncheon meal 365 days a year from its location in the back of the Salvation Army building in downtown Benton Harbor.

Former Rwandan tour guide (and current Paw Paw resident) retells story of African elephant through illustrated child's book

"A good children's book touches the heart of it's young readers, and leaves them with a lesson learned. Mutware, The Amazing Elephant of Akagera Park, Rwanda is one of those books. This soft cover children's book, geared to a level that encourages reading, is a true story based on the experiences of Francois Nambajimana as told to Kathleen Weisner.

Francois Nambajimana of Paw Paw is a native of Rwanda in central Africa, where he was a renowned tour guide and expert on the natural places and animals of his native country. He shared his knowledge with many tourists until problems in Rwanda following the civil war brought him to the United States in 1999.

Nambajimana is an expert on the famed Mountain Gorillas of Karisoke Park in the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda. He learned his skill from the late Dian Fossey, who founded the research center there."

www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20442336&BRD=2188&PAG=461&dept_id=414962&rfi=6

Economic Condition for Blacks Has Worsened: National Urban League

"As the US struggles to dig out from a "great recession," blacks and Hispanics are more than three times as likely as whites to live below poverty, according to a report released Wednesday.

That's one stark conclusion of an annual "State of Black America" report, issued by the National Urban League, a civil rights group based in New York.

Also, a jobs gap with white Americans has widened. African-Americans had a jobless rate 4.6 percent higher than that of white Americans as the recession began in 2007, and now that difference has grown to 6.8 percent. Hispanic Americans don't confront as large a chasm with whites, but the gap for them has also grown significantly in the past 30 months, according to Labor Department data."

www.csmonitor.com/Money/2010/0728/Recession-widened-jobs-gap-between-blacks-and-whites

KIDS COUNT: Michigan slips to No. 30 from No. 27 in child well-being

A lack of secure jobs and a high rate of infant mortality have pushed Michigan's Kids County ranking down from 27th to 30th. According to the report, "Michigan was among the 10 worst states when it comes to lack of secure parental employment, ranking 44th, with the number 1 state being the best or lowest rank."

Read the full report at: http://www.milhs.org/Media/EDocs/MichiganFactSheet.pdf

Teenage Volunteers Inspire & Learn in Battle Creek

"Sixty volunteers -- 49 of them teenagers -- (recently) participat(ed) in Grand Rapids-based Youth Unlimited's SERVE project. Hosted by River Walk Community Church on Wagner Drive (in Battle Creek), the high school students cleared brush, worked on houses, painted, organized donated goods and more throughout Battle Creek...

It was the group's time at Kambly Living Center, a facility for adults with developmental disabilities, that had the most impact on at least one volunteer."There was one lady there named Holly," Lauren Koiter, 15, said of a resident there. "She was the sweetest lady ever."

Koiter, who is from Caledonia, Ontario, said she and Holly became attached to each other.

"I've never really been comfortable around people who were mentally or physically disabled," she said. "It makes me wonder why I wasn't and why they were. I got along really well with her and had a great time."

www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20100724/NEWS01/7240316/Serving-others-in-Battle-Creek

22 Statistics That Prove The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America

"The 22 statistics that you are about to read prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace."

Read more at the Business Insider:

www.businessinsider.com/22-statistics-that-prove-the-middle-class-is-being-systematically-wiped-out-of-existence-in-america-2010-7#ixzz0ucORgv00

Migrant Farm Workers Challenge to Legislators "Do My Job"

"Opponents of proposed immigration legislation in Michigan have invited lawmakers to spend the day picking blueberries Saturday.

The United Farmworkers Union has issued the "Take Our Jobs Challenge."

West Michigan organizer Jose Flores says the challenge is meant to show how difficult farm work is, and that immigrants aren't taking the strenuous, low-paying jobs away from anyone."

www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/news.newsmain/article/0/1/1679549/Michigan.News/Farmworkers.Invite.Lawmakers.to.%27Take.Our.Jobs%27

Note:

Jose Flores is a West Michigan community activist who lives in Grand Rapids. Dr. Flores is an educator with extensive experience in Bilingual Education for the Grand Rapids Public Schools. He currently is the publisher of the Grand Rapids based Community Voice/La Voz.

lavozweb.com/

Unemployment Extension Does Not Help Those Who Have Exhausted Their 99 Weeks

"Help is on the way for 2.5 million Americans, including thousands in Michigan, who are unemployed.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed an unemployment extension on Thursday by a vote of 272 to 152. President Barack Obama could sign the extension as early as Thursday evening.

In some states the extension will mean retroactive payments could go out as early as next week, but there's one group that won't benefit from the extension.

They're known as '99ers,' people who have used up almost two years of unemployment benefits."

www.wwmt.com/articles/won-1379351-99ers-extension.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Does the United States Spend Too Much on Incarceration? The Conservative British Periodical The Economist Thinks So

"America is different from the rest of the world in lots of ways, many of them good. One of the bad ones is its willingness to lock up its citizens... One American adult in 100 festers behind bars (with the rate rising to one in nine for young black men). Its imprisoned population, at 2.3m, exceeds that of 15 of its states. No other rich country is nearly as punitive as the Land of the Free. The rate of incarceration is a fifth of America’s level in Britain, a ninth in Germany and a twelfth in Japan...

As a result American prisons are now packed not only with thugs and rapists but also with petty thieves, small-time drug dealers and criminals who, though scary when they were young and strong, are now too grey and arthritic to pose a threat. Some 200,000 inmates are over 50—roughly as many as there were prisoners of all ages in 1970. Prison is an excellent way to keep dangerous criminals off the streets, but the more people you lock up, the less dangerous each extra prisoner is likely to be. And since prison is expensive—$50,000 per inmate per year in California—the cost of imprisoning criminals often far exceeds the benefits, in terms of crimes averted. "

The above is from The Economist, an arguably conservative British weekly periodical.

For the entire article, please visit:

www.economist.com/node/16640389